REDUX!

So I originally hit “publish” rather than “save” when this bLOG hit earlier in the week. Duh! Here is the cleaned-up redux version.

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Last week, a couple scaled the spire of the Empire State Building, unfurled a flag, he proposed, they embraced, and then they were arrested by the NYPD. The quote below was the message on that flag.

“When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.”

I looked into how the media was reporting this and found that some attributed these words to Jimi Hendrix. I searched to see if this was a song that contained these lyrics, but it must have been something he said. Hendrix is known for this quote, but he didn’t use the word “beat.” Below is what he apparently said.

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world knows peace.” Jimi Hendrix

I kept digging and found a lead to another guy who used a similar variation of this quote back in the 19th century. His name is William Ewart Gladstone, a statesman and four-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the second half of the 19th Century. Some say he was the greatest PM in the history of the Kingdom. Gladstone’s quote is more flowery and poetic, but there is no denying it’s in the same vein.

“We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” William E. Gladstone

I kept going deeper and couldn’t find any others, so I think Gladstone was its originator in the 19th Century. Hendrix seems to have adapted it in the 20th Century, and the Climbing Fiancés flagged their version on top of the Empire State Building in the 21st Century.

Like other characters in history, like Polybius and John Adams, I couldn’t help but be fascinated. I dug further on Gladstone to see if he had anything else to say. After all, there seemed to be a little biblical feel to his statement. I was correct!

William Gladstone, a Scotsman, had a father who was a Presbyterian, but later joined the Church of England. Gladstone also joined the Church of England, and he even considered a call to ministry at one point. He chose to be a statesman rather than a pastor. I found a bunch of quotes from this elder statesman, and there was definitely a pattern.

Below is a sampling of his gems.

“My only hope for the world is in bringing the human mind into contact with divine revelation.”

“I have known ninety-five of the world’s great men in my time, and of these eighty-seven were followers of the Bible.”

“Never forget that the purpose for which a man lives is the improvement of the man himself, so that he may go out of this world having, in his great sphere or his small one, done some little good for his fellow creatures and labored a little to diminish the sin and sorrow that are in the world.”

“Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race.”

I knew I liked this guy!

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. John 25:16-17