Robert Cushman, one of the Mayflower passengers, said, “If we ever establish a colony, God works a miracle.” The Pilgrims endured deceit, harassment, persecution, death, starvation, high waves, sinking ships, and sea sickness. Yet they committed themselves to the will of God and resolved to proceed. The Pilgrims stuck together with a strict and sacred bond. They were not like most, who were discouraged by small things. They didn’t accrue small discontents as cause to wish themselves home again.

When the Mayflower landed at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620, William Bradford wrote these words, a pseudo-prayer fitting for all who have been deceived, harassed, persecuted, and killed.

“What, then, could now sustain them but the spirit of God, and His grace? Ought not the children of their fathers rightly to say: Our fathers were Englishmen who came over the great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity. . . . Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure forever. Yea, let them that have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered forth into the desert-wilderness, out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before the sons of men!”¹

Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of the books The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.

Footnotes

¹ William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1608-1650 (San Antonio, TX; The Vision Forum, 1998), 59-66.