Stephen McDowell explores the hand of God in America's history

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Steven McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Last week I began to look at five most influential early Americans. As I'd said some years ago, someone asked me to give a talk on the five most influential early Americans. And of course to pick five would be very difficult to do. You could certainly argue about a number of these, who should be in the top five. but what I did and what I began to cover is five people from different time periods, from colonization to the, time of the American Revolution and constitution into the 19th century. Different individuals from different times, but also who contributed in different spheres of life. So last week we looked at William Penn. Penn was instrumental in the founding of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but he not only was a leader in the area of, you know, of colonizing a state, but he wrote the laws, he was involved in clause of religious liberty, standing up for Quakers and others who were persecuted for the sake of God's word. He had impact in areas of judicial matters and the freedom of juries to give their verdict and many other areas, of life. And this week I want to look at a man from a different century, a different time, after America became a nation and we were birthed as a land of liberty, great freedom and incorporated principles, free market principles that brought about great flourishing within our nation. And one individual who had a tremendous impact in, the life of the nation at large, as we will see, but in the area of invention and productivity and business, was a gentleman by the name of Cyrus Hall McCormick. As I mentioned last week, each of these five people I've touched on in previous podcasts, some in depth, some I might have just, mentioned in passing. I know we explored Cyrus McCormick and the concept context of America's providential history and looked a little bit at him. so if you want to learn more about him, you can look at past podcast where I, explored the life and influence of Cyrus Hall McCormick. Now, Cyrus Hall McCormick was the inventor of the Reaper. A reaper is a machine that harvests grain in the field. And we might call McCormick a reaper in the kingdom of God because McCormick used his God given talents and fulfilled his kingdom purpose. Last week I looked at Jesus's parable of the talents or the minas, and how he gave each of his servants a talent, said, do business with this until I Return. And we discussed how part of the meaning of this is we're to take all of our talents, skills and abilities, develop them, put them to use in order to be productive, in order to be fruitful, in order to add value to God's creation. And Cyrus McCormick was certainly a man who, who used his God given talents and impacted not just America, but he's impacted the world now, like all of those that God uses in whatever fashion, men that we might read about in history and so many others that we don't know their names, but all of us that are called to be in God's kingdom, and that he's given us a purpose, there's a calling we each have that there's that important time frame of preparation. Preparation. You know, God providentially prepares us so that we might accomplish the plan that he has for our life. And that preparation is in all spheres, all areas of life. And certainly Cyrus McCormick had a providential preparation. 1. His birth in America at the given time in history was providential. He was born in 1809, just one generation after we were birthed as a free nation that, the most free, just, prosperous nation that the world has ever seen. Not perfect, as we've explored in past, podcasts. But with the birth of America, a new era of liberty came to mankind. part of that liberty was expressed in the fact that we can get an idea to create, well, to be productive, implement that idea and provide needed goods or services to our fellow man to be a blessing to them, and in return we will be, blessed as well. And so McCormick could not have come forth at any other nation in history at the time that he was born. Because there's no other nations that had the amount of freedom, civil freedom, religious freedom, economic freedom, political freedom that existed in the United States. And we had ideas that encouraged productivity and protected private property rights. We had, patent laws that recognized the product of a man's brain as just as much his property as the product of his hands. And so this encouraged those to invent new and better machines that would, multiply man's ability to be productive. And so when he was born in America, but also where he is born, he was born in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. his parents were farmers. And so this environment of growing up on the farm certainly contributed to his accomplishments. It wasn't just the farming, but the Christian character of his parents and grandparents, instilled in McCormick the character, the worldview he needed, to accomplish his mission in life. Now, as I say McCormick grew up on a farm and his farm would plant grain. And when the grain became ripened in the fall, it was all hands on deck that everybody in the household had to turn out to be involved in the harvest because there's just a certain, time frame, if it was available to get the harvest in, are the crops, may well rot in the feet in the field. And so McCormick had experienced the back breaking work of 16 plus hours of day of labor during the time of the harvest. And it wasn't just McCormick, but all farmers who harvested grain had dealt with this backbreaking work, for centuries and centuries. And so for centuries and centuries, the typical way to bring in the harvest was to use a sickle or a scythe. These are basically a knife, a blade, curved blade, that enabled them to cut the grain and the harvest. And this was, as I say, very extreme back breaking work. And I, would imagine McCormick as well as many other people might have thought, there's got to be an easier way to do this. And so there are. Many people had tried to invent a machine that would assist man in bringing in the harvest. Many tried, none succeeded. Until Cyrus McCormick. In fact, Cyrus's father had tried to invent such a machine as well. And Cyrus as a young boy was often in his father's workshop and observed his attempt to produce a machine that would cut and handle grain in the field. Now, McCormick's farm is actually still there today in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. You can go and see it. The workshop where his father labored and where McCormick was finally successful is there as well, that you can go and see that. So his father never succeeded, as was the case for so many others who had tried to invent this machine. But his son did. And in his, in his 20s, as a young man, he actually invented a successful machine that would cut and handle the grain in the field. And he gave his first test of this reaper in July of 1831. Public test. He cut six acres of oats in an afternoon that would have been the work of 6 to 24 men if they were cutting it, by hand. And so this was quite an accomplishment, quite a feat for those people who turned out to watch what this young man had done that they looked on and began to marvel. This is quite an accomplishment that this young man has done. By the way, if you do visit McCormick's workshop today in the Shenandoah Valley, that there is a replica of his first reaper that he built, that he tested there in 1830, one, as you can see, it's a very simple machine, but it had six working parts necessary to first cut the grain. Then it had a paddle that pushed the grain on a platform and. And then the farmer would, walk beside it and rake off the grain, where it was then bundled by hand to be processed. And so many people began to praise. McCormick said, this is quite an invention that you have done. But no praise was more important than the words of his father, who said, it makes me feel proud to have a son do what I could not do.

Cyrus McCormick invented a machine that would transform the world

Now, here we see the biblical concept of generational transfer. This is a very important idea in the Bible. God never deals with one generation. He always deals with generations. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And part of our mission as we are alive today is to take all that's been given us, all the advancements in liberty and truth and freedom and ideas and abilities, and pass them on to the next generation to give unto them. Okay, you're going to start at a higher point than I did, which is going to enable you to increase your ability to be productive, increase your concepts of truth and liberty, and incorporate them within society so that there would be flourishing and liberty and blessing. So generational transfer was taking place here because McCormick could never have accomplished what he did without his providential upbringing, without the example of his parents and grandparents, and specifically without, seeing his father work to invent a machine. And so McCormick had invented a machine, a reaper, that would transform the world, but nobody knew about it. And so he then set about building a business to make and sell reapers. And that work was much more difficult, took much greater, length of time than the invention in itself did. But the way that he went about building his business of making and selling reapers, he did it in a biblical manner and produced biblical fruit. One historian said of Cyrus McCormick, he did more than any other member of the human race to abolish the famine of the cities and the drudgery of the farm, to feed the hungry and straighten the bent backs of the world. See, through his invention, he did more than any other man that's walked on the earth besides Christ, who is more than a man, to elevate men out of poverty. And he didn't do it like the statist, man has done. He would use the status man, Socialist communists and others who maybe profess something that sounds good. Everybody needs to have equal amounts. Everybody has a right to this and to that and the other. And they think it's the job of Civil government. To use the force of civil government, in essence, hold a gun to your head. Say we'll take from the productive and we will give to the unproductive. Just be so everybody can have the same thing. And after all, doesn't the Bible teach we're to help the poor? And of course we are to help the poor, but it's to be done voluntarily. And it's not the role of civil government to assist the poor at all. And you don't use force to take from the productive and give to the unproductive, as so many socialists would statist communists would want to do. They claim they want to do that, but they really end up just, taking everything themselves and throwing out a few crumbs to the people. But he did it by giving McCormick abolished the famine of the cities by giving the common farmer a tool that would make him 20, 30 times more productive. And that increased productivity brought great blessing to him personally. But it also brought a great increase in the food supply m hence ending famine. And it then enabled people to devote themselves to other spheres of life to bring advancements, there. And so this, invention was extremely significant in the history of mankind. But nobody knew about it. And people are slow to make changes because McCormick began to travel around and, let farmers know of his invention and say, look, I have a tool that is available to you that I will make this reaper for you and you can use it and it's going to increase your productivity, you know, 20 fold. But nobody would buy one. Said, well, you know, who do you think you are? We've been cutting grain this way for hundreds and hundreds, centuries and centuries, and we're not going to do it any different now. But McCormick believed God had given him this invention and called him to promote the invention because he saw the great value that it would be to the common farmer who he wanted to bless. And so he grabbed hold of this, having a vision for its importance. So much so, as one historian wrote, his whole soul was wrapped up in his reaper. He was wrapped up in it because he saw this. It will be of great blessing and benefit to mankind. Now it also came about as he contemplated the significance of this and how everybody, all farmers in the world would want one of these things. He thought, perhaps I may make a million dollars from the reaper. Because he saw that's not what motivated him. The money motivated by being a blessing, but the reward would come to all. But this thought of making million dollars was enormous. It was like a dream dwelling in the clouds. It Was something remote, unattainable, so exalted, so visionary. In fact, that's all it was. Long time. Because he not only didn't make a million dollars, he almost went bankrupt. So he decided, no one's buying his reaper. So he said, well, I'm going to just start making them anyway, so I'll have them on hand. When people began to see the value. So he mortgaged his farm that he received his inheritance and began to make reapers. And so his possession of his farm, his property, was threatened by his inability to sell any of these reapers. But he continued on. He continued to promote the repo, traveling around, telling people how valuable it was. At the same time, he started to make some reapers in his little factory where he invented it in the first place. But still, it seemed like nobody wanted to do it. But he didn't give up. So how long do you think it took him to sell his first reaper? Well, it took nine years. Nine years. Here. This man invented a machine that would bring blessing to all mankind all over the world. Blessing to the farmer, those who used it, blessing to general populace because they'd have more food and cheaper food. But nobody wanted to buy it. Thankfully, because of his tenacity, he didn't give up. Finally, someone bought it. In fact, one historian wrote, Cyrus McCormick hung to his reaper as Jon Knox had to his bible, because he saw, this is something God has given me. This will be a blessing to mankind. I'm not giving up. God has given this, to me. He was so identified with his invention that he would walk around, traveling to villages and towns promoting, the sell of his reaper that no one would buy for nine years. And when he walked into town that he had been there before, people would look and say, well, there comes the reaper, man. But finally, farmers began to buy it. And once they did, they began to testify what a blessing that it was, which the word spread. Other people began to buy reapers as well, and he launched off on the beginning of his business. Now, when he got to the point where many, many people were wanting to purchase a reaper, he recognized, I need to expand my, capacity to make reapers. And it wasn't going to be in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. That was going to be the best place to do this, because the Shenandoah valley is hilly. It's not the best place to plant lots of grain. So he recognized, the place I need to go is out to the west. And the west at that time is what we call the middle part of the US Today. Illinois was certainly in the middle of that, because, Illinois is a great place to grow grain because it's mostly flat, everywhere. And so he said, that's where I'm going to move. So he moved and he built a factory in what was then a little small mud town which became Chicago. And really Chicago grew as McCormick's, business grew. And McCormick's business helped Chicago to grow. And it was a great place for him to produce these reapers, to begin to sell them to the many farmers planting grain throughout what was in the western part of the United States. And so as he set about to build his business, he created a new species of commercial organization. He implemented policies of business that were new, never seen before, that successful businesses today will apply. And this new species of commercial organization were based upon biblical ideas. He implemented biblical principles in his business, which produced great success.

One thing McCormick did in his business is he provided a written guarantee

Now there's many unique business ideas that McCormick incorporated. We don't have time to explore these in detail. And future podcasts, I'm actually going to cover some biblical principles of economics and business and may look at much more detail of how each of these concepts are biblical. But one thing McCormick did in his business is he provided a written guarantee. So he wrote down and said, if my machine, if my reaper does not produce in the way that I say it does, if it doesn't do what I say it will, then you can bring it back to me and I'll give your money back. It's a guarantee. Now, just about every successful store does this today. They will take back something that doesn't work or broke. In fact, if you didn't even like it, so many will take them back. Then nobody did that. He implemented a new policy, a written guarantee. Second thing he did is that his reaper sold at a known price. Up until this time, it was typical to kind of argue over prices. The, seller would want to try to get the highest price, the buyer the lowest price, and they would haggle over this and, finally come to a mutual agreement. But, but McCormick said, I want to treat everybody equally. And so I want every farmer to know that they all are paying the same price. So he wrote it on here. This is what it costs, and it's the same for everybody. Third thing that was part of his business structure is that he had the customer's goodwill in mind. Most important to him was the customer. Of course, that was, the farmer producing this machine. And whatever he did, he wanted to bless the farmer. He wanted the farmer to benefit from this machine because he knew it'd be A benefit to many, many, many people included himself and the farmer and so many others. And so that was his foremost concern. It wasn't motivation by, I want to make more money. It is motivation. I want to bless, the customer. And so in doing that, he produced the most excellent product that there could be. And I'm going to. That's why he gave a written guarantee. And he said, I guarantee my product. And he, he wanted the farmer to know, I'm going to, I'm building the best possible machine I can, which will be the greatest blessing to you. And another way that he showed the customers goodwill is through the concept of setting up, and of having spare parts for the reapers that he made. Now, in order to have spare parts, that is, if part of someone's reaper broke, he didn't want them to have to buy a whole new reaper. He wanted just them to be able to buy the part that broke, so they don't, which would be much less expensive. But in order to have spare parts, every reaper had to be made exactly the same. And so he's really implemented the concept of an assembly line. So many things that had been built before this, they were all made unique and special one at a time. And they might have slightly different sizes of different things. So spare parts wouldn't work if that were the case. But McCormick said, I'm going to make every reaper exactly the same. I'm going to do it through an assembly line is much more efficient too, because you'd have, instead of just a handful of people, maybe building from the ground up, you'd have hundreds of people that had one little part to play and the, the, production of these McCormick reapers. So everyone was made the same. It could be made a lot more rapidly. They would be less expensive to make, and you could have spare parts if anything broke, to fix them. After McCormick, built this first successful reaper and began to sell the reapers, of course, not only did the farmers learn about it, want to buy it, but many other people said, hey, I'm going to cash in on this new invention. I'm going to make a reaper myself. And so many people, there were patent laws which these patent laws protected, you know, this invention of McCormick. And as I say, there are six operating parts of this reaper that were essential for it to work. But people began to really copy what he had done, making a little different here and there, saying, well, it's not violating the patent laws. And they began to make these and sell them in competition with McCormick. Now, McCormick certainly didn't mind competition. That's part of making better and cheaper products when you compete with others. But he continued to experiment and build and fix and make his reapers better and more efficient. And he believed I, make the best reaper, that there is out there. And as a way for farmers to see this, he set up the field test. And so what he would do, he would invite. This would be later on invited the different manufacturers who made reapers to bring their machines to a certain place, certain field at a certain day. Invited all the farmers to come and watch them compete against one another. Because he wanted the farmers to see them at work in the field so they could judge for themselves which one worked the best. And so that was a unique business idea that McCormick implemented, as well, the field test. Then another thing he did in his business that helped bring increase is that as he began to produce the reapers in his factory in Chicago, he didn't want all the farmers to have to travel all the way to Chicago, from all of various states to purchase the reapers, way too far. So he set up regional warehouses all around the state, all around different states. Later on expanded to different nations. And he, hired really as partners, field representatives. These field representatives were more than just employees, but they were partners with him who managed these regional warehouses. And these field representatives would benefit more when they sold more. In other words, I'll sell more reapers, I get more money. And this was a great motive to these field representatives to be more productive. Because this is part of the, It's a biblical idea of economics. It's part of the nature of how God created man. that you should benefit from the fruit of your labor, as the Apostle Paul writes. And if you labor harder, you ought to benefit more. Because this, encourages more labor which encourages, produces more productivity. And so this he incorporated into his business structure. And so many, many people benefited. The regional field representatives benefited. They prospered. The farmers prospered. Many farmers traced their beginning prosperity to getting a reaper. And by the way, McCormick so much wanted the farmers to get a reaper that he would extend them credit, say, okay, you can take the machine, you can use it. And from the increased yield in that you have, you can pay for the machine, after the crop comes in. And so they benefited as well as the nation at large because the price of grain and food products declined, the abundance of it grew. And everyone benefited and was blessed because of McCormick's not only his invention of the machine, but in these unique business ideas that he incorporated in making and selling reapers. And so McCormick exemplified many biblical principles of business and work in his life. I'll just mention a few. I won't really have to take time to explain. I'll do this in future podcasts. But one of those principles is work is a holy calling and therefore we should love it and work hard. See, work is a concept God created. God worked six days, he worked the seventh, he rested, created man in his image, gave him a, commission, go and work. You know, take dominion over the earth. So work is a vital part of life. So we should follow, imitate our Creator and work and, love it and work hard.

Business is a means of serving and blessing others, according to biblical principles

Jesus did. He said, I am working because I see my father working. 2. Business is a means of serving and blessing others. We touched on this. But see, this is one reason God created the concept of business. Yes, it's to produce a needed good or service, but when you do that, a good service at a, at a good price, this is a blessing to others. This is a practical way that you can serve and show that you love your fellow man is by producing things that they need just to sustain their lives, but then even to live a more comfortable life. And so a good business will always look to serve others. I want to be a blessing to my customers and not try to steal or cheat from them or, get their money and selling them a cheap product. Not at all. Third biblical principle of business is that business must be built on integrity and Godly principles. Now, McCormick certainly exemplified this. He was honest man, a man of integrity, a man who worked hard. Many people testified, to this. By the way, I've written a little booklet on, McCormick, Cyrus McCormick and biblical principles of Business. You can get that at our website, providencefoundation.com and read much more about the story of this, this, kingdom man, Cyrus Hall McCormick. And a fourth principle, business growth, comes from encouraging individual initiative and seeing that all involved benefit from the fruit of their labor. So we were discussing that. That's what he did. McCormick did through setting up regional warehouses run by field representatives. And so in our business, we need to look for ways that will encourage individual initiative. Let people get an idea to implement the idea and benefit from the, from the fruit of it. But if it doesn't work, learn from, failure, which is a way we learn as well. but set it up in a way that everyone will benefit from the fruit of their labor. Which, by the way, socialist economic concepts don't do this. Socialism, communism, even democratic socialism, incorporate ideas that hinder individual initiative. They hinder people Benefiting from the fruit of their labor, therefore they produce less. And this is easy to see. Just go into the grocery stores in Cuba, see what's in there. You could do the same in Venezuela under the Chavez and Maduro. Hopefully this is changing now with more biblical ideas being able to be implemented. And then a fifth biblical principle of business exemplified in Cyrus's life is incorporating the family into your business is a means of building wealth generationally. And so we need to look first to those in our family. God has given us. How can I bring you into this business? God has given me. And McCormick did that. He, he had his children, grandchildren take part in the growth of his business. over time McCormick made reapers and over time he made new and better reapers. And after a while he invented I think a self binding reaper. So not only is this new machine not only cut grain, but it bundled the grain, which saved a whole lot more time. I think it was Cyrus grandson who in the early 1900s merged with some other farm making, manufacturers to form the International Harvester Company. So the seed of that came from McCormick's work. But he incorporated his family into the business because in a biblical society, each succeeding generation should be, be wealthier than the one before. Wealth being not just material assets but also spiritual assets. Wealth is having access to the truth and character of God that when we have access to that, the insight of God, we can be more productive. So in other words, when we pass on an inheritance to our children, we're not just passing on material riches, we want to pass on wealth. We want to pass on the ideas and character and ability to create and innovate and other things. That's part of the generational transfer that needs to take place. And when we incorporate our family into that, we can then pass on our wealth generationally. So those are just some biblical principles of business and work. Cyrus exemplified general principles and of course I mentioned some unique specific business ideas that we can be seeing. So Cyrus had a vision of business as a means of advancing God's kingdom and purposes. His life work was the abolition of famine. His life work was to produce a good and service to his fellow man that enabled him to be more productive. And that's because he had a biblical view of business and work. He understood why God calls men to work and the fruit of what God wants us to do. One historian wrote McCormick Speaking of McCormick, he instructed the wheat eating races how to increase the seven small loaves so that the multitude should be fed. He picked up the task of feeding the hungry masses, the Christly task that had lain unfulfilled for 18 centuries and led the way into organizing it into a system of international reciprocity. So McCormick did what the Bible Jesus told us to be concerned for the poor, but he did it in a biblical manner. He did it by giving the common man a tool to be much, much m more productive for themselves, not by using the force of government to take from the productive and give to the unproductive. See, to McCormick, his work was his calling, through which he fulfilled his divine mission and manifested God's kingdom on the earth. The rise of America and the rise of McCormick's business go hand in hand. It was his invention. And there's many other inventions that were coming forth by the way at this time, which we've discussed that in previous podcasts because of the environment of liberty that existed in the United States and the ability to benefit from the fruit of your labor encouraged inventiveness like McCormick's. And so with the increase of machines like McCormick's, the whole nation rose, became more prosperous, more inventive, more fruitful. The invention of the reaper, as one historian wrote, was the right starting point for the upbuilding of a republic. It made all other progress possible by removing the fear of famine and the drudgery of farm labor. It enabled even the laborer of the harvest field to be free and intelligent because it gave him the power of 10 men. And with the rise of the reaper and the ability to produce large quantities of food at a cheaper price, it then gave men free time, free to pursue other inventions, other fields, other spheres, of life. Then that with those new inventions brought, increase in every area because the basic needs man have are obviously food. If you don't have food, enough food to eat, you're not going to live. And so this enabled that basic need to be met, which enabled people to then devote their time to other endeavors which help to increase even more the well being of, mankind. So this was an extremely important invention, the reaper and the business of making and selling, reapers. And so Cyrus Hall McCormick was certainly one of the most influential early Americans and one of the most influential, citizens of the world. and he was a Christian man, biblical man, as part of the church. He gave his life to the Lord. He met his wife in, in church, hearing her sing in church. And he demonstrated his faith throughout his life's work. So Cyrus McCormick, certainly one of the five most influential individuals in early America. Well, if you want to learn more Visit our website, providencefoundation.com you can find up my little booklet on Cyrus McCormick in our book, America's Providential History. We have some about him as well, that you can read. And you can listen to past podcasts where I explore, his life more and look for future podcasts when I began to explore biblical principles of economics and business. We'll talk in more detail about some of these things that I just, just touched on. So hope you can join us next week because we're going to look at, a third gentleman, one that I think is one of the most influential early Americans. Learn about his life and his contributions in another sphere of life. Well, thanks for joining us. Hope you have a good week, and hopefully hope to have you back with us next week. God bless you.

Five Most Influential Early Americans: 4. Cyrus Hall McCormick 

Chapters:

(00:00) Stephen McDowell explores the hand of God in America's history

(10:55) Cyrus McCormick invented a machine that would transform the world

(20:57) One thing McCormick did in his business is he provided a written guarantee

(30:03) Business is a means of serving and blessing others, according to biblical principle