Resolution to
Pray: The First Continental Congress
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The first act of the first
session of the Continental Congress was to pass the
following resolution :-
Tuesday, September 6, 1774.-Resolves; That the Rev.
Mr. Duche be de-sired to open Congress to-morrow morning
with prayer, at Carpenter's Hall, at nine o'clock.
Wednesday, September 7, 1774, Agreeable to the
resolve of yesterday, the meeting was opened with prayer
by the Rev. Mr. Duche.
John Adams, in a letter to his wife, thus describes that
scene :
 " When the Congress first met, Mr. Cushing first made a
motion that it should be opened with prayer. It was
opposed by one or two, because we were so divided in
religious sentiments-some were Episcopalians, some
Quakers, some Ana-baptists, some Presbyterians, and some
Congregationalists-that we could not agree in the same act
of worship. Mr. Samuel Adams rose 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. He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard
that Mr. Duche deserved that character, and therefore he
moved that Mr. Duche, an Episcopalian clergy-man, might be
desired to read prayers to the Congress to-morrow
morning.' The motion was seconded, and passed in the
affirmative. Mr. Randolph, our President, waited on Mr.
Duche, and received for answer that if his health would
permit he certainly would. Accordingly, next morning he
appeared, with his clerk and in his pontificals, and read
the collect for the seventh day of September, which was
the thirty-first Psalm. You must re-member that this was
the first morning after we heard the horrible rumor of the
cannonade of Boston. I never saw a greater effect produced
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." It is as follows :
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In thee, 0 Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be
ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.
- Bow down thine ear to me ; deliver me speedily : be
thou my strong Lock, for a house of defence to save me.
- For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy
name's sake lead me, and guide me.
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Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for
me : for thou art my strength.
-
Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hest redeemed
me, 0 Lord God of truth.
- I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I
trust in the Lord.
- I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hest
considered my trouble ; thou hest known my soul in
adversities ;
- And halt not shut me up into the hand of the enemy:
thou hest set my feet in a large room.
-
Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord, for I am in trouble : mine
eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
- For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and
my bones are consumed:
- I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but
especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine
acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.
- I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a
broken vessel.
- For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on
every side: while they took counsel together against me,
they devised to take away my life.
-
But I trusted in thee, 0 Lord: I said, Thou art my
God.
- My times are in thy hand : deliver me from the hand of
mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
-
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for
thy mercies' sake.
- Let me not be ashamed, 0 Lord ; for I have called upon
thee : let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent
in the grave.
- Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak
grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the
righteous.
- Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou halt laid up
for them that fear thee ; which thou hest wrought for them
that trust in thee before the sons of men !
-
Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from
the pride of man : thou shalt keep them secretly in a
pavilion from the strife of tongues.
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Blessed be the Lord : for he hath showed me his
marvellous kindness in a strong city.
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For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine
eyes : nevertheless thou heurdest the voice of my
supplications when I cried unto thee.
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Oh love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord
preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the
proud doer.
- Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your
heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.
" After this," says Adams, "Mr. Duche, unexpectedly to
every-body, struck out into an extemporaneous prayer,
which filled the bosom of every man present. I must
confess I never heard a better prayer, or one so well
pronounced. Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself
never prayed with such fervor, such ardor, such
earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and
sublime, for America, for the Province of Massachusetts,
and especially for the town of Boston."
In Adams's Diary, Sept. 7, 1774, the same scene is
recorded :
" Went to Congress again ; heard Mr. Duche read prayers ;
the collect for the 7th of the month was most admirably
adapted, -though this was accidental, or, rather,
providential. A prayer which he gave us of his own
composition was as pertinent, as affectionate, as sublime,
as devout, as I ever heard offered up to Heaven. He filled
every bosom present."
We give below the prayer as it is printed in Thatcher's "
Military Biography," under date of December, 1777.
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0 Lord our heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings
and Lord of lords, who dolt from thy throne behold all the
dwellers on earth, and reignest with power supreme and
uncontrolled 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, de-siring to be henceforth dependent only on
thee ; to thee they have 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, and
if they still persist in their sanguinary purposes, oh,
let the voice of thine own unerring justice, sounding in
their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war
from their unnerved hands in the day of battle. Be thou
present, 0 God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this
honorable assembly : enable them to settle things on the
best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be
speedily closed, that order, harmony, and peace may be
effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and
piety, prevail and flourish amongst thy people. Preserve
the health of their bodies and the vigor of their minds ;
shower down on them and the millions they here represent,
such temporal blessings as thou west expedient for them in
this world, and crown them with everlasting glory in the
world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the
merits of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Saviour. |
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