INVOCATION
BY REV. W. H. SHEPFER
GRACIOUS GOD, OUR HEAVENLY FATHER,
acknowledging our
weakness and our sinfulness, we invoke
thy divine blessing upon
us as we have come together to recall
the heroic lives and sac-
rifices of our forefathers in this
section of our great country.
Through the Spirit of Truth give us, O
God, wisdom and
understanding.
We acknowledge Thee, Dear Father, as the
Giver of every
good and perfect gift. Thou art the
Source from whom all our
blessings flow.
We acknowledge Thee as the God of
Nations. We trace Thy
hand in our history. When we recall the
successful struggles
against great odds of our pioneers for
civil and religious freedom
we are constrained to exclaim,
"This is the finger of God."
We thank Thee, O God, that in Thy good
Providence this
new land became a refuge for the
oppressed peoples of the earth.
Help us to remember with grateful hearts
the great sacrifices even
unto death made by our God-fearing
forefathers in their battles
for the principles of civil and
religious freedom upon which our
great Nation has been founded.
May we learn again as a nation Thy
admonition that
"righteousness exalteth a nation
but sin is a reproach to any
people."
Strengthen us and guide us, O God, in
these terrible, troublous
times when our liberties and way of life
are being threatened by
irresponsible tyrants of the earth.
Oh, Righteous Father, direct us and help
us to prepare our-
selves both materially and spiritually
to defend the civil and
religious freedom for which our
forefathers fought so that govern-
ments "of the people, by the
people, for the people shall not perish
from the earth."
(63)