“DON’T FIRE UNTIL YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THEIR EYES”

“Don’t Fire Until You See The Whites Of Their Eyes”

In times of battle men’s thoughts often turn to prayer—and for good reason!

ON JUNE 16, 1775, a significant prayer meeting took place in Boston. The day before, the patriots had learned of English general Gage’s plan to occupy the southern projection of Bunker Hill on the Charleston peninsula across the Charles River from Boston. In the twilight of June 16, twelve hundred patriot troops gathered on the Cambridge Common. There Samuel Langdon, the gray-haired president of Harvard College, led them in prayer concerning the awesome task before them. He prayed, “O may our camp be free from every accursed thing! May our land be purged from all its sins! May we truly be a holy people and all our towns cities of righteousness!”

After the prayer, the patriot commander William Prescott led the patriot troops to a rise near Bunker Hill overlooking the British army that occupied Boston. All through the night they worked to prepare fortifications to withstand the British soldiers the next day.

General Gage committed twenty-two hundred British soldiers, a third of all his troops, to the operation. At two in the afternoon the cannon fire from the British ships in Boston Harbor intensified against the patriot position as the British troops crossed the Charles River in small boats and then formed themselves into long lines. As the church bells tolled three o’clock, Gage’s field commander, General William Howe, began leading his troops up the long hill. Behind him two rows of British soldiers stretching the complete width of the peninsula advanced up the open slope toward the patriot position.

It puzzled the British troops that the patriots did not fire a single shot at them as they advanced, even though they were well in range. Prescott, the patriot commander, had commanded his men with the now famous words “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” The young soldiers bravely did as they were told and were victorious. Seeing the piles of red-coated British soldiers all around them, they knew that they had not just won a battle but that God had given them the victory.

Amos Farnsworth, a corporal in the Massachusetts militia, wrote in his diary that night, “O the goodness of God in preserving my life, although they fell on my right hand and on my left! O may this act of deliverance of thine, O God, lead me never to distrust thee; but may I ever trust in thee and put confidence in no arm of the flesh!” Another soldier, Peter Jennings, wrote to his mother, “God, in His mercy to us, fought our battle for us, and although we were but few . . . we were preserved in a most wonderful way, far beyond expectation.”

God answered the prayers of the previous night’s prayer meeting.

Reflection

What “battles” are you facing where you need to trust God for the victory? Notice that Samuel Langdon didn’t pray merely for physical deliverance from the battle but that they would be delivered from sin and be a holy people. As part of your prayer life, make a list of your requests, and then record the victories that God gives you.

I will call on God, and the Lord will rescue me. Morning, noon, and night I plead aloud in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice. He rescues me and keeps me safe from the battle waged against me, even though many still oppose me. God, who is king forever, will hear me and will humble them.

Psalm 55:16-19