On this day, two and a half centuries ago, our forefathers gathered for the second time in as many years for a national day of fasting and prayer.
The resolution of the Continental Congress called on the 13 colonies to humble themselves in preparation for the coming war with true penitence of heart and the most reverent devotion publicly to acknowledge the overruling providence of God.
In three and a half months' time, the colonists would be in open revolt against the most powerful empire in the history of the world.
Many, on both sides of the Atlantic, thought their cause was a suicide mission.
The founders were not naive men.
They knew their lives were on the line.
That was the premise of Benjamin Franklin's dark joke after signing the Declaration of Independence, where he said, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
They had no guarantees of victory.
They knew that what they were trying to do had never been done before in human history.
But with the dark storm clouds of war looming on the horizon, they did what Christians have always done, across place and time for 2,000 years.
