Beech Tree News Network

 What did the ancients have to tell us?  "Not much", some would say, "we've had too much progress since their time:  the computer, internet, silicon chip, fly swatter, electric toothbrush...and all that."
   Really?  The "Preacher" in Ecclesiastes(Solomon) tells us there is nothing new under the sun---had he been out in it too long?  Naw.  He went on to say,"It has all been done before, or said before. (Ecc.1:9).
   Some of the ancients aren't as well-known as men like Socrates and Plato, however they too are very much noteworthy.  One of these was Epictetus, a Greek, born in the middle of the first century A.D.  His early history is somewhat unknown, until we find him in Rome about 90A.D. when he was a slave of a fellow named Epaphoroditus.  It is said that he was lame, due to torture inflicted by his master.  After his emancipation he became a philosopher and teacher in Rome.  He later went to Nicopolis in Greece.
   We do know he was a Godly man:  "Great is God---when digging or plowing or eating or breathing, we should sing hymns to God.", he said.  In his GOLDEN SAYINGS OF EPICTETUS he had some very practical and down-to-earth advice on living and getting by:
----"If thou wouldst make progress, be content to seem foolish and void of understanding."  Abe Lincoln was a master at this we're told.  He would pretend he knew very little or nothing about a particular situation.  Then he would question and probe the minds of his associates and invariably they would get carried away and go to far; say too much, Abe gleaned a lot of knowledge this way.
   I once heard an astute businessman say about the the same thing:  "Be self-effacing, don't go 'round blowing your head about how successful you are.  Keep quiet.  You will learn more."
---Epictetus often quoted his mentors..."How true is the saying of Cleanthes, that though the words of philosophy may run counter to the opinions of the world, yet they have reason on their side."
  He is saying, don't believe everything you hear or see on TV news, or everything politicians tell you.  Think for yourselves.  God said, "There is a way that seemeth right unto man (but it just aint' so.)."
   I hope and pray you don't think newsmen are always truthful.  The first year President George Bush(the elder) was in office he and Barbara went to Poland to help Leck Walesa celebrate his election as president of Poland.  At the shipyard where he once worked, Walesa spoke to a crowd of over 25,000.  President Bush and his wife were standing next to Walesa as he spoke and next to them them stood ABC newsman, Peter Jennings.  Jennings saw the huge crowd, yet he began his newscast that night asking, "Why has President Bush had such disappointing crowds?"  What a boldface lie.
   Someone said if you want to see a nation at worship, go to a sports event.  Epictetus commented on this:  "Seek no greater reward for a man than doing what is right and just.  Yet at the Great Games you look for nothing else; there the victor's crown you deemed enough.  Seems it to you a small thing and worthless to be a good man..."
   Epictetus on outward show:  "If you really want to know how unctuous you are, or if you are bent on a little private discipline, wait until your choking with heat some day, then take a mouthful of cold water and spit it out again and tell no man."  In somewhat the same vein, he went on to say,  "If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit.  For it is impossible for a man to learn when he has a conceit that he already knows."
   Here was a man for all seasons, as it were.  Epictetus was also versed in the field of agriculture.  As a former slave he had probably harvested crops of various kinds.  This he said:  "The fruit must slowly grow before it reaches maturity.  If it produces the ear before the jointed stalk appears, it is imperfect.  Thou has blossomed too soon."
   Both of my grandfathers were philosophers...in the sense of formation of ideas and opinions form observation, ability, wisdom, judgement, and so on.  Both had little formal education, but both had worked as miners and farmers.  Many men who work with their hands develop uncanny wisdom and common sense.  They were not loud, or given to idle talk, yet they had a sense of humor.  As a lad it was good fortune to spend a lot of time with them.  They were treasure-troves of information and entertainment---relating times and stories of their past.  I would that every child had this same blessing growing up.  One of my grandfathers was born in 1863; the other in 1873 and they each lived to up in their eighties.  They learned virtually nothing from books, but much from the book of the world.

                                                                                                                                                     Kindest Regards....