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SERMON 

By the 

Rt. Rev. William A. Leonard, D.D., LL.D. 

Bishop of Ohio 
and 

Chaplain-General of the Society of Colonial Wars 




SERMON 

Preached before the 

Society of the Sons of the Revolution 

and the 

Society of Colonial Wars 

' in the District of Columbia 
in their joint 

Church Service 

held in commemoration of the 

Birth of George Washington 

in 

St. John's Church, Washington, D. C. 

on 

February 20, 1921 

by 

Rt. Rev. William A. Leonard, D. D., LL. D. 

' r 

Bishop of Ohio 

and 

Chaplain General of the Society of Colonial Wars 



PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETIES 

WASHINGTON 

1921 



.6 

.Lss 



This historical sermon, written for the 
occasion by Bishop Leonard, is printed for 
distribution among the members of the 
Patriotic Societies through the courtesy of 
the Rev. F. Ward Denys, a descendant of 
patriotic ancestors who in Massachusetts 
contributed their services willingly to the 
development of the Colonies. 

Marcus Benjamin. 



jUN 1 1921 



"OUR FATHERS TRUSTED IN THEE'' 

Psalm 22:4. 

It has occurred to me that it would be appropriate for us as mem- 
bers of ancient and honorable patriotic Societies, to consider on this 
Lord's day, and in this venerable church, the religious conditions of 
Colonial times up to the breaking out of the Revolutionary war; and 
then to compare or contrast, the same, with the religious and ecclesias- 
tical conditions of our present day. The two fields in which we may 
glean, are Virginia and New England; and because we have lately 
celebrated the landing of the Pilgrims, three hundred years ago, on 
the Massachusetts coast; and inasmuch as there have been many 
essays and papers and speeches illuminating the Pilgrim's advent, we 
may with some interest investigate the subject. 

Are our present religious methods and manners superior to those 
of our ancestors in this important department of national life, is a 
question that is raised from time to time, and which deserves our 
careful discrimination. Fortunately we have reliable writers and 
authors, who have presented to us the quaint pictures of those early 
days, and we know almost to a certainty, the habits and environment, 
of the men and women who laid foundations for our country three 
centuries ago. There are biographies and autobiographies, and 
compilations of letters that are now brought to light and become for 
us original sources; and the editing of these books is part of the 
scientific treatment applied today. 

Mr. Worthington Ford says: "It is good to humanize Washing- 
ton, to have the means of tracing the tortuous policy of Jefferson; to 
measure the ability and ambitions of Hamilton; to comprehend the 
rash but honest conduct of the Adamses, and to wonder at the little 
greatness of Monroe. We owe these to modern editors — they sup- 
ply treasuries of fact; they furnish material in its full and unaltered 
shape and that is the achievement of the change which has come to 
editorial methods in a generation." 



The religion of our forefathers was nurtured in Christian families. 
The records from Virginia indicate that in almost every home were 
historical, pious, and literary books; no light literature as we under- 
stand that term today, could be found ; and young and old studied with 
great diligence the pure and undefiled English, which they found in 
the Bible, for every household possessed that precious book, and drew 
from it their inspiration. In some cases the Bible was the only 
volume, in the humble home; but the ministers of Virginia possessed 
good libraries of the publications of the day. 

And yet Virginia could hardly be called a religious settlement; nor 
were its first founders as definitely pledged to the religious life, as 
the Pilgrims of New England. But the Virginia Company of Lon- 
don indicated to all colonists, that their first obligation was to God, 
and they were admonished in their charter to "serve and fear God, 
the Giver of all goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly 
Father hath not planted shall be rooted out." This seems to have 
been the corner-stone of the ancient Company's construction. The 
motives which brought the Virginia Colonists to these shores, differed 
entirely from those which impelled the Puritians to flee from the old 
world. You will remember that the emigrants who came to Virginia 
had no desire to break away from the faith of their fathers, they 
brought, not only the religion of England, but the Church of Eng- 
land. "When they made at Cape Henry their first landing on 
American soil, they set up a cross, and claimed the country for their 
Church, as well as for their King; and a month later, at the present 
site of Richmond they repeated this ceremony." 

An important member of the first settlement group was Parson 
Hunt, the Chaplain, who on June 21st, the third Sunday after 
Trinity, gave them the Communion on the green sward at Jamestown, 
under an old sail stretched from tree to tree." 

In constructing their log houses they built a larger and better house 
for God ; and the Prayer book was universally used as the manual of 
worship. On August 9, 1619, the earliest legislative assembly of 
Americans met in the church edifice at Jamestown because there was 
no other convenient place, and the following item is taken from the 
minutes of that assemblage : 

"Forasmuch as man's affairs do little prosper where God's service 
is neglected, all the burgesses took their places in the choir stalls, and 
prayer was said by Mr. Bucke the minister, that it would please God 



to guide and sanctify all our proceedings to His own glory, and to 
the good of this plantation." Houses for worship were built of 
framed lumber, of brick, and of stone. These churches were decently 
adorned, and in some places there were chapels of ease, or missions. 
Later on many beautiful churches were erected, and about them spread 
the God's Acre, where the dead lie at rest. Bruton Church at Wil- 
liamsburgh; St. John's, Hampton; Christ Church, Alexandria; St. 
John's, Richmond, and Christ Church, Lancaster, are still standing 
to prove our contention, that the colonists in old Virginia were rever- 
ent followers of the Lord, and faithful members of the Church of 
England. Some of these buildings were furnished with bells; in the 
wills of the people you will read of their desire to make these places of 
worship seemly; and so throughout the colonial period, the Lord's 
Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments in golden letters were 
suitably framed, and placed upon the Sanctuary wall. The custom 
of going to church, whether one was a communicant of the same or 
not, was the habit of a gentleman, in those days, and it ought to be 
the habit of a gentleman in these times. 

In 1675, John Washington of West Morland bequeathed the lower 
church of Washington parish, its chancel decorations; and the first 
President of this country, George Washington, was a man of pious 
habits and a communicant and vestryman of his parish near Mount 
Vernon. 

So, too, gifts of silver for the Communion, and proper velvet car- 
pets or pulpit hangings, with gold and silver fringe, were ordered 
sent from England, and these gifts and bequests were quite common. 
The oldest colonial communion service in America may still be seen 
at the venerable St. John's Church, Hampton. 

We have heard much lately concerning the revival and re-enact- 
ment of the Blue Laws in this country, and our mind immediately 
reverts to New England, for we have been impressed with the tradi- 
tion that there was great rigidity and severity in the usages there. 
But Virginia also compelled attendance on Divine services, and made 
it a fundamental rule of life that every one should respect religious 
observances. 

Let me quote from Stannard's valuable book on Colonial Virginia 
"Sunday observance and church going was insisted on by law, in 
Colonial Virginia; in the earliest days at Jamestown, attendance at 



morning and evening prayer was required on week days, as well as 
Sundays. In 1616 the Governor and Council issued a Proclamation 
that every person must go to church on Sundays and holy days, or 
"lie neck and heels in the guard house all night, and be a slave to the 
colony for a week." 

"In 1623 the General Assembly made absence from church, pun- 
ishable by fine of one pound of tobacco which was currency for first 
offense, or fifty pounds for absence for a month." It was against 
the law to journey on the Sabbath day, except to go to church, nor 
could inn-keepers sell strong drink on the Sabbath, and these lawSv 
were rigidly enforced. But evidently there was a happy acquiescence 
in these directions, for Philip Fithian, tutor to the children of Robt. 
Carter at Nomini hall, wrote in 1774 "Sundays in Virginia don't 
seem to wear the same dress as our Sundays to the northward ; all the 
lower class of people, and the servants and slaves consider it a day of 
pleasure and amusement." Public thanksgivings and festivals were 
celebrated as early as March, 1623 because of deliverance from the 
massacres of Indians, and other benefits. In a word, religion was not 
unpleasant and the Prayer Book services were not irksome — the 
Episcopal ministrations were kindly and generous and natural. 

I must ask your attention to this feature of the religious require- 
ments in Virginia and the immediate region ; it will throw some light 
upon the whole question, in the colonies, throughout the length and 
breadth of His Majesty's dominion. The laws in Virginia, while 
positive and explicit were flexibly interpreted, and the people did not 
dwell in fear and trembling beneath the rod, and preserve the obliga- 
tions of the Lord's day ; they were to some extent coercive, but every- 
body seemed to acquiesce very wiUingly and cordially ; and it is essen- 
tial that we realize there were no sectarian antagonisms and narrow- 
nesses in that community ; but there was a fraternal and genial feeling 
towards others; as for instance, the Quakers and Huguenots were 
kindly treated; the Roman Catholics of Maryland had freedom to 
worship God according to their rites and ceremonies; and I suppose 
the New England Puritans, if they ever ventured so far south, were 
hospitably welcomed. The Church of England and her services, 
were the rule and habit, of the Virginia colony, and the effect was 
doubtless to produce a less harsh and disagreeable view as to the law 
of the Sabbath. Now let us look at the same situation in the North, 
and mark the contrasts. If you turn to the conditions in Massa- 



chusetts you will find there also a unity of religious composition, and 
laws for the regulation of the same and John Fiske's delightful his- 
torical writings are luminous and attractive. But there was only one 
legally recognized and permissible denomination and that was the 
Independent or Puritan. No one else could find a footing, no others 
were permitted a domicile. Quakers were banished; the Church of 
England members were harshly treated ; Bishops were not wanted, 
indeed they hung one in effigy. The Puritan ministry con- 
trolled legislation, as well as rehgion; and I read that, under a 
law passed May 18, 1631, unless a man was a church member 
he could not marry nor could he vote at the polls; this of 
course developed some hypocrisy. The tone of society was solemn, 
repressed, and I should say uncomfortably lugubrious. "You can 
not convert souls by act of Parliament," but that is precisely what 
was attempted in the legislative body at Massachusetts Bay. On 
April 17, 1629, these instructions became a fixed law "and to the end 
that the Sabbath may be celebrated in a religious manner we appoint 
that all who inhabit the plantation, both for these general and poli- 
tical employments, may cease their labors every Saturday throughout 
the year at three of the clock in the afternoon; and that they spend 
the rest of that day in catechizing and preparation for the Sabbath as 
the minister shall direct." Inasmuch as no labor could be had on 
the Sabbath day, all meals were cooked in the kitchen on Saturday 
afternoons, possibly Saturday mornings, and collations, were the re- 
fections offered the next day. The constables, were church mem- 
bers, and the magistrates, church elders. But the law did not work ; 
there were many and continued fraction? of the same; normal people 
would not submit and liberty loving souls rebelled and were contu- 
macious; therefore severer methods were employed, and in 1653 
children were included under this rigorous control. They were not 
allowed to play in the street; "there must be no uncivil walking the 
streets and fields ; no traveling from town to town," on penalty of being 
reputed great provokers of the high displeasure of Almighty God. 
Fines were the penalties; and if those convicted could not pay them, 
they had to be whipped by the constable. The outcome was resent- 
ment, indignation, and ultimate refusal to obey. The people in order 
to evade, would gather together in private houses for social purposes on 
Sabbath days. Still the rack and the screw were applied, and more 
laws were put forth, and the ministers were required to read publicly 
these laws twice a year — a task which they did not at all relish. Cages 



were ordered erected in the market places in Boston and other towns, 
into which these moral offenders were thrust; and for fifty years these 
ineffectual endeavors were projected and they resulted in dismal fail- 
ure. Says Gustavus Myers in the "Forum" for February "Human 
nature could not stand, nor liberal denominations tolerate, the compli- 
cated structure of constrictive legislation, and it fell by its own incon- 
gruity and deadly weight." Many of the laws remained on the statute 
books and remnants still survive, but they increasingly became what 
were expressively styled "dead letters;" mute relics of an age, the 
extreme repressions of which, had proved their own inevitable un- 
doing." And the result of all this was to be found when, after the 
American Revolution, the will of the people was expressed unmis- 
takably and the entire separation of Church and State became a Con- 
stitutional condition, and men were no longer to be persecuted because 
of their spiritual tendencies and their ecclesiastical preferences. We 
may consider ourselves, in one sense, fortunate, that we do not live in 
such an atmosphere as that which surrounded our forefathers either 
in Virginia or New England ; because disabilities were enforced which 
positively shackled the freedom of consent, or the liberality of assent, 
in both sections of the land. Mr. Ford says "In Maryland, he who 
denied the divinity of Christ, or he who uttered profane words con- 
cerning the Holy Trinity, faced the old law of 1723 that prescribed 
the boring of the tongue, the branding of the forehead, and for the 
third offense, death. In New England, in Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire, the Roman Catholics lived at a distinct disadvantage 
compared with their fellow men; in New York the Roman Catholic 
immigrant was debarred from all chance to exercise political rights. 
I think we may remark that our friends of the Roman communion 
have certainly profited by the relief that was granted to them in an 
early day! But such relief often produced radicalism, and reaction 
and the consequence was the springing up of all kinds of isms, com- 
munities, and cults. Some good men and women having been dis- 
gusted gave up religion entirely, and at last there was the entire dis- 
carding of such medieval methods. 

And this leads me to speak of the cognate subject of our hetergen- 
erous population and the advent of the immigrant into this country 
at the present time. In the early period we received from Scotland, 
England, Ireland, and Scandinavia the largest importation, and it was 
a desirable group; southeastern Europe, Italy, and Central Europe 
contributed comparatively few to our numbers. These incomers 

8 



were welcomed for they left their European customs behind them, 
easily appropriating our usages, and accepting our western views and 
practices. 

The early immigrants were very readily amalgamated, marrying and 
inter-marrying with the local stock and pursuing the sturdy Ameri- 
can life of which we are proud. This was largely because of the fact 
that we necessarily spoke one language, had a common literature and, 
let us believe, a common Bible. For the continuation and preserva- 
tion of such conditions, the duty of every patriotic son and daughter 
is apparent! Our special obligation as members of our societies is 
the insistence upon a common tongue as taught in the public schools ; 
the insistence of morals as indicated by the word of God; and the 
insistence of what is called Americanization; or else the insistence 
through Congress of the refusal of this Government to admit so many 
undesirable immigrants into our ports. Dr. Jacob G. Schurman 
has lately stated that the melting pot is not a splendid success; that 
there is very little melting; that the different races and tribes of the 
earth, colonize, and keep by themselves, as do the Hebrews. "They 
do not go upon the farms, and they congregate in great cities and 
industrial centers, where they speak their own language "have their 
own books, insurance companies, and newspapers, and in some in- 
stances their own schools; they continentalize our Sunday — and our 
ethical and moral codes and thus the irresistible forces of race and 
heredity, have been strengthened by an unfavorable change in the 
quality and character of our later immigrants. We can therefore 
never become a homogeneous American people unless we set limits 
to the inflowing flood of immigration." And he closes his interest- 
ing address with these remarkable figures: "We now have in the 
United States, of all the Jews in the world, 24 per cent ; of all the 
Scandanavians, 17 per cent; of all the Germans 13 per cent! of all 
the Slovacs, Poles and Finns, 8 per cent each; of all the Italians, 7 
per cent." In my own city of Cleveland, Ohio, more than 70 per 
cent of the people are foreign born; and it would be impossible to 
introduce drastic Blue laws, as is proposed, without exciting revolu- 
tionary conditions. It will become necessary ultimately, to bring 
about some sort of compulsory requirement which shall make the 
"melting pot" a real factor in our life, so that out of its refining, 
there may come a pure stream of American conception and American 
development. All of which leads us back to our ancestry in New 
England and in Virginia. Of one thing we are confident, whether 



we admire their modus vivendi or not, the people of Virginia and New 
England were constantly reminded of the fact that they were the 
children of the Heavenly Father. This was the foundation stone of 
their community life; this was the fountain source of their community 
health; it eventuated in conditions of which we are the fortunate in- 
heritors, and which I contend we must steadily ?naintain. The pro- 
cess of elimination by which society got rid of the unpleasant features, 
of forcing religion down the throats of colonists and citizens, has long 
since accomplished its work ; and the resultant ought to be one of the 
operating principles of our American training. And unless men and 
women, such as are represented in this congregation today, arouse to 
the necessity that is daily being pressed upon them, of the strong deter- 
mination to continue and preserve the convictions of the fore- 
fathers — the day is not distant when our country will, as other coun- 
tries have in the past, be wrecked upon the rocks. The sacrifices of 
our ancestors were heroic. The Virginia colony as before indicated 
came to these shores for material, personal, and commercial reasons; 
but the New England colonists came almost solely for religious and 
ecclesiastical reasons. These latter people, it is true, were persecuted 
by the Mother Church and the Mother Government, and it only 
strengthened and intensified their views, which at last became fanati- 
cal. Their "solemn covenant" indicates clearly this fact, and they 
took possession of the Massachusetts coast, and settled there with the 
determination of serving God according to the dictates of their con- 
science. From our present point of view, we may see the mistakes 
they made; but these mistakes were largely due to the political and 
ecclesiastical conditions of the old world at the time of their emigra- 
tion. And, as was eloquently said by the late Senator Evarts at a 
New England banquet in New York, "We feel an immeasurable obli- 
gation to transmit our inheritance unimpaired to our posterity; to 
maintain unbroken the wealth and honor which hitherto have marked 
their lineage. V^e must meet the wisdom of our forefathers by ob- 
serving the maxims of their policy, studying the true spirit of their 
institutions, and acting in our day and in our circumstances with the 
same devotion to principle, the same fidelity to duty. If we neglect 
this, if we run wild in the enjoyment of the great inheritance, if we 
grow arrogant in our prosperity, and cruel in our power; if we come 
to confound freedom in rehgion with freedom from religion; and in- 
dependence by law with independence of law; if we substitute for a 
public spirit, a respect to private advantages, if we run from all civil 

10 



duties and desert all social obligations; if we make our highest con- 
servatism the taking care of ourselves, our shame and our disaster will 
alike be signal." 

We are today in this country, in danger of losing our hold and 
grip upon convictions, and indulging ourselves in varying opinions. 
The tidal wave of European custom is threatening us. What is 
required is a certain sternness and severity on the part of upright men 
and women which shall frown down, and forbid, trifling with great 
and precious privileges that have been vouchsafed us. Liability to 
grow indifferent, to lose interest, to become dilletante ; this is the dan- 
ger of increasing wealth prosperity and power ; and the determination 
on the part of the remnant of our pure American population, to pro- 
tect, and preserve the stronger factors and the attractive elements in 
Colonial life, is vitally essential and imperatively demanded in these 
very days in which you and I are living. John R. Mott rightly says, 
"Only as a nation is guided and inspired by Christian principle, will it 
fulfill its destiny ; otherwise it will pass the way of other nations which 
have perished from the earth. The present peril of the nation is 
secularism." 

Yes, and the only way to meet the peril of secularism is to develop 
and complete the superstructure of Christianity, and to strengthen the 
foundations of religion. It is your duty, and mine, to do this. Un- 
fortunately we are lookers-on, and are not, in my judgment, fulfilling 
the obligations of our Societies. It is very easy to rejoice in the fact 
that we are descendants of an honorable ancestry ; but I am constrain- 
ed to feel that we are not doing, in our place and generation, and in 
our proportion and according to the necessities of our day, our duty 
towards the country. We are rid of some of the restrictive and re- 
pressive methods of the past, and we are freer and less constrained, but 
we have grown careless with our easy privileges. 

The harsher methods of religious observance have been put aside, 
but let us beware lest we put aside religion itself. It is all very well 
for us to criticise the spirit of those splendid men and women who set- 
tled Virginia and New England; we may be thankful that their sev- 
erities are not with us now; but we must also take warning by the 
present lowering of ethical conditions, in society and life, or we shall 
lose the best things our liberty-loving fathers transmitted to us. A 
great deal of eloquence has been expended on anniversary occasions, 
over the courage and patience, endurance and sacrifice of our elders. 
It will all have been in vain, if we, their descendants, allow it to per- 
il 



colate away in the loose and shallow sand of modern social conditions. 
The regulations of a domestic and family discipline, under which 
perhaps we were brought up, are almost entirely lacking today. The 
requirement on the part of parents that children shall go to church, 
whether they like it or not; that they shall attend Sunday School; 
that they shall be restrained properly on the Lord's Day, is obsolete, 
and a dead letter. The permission to allow liberty to degenerate into 
untrammeled license is given to all classes, and our lax maintenance 
of high standards follows. The situation in the households and in 
the public attitude of all aliens and foreign-born, who are in this 
country, in these respects, might properly be termed menacing and 
ghastly! The public school system does not interject the kind of 
moral and religious exercise which is essential and of which George 
Washington spoke in his farewell address. A weak public spirit, the 
lowering of ideals, and a cheap sentimentahsm, have been permitted 
to affect our public educational methods ; and there is very great dan- 
ger to the state, as well as to society, because of the untrammeled, 
and bad-mannered resultants that are evident in the boys and girls 
that we come in contact with. This is not the opinion of professional 
religionists, but it is the forced judgment of all those who are en- 
gaged in surveys and general estimates. 

Our duty therefore, is simple. We are to be grateful for what we 
have received; we are to set the example of church going, of Bible 
study, of private efforts, of household obligations; we are to have in 
our hearts, and in our lives, a "fear of the Lord," which is a loving 
thing, and which compels recognition of His presence, and of His 
power. If any one has a right to take part in creating public opinion 
in this country, it is you, who are representing your great ancestors on 
this occasion today; but do not forget their principles, do not neglect 
their examples. "Our fathers trusted in Thee." May we follow 
in their footsteps, put our confidence in the God of nations, their God 
and ours, and walk before Him steadfastly, loyally, and obediently. 

"Oh thou Holy One and just 
Thou wast our fathers trust 
Thou who watchest o'er their dust 

By the moaning sea ; 
By their conflicts, toils and cares, 
By their perils, and their prayers. 
By their ashes — make their heirs 
* True to them and Thee." 

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