A Life of Adventure
“With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” [Psalm 91:16]
Few people have lived as long and gallant a life, filled with so many amazing memories, as Sergeant Patrick Gass. Love of adventure carried young Patrick across the virgin continent with Lewis and Clark on their epic voyage of discovery. Sergeant Gass became the carpenter of the expedition and kept a diary during the entire adventure. Before he died in 1870, just before his 99th birthday, great cities had been built and untold wealth found in the land he had helped discover.
Born in Falling Springs, Pennsylvania, in 1771, before the Revolution, he lived to see this country grow from the original 13 colonies to 38 states. He voted at the election of 18 presidents who served during his lifetime, from Washington to Grant. He experienced four great wars – the Revolutionary, the War of 1812, the Mexican, and the Civil War (not to mention numerous Indian battles, fighting alongside greats like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone). During the War of 1812 he fought with Andrew Jackson in some of the bloodiest battles of the campaign on the Canadian border.
At the age of 63 he decided to settle down as a farmer, so he married a girl of 20. She died 13 years later leaving him, at the age of 76, with five children to raise. When he was almost 90, he tried to enlist in the Army during the Civil War on the side of the North, but was gracefully turned down. What a man! I have thought how thrilling it would be to be able to interview Sergeant Gass and hear him tell of his century of adventures across the American frontier. It’s hard to imagine the things he must have seen and experienced.
The Bible tells us it is impossible for us to imagine the wonders of the Promised Land God has prepared for those who love Him. “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him’” (1.Corinthians 2:9). Yet, we have been given a taste in the book of Revelation of what we will enjoy. And it will never be cut short by death (Revelation 21:4).
