America's Godly Heritage
The events of 1745 unfolded with disconcerting eventualities looming on the horizon. The threat of war shook colonists and contributed to the spread of the Great Awakening Revival.
This came about when the British took the French city of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, which was the third busiest seaport in America, behind Boston and Philadelphia, and was New France's second most important commercial city after Quebec.
France wanted Louisbourg back, so in 1746, French Admiral d'Anville set sail with the most powerful fleet of its day. He had 73 ships with 800 cannons and 13,000 troops.
Admiral d'Anville intended to: "expel the British from Nova Scotia, consign Boston to flames, ravage New England, and waste the British West Indies. Massachusetts Governor William Shirley declared a Day of Prayer and Fasting, October 16, 1746, to pray for deliverance.
Boston citizens gathered in the Old South Meeting House, where Rev. Thomas Prince prayed:
"Send Thy tempest, Lord, upon the water...scatter the ships of our tormentors!"
Historian Catherine Drinker Bowen related that as he finished praying, the sky darkened, winds shrieked and church bells rang "a wild, uneven sound...though no man was in the steeple."
A hurricane scattered the entire French fleet as far as the Caribbean.
Lightning struck several ships, igniting gunpowder magazines, causing explosions and fire.
With 2,000 dead, including Admiral d'Anville, and 4,000 sick with typhoid, French Vice-Admiral d'Estournelle threw himself on his sword.
This great deliverance encouraged Ben Franklin to organized Pennsylvania's first "volunteer" militia with 10,000 signing up. This began Ben Franklin's career of public service, as he became the most popular person in the colony.
Ben Franklin also propose a General Fast which was approved by Pennsylvania's Council and published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, December 12, 1747:
"The calamities of a bloody war...seem every year more nearly to approach us...and there is just reason to fear that unless we humble ourselves before the Lord and amend our ways, we may be chastized with yet heavier judgments.
We have...thought fit...to appoint...a Day of Fasting and Prayer, exhorting all, both Ministers and People...to join with one accord in the most humble & fervent supplications that Almighty God would mercifully interpose and still the rage of war among the nations and put a stop to the effusion of Christian blood."
The threat of war was averted.
The time in which we live is fraught with strife. We are a people who have lost our moral compass. We are the purveyors of pornography. We are raising our children without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our schools and universities are hotbeds of dissent. Our leaders are diminishing our military might and making us vulnerable before our enemies who are increasing on every hand. There is a worldview that strives toward world domination and the annihilation of everyone who will not acquiesce to it.
May we today resolve to fast and pray, to beseech the God of Heaven and Earth in the behalf of this nation that was placed at His feet at its inception, that He would have mercy upon us. Let us pray that He would revive us, that He would restore us to the faith of our fathers so He can employ His mighty power in the behalf of this nation once again.
The events of 1745 unfolded with disconcerting eventualities looming on the horizon. The threat of war shook colonists and contributed to the spread of the Great Awakening Revival.
This came about when the British took the French city of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, which was the third busiest seaport in America, behind Boston and Philadelphia, and was New France's second most important commercial city after Quebec.
France wanted Louisbourg back, so in 1746, French Admiral d'Anville set sail with the most powerful fleet of its day. He had 73 ships with 800 cannons and 13,000 troops.
Admiral d'Anville intended to: "expel the British from Nova Scotia, consign Boston to flames, ravage New England, and waste the British West Indies. Massachusetts Governor William Shirley declared a Day of Prayer and Fasting, October 16, 1746, to pray for deliverance.
Boston citizens gathered in the Old South Meeting House, where Rev. Thomas Prince prayed:
"Send Thy tempest, Lord, upon the water...scatter the ships of our tormentors!"
Historian Catherine Drinker Bowen related that as he finished praying, the sky darkened, winds shrieked and church bells rang "a wild, uneven sound...though no man was in the steeple."
A hurricane scattered the entire French fleet as far as the Caribbean.
Lightning struck several ships, igniting gunpowder magazines, causing explosions and fire.
With 2,000 dead, including Admiral d'Anville, and 4,000 sick with typhoid, French Vice-Admiral d'Estournelle threw himself on his sword.
This great deliverance encouraged Ben Franklin to organized Pennsylvania's first "volunteer" militia with 10,000 signing up. This began Ben Franklin's career of public service, as he became the most popular person in the colony.
Ben Franklin also propose a General Fast which was approved by Pennsylvania's Council and published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, December 12, 1747:
"The calamities of a bloody war...seem every year more nearly to approach us...and there is just reason to fear that unless we humble ourselves before the Lord and amend our ways, we may be chastized with yet heavier judgments.
We have...thought fit...to appoint...a Day of Fasting and Prayer, exhorting all, both Ministers and People...to join with one accord in the most humble & fervent supplications that Almighty God would mercifully interpose and still the rage of war among the nations and put a stop to the effusion of Christian blood."
The threat of war was averted.
The time in which we live is fraught with strife. We are a people who have lost our moral compass. We are the purveyors of pornography. We are raising our children without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our schools and universities are hotbeds of dissent. Our leaders are diminishing our military might and making us vulnerable before our enemies who are increasing on every hand. There is a worldview that strives toward world domination and the annihilation of everyone who will not acquiesce to it.
May we today resolve to fast and pray, to beseech the God of Heaven and Earth in the behalf of this nation that was placed at His feet at its inception, that He would have mercy upon us. Let us pray that He would revive us, that He would restore us to the faith of our fathers so He can employ His mighty power in the behalf of this nation once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment