November 11

November 11 is Veterans Day when we remember all those who have served and are serving in the armed forces of our country.  We owe them our appreciation and our support.  May they know it today and every day!  We live in freedom and blessings because men and women have stood in the gap – some giving their blood so that we might be privileged.  We must be thankful and say so!

November 11 is also the day that the Mayflower dropped anchor inside the hook of Cape Cod in America.  One hundred and two passengers had set sail on September 6 (O.S. Old Style.  On the calendar we use the 16th) for an area in the Virginia Colony near the mouth of the Hudson River, but found themselves too far north and out of the jurisdiction of their original charter.   Having left late in the year due to having to abandon the Speedwell and then encountering storms slowing progress and thus causing provisions to be short, it was decided to spend the winter where they had anchored – southeast of modern day Boston.

Prior to debarking with no official charter, they agreed they needed a set of rules and regulations for the sake of order and for their survival.  William Bradford, the mayor of Plymouth Colony for about 30 years, was not the official leader yet, but was in the lead on November 11 when they drafted such an agreement.  So on November 11, the Mayflower Compact was written and 41 men signed it.

The Mayflower Compact they agreed to:

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. 

We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. 

Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. 

IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.

Happy 400th birthday to one of the world’s great documents.

This tiny group believed in God and desired His glory to be found in their midst, desired that Christianity might flourish, and were willing to bind themselves in submission and obedience to the laws they mutually agreed upon so they might have an orderly existence and live in safety.

Some very valid truths for us to embrace now 400 years later!