Memory Verse Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord Psalms 33:12 NASB
1 Kings 1-2 Psalms 4
By our form of Government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty.
(Samuel Chase)
And now, my fellow citizens of this independent republic, my fellow-christians of every order and denomination in this assembly, and all you that fear God and hear me this day, give audience.
The Most High planted our fathers, small handful, in this Jeshimon: and lo! we their posterity have arisen up to three millions of people. Deut. x. 22. Our ears have heard, and our fathers have told us, the marvellous things God did for them; but our eyes have seen far more marvellous things done for us, whereof we are glad and rejoice this day. Should our ancestors look down from the high abodes of paradise into this assembly, and attend to the things which we have been this day commemorating, methinks they might catch a sensation of joy at beholding the reign, the triumph of LIBERTY on earth! Hitherto has our bow abode in strength, and our arms been made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. And while amidst the festivity of this anniversary election, we congratulate one another and our country upon the cessation of hostilities, and that having fought the good fight, our warfare is ended: let us not fail to look thro’ Providence up to the God of Providence, and give glory to GOD the Lord of Hosts, the God of our fathers; whom let us serve with a perfect heart and a willing mind. Let us cultivate and cherish the virtues of the divine as well as civil life, bearing in mind that we are all hastening to that period wherein all the glories of this world will be swallowed up and lost in the glories of immortality. Be it our great ambition, our incessant endeavor, to act our parts worthily on the stage of life, as looking for and hastening to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we be prepared for the solemnities of a far more august assembly, than the most splendid assembly on earth. We are ardently pursuing this world’s riches, honors, powers, pleasures—let us possess them, and then know that they are nothing, nothing, nothing. They serve a temporary gratification, evanish, and are no more. But we cannot be dissuaded from the pursuit. Death, however, kindly ends it. Let us think that we have two worlds to live for, proportion our attention to their respective interests, and we shall be happy forever. We shall then be prepared to shine in the assembly of the just, at the right hand of the Sovereign of Life. How glorious to bear a part in the triumphs of virtue, the triumphs of the Redeemer, in the last day of the great and general assembly of the universe? How glorious to make a part of that infinity honored and dignified body, which cloathed with the Redeemer’s righteousness and walking in white robes, shall be led by the Messiah, thro’ the shining ranks of archangels, seraphims, and the innumerable hosts of the whole assembled universe, up to the throne of God, and being presented to and received by the triune Jehovah, shall be seated with Jesus in his throne at the summit of the universe, to the conspicuous view, and for the eternal contemplation of the whole intellectual world, as an everlasting monument of sovereign grace, Eph. iii. 10, 11. to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. To whom be glory in the church through the never-ending succession of eternal ages. AMEN. ( Closing Prayer-from The sermon by Ezra Styles United States Elevated to Glory and Honor 1783)
No comments:
Post a Comment