Moravian
settlers in NC were the first Americans to officially celebrate the 4th of
July. But they weren’t partying in honor of military victory. They
were thanking God for peace. At the nation’s first official
Independence Day celebration, there were no fireworks, no sparklers, and no
rowdy parties. The parade was solemn, with reverent music and the
call-and-response singing of two choirs. Songs were sung in German. Those
marking the nation’s hard-won independence at that first celebration had not
participated in the long and bloody war, and they were not celebrating the
newly free nation’s victory over the British oppressors at Yorktown. They were
thanking God for peace. That subdued celebration was on July 4, 1783, in the
Moravian village of Salem, now part of the hyphenated city of Winston-Salem in
Piedmont North Carolina. Read the complete article at -- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/04/the-first-americans-to-observe-the-4th-were-moravian-pacifists.html
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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