Hebrews 11:1-2

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.

 

We sing the hymn “Faith of our fathers, holy faith!”

As we celebrate the 242th birthday of our country, it is appropriate that we honor the men who founded our country. It is also appropriate and good for us to remember their faith in God who guided them.

And it’s most appropriate to give God all the glory and praise for his providential care in guiding these men to create a country and a constitution that gives us liberty to pursue our own lives and happiness and to worship Him in freedom without fear of persecution.

Instead of me expounding on their faith, I’m going to let them speak for themselves.

In 1789 at the Constitutional Convention, after deliberating for 4-5 weeks without much progress, Benjamin Franklin made a motion that prayers be offered every morning asking God for His help in their deliberations:

“I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that Service”

Edmund Randolph from Virginia then added to Franklin’s motion that a sermon be preached on July 4th during the convention. Franklin seconded Randolph’s motion.

“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.” – John Adams

“The Man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf.” – George Washington

“I … [rely] upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.” – Samuel Adams

John Hancock called on the State of Massachusetts to pray:

“…that all may bow to the scepter of our Lord Jesus Christ and that the whole Earth may be filled with his glory.”

“I have sometimes thought there could be no stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ, and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.” – James Madison

“The practice of morality being necessary for the well-being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus, and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.” – Thomas Jefferson

And those very familiar words written in the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776:

“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.”

And, finally, when he had completed his term as the first president of the United States of America, George Washington offered this prayer in his Farewell Address, September, 1796:

“I now make it my earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection, that thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States of America at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of The Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation.”

May God Bless You and May God Bless the United States of America.