"McNair! Go Ring the Bell!"

Our nation will celebrate a milestone 250th birthday this week. We will celebrate in the most patriotic way we know how: hot dogs, fireworks, and lots of rubbing it in England’s face! We will remember the brave men and women who have fought and died to make and keep us free. We will gather at church houses and court houses alike to pray and pledge our allegiance to the God who made us a nation in the first place.

We will remember our founding fathers who forged this nation on the principles and precepts of God’s Word. Yes, contrary to newfound popular belief, our nation’s founders started this country with allegiance to God and loyalty to the Bible. They did not always get it right, nor did all of them believe rightly in essential Christian doctrine; but they knew that taking on the task of building this nation without consulting the very Power that made us a nation was a fool’s errand. Take for instance this famous quote from Benjamin Franklin: “I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.”

We will recall the great names of Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. We will remember the triumph over Cornwallis, the boldness in the face of King George, and so many other accomplishments of our nation’s early years. But there is a man who offered much hope to the earliest Americans whose name will all but certainly be lost on the occasion.

Andrew McNair was the custodian of the Continental Congress. His primary job was to keep the chamber clean, but his secondary role was to ring what came to be known as the Liberty Bell. He had served the congress since 1768, agreeing to “make the Fires, light ye Candles and extinguish them, & keep the Room clean.” (This record is kept on page 12 of the 1884 book “Early Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge.” You do not want to know how much digging it took to find that!) He undertook this task for four shillings a night - equivalent to roughly 25 dollars today.

If you have seen the musical 1776, you will at least have heard of him. The musical begins with McNair climbing the steps of Independence Hall to go and find John Adams. He calls out repeatedly, “MISTER ADAMS! MISTER ADAMS?!” Throughout the musical he is used primarily as comic relief, very rarely really contributing to the story. But that is the reason I am writing about him today.

McNair was a nobody. Anybody else in Philadelphia could have done his job. He contributed nothing to the ongoing discussions in the Continental Congress. Yet on one fateful day in July of 1776, his life changed forever.

McNair was given the distinct honor of being the first civilian citizen in the newly formed United States of America to hear of her independence. Although he himself did nothing to earn or gain it, he benefitted greatly from the work that had gone on in the Congress. In one moment, though he had nothing to do with it, he had moved from being a “traitor to the crown” to an American.

He was no longer a criminal; he was free.

Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We, too, were criminals. We had broken God’s law and, if left to our own devices, we would be sentenced to death. That death would be an eternal death spent in the fires and torment of hell.

But Christ died.

And He died for us.

When Christ died for us, our title instantly changed. No longer criminals, we now stand as sons and daughters of the King. We had nothing to do with it; none of us could save ourselves. But Christ died. And He died for us. He saved us! By His power and by His grace, Jesus saved us! Through our faith in Him, we are declared righteous. We are able to go free! That freedom is purchased by the blood of Christ and cannot be taken away from us, for whom the Son sets free is free indeed!

When the Declaration of Independence was signed, McNair was free. He had had no part to play - until now. In the musical, John Hancock looks his direction and says to him, “McNair! Go ring the bell!”

McNair now had a job to do. His job, with new freedom in hand, was to announce to the world what had happened in that room. His ringing of the bell would be a sign not only to Philadelphia, not even just to America, but to the whole world that freedom had sprung in the Continental Congress.

Christian, our job is not that different. With our spiritual freedom in hand, we now bear the responsibility to point the rest of the world to the freedom that we enjoy. Just as Christ saved us, He can save them! We didn’t earn our freedom, but we can sure tell someone else about it!

McNair died just months after the Declaration was signed. Though details of his passing are hard to find, it is recorded that his services to Congress ended on February 18, 1777 due to his death. No details are given regarding his cause of death. There is no record of his burial place. This is confirmed in family records, stating that no public notices, including church registries, identify a final resting place for him. He died in relative obscurity. But his role in early American history was a vital one.

In this Christian ministry, many seem to be concerned with leaving legacies. We care far too much about what the world thinks about us or what it will think about us when we leave it behind. Perhaps we should just be concerned about doing our job. Let’s do it well. Let’s tell everybody around that there is freedom in Jesus! The world may very well forget about us when we die, but that does not cheapen the work that God has given us to do today.

Christian! Go ring the bell!