He proposed the establishment of the national mint and decimal coinage, an idea that was unique at the time. He gave up his home in Philadelphia to be the Executive Mansion for George Washington and John Adams 1790-1800.

He was later heavily involved in unsuccessful land speculation investing in the District of Columbia and purchasing over 6,000,000 acres in the rural south. The Napoleonic Wars ruined the market for American lands and Morris's highly leveraged company collapsed. The financial markets suffered from the deflation associated with the Panic of 1797.

He was land poor - he owned more land than any other American at the time, but did not have enough cash to pay his creditors, interests on his loans and taxes. In desperation, the financial wizard of the American Revolution auctioned off the plate and furnishings of his opulent home - all in vain.

In 1798 George Washington "dined with Robert Morris in a milieu far distant from the sumptuous settings of past meetings: debtor's prison. When Morris saw Washington, he grasped his hand in silence, tears welling up in his eyes. Morris wasted away in prison for three years." Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life, 791) The US Congress passed its first bankruptcy legislation, the Bankruptcy Act of 1800, in part to get Morris out of prison.

After his release, and suffering from poor health, Morris spent the rest of his life in retirement. He was assisted by his wife, Mary White Morris, the sister of William White, chaplain of the Continental Congress and one of the first bishops of the American Episcopal Church. She supported her husband throughout his misfortune.

What do you do when you, or your loved ones, are suffering? How do you maintain your enjoyment of life when you, or they, are in trouble? How can you smile, and put on a brave face, when your heart is breaking? There seems to be no solution to the difficulties. There seems to be no happy conclusion to be hoped for. There seems to be no cure for the disease, no way you can fix the problem. It is going to be like this until you, or they, die. It is depressing. It is discouraging. The words of Psalm 38:8-20 echo in your ears.

"I groan in anguish of heart.
All my longings lie open before you.
O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.
My heart pounds, my strength fails me,
even the light has gone from my eyes."
What is the Christian response to such heartbreak?

"I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory." (Ephesians 3:13) Paul is in prison, suffering for Christ. Yet, he does not want his suffering to discourage his friends. Instead he prays for them that God would strengthen them with his power. He gives us a prayer that looks far beyond immediate circumstances into an inner life and an eternal perspective that can overcome any discouragement. He concludes with a doxology that sums up his faith and hope. What is his message of encouragement to us?

First, when we find ourselves discouraged we need to pray. "For this reason I kneel before the Father." (Ephesians 3:14) When there is no earthly help we need to pray.

"O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in prayer."

What did Jesus do when his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death in the garden of Gethsemane? He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39) He kept praying, saying the same thing. He urged his disciples to watch and pray so that they would not fall into temptation. When we are faced with a crisis in life, a challenge we cannot overcome, we need to learn to pray, not once, but continually, to persevere in prayer, to pray through the crisis. That is God's appointed way for us humans to find divine strength.

Second, we must believe that God is able to do much, much more than all we ask or imagine. God is able. God is able to do the impossible. With God anything is possible. Don't limit God. Paul uses one of his super-superlatives to express God's capacity: superabundantly, immeasurably. God is BIG. Paul has prayed that "out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ...so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Don't under-estimate God's ability to help you. Don't lowball God. Jesus is able to feed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish. J.B. Phillips entitled a book, "Your God is Too Small." God is able to take care of your problems and mine if we let him. "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)

Third, we must ask, imagine, dream, and open ourselves to the extent of God's power working in us. Paul prays that "being rooted and established in love, you may have power, together with all the saints [for you learn from your fellow believers], to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19) We must not be limited to this world. We must not be limited by our understanding. Reason is limited. We can never comprehend everything that there is. We do not know all the answers. Nobody does.

Therefore we need to open ourselves to the love of Christ - the love that came to earth for us - the love that condescended to reveal to us our eternal destiny - the love that suffered and died on the Cross for our sin and salvation - the love that never fails - the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord from which nothing can separate us: neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation (Rom.8:38,39).

This love is wide enough to reach the whole world and beyond. It is long enough to stretch from eternity to eternity. It is high enough to raise us to heavenly places. It is deep enough to rescue us from evil and sin's degradation, spiritual wretchedness, suffering, depression, death, disability, debt and dishonor.

Fourth, we must trust that God's power will work within us and through us. Paul prays that God "may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." God is able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

The outer person: our bodies, our reputation, our public persona, our earthly significance, may be wasting away, yet "inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

It is the inner life of the Spirit in our hearts that should grow stronger even as our outer life grows weaker. Whatever is going on in the outer world is temporary. It cannot harm the inner world, because it is eternal.

The outer world is unpredictable. What is up one day, may be down the next. No one is impregnable. What was true for Robert Morris may be true for us and our loved ones. We need the Lord. We need the promises of the Gospel. We need God to strengthen us to endure, to persevere, to overcome, to keep the faith, to fight the fight, to finish the race.

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