“No taxation without representation” was the cry of the American colonies.  The Magna Carta (1215) said, “No scutage or aid may be levied in our kingdom without it its general consent.”  The English Bill of Rights 1689 said, “That levying money for or to the use of the crown by pretense or prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time, or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal.”  Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden, also known as Lord Camden, said in a speech given in Parliament in 1768, “My position is this – I repeat it – I will maintain it to my last hour – taxation and representation are inseparable. This position is founded on the laws of nature; for whatever is a man’s own is absolutely his own; no man hath a right to take it from him without his consent either expressed by himself or representative.”  The American colonies were not represented in Parliament.  They were being taxed without representation.  The Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain on July 2,1776.  Congress approved the Declaration of Independence document on July 4, 1776.  It was publicly read by John Dixon in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776 in what is today Independence Square.  Bells rang with the reading.  It is not certain if the Liberty Bell was rang on that day or not.  Some think that it was.    

Do you know what is inscribed on the Liberty Bell?  “The Liberty Bell’s inscription is from the Bible (King James Version): ‘Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.’ (Leviticus 25:10 B.H.) This verse refers to the ‘Jubilee,’ or the instructions to the Israelites to return property and free slaves every 50 years.  Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly Isaac Norris chose this inscription for the State House bell in 1751, possible to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 charter of privileges which granted religious liberties and political self-government to the people of Pennsylvania.  The inscription of liberty on the State House bell (now known as the Liberty Bell) went unnoticed during the Revolutionary War.  After the war, abolitionists seeking to end slavery in America were inspired by the bell’s message… The Anti-Slavery Record, an abolitionist publication, first referred to the bell as the Liberty Bell in 1835, but that name was not widely adopted until years later” (The Liberty Bell, nps.gov). 

Freedom is something to be cherished and wisely used.  God has granted us freedom to pursue what we want in life.  How are we using our freedom?  “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and boundaries of their dwelling, so that they should seek the Lord, in hope that they might grope for Him and find Him…” (Acts 17:26-27).