10 December 1770 A.D. Rev. Samuel Blair—2nd Presbyterian
Chaplain to the House of Representatives
(??)
This
seems a bit odd. It’s either a typo or a
mistake. Was there a U.S. House of
Representatives in 1770? Although
Canadian by upbringing, this scribe has some—little to some—sense of American
history. The historian, further, puts
Rev. Blair in Germantown, PA while, simultaneously, being the House Chaplain in
Washington, D.C.
December 10:
Rev. Samuel Blair, Jr.
The Second U.S. House Chaplain was a Presbyterian
As a
matter of fact, the first three chaplains to the United States House of
Representatives were all Presbyterian, with the Rev. Samuel Blair, Jr. being
number two.
Samuel
was born at Faggs Manor, Cochranville, Pennsylvania. Immediately our
readers should recognize the name of Samuel Blair as being related to the New
Side pastor and evangelist of that famous church in Chester County,
Pennsylvania. Now called Manor Presbyterians, its history goes back to
1730. It is now a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. But
Samuel Blair Sr. was one of the leaders of the First Great Awakening in
the colonies. This is his son.
Attending
the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), Samuel Blair Jr. graduated with
honor at age nineteen. Staying in the town of Princeton, he tutored for
several years. Licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Castle in
1764, he was called to Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts in 1766.
In one
of those “hard providences” of history, on his way up to Boston, he suffered a
shipwreck, being actually cast into the Atlantic Ocean. His lost all of his
clothes in that tragedy and all of his sermon manuscripts. This incident
greatly depressed him and brought some major health problems to him.
He
stayed on as one of the two pastors of Old South until 1769, when due to
ill-health, he resigned and moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he planned
to devote his remaining years to study. But God wasn’t through with him yet in
active service. On December 10, 1770, he
was appointed as the second Presbyterian chaplain to the United
States House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He would stay in that
post for two years.
What a
fitting close of ministry for a theologian, preacher of the Word,
evangelist, and pastor.
Words to live by: God always gives sufficient
grace to those who need it in His work. We may have great weakness,
but He is ever strong. We may feel utterly inadequate, but He is
all-sufficient. Believer, trust in His strength always and then push
out into His kingdom. He will provide what you need for your effective
ministry to the saints of God, and to say nothing for those who are in need of
saving grace.
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