Day 23 {25 Days of Thanksgiving}
My husband is a lover of Pilgrim history. That is why years ago the kids and I awarded him this statue of Governor William Bradford, calling it the "Governor Bradford Award," to honor our daddy's leadership in our home. Dave even reads regularly from his Geneva Bible because that was the version Bradford and the Puritans used, refusing the King James version when it came out, for they objected to a king's name added to the Holy Script.
Something I find so fascinating concerns the original manuscript of William Bradford's famous book, The Plymouth Settlement (also titled Of Plymouth Plantation), about the history of the Pilgrims from 1608 through 1646. It is the single most important source document we have on these events, and so vital in understanding the Christian founding and shaping of our nation.
The history of the Bradford Manuscript is one no less remarkable than the Pilgrim epic itself. In the early years it was miraculously preserved from water, fire and loss. The Bradford estate would loan it out again and again to various clergymen. It was last seen in the tower library of Old South Church in Boston, disappearing for eighty years and considered a casualty of the American Revolution.
Quoting from the book (now out of print), The Hand of God In The Return Of The Bradford Manuscript, you will read how years later it was returned to our nation from England:
"... just as America needed a reminder of her historic purpose, just before she was to endure her greatest ordeal of nationhood, the manuscript was discovered in 1855 reposing in utmost security in England. Not until the nation was partially recovered from civil strife did the Hand of God open up channels for its return after a probable absence from this country of more than one hundred and twenty years."
If you read carefully, you can deduct that the manuscript was returned to America just after the Civil War. Providential timing, was it not?
Looking for God's Hand in the course of history is exciting... and inspiring. As the Hebrew people in Old Testament days were so often reminded to review with their children what God had done for them in their past, we should hold before our families the awesome history, "HIS-story", of our nation.
As for me, if someone would allow me the privilege of choosing a name for a baby boy, I would choose the name Bradford. The child would always be reminded of his namesake, an incredible "used of God" Christian from our nation's founding... and my husband would be thrilled.
