The Curse of Cowardice

By Rev. Dewey Roberts - Posted at Vanguard Presbyterian Church:

On May 8, 1758, Samuel Davies preached to the militia being mustered in Hanover county, Virginia as a result of the French and Indian War (1755-1763). He had three years earlier preached a similar recruiting sermon at the raising of an independent militia for CPT Overton, the first such militia raised in response to the defeat of General Edward Braddock at Fort Duquesne, near modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On this latest occasion, Davies took Jeremiah 48:10 as his text, “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully; and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood” (KJV) for his sermon, “The Curse of Cowardice.” As a result of Davies’ message, the quota for the company was raised immediately and many would be volunteers were regrettably turned away. Following that sermon, Davies attempted to retire to Shelton’s Tavern, across the road from the Hanover Courthouse where he had just preached. The soldiers followed Davies, hanging on his every word. Standing on the front porch of the tavern, he addressed them again until he became too exhausted to stand any longer. That second message is lost to posterity because it was totally impromptu and no one took notes of his words. Since I will be speaking in Richmond, Virginia at the Virginia Crossings Hotel on Friday evening, November 3, 2023, for the three hundredth anniversary of Davies’ birth, I am enclosing in this newsletter some quotes from Davies’ sermon to the militia in 1758. I believe my lecture will be recorded and possibly available on YouTube afterwards. I certainly hope so as my speech will show that without Samuel Davies championing several critical causes in his life, America likely would have been a very different country from what it has been. I will be covering things that even other students of Samuel Davies’ life do not know—at least not fully. I wish I had included them in my biography of Davies, but they did not fully formulate in my mind until recently. The facts were there, but I failed to put them together. Of course, no one else has done so either—to my knowledge. So, there is always that! With that being said, here are the quotes from Davies...

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