Ulysses S. Grant’s proclamation.

By the President of the United States of America

The centennial anniversary of the day on which the people of the United States declared their right to a separate and equal station among the powers of the earth seems to demand an exceptional observance.

The founders of the Government, at its birth and in its feebleness, invoked the blessings and the protection of a Divine Providence, and the thirteen colonies and three millions of people have expanded into a nation of strength and numbers commanding the position which then was asserted and for which fervent prayers were then offered.

It seems fitting that on the occurrence of the hundredth anniversary of our existence as a nation a grateful acknowledgment should be made to Almighty God for the protection and the bounties which He has vouchsafed to our beloved country.

I therefore invite the good people of the United States, on the approaching 4th day of July, in addition to the usual observances with which they are accustomed to greet the return of the day, further, in such manner and at such time as in their respective localities and religious associations may be most convenient, to mark its recurrence by some public religious and devout thanksgiving to Almighty God for the blessings which have been bestowed upon us as a nation during the century of our existence, and humbly to invoke a continuance of His favor and of His protection.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 26th day of June, A. D. 1876, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundredth.

U. S. GRANT.

The Story of Peter Muhlenberg

“It was Sunday morning early in the year 1776.  In the church where Peter Muhlenberg preached, it was a regular service for his congregation, but a quite different affair for Muhlenberg himself.  Muhlenberg’s text for the day was Ecclesiastes 3 where it explains, ‘To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven; a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted…'”

“Coming to the end of his sermon, Peter Muhlenberg turned to his congregation and said, ‘In the language of the holy writ, there was a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away.’  As those assembled looked on, Pastor Muhlenberg declared, ‘There is a time to fight, and that time is now coming!’ Muhlenberg then proceeded to remove his robes revealing, to the shock of his congregation, a military uniform.”

“Marching to the back of the church he declared, ‘Who among you is with me?’ On that day 300 men from his church stood up and joined Peter Muhlenberg. They eventually became the 8th Virginia Brigade fighting for liberty.

Charlton Heston at Harvard Law School in 1999 “Winning the Cultural War”

At Gettysburg Lincoln said, “We are now engaged in a great civil war to see if a nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.’ We are now engaged again in a great civil war…a cultural war.

We have now seen national decisions and corruptions which, as one theologian said, “Falsifies the gospel of Christ, abandons the authority of Scripture, jeopardizes the salvation of fellow human beings, and betrays the church in its God appointed role as the bastion and bulwark of divine truth” (J. I. Packer).

What we must do

1. Pray
   1. Daniel’s example
   2. God Bless America, Land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her. Thru the night with a light from above.  From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam God bless America, My home sweet home.
   3. 1 Timothy 2
   4. Matthew 5:44
2. Persist
   1. 1 Corinthians 15:58
   2. Philippians 3:8
   3. Philippians 3:20-21
3. Preach
   1. Acts 4:17-20
   2. Acts 2:40
4. Be Persecuted
   1. Mark 4:17
   2. 1 Peter 4:12-14
   3. 1 Peter 3:14
   4. 2 Corinthians 4:8-12
   5. Hebrews 12:3

At the close of Charlton Heston’s speech he issued a challenge: “I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles…defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an arouse rabble in arms and a few great men by God’s grace built this country.”

I urge you to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. In the footsteps of the apostles, the first disciples, and the present disciples. So that the persecuted church at war may finally become the blessed church at rest.