Celebrate Liberty! Famous Patriotic Speeches & Sermons by David Barton

Author:David Barton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-04T20:08:00+00:00

The Rev. Samuel Davies

Samuel Davies was one of the two most noted clergyman in America in his day, the other being the Rev. George Whitefield. Both men were leaders in the First Great Awakening - a national religious revival that lasted from 1730 to 1770, with some of its most active years occurring from 1734 to 1745. Whitefield was considered the most noted traveling evangelist of that movement, and Davies its most noted (and perhaps its most widely published) pulpit minister. The first Great Awakening directly impacted and personally touched nearly one-half of America's two million inhabitants. The Rev. Davies was not only a clergyman but also an educator, serving as the President of Princeton.

The First Great Awakening actually laid much of the foundation for the changes in thinking that eventually led to the success of the American Revolution. For example, it caused the people to discover that they were actually a nation rather than just thirteen separate colonies - that they had much more in common than different - that they had one common Christian faith, even though distinguished by different creeds and denominations.

As an example of this unifying effect, both John Adams and Benjamin Franklin cited the Rev. George Whitefield's "Father Abraham" sermon in which Whitefield argued that in Heaven there were no Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Quakers, etc., but only Christians. (This was indeed a revolutionary idea since most of the Colonies at that time had a single State-established denomination, often promoted to the exclusion of all others.) The Great Awakening also lowered many of the distinctions based on race or class. In short, it was a direct precursor to and influence on American independence. As John Adams later confirmed: "The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the mind and hearts of the people and change in their religious sentiments and obligations." The Rev. Samuel Davies played a prominent role in that national transformation.

Davies had been licensed to preach as a Presbyterian in 1746; the following year he was ordained as an evangelist and dispatched to Virginia for missionary work in that Anglican-controlled State. In Virginia, dissenters and non-conformists (the non-Anglicans) were frowned upon, persecuted, imprisoned, or put to death for offenses such as preaching without a license or holding prohibited gatherings (non-Anglican services).

Davies became an advocate for the non-conformists (Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, etc.), working to defend their civil and religious liberties in both Virginia and North Carolina. He is credited with almost single-handedly building the Presbyterian denomination in that region.

Davies also spent extended time in the British Isles raising money from Presbyterians in Scotland for the work of their brethren in America. While in the Isles, Davies delivered some sixty sermons, many of which were published and received broad distribution on both sides of the ocean.

Returning from Great Britain, Davies lived and preached another eight years in America before dying of pneumonia. In the half-century following his passing, it is reported that his sermons were more widely read than those of any other minister from his era.

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