IMMANUEL

 

And the earth was without form,

and void; . . .

 

I

Yea God

 

     *

and darkness

was upon the face of the deep. . .

 

 

So God

    *

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 

**

For God

 

And the evening and the morning were the first day.

*

And behold at eveningtide trouble;

 

and before the morning he is not.

 

*

And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram;

 

and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

*

and God went up from Abraham.

*

And Lot went up out of Zoar,

*

And Immanuel, when he was anointed with water, went up straightway:

*

And the dove came in to him in the evening;

and,

lo,

 

in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: . .

 

and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

**

and,

lo,

 

the

heavens were opened unto

 

him,

 

and

he saw

 

the Spirit of God

descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

And

lo

a voice from heaven, saying,

 

*

A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me;

he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.

My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.

 

Behold,

thou art fair,

my love;

behold,

thou art fair;

thou hast doves' eyes.

**

This is my beloved Son, in whom

I am

well pleased.

 

Then was Immanuel led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

 

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights,

he was afterward an hungred.

    

**

And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,

and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

And also that nation, whom they shall serve,

will I judge:

 

and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

**

This is the portion of them that spoil us, Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

**

That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth,

 

see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

 

For so the Lord said unto me,

 

I

will take my rest,

 

and

I

will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

*

The Lord IMMANEL will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people,

and the princes thereof:

 

for ye have eaten up the vineyard;

 

the

spoil

of the poor

is in

your houses.

What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor?

saith the

Lord God

 

of hosts

ISamuelYea.

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

and the lot of them that rob us.

*

And God made two great lights;

 

Eve

 

the greater light to rule the day,

 

Again

 

and the lesser light to rule the night:

 

Me

 

he made the stars also.

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

 

**

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,

*

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram:

I am

thy

shield,

and thy exceeding great reward.

 

**

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number:

he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might,

for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

Why sayest thou,

O Jacob,

and speakest,

 

O Israel,

 

My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

 

Hast thou not known?

hast thou not heard,

that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?

 

there is no searching of his understanding.

 

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

 

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

 

*

. . . the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,

 

and the windows of heaven were opened.

 

**

Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth;

 

and from thy face shall I be hid;

 

and

 

I

 

shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth;

 

and it shall come to pass, . . .

 

*

and they shall be one flesh.

 

*

. . . that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

*

And he said,

I

heard thy voice in the garden,

 

and I

was afraid, because

 

I

was naked;

 

and I

hid myself.

 

*

And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

**

 

And Adam said,

This is now bone of my bones,

 

and flesh

of

my flesh:

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.

 

**

and

I

hid myself.

*

whereof

I

commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

 

*

 

Sarai

 

and

good for food;

*

And there was a famine in the land:

and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there;

 

for the famine was grievous in the land.

 

And it came to pass,

when he was come near to enter into Egypt,

*

From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous.

But I said,

My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously;

yea,

the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

Fear,

 

and the pit,

 

and the snare,

 

are upon thee,

*

Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel,

Ah,

I

will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

 

*

O

inhabitant of the earth.

And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit;

 

and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare:

 

for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

 

The earth is utterly broken down,

 

the earth is clean dissolved,

 

the earth is moved exceedingly.

 

The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage;

 

and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall,

and not rise again.

**

 

that he

said unto

Sarai

his wife,

 

Behold now,

I

know

that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

**

And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,

and good for food;

*

and gave also unto her husband

 

with her;

 

and he did eat.

  *

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,

and hast eaten of the tree,

 

of which

I

commanded

 

thee,

saying,

Thou shalt not eat of it:

*

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,

**

 

cursed is the ground

 

for

 

thy sake;

 

in sorrow

 

shalt thou eat

of it

all the days of thy life;

 

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;

 

and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

**

 

Then Job

answered

the

 

LORD Japheth,

 

and said,

I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. 

 

Who is he

that

hideth counsel without knowledge?

 

therefore have

I

uttered that

 

I

understood not;

 

things too wonderful for me, which

I

knew not. 

 

Hear,

I

beseech thee,

 

and

I

will speak:

 

I

will demand of thee,

 

and

declare thou unto me. 

 

I

have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear:

but now mine eye seeth thee.  Wherefore

I

abhor myself,

 

and repent in dust and ashes. 

 

And it was so,

 

that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job,

 

the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite,

 

My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends:

 

for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right,

 

as my servant Job hath. 

 

Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams,

 

and go to my servant Job,

 

and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering;

 

and my servant Job shall pray for you:

 

for him will

 

I

accept:

 

lest

I deal with you after your folly,

 

in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right,

 

like my servant

Job.

*

So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went,

 and did according as the LORD Job commanded them:

*

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job;

and that man was perfect and upright,

and one that feared God,

and eschewed evil.

 

*

 

the

 

LORD Nimrod

also

 

accepted Job.

 

And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends:

 

also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. 

 

*

he

began to be a mighty one in the earth.

 

*

So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning:

 

*

and every fowl of the air;

 

and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them:

and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

**

He had also seven sons and three daughters. 

And he called the name of the first, Jemima;

 

and the name of the second, Kezia;

 

and the name of the third, Keren happuch. 

 

And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job:

 

and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. 

 

After this lived Job an hundred and forty years,

and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.

So Job died,

being old and full of days.

**********

 

And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good,

 

and gave it unto a young man;

and he hasted to dress it.

And he took butter,

and milk,

 

and

the calf which he had dressed,

and set it before

them;

 

and he stood by them under the tree,

 

and

they did eat.

 

*

 

Their bull gendereth, and faileth not;

 their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.

They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

*

And his brother's name was Jubal:

he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

 

**

 

They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

 

They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

 

 

**

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,

*

but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

 

**

till thou

return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken:

 

for

dust thou art,

 

and

 unto dust shalt thou return.

 

Also

and thistles

shall it bring forth to thee;

 

and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

 

*

And God created great whales, and

*

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 

*

every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly,

after their kind,

and every winged fowl after his kind:

and God saw that it was good.

 

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful,

and multiply,

and fill the waters in the seas,

and let fowl multiply in the earth.

 

 

*

These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands,

after their nations.

    

     These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations:

and by these were the nations divided in the earth

after the flood.

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 

ISamuelYeaO

 

 

I Know something you don't

That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

*******

The first Africans arrived in Virginia because of the transatlantic slave trade.

Across three and a half centuries—from 1501 to 1867—more than 12.5 million Africans were captured, sold, and transported to the Americas.

While Portugal and Spain were the first European powers engaged in this trade, eventually most of the European powers would get involved. It was as profitable as it was brutal.

The Africans who came to Virginia in 1619 had been taken from Angola in West Central Africa.

They were captured in a series of wars that was part of much broader Portuguese hostilities against the Kongo and Ndongo kingdoms, and other states.

These captives were then forced to march 100-200 miles to the coast to the major slave-trade port of Luanda.

They were put on board the San Juan Bautista, which carried 350 captives bound for Vera Cruz, on the coast of Mexico, in the summer of 1619.

Nearing her destination, the slave ship was attacked by two English privateers, the White Lion and the Treasurer, in the Gulf of Mexico and robbed of 50-60 Africans.

Their Story

The two privateers then sailed to Virginia where the White Lion arrived at Point Comfort, or present-day Hampton, Virginia, toward the end of August. John Rolfe, a prominent planter and merchant

(and formerly the husband of Pocahontas), reported that “20. and odd, ‘perhaps their wives’ Negroes” were “bought for victuals,” (italics added).

The majority of the Angolans were acquired by wealthy and well-connected English planters including Governor Sir George Yeardley and the cape, or head, merchant,

Abraham Piersey.

The Africans were sold into bondage despite Virginia having no clear-cut laws sanctioning slavery.

The Treasurer arrived at Point Comfort a few days after the White Lion but did not stay long, quickly setting sail for the English colony of Bermuda.

Prior to leaving port, however, it is possible that 7 to 9 Africans were sold, including a woman named “Angelo” (Angela) who was taken to Captain William Pierce’s Jamestown property, which Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists excavated in partnership with the National Park Service.

By March 1620, 32 Africans were recorded in a muster as living in Virginia but by 1625 only 23 were recorded.

*

These Africans, scattered throughout homes and farms of the James River Valley, were the first of hundreds of thousands of Africans forced to endure slavery in colonial English America.

*

O Lord,

by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit:

so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.

Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

*

Jefferson held that "acknowledging and adoring an overruling providence"

(as in his First Inaugural Address)

was important and in his second inaugural address, expressed the need to gain "the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old".[8]

Still, together with James Madison, Jefferson carried on a long and successful campaign against state financial support of churches in Virginia. Also, it is Jefferson who coined the phrase

"wall of separation between church and state"

in his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists of Connecticut.

During his 1800 campaign for the presidency, Jefferson even had to contend with critics who argued that he was unfit to hold office because of their discomfort with his "unorthodox" religious beliefs.

In a letter to John Adams dated August 22, 1813, Jefferson named Joseph Priestly (an English Unitarian who moved to America) and Conyers Middleton (an English Deist) as his religious inspirations.[9]

Jefferson used certain passages of the New Testament to compose The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth

(the "Jefferson Bible"),

which excluded any miracles by Jesus and stressed his moral message.

Though he often expressed his opposition to many practices of the clergy, and to many specific popular Christian doctrines of his day, Jefferson repeatedly expressed his admiration for Jesus as a moral teacher, and consistently referred to himself as a Christian

(though following his own unique type of Christianity) throughout his life.

Jefferson opposed Calvinism, Trinitarianism, and what he identified as Platonic elements in Christianity.

In private letters Jefferson also described himself as subscribing to other certain philosophies, in addition to being a Christian.

In these letters he described himself as also being an "Epicurean"

*

Epicurus

Epicurus distinguished between two different types of pleasure: "moving" pleasures (κατὰ κίνησιν ἡδοναί) and "static" pleasures (καταστηματικαὶ ἡδοναί).[79][80] "Moving" pleasures occur when one is in the process of satisfying a desire and involve an active titillation of the senses.

After one's desires have been satisfied (e.g. when one is full after eating), the pleasure quickly goes away and the suffering of wanting to fulfill the desire again returns.[79][81] For Epicurus, static pleasures are the best pleasures because moving pleasures are always bound up with pain.

(1819),[10] a "19th century materialist" (1820),[11] a "Unitarian by myself" (1825),[12] and "a sect by myself" (1819).[13]

Upon the disestablishment of religion in Connecticut, he wrote to John Adams: "I join you, therefore, in sincere congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length broken up, and that a Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the American history and character.

Wikipedia

*********

Our history

Fire destroys

Thomas Jefferson library

On this day in 1851, a fire sweeps through the Library of Congress and destroys two-thirds of Thomas Jefferson’s personal literary collection.

Jefferson, who died in 1826, had offered to sell his personal library to Congress after the Congressional library, along with the rest of the Capitol and the White House, was burned by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812.

His collection of 6,487 volumes of books and newspapers fetched $23,950 and, in addition to providing an invaluable archive to the nation, the fee helped pay off some of Jefferson’s personal debts.

According to the Library of Congress, Jefferson also offered to arrange and number all the books himself.

He called his collection, which contained a vast assortment of scientific works, an “interesting treasure” that he hoped would have a “national impact.”

Jefferson was a voracious reader who claimed that he could not live without books.

His servants often found him sitting on the floor of his library at Monticello surrounded by as many as 20 open books and newspapers at a time.

He studied a variety of subjects, including paleontology, mechanics, classical literature, natural history, agriculture, math, chemistry, philosoph

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

DECEMBER 24

1851

December 24

Fire destroys Thomas Jefferson library