The following is from _The Saturday Evening Post_:
At the critical hours of American history when the noonday sky
was midnight and the atmosphere saturated with murk--where do
we find our great American leaders unable by human eyes to see
before them? We find them, do we not? on their knees beseeching
divine guidance and groping for a clasp of the Unseen Hand which
would lead them and this people into the light again. The whole
winter of the American troops at Valley Forge is an historical
panorama of heroism, self-denial, and sacrifice. Yet every
noble incident of that season of doom and dread furnishes but
details of the background for the great central picture which
the American mind loves to dwell upon--Washington on his knees
at Valley Forge. It was Lincoln who in 1864 declared: “God bless
the churches, and blest be God who in this hour giveth us the
churches.” And Washington, in 1789, immediately after he was
made the first President of the republic, wrote to the bishops
of the Methodist Church:
“I trust the people of every denomination will have occasion to
be convinced that I shall always strive to prove a faithful and
impartial patron of genuine, vital religion.... I take in the
kindest part the promise you make of presenting your prayers
at the throne of grace for me, and that I likewise implore the
divine benediction on yourself and your religious community.”
(2447)