Excerpt from an Election Day Sermon given by Reverend Samuel Langdon, President of Harvard College to the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts on May 31, 1775, nearly three weeks after the fledgling colonial forces under Benedict Arnold took Fort Ticonderoga.

"We have rebelled against God.  We have lost the true spirit of Christianity, though we retain the outward profession and form of it.  We have neglected and set light by the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and His holy commands and institutions.  The worship of many is but mere compliment to the Diety, while their hearts are far from Him.  By many the Gospel is corrupted into a superficial system of moral philosophy, little better than ancient Platonism.....

Wherefore is all this evil upon us?  Is it not because we have forsaken the Lord?  Can we say we are innocent of crimes against God?  No, surely it becomes us to humble ourselves under His mighty hand, that He may exalt us in due time...My brethren, let us repent and implore the divine mercy.  Let us amend our ways and our doings, reform everything that has been provoking the Most High, and thus endeavor to obtain the gracious interpositions of providence for our deliverance....

If God be for us, who can be against us?  The enemy has reproached us for calling on His name and professing our trust in Him.  They have made a mock of our solemn fasts and every appearance  of serious Christianity in the land....May our land be purged from all its sins!  Then the Lord will be our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble, and we will have no reason to be afraid, though thousands of enemies set themselves against us round about.

May the Lord hear us in this day of trouble...we will rejoice in His salvation, and in the name of our God, we will set up our banners..."

Within 2 weeks, banners appeared on the heights of Breed's Hill outside Boston, with the ensuing battle known today as Bunker Hill.

Perhaps today these words still ring true, expressing our need for repentance as a Nation before the throne of the Almighty God in Heaven.