[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 7 (Wednesday, February 2, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, the Reverend Richard C. Halverson, D.D., offered the 
following prayer:
  Let us pray.
  Eternal God, Lord of history, Ruler of the nations, with profound 
gratitude we thank You for the words with which the Constitution 
begins:
  ``We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the 
common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the United States of America.''
  Where did these words come from if not from Thee? At a time when 
monarchs reigned and people were subjects of the ``Crown,'' our 
Founding Fathers, whose minds and hearts were saturated with Biblical 
truth, acknowledged that the concept came from God.
  Gracious Father, grant that the people of the United States, at this 
critical time in our history, may comprehend the uniqueness of our 
political system based upon the sovereignty of the people. Help the 
people see that the Government is theirs and that they abdicate their 
sovereignty with cynicism, indifference, or neglect.
  Grant, mighty God, that the people and the leadership will recover 
this awesome principle and take it seriously.
  In His name who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Amen.

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