Description
Speaker: Glenn Rawson
Hi, this is Glenn Rawson. One of the most powerful ways to share history and heritage is by the telling of stories. We began sharing inspiring stories nearly 30 years ago. Each of those stories is true and was intended to inspire and strengthen faith. Over the years, those stories have reached millions around the world. This podcast is for you to listen, learn and enjoy.
First Story: The Plowboy Composer 00:33
I wanted to start with the story that was the title of the devotional, The Plowboy Composer. It’s remarkable to me what the Lord can do with someone who has faith and is willing to use the talents that they are given.
Now, for example, Charles Hutchinson Gabriel was born in 1856, one of seven children born to an Iowa farmer, .I.N. and Cleopatra Cotton Gabriel were his parents. Now, in addition to farming near Sugar Creek, Iowa, that should sound familiar to some of you. In addition to farming near Sugar Creek, Charles’s father also taught singing schools.
Charles was about 10 years of age before he ever saw his first musical instrument, which was the kind of rough harpsichord later on came by kind of a piano thing. From a young age, Charles showed a talent and a love for music. At the age of 15, he made up his mind and announced to his mother that he wanted to be a songwriter. So while working in the fields on the family farm, Charles would compose melodies in his mind and then write them down in the evening.
One story suggested his musical talent was recognized even as a lad in his hometown. It is said that the pastor of the local church, which his family attended, saw Gabriel walking in town early in the week and asked him if he knew a good song to go along with the sermon topic for Sunday. By the end of the week, young Gabriel had written a song for that Sunday with words and music.
Well, when Charles was only 16, his father passed away and the following year, he began to travel and lead his own singing schools like his father had done. He later found employment teaching music in Texas, Oklahoma. In the school system, he worked at the Grace Episcopal Methodist Church in San Francisco, and then for a publishing firm in Chicago. It is said that Charles loved to sing and wrote songs every day. Over the course of his life, it is believed that the prolific composer wrote over 8000 songs, mostly hymns.
During his life, he edited 35 gospel song books, eight Sunday school, song books, 10, children’s song books, and countless other music collections including anthems and instructional books. Not only was the man prolific in his compositions, but he demonstrated at the same time, a powerful understanding and love for the Lord and the scriptures.
Charles Hutchinson Gabriel earned a unique legacy among American hymn writers, his contemporaries called him, “The Prince of American Hymn Writers.”
And this is what struck me all of this from a man who never had a music lesson in his life. This master of sacred music, was taught his craft, by the grace of God.
In 1898, he penned the words and wrote the music for this great Christian hymn,
I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me.
I tremble to know that for me he was crucified,
That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died.
Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for
Enough to die for me!
Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me!
What struck me is that Charles Gabriel is a living legacy and testament to the very thing he wrote about, that the love and grace of the Savior will raise all of us, if we are willing, from humble obscurity, to exalted royalty.
Thank the Lord for the plowboy composer who became a prophet of music. And I say that with deliberation. That story really touched me. Jean Tonioli researched it and sent me the elements of it, and I couldn’t wait to write it all down.
Second Story: Samuel The Lamanite 05:32
Now, we are all children of God, and He loves all of us. President Nelson said it. He said it best when he said, “Brothers and sisters, please listen carefully to what I’m about to say. God does not love one race more than another. His doctrine on this matter President Nelson said is clear. He invites all to come unto him, black and white, bonden, free, male and female. I assure you, he continued, that your standing before God is not determined by the color of your skin, favor or disfavor with. God is dependent upon your devotion to God and His commandments, and not the color of your skin.”
Why would I bring up such a controversial subject? Because of racism in the Book of Mormon.
He came out of nowhere into the land of Zarahemla, about six years before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was called Samuel, the Lamanite and enigma, we know nothing of his origins, his family, or even of his homeland, yet he came preaching repentance among the Nephites and Zarahemla.
For many days, he did teach and invite the Nephites to come up to Christ, but they rejected him and cast him out. As he was about to return to his homeland, the voice of the Lord came again and told him to go back and prophesy again, whatever the Lord put into his heart, when the Nephites wouldn’t let him back into the city. You know the story, Samuel climbed up on the wall and delivered some of the most powerful and specific prophecies in ALL of the Book of Mormon about the coming of Christ.
He actually foretold the destruction of the Nephite nation, and gave the time frame. And then he went further, “Five years more cometh, Samuel said, and behold, then come with the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe in his name.” [Helaman 14:2]
Can you imagine someone saying now, how many years before the Lord second coming? Well, many great signs and wonders, Samuel went on and promised the people he spoke of the Savior’s death and resurrection, and explained the purposes behind it. He spoke of righteousness and faith. [This is where it got dicey.] He spoke of the righteousness and the faith of the Lamanites, and the wickedness and rebellion of the Nephites.
Now, some heard Samuel crying from the wall, and repented accordingly of their sins and went to Nephi. But those who would not hear him, cast stones and arrows at him to kill him. When they couldn’t hit him at such close range on the wall, his miraculous power was ascribed to evil and men were dispatched to climb the wall and lay hold on him.
The scripture says he did cast himself down from the wall and did flee out of their lands, yay, even into his own country, and behold, he was never heard of more among the Nephites. [ Helaman 16].
Samuels message was largely ignored, rejected by the Nephites for at least two reasons. The first Samuel said is because his words were hard against them. But the second reason is the one that is so telling and typical, Samuel said, “…and now because I am a Lamanite, you’re angry with me and seek to destroy me.”
The Nephites construed portions of Samuel the Lamanites message as racist and rejected the whole of it. Five years have passed away. And a great uproar came upon the land, the nonbelievers among the Nephites, raised a hue and cry that “The time was passed for the words to be fulfilled which were spoken by Samuel the Lamanite. [3 Nephi 1], it rose to such a pitch throughout the land. That popular opinion supported a day of public execution for all Nephite Christians, rights and freedoms be damned. They were summarily denied to the believers.
Nephi the Prophet went before the Lord and pleaded for the lives of his people. He cried mightily to the Lord all that day, and behold, the voice of the LORD came unto him, saying, “Lift up your head and be of good cheer. For behold, the time is at hand and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world, that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.”
He was coming to fulfill every word of the prophets, including Samuel, the rejected Lamanite. Again, and again, in the chapters that follow all the way to 3Nephi 11.
The Book of Mormon declares that many great signs and wonders and miracles came, “According to the words of the Holy Prophets, the first words, spoken by the risen Christ among the Nephites, in 3Nephi 11 work, “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, in the prophets testified shall come into the world.”
Throughout the history of the children of Israel, it has been the case that not only was the message of the prophets, too much for the people, but too often, so too, was the messenger. Samuel, the Lamanite is typical of God’s Holy Prophets, then and now, it is too often deceptively convenient to dismiss the Lord’s message, because of the prophetic messenger, that he’s a mortal man, he’s too much of this or too little of that.
He doesn’t live up to our expectations. From the Prophet Joseph Smith, to the Lord’s anointed, now, I see Samuel the Lamanite. We think we know them, but where they came from, and how they came to be and where they will go hereafter, is known in full only to the Almighty. Therefore, with love and kindness, a word of warning. It is imperative that we hearken to the message, not judge the messenger. I hope that sits well with you.
Third Story: Boston Tea Party
13:00
In the last general conference, President Oaks spoke about the Constitution of the United States. And in that he listed five separate singled out principles that he considered vital and sacred to the Constitution, inspired by the Almighty and one of those was sovereignty, meaning, where in lies to borrow the phrase, where does the buck stop, where in lies the ultimate power of government, it is with the people, when the power of government is taken from the people.
It is civilly and morally wrong and offends the Almighty. It is right and thus is our right, that we be agents unto ourselves. When we have no voice in matters of polity, rebellions will ultimately and always follow.
It was a cold, rainy December night in Boston, Massachusetts. What a crowd of some 7000 people responded to the ringing bells in the Old South Church. They came spilling out into the streets and listened to Samuel Adams and others speak about British tea and taxes.
At that very moment, three ships laden with East India Tea lay anchored in Boston Harbor. In just a few hours that tea would be forced on the citizens of Boston, taxes and all then, with adamant finality, Samuel Adams said to the crowd, “This meeting can do nothing more to save the country.”
Just then 50 of Boston’s more prominent men came out of the back room of the church disguised as Mohawk Indians. With the crowd following, the Indians made their way to Griffin’s Wharf, where they split into three companies and boarded the tea ships.
While the British crews and sailors watched, the men of Boston dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor, effectively turning Boston Harbor into the largest salt water tea pot in the world, about 90,000 pounds worth of tea they dumped into the harbor. That tea amounted to about 26 million cups and, of course, a small fortune.
As the raiders left, British Admiral Montagu called out, “Well, boys, you have had a fine, pleasant evening for your Indian caper, haven’t you? But mind you, you have got to pay the fiddler yet. “
On pay they did. The British instantly retaliated, closing Boston Harbor and cutting off all trade, effectively laying siege to Boston, among other things, they disfranchised the city government and took steps to strangle the city of Boston completely out of existence. That Tea Party directly led to Lexington and Concord, which led to the revolution, which led ultimately to American freedom.
Now, I have pondered this. What was it that was at the heart of that tea party? Did the colonists not like British tea? No. They love tea. Well, then, was the issue taxes? Was it money? No. Not even that. Because even with the tax on the British tea, it was still cheaper to buy that tea than the Dutch tea that they were engaged in smuggling.
So why then did the people of Boston tweak the nose of the most powerful bear on Earth? Listen to their slogan. “Taxation Without Representation is Tyranny.”
They chanted, meaning if they could have no voice, and no vote, they wanted no part. Boston went to war, engaged in an act of war, for the sole purpose of having a voice in government, the right of self rule, the right to vote, to speak their mind.
My dear friends, the right to vote, the right to speak up is a fundamental expression of man’s God given agency. Now, I am not interested at this moment in talking about elections. But when we don’t vote, and we don’t speak up for that, which is right. It is exactly what Lucifer wanted in the first place for us to just give up and hand over our agency.
Fourth Story: William Atkin 18:17
Okay, moving on. I love my dad, as evidenced by what’s behind me on the wall. He was a tough and strict old cowboy. He governed his life that way. And you know what, he was the same with me. I was afraid of him, to be sure. I felt the toe of his boot in places unmentionable, I did what he said and I didn’t argue or backtalk.
Well, that fear of my dad, unfortunately, put a distance between us that was never overcome in this mortal life. Strange thing, and I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this in your life, maybe it’s not applicable.
But when I first became a Christian, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and was taught to believe in God, our Heavenly Father. So in my mind, I consider that my Heavenly Father parented the same way my earthly dad did. Imagine my shock when I learned that I could actually really mess up and come to my Heavenly Father, and he wouldn’t kill me. But he would actually help me. Please consider this story.
William Adkin, was born March 27, 1835, in Rutland County, England. He went to school until he was seven and was then taken out of school and sent out to work on the farm to help support his family. It was a hard life. William wrote, “I was religiously inclined at an early day, went to religious denominations. My mind was very troubled because of the fear of hell that was pictured by them. I had such a dread of death because I was told that for the least sin, I would be sent to hell with no hope that I could escape it.”
William went on to describe that one of those denominations that he visited, “pictured hell in such a manner that I often wished I had never been born. They would often read a piece to us in class meeting, describing hell of which the following he said is a part and then William,
“Come, all my soul thy certain ruin trace,
If thou neglect the Savior’s offered grace,
Infinite years and torment must bow spend,
which never, never, never have an end.”
And on it went. William goes on to describe the unspeakable horror that these ministers would invoke describing hell and God and punishment and lakes of fire and damnation and endless years of torment as many as the sands upon the sea and the stars in the heavens. You imagine the effect of that on young minds. William said, “I was troubled in my mind continually, and I would read and pray and often wished I had lived in the days of our Savior, news apostles, it seems so very different to what is taught to us now, he said.
Well, you guessed it. Not long after that, William first heard missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, teaching the restored gospel in his area. He was drawn to their message. As he listened to them he witnessed wonders, healings, miracles among the people as they listened to the elders. William said, “We met with them often and the more we met with them, the better we liked them and the doctrine they taught. The union and love that existed with them was something we admired.”
Now, not long after that, William was baptized in the river near Empingham, (I hope I said it right) Empingham, England.
But when his father learned of it, he was bitterly opposed and began to criticize his son’s actions. William just sat there and listened. Finally, William said to his father, “Father, are you done?”
He said he was. William says, “I then asked him if he would listen to me. He replied that he would. I told him a few things pertaining to the gospel, and before I was aware of it, I bore a faithful testimony to him of the truth of the gospel.”
And William concluded, he had a good effect. And it was not long before he was baptized. Shortly after, William’s mother, she too, was impressed by the elders and their teachings. But when invited to be baptized, she declined, explaining that she suffered from a terrible but debilitating illness. And that immersion in cold water would make it so much worse. She couldn’t get baptized, though she wanted to.
Upon hearing that, Elder Charles Walsh rose to his feet and said, “Sister, I promise you in the name of the Lord, that if you will go and be baptized, you shall not have that disease anymore.”
Oh, my word, William’s mother said, “I believe it, and I will do and I will go and be baptized.”
Unfortunately, the river was just right out the front door. She went forth with and was baptized. And William said, “She lived about 10 years after that, but never had the least particle of that disease again, to her dying day.”
Does this sound like a vengeful, angry tyrant father, God? William Atkin left behind a remarkable history. It’s full of love, miracles, signs, wonders, and the grace of a loving God.
Now, why do I tell you this? Because there are those even among us who should know better, who portrayed God as the stern father just waiting to pounce, punish and damage an unending hell. They use the message of gospel good news, love and hope as a stick to beat us into guilt and invoke fear. This role is very wrong.
If God is not perfect love, patience, mercy and grace. Why would any of us ever want to live with Him forever? I am a witness to you. He is not mean, angry, vengeful, he is not waiting with a tablet and pencil to write down our least sin and weakness so that he can throw us into hell. No, no, indeed not. He is just the opposite. Patient, compassionate, kind, long, suffering, loving. Most of you know that. But when we want to invoke change, and others, pardon the phrase, we sometimes think we in effect change by scaring the hell out of them or into them as the case may be. Don’t do it. You have no idea what kind of an image of God you can plant in the young by doing so.
Thank you for listening. Many of the stories you heard today have been published and are archived at glennrawsonstories.com. If you would like more information you can communicate with us there. We will be back again with another podcast next week.
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