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I ran across this story by accident while I was looking for something else. Ronald Reagan told it in one of his most famous speeches. I’ve never heard it before, and you probably haven’t either. It’s a fascinating story and I have to share it with you.

A stranger showed up at Independence Hall and persuaded the Founding Fathers to sign the Declaration of Independence. And, well, I’ll let you read the rest of the story for yourself in the words of President Reagan:

“Some years ago a writer, who happened to be an avid student of history, told me a story about that day in the little hall in Philadelphia where honorable men, hard-pressed by a King who was flouting the very law they were willing to obey, debated whether they should take the fateful step of declaring their independence from that king. I was told by this man that the story could be found in the writings of Jefferson. I confess, I never researched or made an effort to verify it. Perhaps it is only legend.

But story, or legend, he described the atmosphere, the strain, the debate, and that as men for the first time faced the consequences of such an irretrievable act, the walls resounded with the dread word of treason and its price — the gallows and the headman’s axe. As the day wore on the issue hung in the balance, and then, according to the story, a man rose in the small gallery.

He was not a young man and was obviously calling on all the energy he could muster. Citing the grievances that had brought them to this moment he said, “Sign that parchment. They may turn every tree into a gallows, every home into a grave and yet the words of that parchment can never die. For the mechanic in his workshop, they will be words of hope, to the slave in the mines — freedom.”

And he added, “If my hands were freezing in death, I would sign that parchment with my last ounce of strength. Sign, sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, sign even if the hall is ringing with the sound of headman’s axe, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the bible of the rights of man forever. And then it is said he fell back exhausted.

But 56 delegates, swept by his eloquence, signed the Declaration of Independence, a document destined to be as immortal as any work of man can be. And according to the story, when they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he could not be found nor were there any who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.”

The most amazing thing about this that the man appeared and disappeared inside a locked room. What is equally amazing is that nobody knew who he was. Who was this mysterious visitor? And, did this really happen?

I think that it did. This was one of the most important meetings in the history of the world; and God had a stake in the outcome. I think that he sent a angel from heaven to strengthen and encourage those men. The word “angel” literally means messenger. They received a message from God and they acted on it.

The Bible tells us, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2 NIV)

This is an excerpt from Ronald Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill speech,” given on January 25,1974.

                          

Dr. Benjamin Rush was in attendance when the United States was born. He was the youngest man to sign the Declaration of Independence and he attended the troops at Valley Forge. He graduated from Princeton in 1760, and studied medicine in London and Paris.

He was a prominent physician and medical school professor in Philadelphia. He was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. He helped Abigail Adams set up one of the first schools for women in America. He wanted to set up free public schools for children of both sexes, and what do you suppose he wanted taught in those schools?

I’ll let him tell you, in his own words:

“Let the children who are sent to these schools be taught to read and write and above all, let both sexes be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education.” Letters of Benjamin Rush, “To the citizens of Philadelphia: A Plan for Free Schools,” March 28,1787

“By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects….It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published….All systems of religion, morals, and government not founded upon it (the Bible) must perish, and how consoling the thought, it will not only survive the wreck of these systems but the world itself. ‘The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.’ (Matthew 1:18)” Letters of Benjamin Rush, “To John Adams,” January 23, 1807