Imagine what a blessing it is to a nation, and its people, to have a king like this:
“It happened quite the
contrary with one in the province of the Mercians, whose visions and words, and
also his behavior, were neither advantageous to others nor to himself. In the
reign of Coenred, who succeeded Ethelred, there was a layman in a military
employment, no less acceptable to the king for his worldly industry, than
displeasing to him for his private neglect of himself. The king often
admonished him to confess and amend, and to forsake his wicked courses, before
he should lose all time for repentance and amendment by a sudden death.[1]
People wonder why there is still so much trust among the
population for the ruling classes, despite everything we have learned about how
they are bought and paid for by various interests. Well the answer is simple.
It is because we are descended from a long line of people who had good, not
perfect, but good and decent rulers that actually took care for the things of
God, and for their nations.
Here we have Bede writing this account of a king,
Coenred, who was concerned for the soul of one of his military men. This man
was highly regarded by the king because of his work ethic and abilities, but this
king did not like how this soldier acted in his private time. So, he warned him and
exhorted him continually to repent and turn to the Lord, before it was too
late.
Imagine how different our nation would be, if our
government leaders cared for the souls of their civil and military servicemen,
more than they cared about their own advancement, wealth and privilege? Imagine
the blessing this would bring on the nation. It was a culture like this that
caused the western nations to advance beyond the rest of the world. China was
more advanced militarily and in knowledge at this point in history. But it didn’t
have godly kings like this, that were turning small backwater kingdoms at the edge
of the civilized world, into the foundations for great societies.
You have to be a modern supremacist to think that we have
advanced in every way, we truly have not.
List of References
[1] The
Venerable Bede. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (pp. 158-159).
Neeland Media LLC. Kindle Edition.
No comments:
Post a Comment