James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836)
On this day in 1751, James Madison, drafter of the Constitution, recorder of the Constitutional Convention, author of the Federalist Papers and fourth president of the United States, is born on a plantation in Virginia.
He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) where he completed a four-year course in two years. He helped found the American Whig Society in 1769, the second literary and debate society at Princeton (and the world), to rival the previously established Cliosophic Society.
In 1776 he began to serve a three-year term in the Virginia state legislature, and while there became acquainted with Thomas Jefferson. With Jefferson he assisted with the drafting of the Virginia Declaration of Religious Freedom. Madison served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolutionary War. In the late 1780’s, he helped organize the Constitutional Convention, which produced a new constitution to supplant the ineffective Articles of Confederation. Madison opposed the centralization of power sought by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during Washington’s presidency. To oppose Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party, which became one of the nation’s two first major political parties alongside Hamilton’s Federalist Party. After Jefferson won the 1800 presidential election, Madison served as Jefferson’s Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809. In this role, Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nation’s size.
Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election, and he won re-election in 1812. Historians have generally ranked Madison as an above-average president. He said: If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
It may be a stretch, but you could almost call Madison a modern-day Moses. They both lead their people out of the bonds of tyranny, and helped set up a free nation. They both wrote laws to help their people, but that is where the similarities end. Although he may have been guided by God, Madison wrote the laws of man, while Moses wrote the laws of God. His were dictations from God Himself, and he added nothing of himself to the Ten Commandants and the laws of God.
When God put Adam in the Garden of Eden, He made a law: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” God made a price of breaking the law, and it was death. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Our forefathers had the good sense to model the laws of this country after the laws of God so we can live together in peace and respect each other’s rights. If the law of the land is broken, a penalty is incurred. The penalty of breaking God’s law is everlasting death. Here is the good news, we have a counselor who will plead our case and even pay our penalty of death, Jesus Christ. We need to accept Him as our payment for our lawlessness, by asking Him to be our personal Saviour. Just as God gave Adam the free will to eat the fruit, He also gave us the free will to accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour from death. I have made my choice, have you?
As parents we don’t do our children any favors by not making them accountable for their actions. People, especially children, live better with boundaries, or laws if you will. They will be forced to live in the real world when they leave your care. Are you hindering them, or helping them understand there are laws we all have to live by, or suffer the consequences. The fifth commandment is: Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Obedience is a way of honoring your parents, and if you don’t demand obedience, you are encouraging their breaking God’s laws.
We as authors we love to make lawlessness romantic. Outrunning the law, or getting away with something less than honorable. We are not doing anyone any favors by promoting this kind of behavior. Let’s make our heroes someone we can look up to and be role models, otherwise, the price is too high!
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
John 1:17
And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Luke 16:17
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Romans 7:12
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
James 2:10
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
Romans 3:23-24
For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
Isaiah 33:22