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Worth Riding a Hundred Miles to Hear

Thoughts on Psalm 35

By September 1774, the tensions between America and Great Britain had been escalating for a decade and were reaching a boiling point. But despite that strain, Americans were largely still loyal to Great Britain. The colonies were vigorously pursuing reconciliation. The British, however, rejected their overtures and even responded with military force. British governors in America also disbanded legislative assemblies (i.e., Governors Dunsmore and Boutetout in Virginia and Wright in Georgia), attempting to impose hardfisted tyrannical rule.

The colonies decided that the time had come to act together rather than individually. In May 1774, Virginia called for a Continental Congress,¹ as did New York² and others. They hoped that by speaking with a unified voice, Britain would no longer ignor their grievances and they could reach an understanding. Specifically, they were seeking a repeal of the Intolerable or Coercive Acts, including those disbanding colonial juries, replacing elected American officials with unelected ones appointed by the Crown, and requiring British troops to be boarded in private homes

On September 5, 1774, forty-five delegates gathered in Philadelphia in what became known as the First Continental Congress. While each delegate was a significant figure in his own colony, most were unknown to the others. Incidentally, many went on to become nationally recognized political or military leaders, or even US Presidents.

Prayer Proposed

The delegates met one another and contemplated their course of action. John Adams reported their very first proposal after organizing themselves:

When the Congress first met, Mr. [Thomas] Cushing [of Massachusetts] made a motion that it should be opened with prayer.³

This apparently harmless suggestion met unexpected stiff resistance:

It was opposed by Mr. [John] Jay of New York and Mr. [John] Rutledge of South Carolina because we were so divided in religious sentiments—some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Anabaptists, some Presbyterians, and some Congregationalists—that we could not join in the same act of worship.⁴

Strikingly, both of the opponents (Jay and Rutledge) were devoted Christians. In fact, John Jay (an author of the Federalist Papers and the original chief justice of the US Supreme Court) was a founder and president of the American Bible Society. He also wrote lengthy evangelical treatises on the Scriptures. These pious individuals opposed an opening prayer because the various delegates came from many different Christian denominations.

Today, it seems strange that a denominational difference might prevent one Christian from praying with another, but not then. Most of the colonies had official state-established denominations (i.e., Anglicans in Virginia, South Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, and New York; Congregationalists in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts). The government-sanctioned denomination would sometimes persecute and even kill those from other denominations who preached or conducted religious services without authorization from the official church.⁵ But God had been preparing the colonists to overcome these abuses by helping Christians focus on the major Biblical teachings on which they all agreed rather than the nonessential denominational doctrines.

Whitefield’s “Faather Abraham” Sermon

This groundwork was laid by the national revival known as the Great Awakening (1730-1770) and was especially facilitated through the influence of English evangelist George Whitefield. Whitefield made seven missionary journeys to America, preaching across the country for thirty-four years on horseback, delivering 18,000 sermons.⁶ It is estimated that eighty percent of all Americans heard him preach,⁷ and his “Father Abraham” sermon was one of his more famous ones.

John Adams heard that sermon and recounted its message to Thomas Jefferson. In that sermon, Whitefield pretended to be at the gates of Heaven talking to Abraham:

He [Whitefield] began: “Father Abraham,” with his hands and eyes gracefully directed to the heavens (as I have more than once seen him): “Father Abraham, whom have you there with you? Have you Catholics?” “No.” “Have you Protestants?” “No.” “Have you Churchmen?” [Anglicans].“No.” “Have you Dissenters?” [Congregationalists]. “No.” “Have you Presbyterians?” “No.” “Quakers?” “No.” “Anabaptists?” [Baptists, Amish, Mennonites]. “No.” “Whom have you there? Are you alone?” “No.” “My brethren, you have the answer to all these questions in the words of my next text: “He who feareth God and worketh righteousness, shall be accepted of Him’’ [Acts 10:35].⁸ God help us all to forget having names and to become Christians in deed and in truth.⁹

Samuel Adams took the message of Whitefield’s popular “Father Abraham” sermon and practically applied it in that first gathering of Congress. After hearing Jay and Rutledge oppose the motion for prayer, he “arose and said he was no bigot, and could hear a prayer from a gentleman of piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his country.”¹⁰ Adams added that because he was from Boston, he “was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that [Rev.] Mr. [Jacob] Duché [pronounced Dooshay] deserved that character, and therefore he moved that Mr. Duché, an Episcopalian clergyman, might be desired to read prayers to the Congress tomorrow morning.”¹¹

It is significant that Samuel Adams—an ardent Congregationalist (Puritan)—personally suggested having an Episcopal clergyman from the Church of England (a denomination greatly disliked by Congregationalists) deliver the original opening prayer in Congress. By this suggestion, Adams was implementing the Acts 10:35 message so long preached by Whitefield.

Interestingly, seventy years later in arguments before the US Supreme Court, the great Daniel Webster recalled this example, reminding the justices:

At the meeting of the first Congress, there was a doubt in the minds of many about the propriety of opening the session with prayer; and the reason assigned was, as here, the great diversity of opinion and religious belief. Until at last Mr. Samuel Adams, with his gray hairs hanging about his shoulders and with an impressive venerableness now seldom to be met with . . . rose in that assembly, and with the air of a perfect Puritan said it did not become men professing to be Christian men who had come together for solemn deliberation in the hour of their extremity to say that there was so wide a difference in their religious belief that they could not, as one man, bow the knee in prayer to the Almighty, Whose advice and assistance they hoped to obtain. . . . And depend upon it, that where there is a spirit of Christianity, there is a spirit which rises above form, above ceremonies, independent of sect or creed, and the controversies of clashing doctrines.¹²
When Two or More are Gathered

Adams’ Whitefield-like rebuke penetrated the hearts of the other delegates:

[Cushing’s] motion was seconded, and passed in the affirmative. Mr. [Peyton] Randolph [of Virginia], our President, waited on Mr. Duché. . . Accordingly, next morning he appeared with his clerk and in his pontificals.¹³

In the culture of that day, prayer was not nearly so casual as it is today; it was very formal. As Benjamin Franklin once noted, clergy “officiated” in prayer.¹⁴ And recall that when Samuel Adams moved for Jacob Duché to “read prayers in the established form,” Duché agreed and arrived “with his clerk and in his pontificals.” (He entered the assembly with an entourage and in his special ceremonial robes.) Prayers over public bodies at that time involved an orthodox ceremonial formality that deliberately conveyed a majestic reverence for Almighty God.

But Duché did much more than just “officiate” by “reading” prayers from the Book of Common Prayer. Surprising everyone present, he launched into an unforeseen but passionate and spontaneous prayer. According to John Adams:

Mr. Duché, unexpectedly to everybody, struck out into an extemporary prayer which filled the bosom of every man present.¹⁵

What was the effect?

I must confess I never heard a better prayer or one so well pronounced. . . .with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime. . . .It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here.¹⁶

Several delegates including Samuel Adams,¹⁷ Joseph Reed,¹⁸ and Samuel Ward;¹⁹ commented on Duché’s remarkable prayer. Silas Deane reported that Duché’s prayer. . .

was worth riding one hundred mile to hear. He. . .prayed without book about ten minutes so pertinently, with such fervency, purity, and sublimity of style and sentiment, and with such an apparent sensibility of the scenes and business before us, that even Quakers shed tears.²⁰

By the way, Deane’s comment that it was a prayer “worth riding one hundred mile to hear” is significant. In that day, riding one hundred miles meant three days in the saddle. Deane admitted that he would have willingly spent three days on horseback just to reach that gathering and hear that prayer. And the prayer was so powerful that it caused even the stern Quakers (the group most persecuted by Duché’s Anglican denomination) to “shed tears” as they listened.

While the exact wording of that first prayer is not known, we can ascertain the type of prayer from Duché’s continued service in the Second Continental Congress. Shortly after the Declaration of Independence was approved, Duché was appointed congressional chaplain²¹ and delivered this stirring prayer:

O Lord our heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings and Lord of lords. . .over all the kingdoms, empires, and governments, look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these American States who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee; to Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support which Thou alone canst give; take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in council, and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause. . . .All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior, Amen!²²
Scripture Applied

A year later, it did not appear as if his prayer would be answered. The Americans had lost battle after battle, and British troops had invaded and seized his hometown of Philadelphia. During this gloomy outlook, Duché wrote George Washington, predicting American defeat and urging him to retract the Declaration of Independence. Washington refused, and Congress declared Duché a traitor, whereupon he fled to Great Britain. But late in life, after receiving permission from President Washington, Duché returned to America where he spent his remaining years.

But in that first gathering of Congress he did not just pray. According to John Adams, Duché also. . .

read the collect [Scriptures] for the seventh day of September, which was the thirty-fifth Psalm. You must remember this was the next morning after we heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston. I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning. . . .It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here. I must beg you to read that Psalm. . . .Read this letter and the 35^th Psalm to [your friends]. Read it to your father [the Rev. William Smith, church pastor].²³

Significantly, when the delegates gathered in Philadelphia, they heard a rumor that Boston was under attack. The Founders’ distress was palpable. They were still British citizens, and their own British army and navy was now besieging them. But Psalm 35 spoke directly to their growing fears.

Silas Deane noted that “the lessons [Scriptures] of the day, which were accidentally extremely applicable.”²⁴ John Adams agreed that the reading of Psalm 35 on that day was not only “most admirably adapted” but also that was “Providential.”²⁵

Significantly, when the Book of Common Prayer was written in 1662 under King Charles II, Psalm 35 was designated for reading on September 7 of each year. (Other assigned daily passages studied in Congress that morning included Amos 9, Matthew 8, and Psalm 36.) The fact that Psalm 35 was assigned to that day over a century earlier confirmed to the Founders that God knew what they would be facing and was watching over them. As one Founding Father expressed it, “the liberties of America are the object of Divine protection.”²⁶

As you read Psalm 35, place yourself in the Founders’ circumstances. Imagine their mindset on that day, and consider the uncertainty that must have gripped their souls. Since this Psalm contains the prayers of a defenseless people attacked by a much stronger adversary, it is easy to understand why it so impacted the nation’s first Congress.

Endnotes

¹ “An association, signed by 89 members of the late House of Bugesses,” May 27, 1774, Library of Congress, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.17801200.

² “Letter from the New York Committee of Fifty-One to the Boston Committee of Correspondence; May 23, 1774,” The Avalon Project, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/letter_ny_comm_1774.asp.

³ John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 16, 1774, Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams, During the Revolution, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1875), 37.

⁴ John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 16, 1774, Familiar Letters, ed. Adams (1875), 37.

⁵ See, for example, James Madison to William Bradford, Jr., January 24, 1774, The Writings of James Madison (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900), 1:21; James Underwood and William Burke, The Dawn of Religious Freedom in South Carolina (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006), 167; Robert Semple, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia (Richmond: Robert Semple, 1810), 14, 29-30; A Companion to Thomas Jefferson, ed. Francis Cogliano, editor (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2011), 78; Cyclopedia of Methodism, ed. Matthew Simpson (Philadelphia: Everts & Stewart, 1878), s.v. “Virginia.”

⁶ See, for example, John Gillies, Memoirs of Rev. George Whitefield (Middletown: Hunt & Noyes, 1838), 273; N. F. Bryant, The Household Monthly (Boston: N.F. Bryant, December 1859), III:3: 237, “Whitefield in America.”

⁷ See, for example, “George Whitefield: Did you Know,” April 1, 1993, Christian History; Dave Schleck, “CW to Recreate Visit of Famous Preacher,” December 15, 1995, Daily Press; Stephen Gorham, “The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Full Flowering of the Great Awakening,” February 26, 2012, American History, Suite 101.

⁸ John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, December 3, 1813, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb (Washington, DC: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), XIV:19-20.

⁹ Stephen Mansfield, Forgotten Founding Father: The Heroic Legacy of George Whitefield (Nashville: Cumberland House, 2001), 86.

¹⁰ John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 16, 1774, Familiar Letters, ed. Adams (1875), 37.

¹¹ John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 16, 1774, Familiar Letters, ed. Adams (1875), 37.

¹² Daniel Webster, Mr. Webster’s Speech in Defence of the Christian Ministry, and In Favor of the Religious Instruction of the Young (Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton, 1844), 36-37.

¹³ John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 16, 1774, Familiar Letters, ed. Adams (1875), 37.

¹⁴ The Works of Benjamin Franklin, ed. John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), XI:378, “Motion for Prayers in the [Constitutional] Convention.”

¹⁵ John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 16, 1774, Familiar Letters, ed. Adams (1875), 37.

¹⁶ John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 16, 1774, Familiar Letters, ed. Adams (1875), 37.

¹⁷ Samuel Adams to Joseph Warren, September 9, 1774, Letters of Delegates to Congress, ed. Paul H. Smith (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1976), I:55.

¹⁸ John Adams diary entry of September 10, 1774 The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1850), II:377-378.

¹⁹ Samuel Ward’s diary entry of September 7, 1774, Letters of Delegates, ed. Smith (1976), I:45.

²⁰ Silas Deane to Elizabeth Deane, September 7, 1774, The Silas Deane Papers (New York: New York Historical Society, 1887), I:20.

²¹ July 9, 1776, The Journals of the Continental Congress (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1906), V:530.

²² James Thatcher, A Military Journal (Boston: Richardson and Lord, 1823), 145n.

²³ John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 16, 1774, Familiar Letters, ed. Adams (1875), 37.

²⁴ Silas Deane to Elizabeth Deane, September 7, 1774, Silas Deane Papers (1887), I:20.

²⁵ John Adams diary entry of September 7, 1774, Works of John Adams, ed. Adams (1850), II:368.

²⁶ George Washington, General Orders of September 26, 1780, The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1937), XX:95.

The Sermon on the Mount Carl Bloch, 1890

His Desire to Answer Prayer

Thoughts on Matthew 6

Prayer has always been central to Biblical faith. Scripture is replete with stories of the efficacy of prayer. It is not surprising then that the practice of prayer was deeply embedded in early American life. In fact, colonial, state, and federal governments issued over 1,400 official calls to prayer between 1620 and 1815.¹ The Founding Fathers clearly were convinced of the effectiveness of prayer.

John Jay, the original chief justice on the US Supreme Court, believed that the fact that God told us to pray, and how to pray and what to pray for, were clear indications that He wanted to answer our prayers. He explained:

Had it not been the purpose of God that His will should be done on earth as it is done in heaven, He would not have commanded us to pray for it. That command implies a prediction and a promise that in due season it shall be accomplished.²

Jay’s reference is to the Lord’s Prayer, when Jesus’ disciples came to Him and asked Him to teach them to pray. To which He replied:

Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’] (Matthew 6:9-13)

This prayer, well known to the Founding Fathers, appeared in American public school textbooks for over two centuries. An elderly John Quincy Adams recalled that it was one of the first things he had learned as a youngster:

My mother was the daughter of a Christian clergyman . . . In that same spring and summer of 1775 [when I was only seven], she taught me to repeat daily after the Lord’s Prayer before rising from bed, the Ode of Collins on the patriot warriors [a patriotic poem]. . . .Now—seventy-one years after they were thus taught me—I repeat them from memory.³

Early American statesman John Chandler Davis conversed with Adams about the Lord’s Prayer shortly before the latter’s death in 1848. Davis recounted:

In 1847, I became well acquainted with him and frequently met with him and talked with him in the House of Representatives. I remember one morning in 1847 that I met him before the House was called to order. He was very feeble. It was not long before the subject of religion was introduced by Mr. Adams. Among other things I remember his saying, “There are two prayers I love to say: the first is The Lord’s Prayer, and because the Lord taught it; and the other is what seems to be a child’s prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep,” etc., and I love to say this because it suits me. And,” he added, “I love this prayer so much that I have been repeating it every night for very many years past, and I say it yet – and I expect to say it my last night on earth if I am conscious. But,” said he, “I have added a few words to the prayer so as to express my trust in Christ, and also to acknowledge what I ask for I ask as a favor and not because I deserve it. This is it,” said he, and then he repeated it as he was in the habit of saying it: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take – for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” This was in 1847. He died in 1848 while I was living in Washington, and I have no doubt but that the “child’s prayer that just suited” him was reverently repeated every night until he died.⁴

Jesus taught His disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer, something many Founding Fathers faithfully embraced. The Lord’s Prayer serves as a time-tested guide for our own prayers that comes with a clear indication of God’s desire to answer them. As John Jay knew to be true, the Lord’s Prayer leads to answered prayer.

Endnotes

¹ DeLoss Love, The Fast and Thanksgiving Days of New England (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1895), 464-514.

² John Jay at the Annual Meeting, May 8, 1823, The Life of John Jay, with Selections of his Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers, ed. William Jay (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1833), 1:503.

³ John Quincy Adams, The Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874), I:5-6.

⁴ John C. Davis, “John Quincy Adams” The Churchman, June 14, 1890; reprinted as “Child-Likeness of the Old Man Eloquent,” in The Sunday School Union (1890), XXXII:415.

Stepping Stones

Thoughts on 1 Chronicles 17:11-12

King David was an accomplished statesman, musician, poet, soldier, and visionary. He sought God with his whole heart, passionately seeking to honor and serve Him throughout his long life, notwithstanding occasional and even serious slips along the way.

As a reflection of his deep love for God, David wanted to give Him a permanent and visible place of prominence with a majestic temple to replace the tent used in the wilderness. By David’s own words, “the house to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, famous, and glorious throughout all countries” (1 Chronicles 22:5).

David’s intentions were honorable and his heart pure. God was pleased with his desire but made clear that he was not to build the temple. His son Solomon would build it instead (1 Chronicles 17:11-12, 22:9-10, 28:6). When David realized that his heart’s desire would not be accomplished in his lifetime, he was not discouraged. But began working to prepare things for the next generation. He cut stones and collected iron, bronze, and cedar trees in abundance. He “made abundant preparations before his death” (1 Chronicles 22:2-5). David was also diligent to pass on the vision to his son (1 Chronicles 22:6, 11-13) and even relayed the specific plans that God had given for the temple (1 Chronicles 28:11-12, 19-20).

The transmission of a vision from one generation to the next in order to secure its fulfillment is common throughout the Bible. For example, Moses led the people out of Egypt and set them firmly on the path to the Promised Land, but then he handed them off to the much younger Joshua to finish the task. Similarly, God told the older prophet Elijah to find and train the younger Elisha. Elisha then performed twice as many miracles as Elijah. Likewise, Jesus passed on His vision for the world to His disciples to continue.

The Pilgrims also followed this pattern. Upon arriving in America in 1620, they announced in the Mayflower Compact (the first government document written in America) that their mission was undertaken “for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.”¹ They had come with the laudable goal of evangelizing the new country.

Their first year in America proved to be extremely difficult. By the end of that winter, over half had died, thereby doubling the workload on the rest. And by the end of the second year, half of the remaining survivors had also died, leaving only one-fourth from the original group. Struggling to survive in that harsh wilderness was grueling work and a round-the-clock occupation. It became apparent that their ardent desire to establish a fully functioning Christian colony and to bring all of those around them to Christian faith would not occur in their lifetime.

So, like David, they worked hard to prepare everything they could for the coming generation: training, equipping, and then transmitting to them the vision and responsibility. As explained by the Pilgrims’ governor, William Bradford:

Lastly (and which was not least), a great hope and inward zeal they [the Pilgrims] had of laying some good foundations (or at least to make some way thereunto) for the propagating and advancing of the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world, yea, though they should be but even as stepping stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.²

Stepping-stones. Significantly, one generation was willing to become a stepping-stone for the next. Figuratively speaking, they worked to move the ball as far down field as possible before handing it off to their descendants to score. What a fantastic lesson to learn and practice today: if you see that you will not accomplish the lofty goals you have set for yourself or that you believe God has given you, it doesn’t mean that you are a failure. Don’t quit and drop out in discouragement. Instead, find those who are younger and equip, train, and pass the vision on to them.

Many of the national challenges before us will require trans-generational solutions, which is fully Biblical. We can and must do everything we can right now. But we must also train the rising generation with an understanding of the stewardship that will be placed in their hands. Each of us must work diligently to make ourselves stepping stones for future generations.

Endnotes

¹ “Agreement Between the Settlers of New-Plymouth, November 11^th, 1620,” Ebenezer Hazard, Historical Collections: Consisting of State Papers, and Other Authentic Documents; Intended as Materials for an History of the United States of America (Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1792), 1:119.
² William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1856), 24.

The Heart of a Grateful Nation

Thoughts on 2 Chronicles 5-7

King David, blessed by God throughout his long life, envisioned building a majestic temple to honor the Lord. But God told David that it would instead be his son, Solomon, who would construct the building. So David prepared everything his son would need. When later King Solomon successfully completed the temple, he gathered the nation together and dedicated the new structure with a time of prayer and praise (2 Chronicles 5-7). The spirit of God filled the temple and fell on those present. God promising Solomon that He would hear and answer prayers prayed from that location. Significantly, our Founding Fathers invoked this incident and this passage at a significant moment early in the political life of a young America.

On September 25, 1789, the very first federal Congress had just finished framing the Bill of Rights—the Capstone of the Constitution. On that notable day, the official records of Congress report:

Mr. [Elias] Boudinot said he could not think of letting the session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would move the following resolution:
Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God. . . .
Mr. [Roger] Sherman justified the practice of thanksgiving on any signal [remarkable] event not only as a laudable one in itself but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ – for instance, the solemn thanksgivings and rejoicings which took place in the time of Solomon after the building of the temple was a case in point [2 Chronicles 5-7, 1 Kings 7-8]. This example he thought worthy of Christian imitation on the present occasion, and he would agree with the gentleman who moved the resolution. Mr. Boudinot quoted further precedents from the practice of the late Congress and hoped the motion would meet a ready acquiescence [approval]. The question was now put on the resolution and it was carried in the affirmative.¹

Congress delivered it recommendation to President George Washington, who happily concurred. He issued America’s first federal proclamation for a Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. That proclamation declared:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. . . . Now, therefore, I do recommend . . . that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country. . . . And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions . . . to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.²

Notice that George Washington said that nations—not just individuals, but nations—have four duties: (1) to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, (2) to obey His will, (3) to be grateful for His benefits, and (4) humbly to implore His protection and favor. This proclamation, along with the several other calls to prayer issued during his administration, was written by Washington himself. Whereas other presidents had chaplains of Congress write their proclamations.³

America observed its first federal day of thanksgiving because Founding Fathers in Congress were thoroughly familiar with the Bible and found precedent for such a day from 2 Chronicles 5-7—one of many American practices with a Biblical basis.

Endnotes

¹ September 25, 1789, The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Joseph Gales, editor (Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1834) I:949-950.

² The Providence Gazette and Country Journal (Providence: October 17, 1789), 1. George Washington, “A Proclamation,” issued on October 3, 1789, observance date November 26, 1789.

³ Joseph H. Jones, The Life of Ashbel Green (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1849), 270-271.

The Rock Upon Which Our Republic Rests

Thoughts on 2 Kings 23

There are numerous Biblical occasions when civil leaders urged a national reading of God’s Word. For example, under righteous King Josiah of Israel:

The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord (2 Kings 23:2).

Ezra also assembled the nation to read the Word of God (Nehemiah 8:1-3), and Moses likewise instructed the people to gather together and read God’s Word so that they might know it, obey it, and teach it to the rising generation, for by so doing, they would remain blessed as a nation (Deuteronomy 31:11-13).

America’s national leaders continued to follow this pattern. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed:

I suggest a nationwide reading of the Holy Scriptures during the period from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas. . . . Go to . . . the Scriptures for a renewed and strengthening contact with those eternal truths and majestic principles which have inspired such measure of true greatness as this nation has achieved.¹

(Today, National Bible Week is still officially commemorated one week of the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But sadly few citizens know of its existence, and sadder still even fewer observe it.)

Why would President Roosevelt publicly call the nation to a time of Scripture reading? Because of its proven beneficial influence:

In the formative days of the Republic, the directing influence the Bible exercised upon the fathers of the Nation is conspicuously evident. . . . We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic.²

On the same basis, President Ronald Reagan declared a national “Year of the Bible,” explaining:

Of the many influences that have shaped the United States of America into a distinctive Nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible. . . . The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the Founding Fathers’ abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the individual – rights which they found implicit in the Bible’s teachings of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual. This same sense of man patterned . . . the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. . . . There could be no more fitting moment than now to reflect . . . upon the wisdom revealed to us in the [Bible].³

President Teddy Roosevelt similarly affirmed:

[T]he teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally—I do not mean figuratively, I mean literally—impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals—all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves. Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud—of which our people are proud – almost every such man has based his lifework largely upon the teachings of the Bible. . . . Among the very greatest men, a disproportionately large number have been diligent and close students of the Bible at first hand. . . . So I plead not merely for training of the mind but for . . . the moral and spiritual training that have always been found in and that have ever accompanied the study of this Book—this Book, which in almost every civilized tongue can be described as “The Book.”⁴

Teddy wanted everyone to know the Bible, and a reason that he had been so thoroughly impressed by President Abraham Lincoln was his personal mastery of the Bible. As he explained:

Lincoln—sad, patient, kindly Lincoln, who after bearing upon his weary shoulders for four years a greater burden than that borne by any other man of the nineteenth century laid down his life for the people whom living he had served as well—built up his entire reading upon his early study of the Bible. He had mastered it absolutely – mastered it as later he mastered only one or two other books (notably Shakespeare) —mastered it so that he became almost “a man of one Book,” who knew that Book and who instinctively put into practice what he had been taught therein.⁵

Indeed, it is extremely difficult to find any of Lincoln’s major speeches not laced throughout with Scriptures, so it is therefore not surprising that in speaking of the Bible, Lincoln declared:

It is the best gift God has given to men. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for it, we could not know right from wrong. ⁶

President Zachary Taylor also stressed how important it was that every citizen, especially young citizens, know the Bible:

The Bible is the best of books and I wish it were in the hands of everyone. It is indispensable to the safety and permanence of our institutions; a free government cannot exist without religion and morals, and there cannot be morals without religion, nor religion without the Bible. Especially should the Bible be placed in the hands of the young. It is the best schoolbook in the world. . . . I would that all of our people were brought up under the influence of that Holy Book.⁷

President Harry Truman, speaking at a conference of law enforcement officials assembled from across the nation, reminded them:

The fundamental basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days.⁸

President Andrew Jackson likewise declared of the Bible that “it is the rock on which our Republic rests.”⁹

And President Grant, on the 100th anniversary of American Independence exhorted, “Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your heats, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this Book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look for our guide in the future.”¹⁰

There are many other examples demonstrating that America’s leaders understood the importance of God’s Word to the nation and publicly urged the reading and knowledge of it, just as ancient leaders such as Moses, Ezra, and Josiah had done. It is important that every citizen personally study, learn, and live by God’s Word, teaching it to their children and also electing at the local, county, state, and federal level leaders who know and honor the principles of “The Book.”

Endnotes

¹ Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Proclamation 2629—Thanksgiving Day, 1944,” November 1, 1944, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/210843.

² Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Statement on the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Printing of the English Bible,” October 6, 1935, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/209257.

³ Ronald Reagan, “Proclamation 5018—Year of the Bible, 1983,” February 3rd, 1983, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/262128.

⁴ Theodore Roosevelt, “On Reading the Bible: Delivered before the Members of the Bible Society,” 1901, Modern Eloquence, ed. Thomas B. Reed (Philadelphia: John D. Morris and Company, 1903), XV:1770-1776.

⁵ Roosevelt, “On Reading the Bible: Delivered before the Members of the Bible Society,” 1901, Modern Eloquence, ed. Reed (1903), XV:1770-1776.

⁶ Abraham Lincoln, “Reply to Committee of Colored People of Baltimore Who Presented Him with a Bible,” Complete Works Comprising his Speeches, Letters, State Papers, and Miscellaneous Writings, John Nicolay and John Hay, editors (New York: The Century Co., 1894), 2:574.

⁷ “The President and the Bible,” New York Semi-Weekly Tribune (Wednesday, May 9, 1849), IV:100:1.

⁸ Harry S. Truman, “Address Before the Attorney General’s Conference on Law Enforcement Problems,” February 15, 1950, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/230655.

⁹ Ronald Reagan, “Proclamation 5018—Year of the Bible, 1983,” February 3rd, 1983, American Presidency Project, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/262128; see the same quote in a proclamation from President George H. W. Bush, “International Year of Bible Reading,” February 22, 1990, Code of Federal Regulations (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1991), 21.

¹⁰ Ulysses Grant, “Message of President Grant to the Children and Youth of the U.S.” card in WallBuilders Museum collection.

Thanksgiving in America Tract

This printable tract contains a brief history of America’s Thanksgiving holiday and includes quotes from notable Founders excerpted from their Thanksgiving proclamations. See the complete text below and download it for your personal use!

The tradition of Thanksgiving as a time to focus on God and thank Him for His blessings dates back almost four centuries in America. While thanksgiving celebrations occurred as early as 1541 in Texas, and 1607 at Cape Henry, Virginia, it is from the Pilgrim festival of 1621 that we derive the current tradition of Thanksgiving.

The Pilgrims (a congregation of Bible-loving English Christians) set sail for America on September 6, 1620, and for two months braved the harsh elements of a storm-tossed sea. Upon arriving in what is now Massachusetts, and unprepared for the harsh New England winter, nearly half of them died before spring.

Emerging from that grueling winter, the Pilgrims were surprised when an Indian named Samoset approached them and greeted them in their own language, explaining to them that he had learned English from fishermen and traders. A week later, Samoset returned with a friend named Squanto, who also spoke English. Squanto lived with the Pilgrims and accepted their Christian faith.

Squanto taught the Pilgrims much about how to live in the New World, and he and Samoset helped forge a peace treaty that lasted for generations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford described Squanto as “a special instrument sent of God for [our] good.”

That summer, the Pilgrims, through hard work, prayer and the assistance of helpful Indians, reaped a bountiful harvest. As Pilgrim Edward Winslow affirmed, “God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn”; “by the goodness of God, we are…far from want.” The grateful Pilgrims therefore declared a time in the Fall to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends—America’s first Thanksgiving festival.

Ninety Wampanoag Indians joined the fifty-three Pilgrims for three days of feasting (which included shellfish, lobsters, turkey, corn bread, berries, deer, and other foods), athletic competition and play (the young Pilgrim and Wampanoag men engaged in races, wrestling matches, and athletic events, while the older men engaged in shooting competitions), and prayer and thanksgiving (for God’s providence in watching over and providing for them).

This celebration began an annual tradition that slowly spread to the entire nation. Americans now celebrate a Day of Thanksgiving each November as part of our long American tradition of openly and publicly acknowledging God.

Among the many examples of the open acknowledge of God is the Declaration of Independence, which declares:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

As Thomas Jefferson affirmed: “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis—a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?”

It was standard practice for our leaders across the generations to acknowledge God as the Source of our national rights and blessings, and to give thanks to Him.

Some people believe America has strayed from the strong religious convictions of previous generations. Perhaps, but an important question is not just “Where is our country’s faith?” but rather “Where do you stand on faith?” Have you thankfully acknowledged the providence of Almighty God in your own life?

As you celebrate Thanksgiving, remember to retain the original gratefulness to God that has always been the spirit of this, the oldest of all American holidays.

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. PSALM 105:1

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor….Now, therefore, I do recommend …that we may all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection.” George Washington
“It is therefore recommended…[a day] for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and…join the penitent confession of their manifold sins…and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance…and to prosper the means of religion for the…enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost [Romans 14:17]” Continental Congress, 1777
“It be recommended to the several states…a day of public and solemn thanksgiving to Almighty God…to beseech Him that He would…pour out His Holy Spirit on all ministers of the Gospel; that He would…spread the light of Christian knowledge through the remotest corners of the earth…[and] that He would establish these United States upon the basis of religion and virtue.” Thomas Jefferson
“The year that is drawing towards it close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies…We are prone to forget the Source from which they come….They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God….I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens…[to] observe…a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer to our beneficent Father, Who dwelleth in the heavens.” Abraham Lincoln
“I…appoint…a day of public thanksgiving and praise,…rendering to God the tribute of praise for His unmerited goodness towards us…in continuing to us… the Holy Scriptures which are able to enlighten and make us wise to eternal salvation….[We] present our humble and penitent supplication…that He would… cause the benign religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be known, understood, and practiced among all the inhabitants of the earth.” John Hancock

Download the complete tract here!

* To see more original Thanksgiving proclamations issued by presidents, governors, and other leaders over generations visit our Resources page and filter by “Proclamations” and “Holidays.”

** Learn the history of Thanksgiving through a few of WallBuilders’ articles, starting here.

Join WallBuilders in Supporting America Prays

Dear Supporters,

We are excited to announce our partnership with the White House in the launch of America Prays. WallBuilders, led by Tim and David Barton, has been involved in this initiative from the beginning.

The response has been inspiring! We’re grateful for your partnership in mobilizing Americans to pray for our nation as we approach the 250th anniversary of our freedom. Let’s unite in lifting up our nation in prayer!

Our call to action is simple:

Gather groups of ten or more for one hour each week to pray for our country and its people.

Please visit and share The Official White House America Prays Landing Page.

Spread the word within your ministries and networks to help this movement grow!

Thank you for standing with us,

The WallBuilders Team

George Washington First Becomes a National Leader

On July 3, 1775 George Washington took command of the newly formed Continental Army.¹ Congress had selected him — one of its own members — to organize the farmers and local militia groups into an army capable of defeating the world’s greatest military power.² Quite an undertaking!

One of his first orders to the new American military set a clear tone of what he expected from his troops and also told us much about his character. In that order, Washington urged that

“…every officer and man will endeavor so as to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.”³

That his troops display Christian character was important to Washington, and he later additionally charged them:

“To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”⁴

He also issued orders prohibiting swearing,⁵ profanity,⁶ and gambling.⁷ He clearly set a very high moral standard for his troops, but it was not more than what he expected from himself. In fact, while just a young boy, he copied out 110 maxims concerning good behavior and manners. Called his “Rules of Civility,” he lived by them throughout his life, and they were especially apparent during his time as a soldier.

Washington longed for military life from the time he was a young boy, and he got his first experience during the French and Indian War, two decades before the American Revolution. He should have been killed in the Battle of the Monongahela, but his life was saved by God’s Divine intervention. As he told his brother:

“[I] now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence that protected me beyond all human expectation; I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me and yet escaped unhurt.”⁸

(Similar instances of his life being spared during the Revolutionary War are in the The Founders’ Bible article, “George Washington: The Soldier Who Could Not Die”).

It was as a result of what he did in the French and Indian War that he was first vaulted into the national spotlight. In fact, a famous military sermon preached in 1755 by the Rev. Samuel Davies (considered the greatest pulpit orator in American history) specifically singled out the young George Washington for special attention because of what happened in that battle.⁹

It was largely because of Washington’s experiences in that early war that he was chosen by his fellow citizens as a member of Congress, and then chosen by his peers in Congress as Commander-In-Chief.¹⁰ He led America on to a successful conclusion of the Revolutionary War, oversaw the formation of the United States Constitution,¹¹ and guided us through the implementation of our new government as our first president. He is rightly honored as “The Father of His Country.”¹²

Washington fully understood that the important part he had played in America’s formation was by the direction of God, acknowledging: “I have only been an instrument in the hands of Providence.”¹³

Let’s remember to honor one of the key individuals responsible for America’s independence: George Washington.

Special Notes: The remarkable story of George Washington is told in The Bulletproof George Washington. And his 110 Rules of Civility are still available today. Several of Washington’s religious and moral orders to his troops are found in the booklet The Spirit of the American Revolution. All of these are available in the WallBuilders store.

Endnotes

¹ US Army Center of Military History, “Washington takes command of Continental Army in 1775,” April 15, 2016, US Army; “Creating a Continental Army,” Library of Congress, accessed July 1, 2025.
² Washington Irving, Life of George Washington (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1856), II:1.
³ George Washington, “General Orders,” July 9, 1776, The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1932), 5:245.
⁴ Washington, “General Orders,” May 2, 1778, Writings of Washington, ed. Fitzpatrick (1934), 11:343.
⁵ Jared Sparks, The Writings of Washington, (Boston: Ferdinand Andrews, 1840), III:491n.
⁶ Washington, “General Orders,” August 3, 1776, Writings of Washington, ed. Fitzpatrick (1932), 5:367.
⁷ Washington, “General Orders,” February 26, 1776, Writings of Washington, ed. Fitzpatrick (1931), 4:347.
⁸ Washington to John Augustine Washington, July 18, 1755 Writings of Washington, ed. Fitzpatrick (1931), 1:152.
⁹ Samuel Davies, Religion and Patriotism: The Constituents of a Good Soldier. A Sermon Preached to Captain Overton’s independnet company of volunteers, raised in Hanover County, Virginia, August 17, 1755 (Philadelphia: 1756), 10n.
¹⁰ “George Washington’s Commission as Commander in Chief: Primary Documents in American History,” Library of Congress, accessed July 1, 2025.
¹¹ “Creating the United States: Convention and Ratification,” Library of Congress, accessed July 1, 2025; “The Constitutional Convention of 1787,” September 17, 2023, National Park Service.
¹² See, for example, S. G. Arnold, The Life of George Washington, First President of the United States (New York: T. Mason, 1840), 8.
¹³ George Washington to Lucretia Wilhelmina Van Winter, March 30, 1785, Founders Online.

Lexington & More: April 1775

A Midnight Ride to Lexington

The events of April 18-19, 1775 are some of the most famous in the story of how Americans won the liberty that we still enjoy today.

Those eventful days began on April 18, 1775 with a horseback ride by Paul Revere¹ and William Dawes.² They set out to warn militias across the Massachusetts countryside of approaching British troops,³ who were sent to Concord to confiscate the weapons there. These British troops were also dispatched to “bring back the bodies of Mess. Hancock and Adams.”⁴

Arriving in Lexington around midnight at the home of the Rev. Jonas Clark (where John Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying⁵), Revere passed on word of the British plans. Revere and Dawes then left Lexington, joined by Samuel Prescott,⁶ and continued their ride towards Concord. On their way, Revere and Dawes were captured by the British but Prescott escaped and alerted Concord.⁷

After the alert by Revere had been delivered in Lexington, the local militia (largely the men from Clark’s church) was mustered. On the morning of April 19, 1775, some 70 Americans would face about 800 British troops.⁸ Gunfire was exchanged — the American Revolution had begun!

As the smoke cleared, 18 Americans lay wounded or dead⁹ (all the casualties being from Pastor Clark’s church), including both black patriots (such as Prince Estabrook¹⁰) and white patriots (such as John Robbins¹¹). (One of the amazing items we have in the WallBuilders library is a sermon preached by Jonas Clark on the one-year anniversary of the Battle of Lexington.)

John Adams The much larger British force, having prevailed in that Lexington skirmish, continued their march towards Concord,¹² where they would be met by the Rev. William Emerson and 400 American patriots awaiting them.¹³ Also involved in that Concord group was black patriot Peter Salem,¹⁴ who a few weeks later went on to become the hero of the Battle of Bunker Hill.¹⁵

As we remember the events of this time from 1775 and the liberties they eventually produced, let’s also remember the responsibility those events place upon us. As John Adams reminded us:

Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.¹⁶

Endnotes

¹ Paul Revere, Deposition, c. 1775, Massachusetts Historical Society, detailing his ride and capture.
² “Paul Revere, Letter to Jeremy Belknap, c. 1798, Massachusetts Historical Society; see also “William Dawes: The Forgotten Midnight Rider,” February 17, 2014 History of Massachusetts Blog.
³ See “Letter from Francis Smith, Boston, to Thomas Gage, 1775 April 22, enclosed in Gage to Dartmouth, 1775 April 22,” University of Michigan Library for the British description of their mission, and Paul Revere’s handwritten deposition, c. 1775, Massachusetts Historical Society for the American description.
⁴ “Attempted Capture of John Hancock and Samuel Adams,” May 29, 2023, WallBuilders; see also Paul Revere’s letters to Jeremy Belknap, c. 1798, Massachusetts Historical Society.
⁵ J. T. Headley, The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution (NY: Charles Scribner, 1864), 78.
⁶ See Paul Revere’s handwritten deposition, c. 1775, Massachusetts Historical Society; see also Paul Revere’s letters to Jeremy Belknap, c. 1798, Massachusetts Historical Society.
⁷ George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1864), VII:290; see Paul Revere’s handwritten deposition, c. 1775, Massachusetts Historical Society.
⁸ There is a wealth of sources relating to the numbers in the Lexington battle that often provide differing numbers, such as: “Letter from Francis Smith, Boston, to Thomas Gage, 1775 April 22, enclosed in Gage to Dartmouth, 1775 April 22,” University of Michigan Library (British officer who states they sent “six light infantry companies” to Lexington, or 200–300 troops); Deposition #20, Edward Thoroton Gould, American History Central (British soldier who states there were 60–70 American militia); Deposition #8, Nathanael Parkhurst et al., American Battlefield Trust (who provides more details about the militia assembly at Lexington). Benson J. Lossing, A History of the United States (NY: Mason Brothers, 1860), 232, says there were 800 British troops which aligned with information stated by Jonas Clark in his sermon.
⁹ A soldier present at Lexington stated: “they [the British] killed eight of our company & wounded several” (Deposition #8, Nathanael Parkhurst et al., American Battlefield Trust).
¹⁰ “Historical Documents: “A List of the Names of Provincials…” 1775,” PBS, accessed April 10, 2025.
¹¹ “Deposition of John Robbins,” April 24, 1775, DocsTeach.
¹² Bancroft, History (1864), VII:297; see “Letter from Francis Smith, Boston, to Thomas Gage, 1775 April 22, enclosed in Gage to Dartmouth, 1775 April 22,” University of Michigan Library for the British description of their march to and from Concord.
¹³ Deposition #17, James Barrett, April 23, 1775, American History Central (specifies 300–400 militia present at North Bridge in Concord); Bancroft, History (1864), VII:290, 299. “Letter from Francis Smith, Boston, to Thomas Gage, 1775 April 22, enclosed in Gage to Dartmouth, 1775 April 22,” University of Michigan Library provides a British perspective as he states: “On our leaving Concord to return to Boston they began to fire on us from behind the walls, ditches, trees etc., which as we marched increased to a very great degree and continued without the intermission of five minutes altogether for I believe upwards of eighteen miles, so that I can’t think but it must have been a preconcerted scheme in them to attack the King’s troops the first favourable opportunity that offered.”
¹⁴ “Historical Documents: “A List of the Names of Provincials…” 1775,” PBS, accessed April 10, 2025.
¹⁵ William C. Nell, The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (Boston: Robert F. Wallcut, 1855), 21.
¹⁶ John Adams to Abigail Adams, April 26, 1777, Letters of John Adams Addressed to His Wife, ed. Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1841), 218.

A Brief History of Courtroom Prayers

In 2014, Wayne Mack was elected a judge in Montgomery County, Texas. As part of his responsibilities in dealing with troubled, grieving, and distraught families, he established a program for ministers to serve as volunteer chaplains, who would make themselves available to those families. Some sixty clergy from thirty different denominations and faiths currently participate in the program. Mack has observed that the clergy represent “every mosque, temple and synagogue” in the area.1 Judge Mack also allows different clerics to open his court sessions with prayer.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) of Madison, Wisconsin, learned of the prayers, objected, and filed a complaint with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct. This complaint was dismissed. In 2016, FFRF filed another challenge, and the Texas Attorney General issued an opinion upholding Mack’s practice as constitutional. The Wisconsin group has since found a local attorney and residents to serve as plaintiffs, and in 2019 they filed suit in federal court objecting to the prayers in Judge Mack’s courtroom. They allege a violation of the First Amendment’s declaration that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” which they interpret as requiring a religion-free public square. FFRF claims that:

Judge Mack’s courtroom-prayer practice unambiguously and unnecessarily endorses religion in general and Christianity in particular, and places the State’s imprimatur on religion in general and Christianity in particular, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.2

Is Judge Mack’s practice of courtroom prayer a violation of the Constitution? To answer this question, we must first consider how the Constitution should be interpreted. More narrowly, we need to examine how the modern US Supreme Court has said the Establishment Clause should be interpreted.

How Should the Constitution Be Interpreted?

America’s Founders believed that the Constitution, and other laws, should be interpreted in light of their original meaning. For instance, President Thomas Jefferson recalled to Supreme Court Justice William Johnson the cardinal maxim of constitutional interpretation:

On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.3

James Madison, often called the “Father of the Constitution,” agreed:

[I] entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution.4

And James Wilson, an early Supreme Court Justice whose role in drafting the Constitution was on a par with that of Madison, likewise affirmed:

The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.5

Justice Joseph Story concurred. The youngest Justice ever appointed to the Court, in his 34 years on the bench he authored 286 opinions, of which 94 percent were recorded as the official Court position.6 Called the “foremost of American legal writers,”7 he affirmed:

The first and fundamental rule in the interpretation of all instruments [documents] is to construe them according to the sense of the terms and the intention of the parties.8

The Supreme Court and the Establishment Clause

Numerous times throughout the modern era the US Supreme Court has stated that the First Amendment must be interpreted according to its original intent—that early historical precedent is seminal in establishing constitutional understandings. As Justice Hugo Black (writing for the majority) affirmed in Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the “meaning and scope of the First Amendment” must be understood in “light of its history and the evils it was designed forever to suppress.”9 Justice Wiley Rutledge and three others dissented from the majority’s holding in that opinion, but they, too, agreed that the First Amendment must be understood in light of the Founders’ views.10 (In subsequent Establishment Clause decisions over the past 75 years, the vast majority of justices have invoked historical arguments to support their conclusions.11)

For instance, in the Marsh v. Chambers decision upholding the constitutionality of legislative chaplains and prayer (1983), Chief Justice Burger (writing for the majority) drew from a wide range of historical documents and actions to show that legislative chaplains and prayer were widespread in the Founding Era.12 He pointed out that the Founders who drafted and approved the First Amendment had themselves approved legislative prayer and therefore hired legislative chaplains.13 He further acknowledged that the fact states also had a long tradition of engaging in these practices showed that they were “deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country.”14

In Town of Greece v. Galloway, 572 U.S. 565 (2014), the justices considered the constitutionality of a city council’s practice of opening its meetings with prayer. In his majority opinion, Kennedy observed that the “Court’s inquiry, then, must be to determine whether the prayer practice in the town of Greece fits within the tradition long followed in Congress and the state legislatures.”15 Drawing heavily from Founding Era practices (and historical practices since then), he concluded that opening a city council meeting with prayer was constitutional. Both the concurring and dissenting16 opinions all made historical arguments to support their respective conclusions. All nine justices affirmed that that history plays a critical role in helping the Court resolve First Amendment Establishment Clause issues.

In the Supreme Court’s 2019 Establishment Clause case, American Legion v. American Humanist Association, 588 U.S. __ (2019), the justices considered the constitutionality of a military war memorial in the shape of a Latin cross.17 By a vote of 7-2, they held that it did not violate the First Amendment. Justice Alito, writing for the majority, noted that recent Establishment Clause cases “look[ed] to history for guidance,”18 specifically pointing to both the Marsh and Galloway cases. He concluded that whenever “categories of monuments, symbols, and practices with a longstanding history follow in that tradition, they are likewise constitutional.”19

A Brief History of Courtroom Prayers in America

There is no question that courtroom prayer is a practice “deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country.”20 Significantly, America’s Founders were familiar with and supportive of courtroom prayer, and hosts of judges and courts at the state and federal levels continued their practice across subsequent generations.

Consider first the original Supreme Court. It was comprised of six justices—one Chief Justice and five Associate Justices. Three of the six had been drafters and signers of the US Constitution (James Wilson, John Rutledge, and James Blair), and five were members of state conventions that ratified the Constitution (James Iredell, William Cushing, John Jay, John Rutledge, and James Wilson). Additionally, Jay was one of the three authors of The Federalist Papers, which James Madison described as “the most authentic exposition of the heart of the federal Constitution as understood by the body which prepared and the authority which accepted it.”21 Arguably, no other Court in American history had superior constitutional scholars or was in a better position to understand the original meaning of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The Judiciary Act of 1789 assigned justices judicial responsibilities over a specific geographic region (circuits). They personally traveled to those areas to impanel grand juries and oversee the federal courts in each jurisdiction. In preparation for these visits, local officials would correspond with the justices to ensure that all necessary arrangements for their visit were made.

For example, on February 24, 1790, federal judge Richard Law of Connecticut inquired of Chief-Justice John Jay which judges would be coming to their region, whether there should be a parade, if special robes for the judges were desired, or “whether they would wish to have a clergyman attend” at the Court sessions.22 To the latter question, Jay responded “The custom in New England of a clergyman’s attending should in my opinion be observed and continued.”23

Prayers in the Federal Courts

Newspaper accounts of the Justices’ visits (occurring after the First Amendment and its religion clauses had been added to the Constitution) confirm that courtroom prayer was part of the official court proceedings:

After the customary proclamations were made and the Grand Jury sworn, a short (though pertinent) charge was given them by his Honor the Chief-Justice [John Jay], when the Throne of Grace was addressed by the Rev. Dr. Haven.24 PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1791
Court opened on Saturday, May 12, with Chief-Justice John Jay, Associate Justice William Cushing, and Judge John Lowell in attendance….The prayer was made by the Rev. Dr. Parker. His Excellency the Vice-President of the United States [John Adams] was in Court.25 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1792
Last Wednesday, the Circuit Court of the United States opened in this town, when the Rev. Mr. Patten addressed the Throne of Grace in prayer, after which the Hon. Judge Wilson delivered to the Grand Jury a charge.26 NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, 1793
On Monday last, the Hon. Judge Cushing commenced the lesson of the Circuit Court in this town when he delivered to the Grand Jury an animated charge….Previous to the charge, the Throne of Mercy was addressed in prayer by the Rev. Mr. Eckley.27 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1794
On Monday last, the Circuit Court of the United States was opened in this town. The Hon. Judge Paterson [a signer of the Constitution who joined the Court in 1793] presided….After the charge was delivered, the Rev. Mr. Alden addressed the Throne of Grace in an excellent, well adapted prayer.28 PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE, 1800

Prayers in federal courts continued across the generations

After a solemn and appropriate prayer by the Rev. Mr. Baker, his honor Judge [Joseph] Story delivered to the Grand Jury a highly impressive, eloquent and learned charge.29 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, 1819
[T]he courtroom was very much crowded at an early hour. About half past ten he [Judge Levi Woodbury] came in with Judge Sprague and took his seat on the right. The court was then opened, a prayer was offered up by the Rev. Mr. Kirk.30 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 1845
President Hayes nominated a very intelligent Christian gentleman as Judge of this district. At the opening of court at G—- R—–, he telegraphed for me to come and open the court with prayer.…Judge ——- waited for me and took me up to the court-house.… [I asked] God’s blessing upon the Judge, prosecuting attorney, jurors, their town, households, families, companions, children, and youth of the town.31 WESTERN UNITED STATES TERRITORIAL FEDERL COURT, 1877
Court convened; opened with prayer by John Reed.32 UNITED STATES COURT OF CLAIMS, 1896
Following a custom which is observed in many United States [federal] Courts, the New Jersey Circuit was opened yesterday with prayer.33 NEW JERSEY, 1908

Clearly, across the generations prayer in the courtroom was common and not viewed as a violation of any constitutional clause.

Before leaving the federal courts, it is worth noting United States Supreme Court sessions regularly begin with the prayer “God save the United States and this Honorable Court.” The first recorded instance of the Supreme Court opening with this prayer was in 1827 but, as we have seen, other federal courts were already opening with prayer well before that date.34

Prayers in State Courts

Like federal courts, state court sessions also were often opened with prayer. Here are a few representative examples from across the states and generations:

At the opening of the Supreme Court in this city on Tuesday last, the Rev. W. Taylor, pastor of the Roman Catholic Church, was requested to offer up the customary prayer.35 MASSACHUSETTS, 1823
Rev. Dr. Lamson…made the opening prayer in court.36 MASSACHUSETTS, 1846
Judge Howe of Wisconsin opens his courts with prayer.37 WINCONSIN, 1851
The first general term of the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of Vermont…opened Tuesday morning….The six judges…stood this morning while the Rev. J. H. Worcester opened the Court with prayer.38 VERMONT, 1858
One of the learned justices of the Maine Supreme Court…was holding court at Ellsworth, and according to honored custom called in a local clergyman to open the session with a supplication to heaven.39 MAINE, 1894
[O]ne of our county courts.…employed a Methodist minister to open the court with prayer.40 VERMONT, 1897
Circuit court was opened with prayer at 10 a.m. yesterday.41 SOUTH DAKOTA, 1906
Rev. F. M. Brown, pastor of the First M. E. church will open court with prayer and Judge Howard J. Curtis of Stafford will preside.42 CONNECTICUT, 1912
Dr. R. F. Moore of Sacred Heart church has been invited by County Sheriff Simeon Pease to open with prayer the December court, which will convene at the county court house tomorrow afternoon. Judge Joel H. Reed will be on the bench.43 CONNECTICUT, 1919
Judge Pomeroy called upon the Rev. Charles C. Cole, pastor of the Methodist church, to open court with prayer. It is understood that this will be a regular practice.44 MONTANA, 1921
Dr. J. F. McClure, pastor of the Broadway Methodist church, was called upon by Judge W. F. Freeman to open court with prayer.45 OKLAHOMA, 1923
Judge Emory E. Smith.…always opens his terms of court with prayer.46 MISSOURI, 1934
[A]t Marietta, Georgia, a clergyman was asked to open court with prayer.47 GEORGIA, 1947
Ministers of the Middlesboro Ministerial Association are opening police court everyday with prayer.…Each morning a different minister is assigned.48 KENTUCKY, 1950
Judge Maupin Cummings presided, and asked the Rev. W. R. Whiddon of Huntsville to open court with a prayer.49 ARKANSAS, 1955
Judge Bundy asked clerk George C. Holland to have a minister present when court opened Monday, Feb. 4. The Judge said it was his custom to open court with a prayer.50 NORTH CAROLINA, 1963
Judge Cooper Opens Court With Prayer.…[T]he invocation was delivered by the Rev. V. E. Brown, pastor of Gethsemane Baptist Church.51 NORTH CAROLINA, 1972
Judge William O. Bivens Jr.…called on a courthouse employee, Woodrow Bailey of the Assessor’s Officer, to open court with prayer. Judge Bivens usually opens the session with prayer each day.52 WEST VIRGINIA, 1977

There are many other examples.53 In fact, the practice of courtroom prayer was so common that in 1835, a ministerial handbook provided model prayers for opening a court session,54 and a century later, a 1928 pastoral handbook listed it as one of the expected activities of a minister.55

Conclusion

The First Amendment does prohibit the creation of a national church, but contrary to the claims from Freedom From Religion Foundation, it does not require religion to be scrubbed from the public square. The Establishment Clause, as it was originally understood and subsequently applied across the generations and the centuries, did not prohibit, a judge from allowing clergy from different religions and denominations to open court sessions with prayer. Such practices are “deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country,”56 and as Justice Alito recently observed, when this is the case, there is a “presumption of constitutionality for longstanding monuments, symbols, and practices.”57 Opening court sessions with prayer is clearly such a practice.

* This article concerns a historical topic and may not be up to date.

Endnotes

1 Debra Cassens, Weiss, “Refiled lawsuit challenges justice of the peace’s courtroom prayer program,” ABA Journal, March 30, 2019, here.

2 “Complaint for Declaratory Relief,” in Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. Judge Wayne Mack, Case No. 4:19-cv-1934 (Filed May 29, 2019), 17, here.

3 Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, editor (Boston: Gray and Bowen, 1830), IV:373, to Judge William Johnson on June 12, 1823.

4 James Madison, Letters and Other Writings of James Madison (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1865), III:443, to Henry Lee on June 25, 1824.

5 James Wilson, The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, ed. Bird Wilson (Philadelphia: Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), I:14, from “Lectures on Law Delivered in the College of Philadelphia; Introductory Lecture: Of the Study of the Law in the United States.”

6 Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), s.v. “Joseph Story.”

7 Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), s.v. “Joseph Story.”

8 Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1833), III:383, §400.

9 Everson v. Board of Education 330 U.S. 1, 14-15 (1947).

10 Everson v. Board of Education 330 U.S. 1, 33 (1947).

11 Mark David Hall, “Jeffersonian Walls and Madisonian Lines: The Supreme Court’s Use of History in Religion Clause Cases,” Oregon Law Review (2006) 85:563-613. A slightly revised version of the article was reprinted in the High Court Quarterly Review (2009), 5:109-153.

12 Marsh v. Chambers 463 U.S. 783 (1983), 786-95.

13 Marsh v. Chambers, 787-88.

14 Marsh v. Chambers, 786. To support this proposition, Burger quoted his majority opinion in Walz v. Tax Commissioner: “It is obviously correct that no one acquires a vested or protected right in violation of the Constitution by long use, even when that span of time covers our entire national existence, and indeed predates it. Yet an unbroken practice of according the exemption to churches, openly and by affirmative state action, not covertly or by state inaction, is not something to be lightly cast aside.” 397 U.S. 664, 678 (1970).

15 Town of Greece v. Galloway, 572 U.S. 565, 9 (2014) (Kennedy, J. majority opinion).

16 Town of Greece v. Galloway, 572 U.S. 565, 9 (2014) (Kagan, J. dissenting).

17 American Legion v. American Humanist Association, 88 U.S. __, 1 (2019), (Ginsburg, J., dissenting).

18 American Legion v. American Humanist Association, 588 U.S. __, 25 (2019), (Alito, J.).

19 American Legion v. American Humanist Association, 28.

20 Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 786 (1983).

21 James Madison, The Writings of James Madison, ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1910), IX:219, to Thomas Jefferson on February 8, 1825.

22 The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1800, ed. Maeva Marcus (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), II:11.

23 The Documentary History of the Supreme Court, II:13, from John Jay to Richard Law on March 10, 1790.

24 New Hampshire Gazette (Portsmouth), May 26, 1791; Documentary History of the Supreme Court, II:192.

25 Columbian Centinel (Boston), May 16, 1792, 74; Documentary History of the Supreme Court, II:276. For a similar report from 1790, see Boston Gazette (May 10, 1790), in Charles Warren, The Supreme Court in United States History (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1924), 1:59, here.

26 The Documentary History of the Supreme Court, II:412, from the Newport Mercury (Rhode Island) of June 25, 1793.

27 Philadelphia Gazette Of The United States And Daily Evening Advertiser (June 16, 1794), 6, from Boston, June 11, 1794, here

28 United States Oracle (Portsmouth, NH), May 24, 1800; The Documentary History of the Supreme Court, III:436.

29 Richmond Enquirer (November 30, 1819), 4, here.

30 The New Era (October 22, 1845), 2, here.

31 The Presbyterian Monthly Record (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, January 1878), 2, here.

32 Turner v. U.S., United States Court of Claims, April 10, 1916, 51 Ct.Cl. 125, 1916 WL 1115.

33 Trenton Evening Times (April 15, 1908), 12, here.

34 Mark David Hall, Did America Have a Christian Founding: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Fact (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2019), 113.

35 American Watchman and Delaware Advertiser (November 25, 1823), 2, quoting from the Boston Galaxy of November 7, 1823, here.

36 Boston Post (September 26, 1846), 2, here.

37 The Plymouth Pilot (June 4, 1851), 2, here; see also The Southern Press (June 7, 1851), 2, here.

38 Burlington Free Press (July 30, 1858), 2, here.

39 The Barrister (Toronto: The Law Publishing Co., December 1894), 237, here. (For an example from 1882, see Tit-Bits From All The Most Interesting Books, Periodicals and Newspapers in the World No. 25, Vol. I (April 8, 1882), 12, here

40 Vermont Bar Association: Officers, Proceedings, Papers and Addresses (October 12, 1897), Vol. IV No. 3, 347-348, here.

41 Mitchel Capital (February 9, 1906), 1, here.

42 Bridgeport Evening Farmer (September 6, 1912), 2, here.

43 Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer (December 1, 1919), 1, here.

44 Fort Benton River Press (February 2, 1921), 8, here.

45 Daily Ardmore (January 22, 1923), 1, here.

46 Cassville Republican (March 8, 1934), 1, here.

47 The Carthage Citizen (February 21, 1947), 1, here.

48 Middlesboro Daily News (February 10, 1950), 1, here.

49 Northwest Arkansas Times (March 7, 1955), 1, here. See also, Kansas City Word and Way (February 3, 1955), 2, here.

50 Gastonia Gazette (January 22, 1963), 3, here.

51 Burlington Daily Times (April 5, 1972), 4B, here.

52 Bluefield Daily Telegraph (March 3, 1977), 5, here.

53 See, for example, Philadelphia Gazette of the United States (August 3, 1791), reporting an event on June 30, here; Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette (June 14, 1851), 2, here; The New Bloomfield Times (December 30, 1879), 4, here; The Green Bag (Boston: October 1903), Vol. XV, No. 10, 502, relating info from circa 1880, here; Quincy Daily Herald (January 26, 1881), 2, here; Indianapolis Journal (February 2, 1885), 2, here; Savannah Morning News (March 14, 1895), 6, here; Jeffersonville Evening Journal (October 29, 1896), 2, here; Columbus Daily Times (March 15, 1898), 4, here; Seymour Daily Republican (March 2, 1898), 2, here; Atlanta Constitution (November 12, 1901), 7, here; Washington Evening Journal (February 3, 1902), 1, here; The Quincy Journal (February 22, 1908), 5, here; Norwich Bulletin (June 11, 1909), 6, here; Gulfport Daily Herald (September 9, 1910), 4, here; The Jackson Herald (August 7, 1913), 1, here; Santa Anna Daily Evening Register (July 21, 1914), 1, here; Vienna News (September 16, 1915), 1, here; Bridgeport Evening Farmer (February 12, 1916), 1, here; Bridgeport Evening Farmer (October 23, 1916), 1, here; Missouri Valley Independent (January 4, 1923), 1, here; Bluefield Daily Telegraph (March 8, 1971), 11, here; Bluefield Daily Telegraph (March 20, 1988), 7-4, here; and others.

54 Alexander V. Griswold, Prayers Adapted to Various Occasions of Social Worship: For Which Provision is Not Made in the Book of Common Prayer (Philadelphia: William Marshall & Co., 1835), 149-151, here.

55 Nolan B. Harmon, Ministerial Ethics and Etiquette (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987, originally published 1928), 52, here.

56 Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 786 (1983).

57 American Legion v. American Humanist Association, 588 U.S. __, 18 (2019), (Alito, J.).

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Thoughts on Psalm 35

Prayer Proposed

Whitefield’s “Faather Abraham” Sermon

When Two or More are Gathered

Scripture Applied

Endnotes

Thoughts on Matthew 6

Endnotes

Thoughts on 1 Chronicles 17:11-12

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Thoughts on 2 Chronicles 5-7

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Thoughts on 2 Kings 23

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George Washington First Becomes a National Leader

Endnotes

A Midnight Ride to Lexington

Endnotes

How Should the Constitution Be Interpreted?

The Supreme Court and the Establishment Clause

A Brief History of Courtroom Prayers in America

Prayers in the Federal Courts

Prayers in State Courts

Conclusion

Endnotes

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