Winters Haven

The God who made the world and everything in it . . .

Is the Lord of heaven and earth.

And does not live in temple's built by hands.

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And He is not served by human hands as if He needed anything . . .

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Because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

From one man He made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth.

And He determined the time set for them and the exact places they should live.

Zimmerman Rudeen House Portland Oregon | Free Pictures

God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him . . .

Though He is not far from each one of us.

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For in Him we live and move and have our being.

As some of your own poets have said, "We are His offspring."

Therefore, since we are God's offspring we should not think that . . .

The Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone an image made by man's design and skill.

Tibetan gold coin | Free Pictures

In the past God overlooked such ignorance,
but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.

For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed.

He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.

~Acts 17~

Listen!

My children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year . . .

Paul Revere
bap. December 22, 1734 /January 1, 1735 – d. May 10, 1818

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

“Out started six officers, seized my bridle, put their pistols to my breast, ordered me to dismount, which I did. One of them, who appeared to have the command there, and much of a gentleman, asked me where I came from; I told him. He asked what time I left. I told him, he seemed surprised, said ''Sir, may I crave your name?'' I answered ''My name is Revere.”
~Paul Revere~

Paul Revere was an expert silversmith, well-known and prominent in Boston, who supplemented his income by doing works other then silver smithing (such as making false teeth) to support his large family. He is famous for spreading the alarm on the night of 18 April, 1775.

Revere was one of the most active members of the Boston club: the Sons of Liberty. He was not a stranger to war having briefly served as a second lieutenant in the Seven Years War in an artillery regiment that tried to take the French fort at Crown Point, in what is now the State of New York.

One of Revere's most famous work were the engravings that were done in the wake of the Boston Massacre in March of 1770. Whether Revere was present during the Massacre, is not known but his detailed map of the bodies, meant to be used in the trial of the British soldiers held responsible, depicts that he had first-hand knowledge of the event.

One of the famous engravings by Paul Revere

Paul Revere had eleven children: six by his first wife Sarah Orne who died in 1773 and then five by Rachel Walker whom he married after Sarah died.

In the early spring of 1775, General Gage had between 3,000 and 4,000 troops in Boston. Gage knew that the colonists were gathering large stores of gun powder (ammunition) for war. He found the gun powder was being kept at Concord which was a village about sixteen miles from Boston. Gage authorized a secret expedition to seize the gunpowder and thus stop the rebellious colonists.

Toward midnight, on April 18, 1775, Gage sent 800 men, to execute his orders but the vigilant Sons of Liberty and their counterpart patriots were alert and ready. So when the British expedition moved to cross the Charles River, Revere was ahead of them and on his way toward Concord to wake up the townsfolk and farmers and the minute-men since he had received the signal from across the river before the British had crossed. Soon afterwards church bells, musketry, and cannon spread the alarm over the country.

Around dawn on April 19, 1775, at the little village of Lexington, about six miles from Concord, the British found seventy determined men led by Capt. Jonas Parker, draw up on the green to oppose the British regiment. The British officer in charge rode forward and shouted, "Disperse! disperse, you rebels! Down with your arms, and disperse!"

The minute-men refused to obey, and the British officer ordered his men to fire.

Thus began the Revolutionary War at the battles of Lexington and Concord. Eight minute-men were killed, several others were wounded, and the remainder dispersed.

Why was Revere passionate for Liberty? Why was he willing to risk his life and livelihood all for the sake of Liberty? Paul Revere came from a long line of men who valued freedom. A little known fact is that Revere's grandfather was a French Christian (called Huguenots) who fled with his family to America to escape religious persecution. Revere's family was one among thousands coming to America for religious purposes. Thus, Revere grew up hearing of religious persecution and the hardships and now the British were trying to take away the freedom that many had come to America for . . .

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~