Bishop White, who was present, afterward telling of the circumstances, said he ’felt a regret that a seeming country parson should so far have mistaken his talents and the theatre for their display.’  However, he soon changed his mind as the plain-looking man began to speak; his words were so eloquent, his sentiments so logical, his voice was so musical, that the whole House was electrified, while from lip to lip ran the question, ‘Who is he? who is he?’ and the few who knew the stranger, answered, ‘It is Patrick Henry of Virginia.’”

“O mamma, was it before that that he had said, ’Give me liberty or give me death’?” queried Walter, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

“No, he said that a few months afterward; but about nine years before, he had startled his hearers in the Virginia House of Burgesses by his cry, ’Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third may profit by their example’!”

“And now he was starting the Congress at its work!”

“You are right; there was no more hesitation; they arranged their business, adopted rules for the regulation of their sessions, and then—­at the beginning of the third day, and when about to enter upon the business that had called them together—­Mr. Cushing moved that the sessions should be opened with prayer for Divine guidance and aid.

“Mr. John Adams, in a letter to his wife, written the next day, said that Mr. Cushing’s motion was opposed by a member from New York, and one from South Carolina, because the assembly was composed of men of so many different denominations—­Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Anabaptists, and Episcopalians,—­that they could not join in the same act of worship.

“Then Mr. Samuel Adams arose, and said that he was no bigot and could hear a prayer from any gentleman of piety and virtue who was at the same time a friend to his country.  He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duche deserved that character; so he moved that he—­Mr. Duche, an Episcopal clergyman—­be desired to read prayers before Congress the next morning.

“Mr. Duche consented, and the next morning read the prayers and the Psalter for the 7th of September; a part of it was the thirty-fifth psalm, which seemed wonderfully appropriate.  Do you remember how it begins?  ’Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me:  fight against them that fight against me.  Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.’”

“It does seem wonderfully appropriate,” said Evelyn.  “Oh, I’m sure that God was on the side of the patriots, and helped them greatly in their hard struggle with their powerful foe!”

“Yes, only by His all-powerful aid could our liberties have been won, and to Him be all the glory and the praise,” said Grandma Elsie, gratitude and joy shining in her beautiful eyes.

“But that wasn’t the Congress that signed the Declaration?” Walter remarked, half inquiringly, half in assertion.