America's Providential History Podcast explores the hand of God in our history
>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today we will be looking at the growth of the American republic. Now in last week's podcast, we saw that America, was birthed as a free nation, birthed in liberty, Christian liberty, a liberty that the world had not seen. And we began to examine the fruit of Christian liberty that came forth in the new American Republic in the 19th century. Particular, we took a look at advancements in some inventions, technology, discoveries, transportation and communication. And centering in on the story of Cyrus McCormick and his invention of the reaper and of his new business of making and selling reapers. But there's many other examples that show good fruit that came forth in this new free nation. Again, with liberty came great advancements in every field of sphere of life, in areas of invention and technology and scientific discovery, transportation and communication. we began to look at that and we want to look at a few more examples of individuals that came up with an idea that would help elevate mankind and bring advancement to mankind. And it was in this environment of liberty that they were able to accomplish their great work. Now another individual that lived around the same time as Cyrus McCormick and accomplished his nation changing work during that same period of time was a gentleman by the name of Samuel F.B. morse. And when people hear the name of Samuel Morse, they usually think of Morse code. Which is correct, because Samuel Morse did develop Morse code. But he developed Morse code because of the invention that he made that would transform communication and, and the world in many ways, because he invented the telegraph. The telegraph was a machine that was able to transmit at the speed of light, messages, which, the result of which would be the shrinking of the world through his invention. Now Morris first invented a telegraph in 1832. And he enveloped this code with a series of dots and dashes that represent letters in the Alphabet. And therefore when you sent these dots and dashes, you were communicating letters. And he would put together letters that form words and hence sending messages. Now while he invented the Telegraph in 1832, over the next number of years he developed his invention and he began to expand the distance from which he would send messages. By the year 1844, he laid a telegraph line from Washington D.C. to Baltimore. And he sent that first inner city message in the year 1844. And that message originated in the United States capitol in Washington, D.C. and so if you go there today and visit, right outside the old. What was the old Supreme Court chamber, there's a plaque on the wall that honors Samuel F.B. morse. And recognizes this great event on May 24, 1844, when he sent the first intercity telegraph message. And at the very top of that plaque, it contains the phrase. The sentence that went forth at the speed of light sending this first message. That sentence was, compiled by a friend of his. He asked, you know, Annie Ellsworth, will you compile a message that I'm going to send, you know, from the capital to Baltimore. In this historic message? And so the sentence that she chose is. What hath God wrought? Now, that is a quote from the Bible, from the Book of Numbers, in particular from Balaam, that soothsayer. And, here's the message that went forth. What hath God wrought? Now, what that means is, look what God has done. What an amazing idea. Amazing, event had taken place there. In fact, as Morris would write. Nothing could have been more appropriate. Than this devout exclamation at such an event. When an invention which creates such wonder. And about which there has been so much skepticism. Is taken from the land of visions and becomes of reality. He went on to say that that sentence of Annie Ellsworth's was divinely indicted. For it is in my thoughts day and night, what hath God wrought. It is his work. And he alone could have carried me thus far through all my trials. And enabled me to triumph over. Over the obstacles, physical and moral, which opposed me. Not unto us, not unto us. But to thy name, O Lord, be all the praise. You see, Samuel, FB Morse was a Christian. He believed that God had given him this, understanding. Your ability to make this invention that would transform the world. First, it transformed communication. Because, see, this very day in 1844. When he sent forth that message over the telegraph line. Up until that time, it would have taken all day to send a message to Baltimore, maybe 40 miles away. To send the message and to have it return. If you had a lot of fast horses you could ride, deliver a message, turn around and get some new horses and ride back. So to deliver a message even from those close cities. Would have, at the best, taken all day, probably day and night, to get, to have that message sent. But with the telegraph, that same message just took a matter of minutes traveling. Those letters traveled at the speed of light. 186,000 miles a second. And so when people began to understand the significance of the invention of the telegraph, they began to see the world was shrinking. And decades later, when the first transatlantic cable was laid between North America and Europe, what before would have taken weeks, six, eight weeks at least. To send one message, turn around and have a return message now just took a matter of minutes. And so it brought tremendous transformation. That's why they declared, look what God has done. This is his work. Not unto us, not unto us. But thy name, O Lord, be all the praise.
Samuel FB Morse was the first man to harness electricity
But you see, it wasn't just in the area of communication. That there was a great transformation through this invention of the telegraph. But Samuel FB Morse was the first man to harness the use of electricity. Now, men had known about electricity for thousands of years. The Greeks knew about electricity and tried to capture it and use it. And Ben Franklin did experiments with electricity. His famous kite, you know, flying a kite experiment. To see what happens when the electricity from lightning bolts struck it. But nobody knew how to harness it, know how to use it for any purpose. Until Samuel FB Morris learned how to harness the use of electricity by sending impulses, electrical impulses at the speed of light over his telegraph line. And so this in itself is a tremendous, ah, transformation. Because of all of modern society. And our advancements have come as we have utilized electricity to, shape our life in many ways. And make our life easy in many ways. But you see, here was a Christian man, Samuel F.B. morris. Morris, who had access to the mind of Christ. He understood the biblical doctrine of work. That, God wants us to use our talents and skills to create needed goods or services m. For mankind. In order for us to take dominion over the earth, rule over the earth, steward the earth. As the mission God gave to man from the very beginning. To elevate mankind, to bring flourishing, to make, life better, for the betterment of mankind. This is the vision he and, early Americans had. Because this was the view of work that was produced by the Bible. A Christian man in a Christian society. Brought forth the invention of the telegraph, the invention of the reaper. And as we spoke about the reaper, as, the German leader said at the time, this could never have come about in our nation. It was only in the free nation of America that these inventions began to come forth. Because there was freedom to get an idea and to put that idea into work. To benefit from the fruit of your labor, to create wealth. It was in free America where that began to take place. And so in this nation that embrace religious liberty, personal liberty, civil liberty, economic liberty, who is ingrained in our forms of government, our laws, our institutions, our economic, concepts and ideas. This great liberty brought forth advancements and inventions and technology, scientific discoveries, transportation, communication and medicine. And in many of our books we write more about these ideas. A small little book that I wrote called Transforming nations through Biblical Work, and I go through and look at 60 plus individuals in history who have, have been leaders in bringing advancement in every sphere of life and point out most of these were Christians or were a, product of a Christian society, a free society. So here, this is what's taking place in America. In this free nation. We see this flourishing of inventions and discoveries and new patents and copyrights, and so many other things begin to take place here, an avalanche of these, like no other time in history and no other nation in history. And so we see these advancements occurring and many other things we could explore. In the area of railroads, the first one was built in 1826. You had your first steam locomotive in 1830. You had transcontinental line laid by 1869. And so through the use of railroads, you had a quick way to transport people and goods, and, and to bring to market the product of farmers. And out in the Midwest, which was then the western area, like the farmers who harvested more grain because of more cormic. Now with these railroads, you could quickly, you know, sell these products and, throughout the U.S. and so we also began to see advancements in medicine, medical advances. Take for example, Dr. Ephraim McDowell. Now, Dr. Ephraim Mcdowell performed the first abdominal surgery in 1809 in his home in Danville, Kentucky. The patient, a Mrs. Crawford, had no anesthesia. so before removing a huge ovarian cyst, Dr. McDowell prayed, asking God to bless his patient and guide him in the operation. Mrs. Crawford sang Psalms while being operated upon, which I'm sure, she needed God's grace to keep her from the pain that came about because of this, surgery. But, so we began to see advances here. But some years after this, God gave an idea to another medical doctor that would, have alleviated Mrs. Crawford's pain during this surgery. There's a statue in the United States Capitol building. in fact, there are lots of statues there. There are statues of heroes that the states. Each state can send two statues of prominent individuals from their state to be on display in the Capitol. And there's a few national heroes there. Most of those, by the way, are Christians. And in future podcasts, I'm going to go through and take, Christian History tour of Washington, D.C. and other sites, and we'll explore all the things that are there in some of these historic buildings, monuments and symbols that reveal our Christian foundation. So one of those statues is Dr. Crawford W. Long. And on the base of that statue, here's the inscription. It says, this is what he did. Discoverer of the use of sulfuric ether as an anesthetic in surgery on March 30, 1842, at, Jefferson, Jackson County, Georgia, USA. And then below that. So here's the guy. He developed antithetics in surgery. And then below that is a quote from Dr. Long that says, my profession is, to me, a ministry from God. What a great summation of this biblical doctrine of work. God calls people to ministry, and that doesn't mean he calls you to just pulpit ministry or to be a missionary. Now, those are important callings. And God does call many people and has called many people to serve and pastorate or serve as missionaries. But God calls all of us. We all have a calling. And he gives us talents, skills and abilities that he wants us to use in order to elevate man and advance God's kingdom. So Dr. Long recognized God called me to be a doctor, called me to use the skills, develop my skills, come up with new things, discover new things. And the new thing that. That he discovered was anesthetics. And so if any of you have ever had surgery and someone had to cut you, you know, open and to operate on you, you, can thank Dr. Long for not feeling all the pain that would come m through that process. But this is God's plan. This is a benefit to mankind. And so every one of us need to recognize this biblical doctrine of work and say, God, what have you called me to do? How, what am I good, at, what's called comparative advantage in the area of economics. What can I do better than most other people? Find a way to exercise that in a job or calling to produce needed goods or services, so you can be productive. And then that way you're going to be a blessing to you to meet your needs and those of your family and those that you're responsible to take care of, but then also to bless your fellow man to provide a needed good or service like a, telegraph or a reaper or anesthetics and surgery or new techniques of surgery. This is what God has called man to do to bring advancement and elevation to mankind and so many other, advancements that came in the fields of invention, technology, scientific discovery, transportation, communication, medicine.
Matthew Mari is known as the father of oceanography
And, we could look at many other men and inventions. And again, in many of our writings these are mentioned, some are explored, in more detail. And men like Nathaniel Bowditch, who in 1802, wrote a book on navigation that Nathaniel Bowditch, Jean Lee Latham, wrote a nice little book for young youth, called carry on Mr. Bowditch, that marvelously tells his story. He had a Christian philosophy of education. And as he sailed on a ship, he had learned through his own self study and from whoever he could learn from how to be a great navigator. But he didn't want to just be a navigator himself. He wanted to teach others and give others the tools they needed to be productive and to flourish. So anytime he got on a ship, he began to think, okay, I want to teach everybody on this ship, even the guy who scrubs the deck, how to navigate the ship. That will be a great advantage to him. And so he went through the process of making each step so simple that anybody can learn how to be a great navigator. But so he compiled this information about navigation. It was published in 1802 as a great benefit to trade to the ship captains who sailed, the world, sailed over the oceans. This was a great advancement that came forth out of the United States as well. So you had other inventors like John Deere and his plow in 1833, then Goodyear vulcanized rubber, which was a great transformative thing in 18, 39. And then you had a gentleman by the name of Matthew Mari. And Matthew Mari was the one who made charts of the ocean currents, firstly in 1842. Now Matthew Murray is known as the father of oceanography. As I mentioned, he charted the ocean and wind currents, he mapped out and proposed sea routes. He's really, really started the fields and became the father of meteorology, as well. And he had one of the most significant men in our history, not just significant for the United States, but for the world over. There used to be a statue of Matthew Mari on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia. But some, have to call them knuckleheads, some ignorant individuals tore the statue down, not recognizing, probably didn't even know who this guy was or what he did. But as I say, he's one of the most important significant Americans in our history through what he, his discoveries and his work. But he was inspired from scripture to perform this life work. Now Matthew Murray, for a number of years was in the navy. He sailed on ships all over the world. And he began to wonder, why is it that two ships can leave the same city and they are sailing to the same place, but they get there days, if not weeks apart. That was one thing that entered his mind, that he considered, and many other things. But. But, he's at home on leave, once. And as he was riding back to get on his ship, he was on a stagecoach. He gave up his seat inside the coach to a lady who was riding on top of the coach with the driver, during the evening. And, as they were going along, they hit a big bump and he flew off, smashed and broke his leg in three places. And over the months, while he was recuperating, he couldn't go back to see in that condition with broken leg. But while he is recuperating, he had his wife read the Bible to him. And one morning in the Bible reading, she was reading Psalm chapter 8. And she came to this verse 8, which says, the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. And when he came to that Scripture verse, he said, stop, read it again. And she said, the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. And then Mari declared, if God says there are paths in the sea, I am going to find them. And so really, his life work after that time was, to discover these pathways in the seas. his famous book, on physical. A famous book that he wrote on physical geography. He begins the book by saying, there's a pathway in the ocean. There's a river in the ocean. That's his first line. Because what he began to find out as he collected information and he gave surveys, to sea captains that were sailing around, told them to collect information. He began to compile all this information, other information that had been recorded before. And he discovered that there are currents in the ocean, that these currents run in the same pattern, throughout, the world. And that he made charts, made drew maps that show these ocean currents. And when sea captains began to get the maps and they recognized, hey, when I sail here, I need to get in the current, it's gonna. I'm not gonna go against it. It's gonna help me travel that much faster. And they began to follow the currents that Murray Maury had made clear in his maps. They began to save 20, 25, 30, 35% of the travel, which meant a lot more money. They could be more productive, conducting more trade in a shorter amount of time. And so, this discovery alone brought tremendous transformation in the area of. Of trade and shipping, throughout the world. But he went on and, and did many other things. Follow m meteorology and founded many things. But on this statue, the Mari monument, it was dedicated in 1929. And the Richmond Times did a newspaper at that time did an article talking about the significance. Here's the statue, and here's who Matthew Mari is and explaining the statue. And on this statue, Mari is seated. And at the base of where he's seated, there's a Bible in The Richmond Times 1929 article said, against his chair is the Bible from which he drew his inspiration. He drew it directly from the scripture, but he also drew it, indirectly, from the worldview he received. He was a Christian man, a man of faith. And that, motivated his work ethic and understanding of his call and mission to make life better, to bring flourishing to mankind. Now, there's another monument to Maury. It's in Goshen Pass. Goshen Pass is a pass from the Shenandoah Valley over into the Piedmont area of Virginia. and that's the way that he. After he died later in his life, he was in 1873 when he died in Lexington, Virginia. They transported his body over the Blue Ridge Mountains to be buried, in Richmond. And it was over that pass that they put this monument. And on the plaque on this monument, it says, matthew Fontaine Mari, Pathfinder of the Seas. That's what he was called. There's some good, excellent biographies written about him, some with that title, one with that title, Pathfinder of the Seas. So the monument, Pathfinder of the Seas, the genius who first snatched from ocean and atmosphere the secret of their laws. Then it says, Born January 14, 1806, died at Lexington, Virginia, February 1, 1873. Then it says, every mariner for countless ages, as he takes his chart to shape his course across the seas, will think of thee. And then it says, his inspiration, Holy Writ. And it lists some specific scriptures that inspired Mari on his work. Psalm 8, Psalm 1:107, 8, 23 of Psalm 8. And then verse 20:24, Psalm 88, and then Psalm 107, verse 23 and 24. And then also Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verse 8. And then a tribute of his native state, Virginia, 1923. That's when that was erected.
Matthew Fontaine Mari helped develop meteorology and wrote many books
So you can go today, that monument is still there, to see honoring Matthew Fontaine Mari. So Maury did many things. He father meteorology, charted the ocean currents, helped develop, really, the, whole area of the national observatory in Washington, D.C. because of having this accident, he never could go back to sea. So he was given a desk job. Providentially, there for the government, where he then could carry on lots of, his work. And he also wrote many books. And one of those was a physical geography book for use in schools to teach physical geography. And this book has a conclusion which is interesting. How can you have a conclusion to a geography book? Aren't you just looking at physical features? But he had a recognition understanding of that God created the earth, and he has a purpose for the earth. And that the, oceans and currents and land masses and everything on the earth are kind of props on the stage that, God put there in order for help, help man to accomplish the purpose he had of taking dominion over the earth. So in the conclusion of his physical geography book, it says this, in a word, the science of physical geography unfolds to us this grand view of our planet, that in all its arrangements there is proof of all wise and beneficent design. The study leads to a deeper understanding of the psalmist's words. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. So is the great and wide sea also. So here is a Christian man, significant man that God used to help transform the nation and the nations of the world to take dominion over the earth, just as God told Adam and Eve to do when he created them, in the beginning and reiterated that same mission to every generation since then. Mari, being born and lived in this Christian nation of America, had the freedom to fulfill the call that God had upon his life. And he recognized that, in many ways, including in his conclusion to this physical geography book, that the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. So is the great and wide sea. Also, by the way, there's many things still waiting for mankind to discover like this. Each generation, especially more recently, with great leaps forward in the scientific discoveries, begin to think, well, we just know about everything and not much more to discover. Well, that certainly isn't true. We've got much more. And it's going to be Christian individuals and a free society that should pursue and should best be able to discover that. And those who have access to the mind of Christ, recognizing God wants us to discover all the things that he's hidden in his creation, to create new things out of his original creation so that we can be creative like our Creator, because we're made in his image. We are like God. We can create things just like God does now. God created everything from nothing he spoke, and it came into being. We create things from God's original, creation material. But this is what God wants us to do. And this is what, began to happen in a dramatic fashion after America became a free nation because it provided the environment in which that could occur. And so these men we've mentioned a few Cyrus McCormick, Samuel FB Morris Crawford W. Long, Matthew Murray. These are just a few men who fulfill God's purposes and change the world again. There's many more. And in future podcasts, we're going to look at other individuals who brought advancements in every sphere of life in accordance with what God intends man to do. Well, I hope you can join us in the future podcast and learn more about the great fruit that began to come forth in the American republic and the influence that this free nation began to have in many nations of the world. Well, I invite you to Visit our website, providencefoundation.com you can look at some of our books and materials that are available. Articles. We have articles on, on many individuals in history and especially draw attention to that book, Transforming nations through Biblical Work. If you want to read more stories, like McCormick, Morris Mori and others. I also have little booklets, by the way, on some of these individuals. A booklet on Matthew Mari booklet on McCormick and others that you might want to pick up and get and read as well. Well, thanks for joining us this week. I look forward to having you with us again. God Bl.
