Fast and Prayer

General William Livingston made a resolution to Congress which passed without dissent: “We earnestly recommend that Friday, the 17th day of May be observed by the colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that we may with united hearts confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions … and by a sincere repentance … appease God’s righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ obtain His pardon and forgiveness.” In times of impending calamity and distress; when the liberties of America are imminently endangered by the secret machinations and open assaults of an insidious ...

Four days before the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” John Hancock circulates this declaration to the citizens of Massachusetts: “In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent Measure should be taken to ward off the impending Judgements.. “All confidence must be withheld from the Means we use; and reposed only on that GOD who rules in the Armies of Heaven, and without whose Blessing the best human Counsels are but Foolishness--and all created Power Vanity. "It is the Happiness of his Church that, when the Powers of Earth and ...

The first session of the Continental Congress opened the beginning of September in the year 1774 with prayer in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia. Threatened by the most powerful monarch in the world, Britain’s King George III, America’s founding fathers heard Rev. Jacob Duché begin by reading Psalm 35, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer’s “Psalter” for that day Sept. 7, 1774: “Plead my cause, Oh, Lord, with them that strive with me, fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield, and rise up for my help. Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet ...

The first official act of Congress was a call to prayer that the Rev. Mr. Duché be desired to open the Congress tomorrow morning with prayers, at the Carpenter's Hall, at 9 o'clock." When the Congress met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with Prayer. It was opposed by Mr. Jay of New York and Mr. 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. Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said, "that ...

The Boston Port Act was passed by the Parliament of Great Britain March 31, 1774. The Boston Port Act was designed to punish the inhabitants of Boston, Massachusetts for the incident that would become known as the Boston Tea Party. The Port Act was one of a series of British Laws referred to as the Intolerable Acts passed by the Parliament of Great Britain 1774. The Boston Port Act was to close the port until the tea that had been destroyed at the Boston Tea Party and that payments were made to the East India Company paid for the lost tea ...

On this day, a national fast was observed throughout America for the Lord to protect them as a fleet and armament to recover... Novascotia, and to lay waste the whole seacoast from Novascotia to Georgia. A large fleet of 70 ships neared the coast when Reverend Prince at the Old South Meeting House in Boston (as well as ministers throughout America) prayed for help. Historian Catherine Drinker Bowen relates that, "That very night God sent upon them a more dreadful storm than either of the former, and completed their destruction. Some overset, some foundered, and a remnant only of ...

The unfamiliar American soil presented problems to the Pilgrims, but an Indian named Samoset greeted them and taught them how to fertilize best fertilize the soil. The results (months later) were spectacular, and the Pilgrims had much to be thankful for in the new land. About 100 Indians were invited to share in a thanksgiving feast of those first bumper crops of beans, squash, corn, barley, and peas. The Indians brought fresh venison and turkey and other fowl was provided by the Pilgrims, and enjoyed a meal together sitting on the ground under the bright fall foliage of autumn ...

Commemorating the French Huguenots and their attempt at seeking religious freedom in America, Rep. Charles E. Bennett sponsored a bill on Sept. 21, 1950, to establish the Fort Caroline National Memorial. In 1989, he recited the history: “The 425th anniversary of the beginning settlements by Europeans … renamed from Fort Caroline to San Mateo, to San Nicolas, to Cowford and finally to Jacksonville in 1822. … Three small ships carrying 300 Frenchmen led by Rene de Laudonniere anchored in the river known today as the St. Johns. …” Rep. Bennett continued: "On June 30, 1564, construction of a triangular-shaped ...