Excerpts from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
Many of the older classic books have a spiritual lesson taught within their pages. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, is one of those. The adventures of Robinson, who was ship-wrecked in the mid 1600’s, told of his life and how he survived much of the time alone on a deserted island.
Many rewrites of the book and movies leave out the most important theme of the movie — that he was disobedient to God and running from His will. Here are excerpts of what the character finally learned about himself:
“Why has God done this to me? What have I done to be thus used? My conscience presently checked me in that inquiry, as if I had blasphemed, and me thought it spoke to me like a voice: ‘Wretch! dost THOU ask what thou hast done? Look back upon a dreadful misspent life, and ask thyself what thou hast NOT done? Ask, why is it that thou wert not long ago destroyed? Why wert thou not drowned in Yarmouth Roads; killed in the fight when the ship was taken by the Sallee man-of-war; devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of Africa; or drowned HERE, when all the crew perished but thyself? Dost THOU ask, what have I done?’ I was struck dumb with these reflections, as one astonished, and had not a word to say – no, not to answer to myself, but rose up pensive and sad, … my thoughts were sadly disturbed, and I had no inclination to sleep …
“… and as the few books I had saved lay there too, I took out one of the Bibles which I mentioned before, and which to this time I had not found leisure or inclination to look into. I say, I took it out, …
“… having opened the book casually, the first words that occurred to me were these, ‘Call on Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.’ These words were very apt to my case, and made some impression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them, though not so much as they did afterwards; ….
“… that I began to say, as the children of Israel did when they were promised flesh to eat, ‘Can God spread a table in the wilderness?’ so I began to say, ‘Can God Himself deliver me from this place?’ And as it was not for many years that any hopes appeared, this prevailed very often upon my thoughts; but, however, the words made a great impression upon me, and I mused upon them very often …
“… But before I lay down, I did what I never had done in all my life – I kneeled down, and prayed to God to fulfil the promise to me, that if I called upon Him in the day of trouble, He would deliver me. After my broken and imperfect prayer …
“JULY 4. – In the morning I took the Bible; and beginning at the New Testament, I began seriously to read it, and imposed upon myself to read a while every morning and every night; not tying myself to the number of chapters, but long as my thoughts should engage me. It was not long after I set seriously to this work till I found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life. The impression of my dream revived; and the words, ‘All these things have not brought thee to repentance,’ ran seriously through my thoughts. I was earnestly begging of God to give me repentance, when it happened providentially, the very day, that, reading the Scripture, I came to these words: ‘He is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and to give remission.’ I threw down the book; and with my heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud, ‘Jesus, thou son of David! Jesus, thou exalted Prince and Saviour! give me repentance!’ This was the first time I could say, in the true sense of the words, that I prayed in all my life; for now I prayed with a sense of my condition, and a true Scripture view of hope, founded on the encouragement of the Word of God; and from this time, I may say, I began to hope that God would hear me.
“Now I began to construe the words mentioned above,‘Call on Me, and I will deliver thee,’ in a different sense from what I had ever done before; for then I had no notion of anything being called DELIVERANCE, but my being delivered from the captivity I was in; … But now I learned to take it in another sense: now I looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort. … And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction….
“… I never had once the words ‘Thank God!’ so much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor in the greatest distress had I so much as a thought to pray to Him, or so much as to say, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me!’ no, nor to mention the name of God, unless it was to swear by, and blaspheme it. I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as I have already observed, on account of my wicked and hardened life past; and when I looked about me, and considered what particular providences had attended me since my coming into this place, and how God had dealt bountifully with me – had not only punished me less than my iniquity had deserved, but had so plentifully provided for me – this gave me great hopes that my repentance was accepted, and that God had yet mercy in store for me.”
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13
One more thing and I promise I’ll shut up for the day! Our economy would not be in the situation it is today if the 70 plus million babies since Roe v Wade were not aborted! They would have been my age today and would have been paying taxes for at least 25 years now, putting money into the economy!
Homosexuals are hurting the economy as well because they can’t have children naturally, and no children means no taxes being paid into the economy!
Our government (and Supreme Court) needs to see the long term affects before they pass liberal laws!
One more thing Bro. Bill: People like Hillary Clinton talk all the time about “Women’s Health” to justify killing a baby! What they don’t realize is this is not 1850 anymore where women died giving birth or the woman’s health was in danger!
This is 2016 and with advancement in medicine, RARELY is the woman or baby in danger! Besides, there is thousands of women out there that can’t have children and would love to adopt a baby – with all expenses paid! Also, even if a woman’s life was in danger with a pregnancy, she should give her life for her child! no questions asked!
I’ve heard Christians say, “I’m prolife, except in the case of incest or rape” – my reply is “Then you’re not prolife! Prolife means you are 100% for that child no matter how it is conceived!
Keep up the good work!
Did you men hear that poor woman condoning abortion all the way to the end of pregnancy?. I tell you noone is safe around that kind of thinking. If I were old or infirm, I would fear the day that they decided that I did not deserve the protection of my government because I had no voice. In her mind, we have worked way too hard to get where we are at to go back now….that is a quote. It is breathtaking …the depth of that deception.
The wickedness we are left to choose from is unspeakable, but at least one party is saying they will stand for at least some conservative Christian values.
Brothers and Sisters, I ran across this:
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in
St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning
The last Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Obama: 19 Romney: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 Romney: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million Romney: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Obama: 13.2 Romney: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory
Romney won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.
Turnout rates in our conservative districts are typically low compared to urban areas where people may be bussed, etc… to come vote and may be available during the day to vote, where it is hard for many of us.
We have one more chance….if we will just show up. I agree with Bro Doug…please please please..vote.
And I agree, this was a wonderful piece of work from Robinson Crusoe.
By the way, great devotion!
I’d like to plead with your readers one more time to PLEASE vote! Our country has the opportunity to get rid of the WORST president in U.S history, but if we’re not careful we’ll put in office another big government, lying, gun controlling, abortion up to the day of birth, non- religious freedom liberal for another 4-8 more years!
I personally believe this election will make or break our country! I believe people show how much they truly love the Lord when they vote, AND when they vote for the right person!
… and if you vote third party, mathematically your vote will help Hillary in our two party system. There has never, except for our very early presidents, been any truly godly candidates in office. This year is certainly no exception. However, Hillary is far more unqualified, deceitful anti-American, ANTI-CHRISTIAN than even the current administration. If she gets in, I fear Christianity will be on the chopping block! She has already indicated that Christians must change their faith. So please vote and do not waste your vote on a candidate that cannot possibly win.