John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (October 1, 1746-October 1, 1807) was an American clergyman, soldier and politician. In 1774, being 30-years-old, he was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and a pastor. He was the son of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, one of the founders of the Lutheran Church in America.
In 1775, John Peter Muhlenburg preached a message on Ecclesiastes 3:1, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." He closed his message by saying:
<In the language of the Holy Writ, there is a time for all things. There is a time to preach and a time to fight. And now is the time to fight.> 1746JM001
He then threw off his clerical robes to reveal the uniform of an officer in the Continental Army. That afternoon, at the head of 300 men, he marched off to join General Washington's troops. He became Colonel of the 8th Virginia Regiment and served until the end of the war, being promoted to the rank of Major-General.
John Peter Muhlenburg became the Vice-President of Pennsylvania, 1785; a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, 1790; a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania; and a U.S. Senator, 1801. In 1889, Pennsylvania chose his statue to represent their State in the Statuary Hall at Washington, D.C.
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenburg was memorialized in a poem written by Thomas Buchanan Read, titled "The Rising," which is included in William Holmes McGuffey Fifth Eclectic Reader (Cincinnati and New York: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., revised edition, 1879), lesson LXV, pp. 200-204:
<Out of the North the wild news came,
Far flashing on its wings of flame
Swift as the boreal light which flies
At midnight through the startled skies.
And there was tumult in the air,
The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat,
And through the wide land every-where
The answering tread of hurrying feet.
While the first oath of Freedom's gun
Came on the blast from Lexington,
And Concord, roused, no longer tame,
Forgot her old baptismal name,
Made bare her patriot arm of power,
And swelled the discord of the hour.
The yeoman and the yeoman's son,
With knitted brows and sturdy dint,
Renewed the polish of each gun,
Re-oiled the lock, reset the flint;
And oft the maid and matron there,
While kneeling in the firelight glare,
Long poured, with half-suspended breath,
The lead into the molds of death.
The hands by Heaven made silken soft
To soothe the brow of love or pain,
Alas! are dulled and soiled too oft
By some unhallowed earthly stain;
But under the celestial bound
No nobler picture can be found
Than woman, brave in word and deed,
Thus serving in her nation's need:
Her love is with her country now,
Her hand is on the aching brow.
Within its shade of elm and oak
The church of Berkley Manor stood:
There Sunday found the rural folk,
And some esteemed of gentle blood.
In vain their feet with loitering tread
Passed 'mid the graves where rank is naught:
All could not read the lesson taught
In that republic of the dead.
The pastor rose: the prayer was strong;
The psalm was warrior David's song;
The text, a few short words of might,-
"The Lord of Hosts shall arm the right!"
He spoke of wrongs too long endured,
Of sacred rights to be secured;
Then from his patriot tongue of flame
The startling words for Freedom came.
The stirring sentences he spake
Compelled the heart to glow or quake,
And, rising on his theme's broad wing,
And grasping in his nervous hand
The imaginary battle-brand,
In face of death he dared to fling
Defiance to a tyrant king.
Even as he spoke, his frame renewed
In eloquence of attitude,
Rose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher;
Then swept his kindling glance of fire
From startled pew to breathless choir;
When suddenly his mantle wide
His hands impatient flung aside,
And, lo! He met their wondering eyes
Complete in all a warrior's guise.
A moment there was awful pause,-
When Berkley cried, "Cease, traitor! Cease!
God's temple is the house of peace!"
The other shouted, "Nay, not so,
When God is with our righteous cause:
His holiest places then are ours,
His temples are our forts and towers
That frown upon the tyrant foe:
In this the dawn of Freedom's day
There is a time to fight and pray!"
And now before the open door-
The warrior priest had ordered so-
The enlisting trumpet's sudden soar
Rang through the chapel, o'er and o'er,
Its long reverberating blow,
So loud and clear, it seemed the ear
Of dusty death must wake and hear.
And there the startling drum and fife
Fired the living with fiercer life;
While overhead with wild increase,
Forgetting its ancient toll of peace,
The great bell swung as ne'er before:
It seemed as it would never cease;
And every word its ardor flung
From off its jubilant iron tongue
Was, "War! War! War!"
"Who dares"-this was the patriot's cry,
As striding from the desk he came -
"Come out with me, in Freedom's name,
For her to live, for her to die?"
A hundred hands flung up reply,
A hundred voices answered "I!"> 1746JM001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1746JM001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, 1775, in a sermon on Ecclesiastes 3:1. The World Book Encyclopedia, 18 vols. (Chicago, IL: Field Enterprises, Inc., 1957; W.F. Quarrie and Company, 8 vols., 1917; World Book, Inc., 22 vols., 1989), Vol. 11, p. 5324. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 6.25. William Holmes McGuffey, McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader (Cincinnati and New York: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., revised edition, 1879), lesson LXV, pp. 200-204. Thomas Buchanan Read, "The Rising," William Holmes McGuffey, McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader (Cincinnati and New York: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., revised edition, 1879), lesson LXV, pp. 200-204.