Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
William Rogers (1751-1824) was an American clergyman who is perhaps most famous for leading the Constitutional Convention in prayer on July 4, 1787, at the Reformed Calvinistic Church of Philadelphia. Beside being the first student to attend and graduate from Brown University (then known as Rhode Island College), from 1771 to 1824, Rogers was a Baptist clergyman, serving as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia from 1772-1775. When hostilities broke out he temporarily departed from the minister to don a uniform, serving as a chaplain in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
The prayer Reverend Rogers led the delegation from the Constitutional Convention in:
“As this is a period, O Lord! big, with events, impenetrable by any human scrutiny, we fervently recommend to thy fatherly notice, that august Body assembled in this city, who compose our Federal Convention; will it please Thee, O Eternal I Am! to favor them from day to day with thy immediate presence; be thou their wisdom and their strength! Enable them to devise such measures as may prove happily instrumental for healing all divisions, and promoting the good of the
great whole; incline the hearts of all the people to receive with pleasure, combined with a determination to carry into execution, whatever these thy servants may wisely recommend; that the United States of America may furnish the world with one example of a free and permanent government, which shall be the result of human and mutual deliberation, and which shall not, like all other governments, whether ancient or modern, spring out of mere chance, or be established by force. – May we triumph in the cheering prospect of being completely delivered from anarchy; and continue, under the influence of republican virtue, to partake of all the blessings of cultivated and civilized society!”
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
No comments:
Post a Comment