Page:Bruton parish church restored and its historic environments (1907 V2).djvu/166

 of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of His Divine Majesty in propagating the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility, and to a settled and quiet government. (Hening, Vol. I, Page 57)—and they were instructed "to provide that the true word and service of God and Christian faith be preached, planted and used, according to the doctrine, rights and religion now professed and established within our realm of England." The last instructions given to the Colonists by the King's council were:—"Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God, the giver of all goodness. For every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out" (Brown's First Republic). The first services held upon the Virginia shores at Cape Henry (April 26th, 1607), and at Jamestown, were doubtless held in the silence of the primeval forest and under the canopy of heaven. When the Colonists reached Jamestown on May 13th, 1607, and began their home building in the new world, an improvised church was built. This Church has been described in the chapter on the Church at Jamestown. Around this primitive church they built their primitive homes. This tabernacle in the wilderness marked the beginning of permanent Protestant Christianity in America. Here the Holy Communion service was held on the Third Sunday after Trinity, 1607, and it has been suggested that this Sunday be observed throughout our Church this year, as a special day of thanksgiving.

American Churchmen can never fully repay the debt of gratitude which the nation owes to one of the heroes of that heroic band which settled three centuries ago at Jamestown. No stone and no inscription, as yet, mark the resting place of Captain Robert Hunt, Chaplain of the Colony of 1607. Selected by Wingfield and appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, because he was "a man in not any waie to be touched