When minister and president of Princeton College Jonathan Witherspoon arrived in Philadelphia in June 1776, the fortunes of the American colonists were about to take a disastrous turn. In July an enormous British army would seize New York City, sending George Washington's army flying in headlong retreat. In less than six months British soldiers would ransack Witherspoon's beloved Princeton, and drive its students into hiding.  Despite passing a "Unanimous Declaration of the United States of America" on July 4, the cause of independence seemed lost almost before it had begun.

But not to Witherspoon. The only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, he believed that God's Providence was guiding the fate of the American colonies, even though the power arrayed against them never looked so powerful.  Witherspoon believed much more than unjust taxes, or even the fate of America, was at stake.  "I think we may safely say," he wrote, "it is likely to be an important era in the history of mankind."