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Ever hear of Hadrian’s Wall? It was a wall built across England in the 2nd century. It was named after the Roman Emperor Hadrian because his Roman armies, while occupying England, could never defeat the people of Scotland in those days. Though the strongest, best-equipped army on earth, the Romans simply could not overcome these ‘freedom-loving’ mountain people called Picts. The Roman Commander, in trying to explain to the Emperor why Rome was not occupying Scotland, stated that these “red-headed Picts” would die in a ‘heartbeat’ rather than live in subjection to someone else. They loved freedom so much they would rather die free than live enslaved. So the Romans built this giant wall all the way across England for the purpose of keeping out of southern England these freedom-loving Picts; lest they invade the south and stir up the English to rebel against the Romans.
But that’s not the end of the story. After the Romans left England, several centuries later it became the goal of English kings to conquer the Scots. King Edward of England marched his armies against the Scots in the early 1300s. And though he succeeded in executing their popular leader, William Wallace, better known to our generation as Braveheart, Edward’s forces were no match for Scotland’s fierce warriors of freedom. Not long afterward Robert the Bruce conquered the English army and preserved Scotland’s precious liberty.
But America has a modern-day link with the Scots. Due to English oppression, as well as economic woes caused by drought, many of the descendants of the freedom-loving Scots and Irish came to this country in the 1600s and 1700s. Because they had lived in mountainous terrain in their native land, many of them made their way from the eastern seaports where they landed, to the Appalachian Mountains. Here, in the isolation of these rugged mountains, they carved out a homestead. They raised their crops and their livestock on the sides of these hills. Here they gave birth to the next generation who heard by firelight the inspiring tales of William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. And it was no wonder that when the movement for independence from England began, these Americans of Scots-Irish descent played a very important role. If fact, the speech that stirred the American colonies to action came from the very lips of a Scotch descendant by the name of Patrick Henry.
The reason for the love of liberty had been planted in the hearts of the Scotch and Irish as early as the 400’s, when Patrick of Ireland and his disciples went as missionaries to introduce Christ to the inhabitants of those nations. The reason to remain free became: To continue to be able to teach the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ to the next generation. Jesus Himself had said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) Only the Gospel of Christ can make an individual and a nation truly free. This was the cause that was truly worth dying for: The cause of getting God’s truth to the next generation. So when the Scots and the Irish came to America, they, continued their fight for liberty, and actually turned the tide in the Revolutionary war with their bravery.
Are you willing to lay down your life to get the truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ to the next generation?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.