It was his first Sunday at Old Pine Street Church in Philadelphia. The congregation voted by a strong majority to call George Duffield (1732-1790) to be its pastor in 1771. A large crowd gathered to hear his inaugural sermon, but the old guard (called Old Siders) padlocked the doors, barring entrance. The Old Siders took a hard line on the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1636, while New Siders centered on the authority of Scripture and conversion as expressed in new revivalists such as George Whitfield and Charles Finney.
Okay, back to the story. Someone broke the locks so the service could begin. During George’s sermon, the Old Siders arranged for a local magistrate to evict everyone. Someone stepped forward to carry the magistrate out of the building and told George in a calm voice, “Go on, Mr. Duffield.” He resumed his sermon, and most everyone went home happy. The next day, a constable appeared, charged George with disturbing the peace, and locked him in jail. Welcome to your new assignment, Rev. Duffield. The charges were eventually dropped, and George went on faithfully to serve the church until his death in 1790. Old Pine Street was known in those days as the “Church of the Patriots.” George became Chaplain to the Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolutionary War, and sixty men from his congregation joined him. John Adams, who worshiped at Old Pine Street, called George “a man of genius and eloquence.”
After the war, Congress declared Dec. 11, 1783, as a Day of Thanksgiving for the restoration of peace and the establishment of independence. As I read George’s sermon, I’m reminded it’s not history in the abstract. The pain, fury, and sacrifice of war still bleed through his sermon. While there is no printed prayer to accompany his sermon, I reworked his closing words into a prayer that befits him: