The Iron Pen #108

Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.

Endow with thy spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth.

In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."

Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) was a Baptist minister called "the prince of expository preachers." The following quote is a thought provoking one.

"Christ’s cross has to be carried today; and if we have not found out that it has, let us ask ourselves if we are Christians at all. There will be hostility, alienation, a comparative coolness, and absence of a full sense of sympathy in many people with us, if we are true Christians. There will be a share of contempt from the wise and the cultivated of this generation, as in all generations. The mud that is thrown at the Master will spatter in our faces, too, to some extent; and if we are walking with Him, we shall share to the extent of our communion with Him in the feelings with which many men regard Him. Stand to your colors! Do not be ashamed of the Master in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. And there is another way in which this honor of helping the Lord is given to us. As in His weakness He needed someone to aid Him to bear His cross, so in His glory he needs our help to carry out "the purposes for which the cross was borne."

"If by excessive zeal we die before reaching the average age of man, worn out in the Master’s service, then glory be to God – we shall have so much less of the world and so much more of Heaven!" Charles H. Spurgeon

David L. Brown

No doubt, most of our readers have no idea who he was. He is better known as Patrick or Saint Patrick. However, Maewyn or Patrick was not a Catholic. His name is not found in Catholic writings until almost two centuries after he had died. He was born some time between 385 and 415 A.D. He was not Irish at all, but was a "free born" son of a Roman-British decurio, an area magistrate appointed by Roman officials over the town of Bannavem Taberniae. His father owned a farm nearby in the city of Dumbarton, Pictland, which today is Scotland. At the time this city was under British control. Thus, Patrick was a Roman Brit. Calpurnius, his father, was a deacon in their local church. His grandfather, Potitus, was a pastor. When the last of the Roman soldiers pulled out of Britain in 410 A.D. almost immediately Irish warlords and others raided the once peaceful coastal towns of England. We learn from reading Patrick’s Confession that he was kidnapped and sold as a slave. He wrote -- "I was taken into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people, and deservedly so, because we turned away from God, and did not keep His commandments, and did not obey our pastors, who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought over us the wrath of his anger and scattered us among the nations…" Miliucc, a Druid tribal chieftain bought Patrick and put him to work herding pigs and sheep. He lived like an animal himself, having no shelter and being constantly with the animals day and night, often, in hunger and thirst. He felt helpless and hopeless. The despair of slavery and the solitude of his occupation compelled him to see his need for Christ. He writes in his confession, "I was about sixteen but did not know the true God, but in a strange land, the Lord opened my unbelieving eyes, and I was converted." (Patrick of Ireland: The Untold Story by Rev. Roy D. Warren, Jr.).