Bring Back Ben's America

If many of our founding fathers were alive today, they would be crafting things we never dreamed of. Thomas Jefferson invented a way to copy the letters he wrote. Others left behind documents that were masterpieces of human thought.

The minds of these men were uncluttered by the distractions we slog through each day. Take one of the more famous, for instance.

The fifteenth of seventeen children, this man apprenticed to a printer at a young age. Later he published a popular almanac. He retired at age 42, then taught himself five languages. He invented the rocking chair, bifocal glasses, and the lightning rod, and earned degrees from Harvard and Yale.

He assisted in founding a hospital and the University of Pennsylvania. America’s first postal system and fire department came about because of his genius. This creative founder served as governor of Pennsylvania, signed the Declaration of Independence, and called for prayer at the Constitutional Convention. He was president of America’s first anti-slavery society.

His name—which you probably guessed--was Benjamin Franklin.

In his Poor Richard’s Almanac, May 1757, Franklin wrote: “Work as if you were to live 100 years; pray as if you were to die tomorrow.”

Although Franklin wasn’t particularly a church-going man, historic writings tell us he did attend a large open-air meeting to hear famous evangelist George Whitfield. We are left to guess if he prepared for eternity.

However, his creative mind did make an astute observation about the state of the culture in his time. In a pamphlet for Europeans titled Information to Those Who Would Remove to America, 1754, Franklin wrote, “Atheism is unknown there; infidelity rare and secret; so that persons may live to a great age in that country without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an atheist or an infidel. And the Divine Being seems…pleased to favor the whole country.”

I, for one, would like to bring back the culture of Ben’s America. What about you?

Portions used with permission from AmericanMinute.Com-William J. Federer (114)