Glover's Marblehead Regiment 2

Glover's Marblehead Regiment — 2

John Glover Memorial March Prayer
Lt. Larry Sands, Chaplain
Glover's Marblehead Regiment
January 27, 2001

Almighty and most provident God, it is in your name that we join together on this evening to commemorate the works of your servant, John Glover. Each year we march to this hallowed ground to remember the deeds of a small group of our forefathers, friends and neighbors. Their selfless acts truly changed the world. We give thanks for their sacrifices and their dedication to duty. We also thank you for granting us an opportunity to serve, and for blessing Glover's Marblehead Regiment with dedicated leaders from its founding in 1774 until today. We beseech thee to grant us the continued support of family and friends as we strive to achieve our educational mission.

We take this opportunity, O God, to remember our comrades that have passed away. Make welcome Richard "Quill" Williams and Gerry Rubino, who now sit by your side. We ask Your blessings on our current members, on those that have been part of our organization, and on those that will answer the call in the future. We implore Thee to help to make that call to service heard among another generation of Marbleheaders.I share the words of Daniel Webster, delivered at Faneuil Hall in Boston on the occasion of a memorial service for John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

"…fellow-citizens, let us not retire from this occasion without a deep and solemn conviction of the duties which have devolved upon us. This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institutions, the dear purchase of our fathers are ours; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past and generations to come hold us responsible for this sacred trust. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal voices; posterity calls out to us, from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes; all, all conjure us to act wisely, and faithfully, in the relation which we sustain. We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upon us; but by virtue, by morality, by religion, by the cultivation of every good principle and every good habit, we may hope to enjoy the blessing, through our day, and to leave it unimpaired to our children. Let us feel deeply how much of what we are and of what we possess we owe to this liberty, and to these institutions of government. Nature has indeed given us a soil which yields bounteously to the hands of industry, the mighty and fruitful ocean is before us, and the skies over our heads shed health and vigor.

But what are lands, and seas, and skies to civilized man, without society, without knowledge, without morals, without religious culture; and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extent and all their excellence, but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government? Fellow-citizens, there is not one of us here present, who does not, at this moment and at every moment, experience in his own condition, and in the condition of those most near and dear to him, the influence and the benefits of this liberty and these institutions. Let us then acknowledge the blessing, let us feel it deeply and powerfully, let us cherish a strong affection for it, and resolve to maintain and perpetuate it. The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vain; the great hope of posterity, let it not be blasted."