Last month we discussed the allure of man to Communism, the essence of which is the total denial of the God of history and the elevation of man to be his own god. This is the fundamental reason the Communists have become infamous for their inhuman behavior around the world. They recognize no restrictive, higher power or value that controls man's behavior. By their denial of God - ATHEISM - they have released themselves to exercise the full spectrum of the depravity of man. The history of the past seventy years is the strongest evidence possible that man, when left to his own devices and uncontrolled nature, too often perpetrates the most horrible and satanic acts of inhumanity and evil on his fellow man imaginable. The estimated one hundred fifty million innocent people murdered by the Communists to advance their insane cause since the death of Karl Marx in 1883, of which some sixty-six million alone have been the Russian people themselves, provides unequivocal proof of this, it seems to me.

The Lord of the Covenant graciously calls his apostate people to himself in repentance, 3:14. He still loves them as a father, seeing that he calls them, "sons," although they were unworthy of the name. Moreover God reminds them that he is their Husband, ("master to you"). His bride has committed spiritual adultery, but still he calls her back to himself and to their marriage. In order to stimulate his people to return to him, God through the mouth of Jeremiah makes some rich promises that would be fulfilled "in those days," (3:16,18, and "at that time" in verse 17), i.e., in the days of the long awaited Messiah. We know that these phrases and others similar to them, (such as "in the latter days," 30:24 and "the days are coming," 31:27,31), have the Messianic Age, beginning with the birth of Christ, in view, because the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:3lf. is introduced with the words: "Behold, days are coming.... " And in 31:33 we are told that this covenant is made "after those days." Hebrews 8:8-12 and 10:15·18, which quotes Jeremiah 31:31f, clearly refers it to Christ and to the Messianic age, commencing two thousand years ago.

Patrick Henry: Patriot and Statesman, by Norine Dickson Campbell. 1969. The Devin-Adair Company, Old Greenwich, Connecticut 06870, 439 pages of text with index. Reviewed by Robert Miller, member of Chalcedon Presbyterian Church and founder of Libertas and the Committee for the Memorial to the Victims of Communism.

Patrick Henry ( 1736~ 1799) was, without any doubt, the greatest statesman orator of our nation's revolutionary period. He was from Virginia, that state which, along with Massachusetts, gave young America so many of its great founding spirits and intellects. It is always difficult to convey the power and dynamism of a great orator to someone who has never heard the individual in person. And to place the orator properly in the context of his times is perhaps even more difficult.