Affirmation of Biblical Principles

Posted on May 9, 2011 by PARoss

Presented to Mayor Michael Mullen, Marietta, Ohio, on the steps of the Washington County Courthouse on May 5, 2011, during a National Day of Prayer celebration, signed by several pastors from the area.

Affirmation of Biblical Principles

  • Whereas all authority belongs to Jesus Christ by the authority of God and the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18, Deuteronomy 1:1-5);
  • Whereas the Bible teaches that all government is representative government because all power and authority issue from God (Deuteronomy 1:6-4:49); Continue reading →
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Election Sermons

Posted on May 9, 2011 by PARoss

At the time of the Founders, it was a common practice for ministers to preach “Election Sermons,” and it was very common for a clergyman to be invited to give a sermon before the newly-elected government officials.

Here’s a radio program from The American View that features John Lofton discussing this issue:

John Lofton is  a “recovering Republican” who lives in Maryland. He once worked for George H.W. Bush and former Sen. Bob Dole at the Republican National Committee. He has been a columnist for the “Washington Times,” Editor of the “Conservative Digest” magazine and Editor of the American Conservative Union’s “Battleline” newsletter. Lofton has also been an adviser to the Presidential campaigns of Michael Peroutka and Pat Buchanan.

Election Sermons

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Election Sermon – Rev. P. Payson

Posted on May 9, 2011 by PARoss

Massachusetts Election Sermon of 1778

Delivered by Reverend Phillips Payson in Boston.

But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free. –Galatians iv. 26, 31

It is common for the inspired writers to speak of the gospel dispensation in terms applicable to the heavenly world, especially when they view it in comparison with the law of Moses. In this light they consider the church of God, and good men upon earth, as members of the church and family of God above, and liken the liberty of Christians to that of the citizens of the heavenly Zion. We doubt not but the Jerusalem above, the heavenly Continue reading →

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Independence 1776

Posted on April 28, 2011 by PARoss

This bold song appeared in the “Freeman’s Journal,” about one mouth previous to the declaration of independence, as a “Parody on an ode published in the Town and Country Magazine,” in 1774. The loyal papers of the time speak of it as a specimen of “high-born rebel melody.” There is a low and vulgar parody on this song, in a collection of “Fugitive Pieces,” published at London in 1777.

INDEPENDENCE.

Tune: unknown
FREEMEN ! if you pant for glory,
If you sigh to live in story,
If you burn with patriot zeal;
Seize this bright auspicious hour,
Chase those venal tools of power,
Who subvert the public weal. Continue reading →

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Election Sermons – Rev. J Duché

Posted on April 28, 2011 by PARoss

The Duty of Standing Fast in Our Spiritual and Temporal Liberties

A Sermon, Preached in Christ-Church,
July 7th, 1775.

Before the First Battalion of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia;
And now published at their Request

By the Reverend Jacob Duché, M. A. Philadelphia.

Galatians, Chap. 5 Part of First Verse.
Stand fast, therefore, in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.

Gentlemen of the First Battalion of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia, Continue reading →

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Stricken, Smitten

Posted on April 27, 2011 by PARoss

One of the ways we can educate ourselves about the worldview of the Founding Fathers is to explore their hymns. The hymns of that era were full of passion and theology, and provide an experiential understanding of their state of mind.

Author: Thomas Kelly, written in 1804 — Tune: O Mein Jesu, Ich Muss Sterben

1. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis he, ’tis he.
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
By his Son God now has spoken:
‘Tis the true and faithful Word.  

2. Tell me, ye who hear him groaning,
Was there ever grief like his?
Friends through fear his cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress;
Many hands were raised to wound him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

 3. Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God. 

4. Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost;
Christ’s the Rock of our salvation,
His the name of which we boast.
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on him their hope have built.
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Rise Up, O Men of God

Posted on April 27, 2011 by PARoss

One of the ways we can educate ourselves about the worldview of the Founding Fathers is to explore their hymns. The hymns of that era were full of passion and theology, and provide an experiential understanding of their state of mind.

Author: William Pierson Merrill, 1911 — Tune: Festal Song

1. Rise up, o men of God!

Have done with lesser things;

Give heart and soul and mind and strength

To serve the King of Kings.

 3. Rise up, o men of God!

The Church for you doth wait

Her strength unequal to her task;

Rise up and make her great!
2. Rise up, o men of God!

His Kingdom tarries long;

Bring in the day of brotherhood

And end the night of wrong.

 4. Lift high the cross of Christ!

Tread where His feet have trod’

As brothers of the Son of Man,

Rise up, O men of God!

Revive Thy Work

Author: Al­bert Mid­lane, 1858; same tune.

1. Revive thy work, O Lord,

Thy mighty arm make bare;

Speak with the voice that wakes the dead,

And make thy people hear

 3. Revive thy work, O Lord,

Create soul-thirst for thee;

And hung’ring for the Bread of Life

O may our spirits be.
2. Revive thy work, O Lord,

Disturb this sleep of death;

Quicken the smould’ring embers now

By thine almighty breath.

 4. Revive thy work, O Lord,

Exalt thy precious Name;

And, by the Holy Ghost, our love

For thee and thine inflame.
5. Revive thy work, O Lord,

Give pentecostal show’rs:

The glory shall be all thine own,

The blessing, Lord, be ours.
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Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah

Posted on April 27, 2011 by PARoss

One of the ways we can educate ourselves about the worldview of the Founding Fathers is to explore their hymns. The hymns of that era were full of passion and theology, and provide an experiential understanding of their state of mind.

Author: Lowell Mason, written in 1839  — Tune: Ripley

1. Hallelujah, praise Jehovah,
O my soul, Jehovah praise;
I will sing the glorious praises
Of my God through all my days.
Put no confidence in princes,
Nor for help on man depend;
He shall die, to dust returning,
And his purposes shall end.

2. Happy is the man that chooses
Israel’s God to be his aid;
He is blessed whose hope of blessing
On the Lord his God is stayed.
Heaven and earth the Lord created,
Seas and all that they contain;
He delivers from oppression,
Righteousness he will maintain.

 3. Food he daily gives the hungry,
Sets the mourning prisoner free,
Raises those bowed down with anguish,
Makes the sightless eyes to see.
Well Jehovah loves the righteous,
And the stranger he befriends,
Helps the fatherless and widow,
Judgment on the wicked sends.

4. Hallelujah, praise Jehovah,
O my soul, Jehovah praise;
I will sing the glorious praises
Of my God through all my days.
Over all God reigns for ever,
Through all ages he is king;
Unto him, thy God, O Zion,
Joyful hallelujahs sing.
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Election Sermons – Rev. D. Foster

Posted on April 26, 2011 by PARoss

This 1790 election sermon by Rev. Daniel Foster was given before the Massachusetts Governor (John Hancock), Lieutenant-Governor (Samuel Adams), and both houses of Legislature. Rev. Foster admonished these elected officials using Proverbs 8:16, and encouraged them to govern according to God’s ways.

A
Sermon
Preached Before
His Excellency John Hancock, Esq.
Governor;
His Honor Samuel Adams, Esq.
Lieutenant-Governor;
The Honorable the
Council, Senate, and House of Representatives,
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
May 26, 1790.
Being the day of
General Election

By Daniel Foster, A.M. Pastor of the Church in New Braintree, MA. Continue reading →

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How Sweet and Awful

Posted on April 26, 2011 by PARoss

One of the ways we can educate ourselves about the worldview of the Founding Fathers is to explore their hymns. The hymns of that era were full of passion and theology, and provide an experiential understanding of their state of mind.

Author: Isaac Watts, written in 1707  — Tune: St. Columba

1. How sweet and awful is the place
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores. 

2. While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

3. “Why was I made to hear thy voice,
And enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”

 4. ‘Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin. 

5. Pity the nations, O our God,
Constrain the earth to come;
Send thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

6. We long to see thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May, with one voice and heart and soul,
Sing thy redeeming grace.
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