Inaugural Address 1789

The First Inaugural Address of President George Washington
In the City of New York, on the day of April 30, 1789 President George Washington addressed the Congress. We see in these words a desire of the heart of our first president to encourage the Congress, and therefore the people, in the service and building of our new Nation. The following words are but a part of Washington’s inaugural address, words that you most likely will not hear on Tuesday of next week, but words that should express the blessings of the God of Holy Scripture.

George Washington began his address with these words: “Fellow citizens of the Senate and the house of Representatives.” This honorable statesman continued:

“Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love.
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“Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.
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"Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.”

“RELIGION AND MORALITY ARE THE ESSENTIAL PILLARS OF CIVIL SOCIETY.”
--George Washington, 1797

Stephen McDowell, in his book Apostle of Liberty, wrote, “Good civil leaders should have not only excellent character but also knowledge of the truth, especially in regard to public affairs and government philosophy. The Founders believed that they should view all of life from a biblical perspective; that is, they should have a biblical worldview. How one thinks determines how one acts. A leader will govern based upon his presuppositions of law, government, economics, liberty, and life. If these presuppositions are rooted in relativism, humanism, secularism, statism, or positivism, the fruit will not be life, liberty, prosperity, or virtue. If they are rooted in true religion and morality, according to Washington, the fruit will be personal and political freedom and prosperity.”

Pray for America and its elected leaders with the above thoughts in mind.
Robert L. La May,

2009 Resolution or Confirmation

They say resolutions are made to be broken. This is true for man, for man makes resolutions that stands or falls upon the strength of man. However, “Confirmations” which stand upon the Rock of our salvation, are not only lasting, but will make 2009 a year of victory. For it is not the horrors of the year that will dictate our failure, but the absence of a new birth in Christ: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and that is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth hat Jesus is the So of God” (1 John 5:4-5)?
One statement of CONFIRMATION is FOR ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST! The following comments on these words are from GRACE IN WINTER, Rutherford in Verse, by Faith Cook. May they encourage us to look to 2009 with hope and victory:
There is no great reckoning to be made of the withering of my flower, in comparison of the foul and manifest wrongs done to Christ. Nay, let never the dew of God lie up on my branches again, let the bloom fall from my joy … so being the Lord might be great … and His oppressed Church delivered … our joys, beside God, in the inner half are but woes and sorrows. Christ, Christ is that which our love and desires can … rest safely upon.

In bonds am I for Christ my Lord,
Yet all I suffer here
Can never match the grief He knew,
Or with His shame and wrongs compare.
While Christ fares well, what matters it
That I on ashes feed?
And of His weeping Church rejoice,
My burdened heart shall laugh indeed.

What if the dews of God no more
On my poor branches lie,
Or if my fairest bloom should fall,
Or life’s brief candle flame and die?
Yet this I know: that Christ is good,
His cross speaks gain untold;
My prison walls are marble built,
My captive-chain is all of gold.

For heav’n is cast of nobler mould
Than earth’s poor clay and mire;
While Christ is mine, I mount with joy
And to the heights of God aspire.
All joys beside are touched with pain,
Worm-eaten is earth’s best;
On Christ alone – pure source of love,
Each earthly love can safely rest.