During the American Revolutionary War there was a great deal of patriotic courage shown by many whether on the battlefield or in the halls and meeting rooms of those buildings with the political and economic leadership of the then forming nation which was planning the necessary move. There was very little media covering the actual battle, and so the valor shown on the battlefields is pretty much limited to George Washington and maybe just a few others.

Much of the sacrificial service given to win that war was made by the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. They had very much to lose. Most of those men had a great deal of higher education. They had substantial material wealth derived from thriving business ventures, and they had solid large families. But by signing that document they voluntarily set themselves up as fair game in the dangers of what the British rightfully used as a traitorous sedition.

Most of those men and their families paid dearly. Except for the flowery signature of John Hancock, you probably cannot remember but one or two others of the 56 signers' names, but all 56 knew that when they signed that document they might have very well been signing their own death warrant. But they were willing to lay down their lives to be free.

Because of the inherent dangers of signing, the signers' names were kept secret for six months in order to give them time to get things at home in order and to flee to wherever they felt they might be safe. Twenty-four of them were lawyers and judges. Nine of them were plantation owners. The rest were notable, but from other business fields. From the point of their signing becoming known, they lived as vagabonds, fleeing and in hiding always in some state of apprehension that they would be found, tried, and put to death as traitors.

The deaths of nine of them were directly attributable to the war. Others died from lingering illnesses and injuries that took place during the war. And some, though not put to death, were nonetheless tortured, and the homes of just about every one of them was ransacked and burned.

Now even if they had not been directly harassed, what they committed their lives to triggered long periods of separation from their loved ones, as was the case with John and Abigail Adams, as he attempted to give direction and to find financial resources for the military effort that the Continental Army under George Washington might use.

You may be unable to quote a single line of the Declaration, but those signers knew from the tenor of the times, as well as the lofty and challenging statements contained within the Declaration, that they were lighting the fuse to the explosion that would blow the lid off an already tense relationship between the two countries.

There is one line in the final paragraph of the Declaration of Independence that I hope you would never forget, because it has direct application to us. It should be remembered, because, with our declaration we believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and thus followed that up with baptism. We committed ourselves to a covenant that calls for unswerving loyalty to Him. That line in the Declaration says, "We mutually pledge each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Our war is not a bloody one. It is not a conflict involving bombs and rifles, but a conflict over control of our mind, our heart, and is direction of our attitude and conduct.

May you pledge yourself wholly to the cause of Christ! Fight the good fight of faith!

 Have a great summer!