70 years ago — January 17, 1949
Peter Marshall, Presbyterian minister and pastor of New York Avenue Church in Washington, D.C., was retained by the U.S. Senate as Senate chaplain. “Dr. Marshall’s short, pungent and pithy – and deeply reverent – supplications are well calculated to stir his Senate listeners. Consider a sentence from his invocation at the opening session Monday: ‘May they (the Senators) be aware of a mandate higher than that of the ballot box, a mandate from Thee to legislate wisely and well.’” The Manchester Guardian shares a “story of the young preacher in the North of England, whose petition was reminding the Almighty that He was omnipotent and omniscient, eternal and infinite when a devout old saint in the front, after waiting patiently for a time, interrupted with: ‘Eh lad! He knows He’s all that. Ask Him for summat!’ In simple language, with a keen awareness of the needs of the legislators to whom he ministers the Rev. Dr. Marshall usually asks the Lord for ‘summat,’ and in doing so manages to remind” the Senators of true and lasting values.
From “Dr. Marshall’s prayers,” a guest editorial
