Stories of America's Faith: John Muir
Genesis 1: 26-31
Stories of America’s Faith: John Muir
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Rev. Susan Cartmell
The Congregational Church of Needham
During July, we have been listening to the stories of men and women from American history whose faith has inspired our nation. Each week I have chosen people whose faith and spiritual strength inspired them to greatness. I have always known that our country was founded by the pilgrims, and many people came here propelled by enormous religious conviction, this summer I have gained a greater appreciation for all the ways that people of faith have influenced our country in each generation and at every turn. Through the faithful fortitude and spiritual conviction of men and women whose names are familiar and many whose paths will largely go unmarked, God has had a hand in our nation’s history. So many people who lived their beliefs out loud changed our nation by their faith. This series started on July 4 with the story of John Adams. Often overlooked among the founding fathers, President Adams was one of the prime intellectual architects of our democracy. He developed the concept of liberty and balance of power. He wrote the Massachusetts constitution which became the template for our federal constitution. Two weeks ago we looked at the life of Sojourner Truth. Born a slave, Sojourner Truth learned to pray while enduring 4 brutal masters as a child and young woman. Once emancipated, she had a spiritual awakening and went on to become a courageous advocate for abolition and popular speaker for women’s rights. Our series continued last week when we sang the hymns of Fanny Crosby, one of the most prolific hymn writers of all time. As an infant Fanny Crosby was blinded by bad medical advice and grew up memorizing the Bible and writing poetry. Undaunted by her disability, she was a tower of strength and faith all out of proportion to her situation. Refusing to become a victim, Fanny Crosby spread hope throughout churches in the 1800’s.
Today we hear about another 19th century hero - John Muir. Almost single-handedly, John Muir changed the way America saw its forests, and rivers, its wide open spaces and wilderness. In an era of rampant industrialization and exploitation of national resources, Muir convinced Americans that the lands of Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone were a national treasures that should be preserved and appreciated for generations. At a time when many people regarded this land as cheap empty acreage available for commercial use, John Muir changed the course of our history, and the way we think about our land.
Born in 1838 in Scotland, John Muir was the third of 8 children and the eldest boy in his family. His father- Rev. Daniel Muir was a stern Presbyterian minister who thought the Church of Scotland too lax. So he moved his family of 10 to Wisconsin to farm to join a strict religious community. His father insisted that John – then 9 - learn the Bible. John loved to play and run so he later wrote that he learned to recite by heart and by sore flesh – all the New Testament and most of the old.
Though John’s faith was less orthodox than his father’s, that early Biblical recitation filled his mind with religious language and stories. At 22 John Muir enrolled in the University of Wisconsin at Madison, paying his own way. It was there that he discovered botany. After the first class he wrote, “This fine lesson charmed me and sent me flying to the woods and meadows in wild enthusiasm.” In 1864 John went to Canada to explore and collect plants around Lake Huron.
Muir returned to work in Indianapolis as an industrial engineer manufacturing carriage parts. He applied his ingenuity and improved the machines and the factory’s production. But one day a tool slipped from his hand; the accident injured his eye and blinded him for 6 weeks. When he re-gained his sight, he acknowledged how terrifying it had been and came to believe God was using the experience to call him back to nature. He decided to journey on foot from Indiana to Florida, writing about his experience in A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf. Next he sailed to San Francisco and then on to Yosemite. Seeing this vast wilderness for the first time was a thrilling spiritual experience for Muir. He scrambled down steep cliffs to see the waterfalls, and whooped at the vistas. Discovering Yosemite was a conversion experience of John Muir. He wrote” We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver.” John Muir decided to live there for several years, reading Ralph Waldo Emerson, keeping a diary, and writing articles for Harper’s Weekly, Atlantic Monthly and Outlook.. He designed a water-powered mill to cut felled trees, and built his cabin over a creek so he could hear the water all the time. Emerson visited John Muir and offered him a position at Harvard. Muir declined saying, “I never for a moment considered giving up God’s big show for a mere professorship.”
An avid geologist, John Muir was one of the first people to realize that glaciers sculpted the Sierra Range. In his late 30’s his friends encouraged him to return to civilization. He moved to Oakland and married Louisa Strenzel – daughter of a prominent doctor and horticulturist. They had 2 daughters and John Muir managed the family fruit orchard – a vast business with 2700 acres. He improved production and made the orchard thrive, but after 7 years Muir got restless working on the farm. When he got sick his wife knew that this life was stifling him, so she sent him back to live in the woods. In 1892 John Muir founded the Sierra Club and served as president for 22 years until his death. What can we learn from the story of John Muir?
1. Nature is holy. John Muir thrived on the land. The plants and animals, seeds and cycles thrilled him as nothing else could. A brilliant man, he had the aptitude to be an inventor or professor or industrial tycoon. But again and again in his life he chose to be a prophet of the wild places. He came to feel that God kept calling him to worship in the temples of nature. He was a gentler soul than his father, and his faith was more contemplative, but he was just as driven to know God. He found God in the river current and the mountain view. For him God sailed on the wind boundless over creeds, and all kinds of civilizations saturating all life.
Living out of doors was a form of worship.
“No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite…the grandest of all special temples of nature.” Nature should be places for rest, inspiration and prayers. In the late 1800’s leading ranchers wanted to damn Hetch Hetchy Glacial valley in Yosemite, Muir wrote – “I would sooner damn the cathedrals and churches of this land; for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.”
2. Muir believed that God needs us to be stewards of the earth. A tireless advocate, Muir laid the ground work for the establishment of the national parks that preserved tens of thousands of acres. Through his journals, 10 books and countless articles Muir invited city dwellers to explore the national parks, experience nature’s spiritual benefits, and then to fight to preserve our open spaces. In 1899 Muir visited Alaska with EH Harriman and a group of scientists. He relied on their friendship to put pressure on Congress to pass conservation legislation. In 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt accompanied John Muir on a visit to Yosemite. As he led the President into the region, he talked about how the state of California had allowed private companies to exploit the park’s resources and lobbied for Yosemite to have federal protection.
Then President Roosevelt asked to see the real Yosemite. So Muir and the President set off largely alone to camp for 3 days in the back country. They talked late into the night, slept in the open air of Glacier Point, and were dusted by fresh snowfall in the morning. Roosevelt said it was a time he would never forget.
The debate about how to use the vast natural resources of this land has always been contentious. John Muir changed American culture from a consumption mentality to introduce the notion of preservation. He worked to demonstrate that we all need the spiritual nurture which could only be found in nature. His legacy lives on in the Sierra Club but also in our modern appreciation for woodlands, parks and natural ecological systems. But Muir’s work is not done. This summer as hike and bike and take in the sea air, I pray our spirits will be revived by these open spaces. I also hope that we will be inspired by this man who illustrates what one person can do, to turn the tide.