Patrick Henry In The School Of Hard Knocks

by Edna
(Iowa)

Patrick Henry epitomizes the old saying that a winner is somebody who picks himself up one more time than he’s knocked down. History is replete with stories of people who suffered multiple episodes of abject failure before achieving great success.

One example is Henry Ford who went through bankruptcy several times before inventing the automobile and the assembly line. Another example is Thomas Edison, who tried hundreds of filaments before perfecting the electric light bulb.

Likewise, Patrick Henry failed twice as a retailer and once as a farmer before finding his niche in the legal profession. As a young man, Patrick Henry’s father set him and his brother up in a mercantile business, carrying groceries, clothing and hardware. Unfortunately, the wealthy planters in the area bought in bulk from British traders and seldom frequented the Henry’s store.

Their primary customers were poor, white farmers who often couldn’t afford to pay cash for the things they desperately needed. The soft-hearted Henry boys extended credit too liberally and after a year found themselves out of business.

Shortly after, Patrick married Sarah Shelton and the couple were given farmland and six negro servants as a wedding gift from their parents. They all worked hard, but drought and a fire in their home wiped out most of their labor.

The Henry’s sold a few of their slaves in order to rebuild and open another small store. A second year of drought left his customers unable to pay their bills and once again Patrick Henry was forced to close up shop.

It was at this point that he began a course of self-study to prepare himself for a career in the law. After only 6 or 8 months he traveled to Williamsburg to take the oral examination to obtain his attorney’s license. He so impressed the 4-man committee that one of the examiners concluded, “Mr. Henry, if your industry be only half equal to your genius I augur that you will do well, and become an ornament and an honor to your profession.”

As we all know, Patrick Henry went on to achieve fame for his quick mind and dazzling oratory. Later in life he wrote to a young friend who had experienced a setback in business:

“Adversity toughens manhood, and the characteristic of the good or the great man, is not that he has been exempted from the evils of life, but that he has surmounted them.”

The greatest example of all was the Lord Jesus Christ who endured the agony of a humiliating death before being raised to glory. “For consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”