Hear and graciously answer these my requests, and whatever else Thou see’st needful grant us, for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose blessed Name and Words I continue to pray, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name….
Wednesday Morning...Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven, in pity and compassion upon me Thy servant, who humbly prostrate myself before Thee, sensible of Thy mercy and my own misery; there is an infinite distance between thy glorious majesty and me, thy poor creature, the work of thy hand, between thy infinite power, and my weakness, thy wisdom, and my folly, thy eternal Being, and my mortal frame, but, O Lord, I have set myself at a greater distance from thee by my sin and wickedness, and humbly acknowledge the corruption of my nature and the many rebellions of my life. I have sinned against heaven and before thee, in thought, word & deed; I have contemned thy majesty and holy laws. I have likewise sinned by omitting what I ought to have done, and committing what I ought not. I have rebelled against light, despised thy mercies and judgments, and broken my vows and promises; I have neglected the means of Grace, and opportunities of becoming better; my iniquities are multiplied, and my sins are very great. I confess them, O Lord, with shame and sorrow, detestation and loathing, and desires to be vile in my own eyes, as I have rendered myself vile in thine. I humbly beseech thee to be merciful to me in the free pardon of my sins, for the sake of thy dear Son, my only Saviour, J.C., who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; be pleased to renew my nature, and write thy laws upon my heart, and help me to live, righteously, soberly and godly in this evil world; make me humble, meek, patient and contented, and work in me the grace of thy holy spirit. prepare me for death and judgment, and let the thoughts thereof awaken me to a greater care and study to approve myself unto thee in well doing. Bless our rulers in church & state. Help all in affliction or adversity—give them patience and a sanctified use of their affliction, and in Thy good time, deliverance from them; forgive my enemies, take me unto Thy protection this day, keep me in perfect peace, which I ask in the name and for the sake of Jesus. Amen.
Wednesday Evening...Holy and eternal Lord God who art the King of heaven, and the watchman of Israel, that never slumberest or sleepst, what shall we render unto thee for all thy benefits: because thou hast inclined thine ear unto me, therefore will I call on there as long as I live, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same let thy name be praised. among the infinite riches of the mercy towards me, I desire to render thanks & praise for thy merciful preservation of me this day, as well as all the days of my life; and for the many other blessings & mercies spiritual & temporal which thou hast bestowed on me, contrary to my deserving. All these thy mercies call on me to be thankful and my infirmities & wants call for a continuance of thy tender mercies: cleanse my soul, O Lord, I beseech thee, from whatever is offensive to thee, and hurtful to me, and give me what is convenient for me. Watch over me this night, and give me comfortable and sweet sleep to fit me for the service of the day following. Let my soul watch for the coming of the Lord Jesus; let my bed put me in mind of my grave, and my rising from there of my last resurrection; O heavenly Father, so frame this heart of mine, that I may ever delight to live according to thy will and command, in holiness and righteousness before thee all the days of my life. Let me remember, O Lord, the time will come when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall arise and stand before the judgment seat, and give an account of whatever they have done in the body, and let me so prepare my soul, that I may do it with joy and not with grief. Bless the rulers and people of this and forget not those who are under any affliction or oppression. Let thy favour be extended to all my relations friends and all others who I ought to remember in my prayer and hear me I beseech thee for the sake of my dear redeemer in whose most holy words, I farther pray, Our Father, &c.
Thursday Morning...Most Gracious Lord God, whose dwelling is in the highest heavens, and yet beholdest the lowly and humble upon earth, I blush and am ashamed to lift up my eyes to thy dwelling place, because I have sinned against thee; look down, I beseech thee upon me thy unworthy servant who prostrate myself at the footstool of thy mercy, confessing my own guiltiness, and begging pardon for my sins; what couldst thou have done Lord more for me, or what could I have done more against thee? Thou didst send thy Son to take our nature upon
Note: The manuscript ended at this place, the close of a page. Whether the other pages were lost, or the prayers were never completed, has not been determined.2
RUPERT HUGHES’ FIVE ARGUMENTS AGAINST THEIR AUTHENTICITY
As we have seen, Rupert Hughes calls Washington’s “Daily Sacrifice Prayers” the “Spurious Prayers” of Washington. There are five basic arguments used by Rupert Hughes against the authenticity of these prayers.
(1) George Washington was not a Christian
According to Hughes, Washington was not a Christian, so he wouldn’t have written or copied such prayers. (But we have thoroughly answered and disproved that claim throughout this book. Further, Washington’s life long use of and exposure to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer would also be an argument for the potential authorship of copying of these prayers that in many ways come from the Book of Common Prayer.)
(2) The Differences of Tone and Style
Hughes writes,
To one who has read at all widely in what Washington has written, the tone is as foreign as if they were written in Greek. There is not a misspelled word, not a touch of incorrect grammar, not a capitalized noun or other emphatic word except the titles of the deity. In the final two entries of his Diary for December 12 and 13, 1799, Washington spells the following words with a capital: “Cloudy, Mercury, Moon, Night, Hail, Rain, Snowing, O’clock.” The punctuation is precise and faultless.3
(3) The Question of Historical Context
Hughes writes,
This is not the place for a theological or bibliological treatise, but one who will read such a work as Reverend Dr. John Wright on Early Prayer Books of America will find it hard to believe that either Washington or anybody else could have written this manuscript until the early part of the Nineteenth Century. Washington died in 1799.4
(4) Possibility of Another Author
Hughes writes,
Mount Vernon was occupied variously after his death, and some member of the household – probably a woman- may easily have begun a transcript of phrases from the Prayer Book and given it up before the work was done.5
(5) Question of Handwriting Styles
Again Hughes notes,
The rejection of the manuscript neither implies nor excuses any suggestion of fraud in their connection. Sincerity is granted to the believers in it. Forgery is not to be considered since a forger would have given at least an imitation of Washington’s penmanship. And of this there is no trace. The little memorandum-book contains twenty-four pages of handwriting consisting of a series of daily prayers headed “The Daily Sacrifice.” There is a prayer for each morning and evening, beginning Sunday morning and ending abruptly in the middle of a sentence under Thursday morning.6
The impossibility of the work being in Washington’s hand should be apparent to the most casual comparison. The writer of the Prayers, for instance always crosses his final “t’s” and all his “t’s” are squatty and flat. Washington always wrote a tall thin “t,” and usually ended it with a mere sidewise uplift. Little words like “and,” “the,” “this,” and “most” are utterly unlike his, nor the familiar “G,” nor the “L,” nor the “D,” nor any of the capitals. The same is true of the small letters, their joining and angles. The dates and days of the week are not in the least like his. Never in his life could Washington have written the sentence as they run. The “round hand” he practiced for a time has no resemblance to this specimen. The tracings herewith may be compared with the facsimiles from Washington’s Note Books of 1757 which were written in the so-called “round hand” he used for ten years.7
CONCLUSION
Ultimately, the argument for or against the authenticity of these prayers cannot be solved by this current study. Perhaps an extensive forensic science analysis of the handwriting along with a radio carbon-dating assessment of the pages might help clarify the question of whether Washington could have written these prayers largely drawn from the Book of Common Prayer. Again, since we have taken the “minimalist facts” approach in this study, our argument is not dependent in any way upon the authenticity of these prayers. We include them here because of their extensive use in the debate over George Washington’s Christianity.
Furthermore, simply peruse the prayers found in the Book of Common Prayer, and one will find prayers similar to those of the “Daily Sacrifice.” Prayers from both sources invoke the mercy of Jesus Christ as well as seeking and accepting his forgiveness. Since Washington was a regular user of the Book of Common Prayer, it is easily conceivable that he could have used the prayers of the “Daily Sacrifice” as well.
At the very least, we can ask the question of why a Deist would even bother to have such Christian manuscript prayers in his possession in the first place. If they were given to him, why did he accept them? Why did he keep them? These are the sorts of prayers a Christian would likely have had in his personal possession. This fact coheres with the evidence of Washington’s Christian faith.
The bottom line is that the authenticity or non-authenticity of these “Daily Sacrifice Prayers” make no difference to the evidence of Washington’s Christianity. Authentic or not, Washington’s own one hundred plus written prayers from his own public and private letters are more than sufficient to demonstrate his Christian faith.
APPENDIX FIVE
A Summary of Washington’s Most Important Sermons
The importance of Christian sermons in George Washington’s life has been entirely overlooked by recent scholars. Moreover, the full extent of Washington’s interest and reading of Christian sermons has never been sufficiently explored. This oversight is unfortunate since it leaves an incomplete understanding of Washington’s spirituality. The evidence presented throughout this book makes it clear that Washington read, purchased, received, and commented on sermons.
The authors advocating that Washington was a Deist have arbitrarily limited Washington’s theological comments and interaction with his sermon collection to only two such messages. But the fact is that there were so many, we cannot possibly do justice to all of them in this study. The best we can do, for now, is to outline the most salient sermons and attempt to show how they relate to Washington’s life and faith. We here provide a “Summary of Washington’s Most Important Sermons.” We have catalogued them in terms of their relevance to Washington’s life, and, where possible, we have included his comments on the sermons.
It should be noted that during the colonial era, printed sermons of leading Christian clergymen were a major means of communication. In a sense, they were like the mass media of the day. John Locke was quoted by many during the founding era. Why? Because he was quoted in sermons. Dr. Donald S. Lutz, co-author (along with Dr. Charles Hyneman) of a ground-breaking study on how the Bible was the most quoted and cited source during the founding era, made this observation about the printed sermon of George Washington’s day. Says Dr. Lutz:
During the founding era, the late 1700’s, there were no magazines, newspapers had a very small circulation, there was no television, there was no internet, what did people do for entertainment? They would read pamphlets. Now, of all the pamphlets published during the last part of the 1700’s, more than 80% of them were reprinted sermons.1
Washington certainly was not alone in his hobby of collecting and reading printed sermons.
CATEGORIZING THE SERMONS WASHINGTON COLLECTED
There are several ways to organize and summarize the major sermons in Washington’s life. For the sake of convenience, these sermons will be presented here in outline form. In a few instances some of the sermons will appear more than once in the following list, because there are various significant features that need to be highlighted. This summary is merely representative and is therefore not complete.
1. Sermons Washington received and thanked the author for
a. Samuel Miller: “A Sermon, preached in New-York, July 4th, 1793. Being the Anniversary of the Independence of America: at the Request of the Tammany Society, or Columbian Order. By Samuel Miller, A.M. One of the Ministers of the United Presbyterian Churches, in the city of New-York.” Washington wrote on 8-29-1793, “Sir: It is but a few days since that I had the pleasure to receive your polite letter of the 4 instant, which accompanied the Sermon delivered by you on the 4 of July, and I beg you will accept my best thanks for the attention shewn in forwarding the same to me.”2
a. Ezra Stiles: “The United States elevated to Glory and Honor. A Sermon, preached before His Excellency Jonathan Trumbull, Esq. L.L.D. Governor and Commander in Chief, and the Honorable the General Assembly of the state of Connecticut, convened at Hartford, at the Annual Election, May 8th, 1783. By Ezra Stiles, D.D. President of Yale-College. New-Haven: printed by Thomas & Samuel Green.” Washington wrote on 2-23-1787, “Sir: I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th. Instant and likewise one of the 9th. of November handed to me by the Revd. Mr. Morse together with your election Sermon for which I beg you will accept of my best thanks.”3
