America did not just happen. America was an answer.
Thirty-five times in this country's history, people prayed and God answered. Some of those prayers changed everything that came after them. Most of us were never told the stories.
This book tells them.
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Before America was a country, people prayed here.
They prayed on ships and on beaches. In small meetinghouses. On battlefields. And over and over, something happened that nobody could explain.
City on a Hill walks through 35 of those moments, from the first prayers on these shores to a gathering on the National Mall in our own lifetime. The chapters are short. Each one puts you in the room and tells you what actually happened.
The pattern repeats. People come to the end of what they can do. They humble themselves and pray. God answers, usually beyond anything the situation called for. Then a generation goes by, the story stops being told, and the whole thing has to be found again.
That is why Cyril wrote it. The book does not claim America was ever perfect. It wasn't, and the book says so plainly about slavery and about the treatment of the first peoples here. What it says is that God heard the prayers of imperfect people. He still does.
Read one moment a day, or read them out loud at the dinner table. This book was written to be told.
Eight of the thirty-five.
Some of these you have heard of. Most of them you probably haven't.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1607 | A small band of settlers raises a wooden cross on a Virginia beach and gives the land, and everyone who will ever live on it, to God. |
| 1620 | Blown off course and close to falling apart, the Pilgrims write the Mayflower Compact before anyone steps ashore. |
| 1787 | The Constitutional Convention is stuck. Benjamin Franklin, 81 years old, stands up and asks the room to start each morning in prayer. |
| 1852 | Frederick Douglass speaks on the fifth of July and holds a celebrating country to its own promises. |
| 1857 | Six men climb a flight of stairs to a noon prayer meeting in New York. Within a year the meetings are everywhere. |
| 1906 | At Azusa Street in Los Angeles, black and white worship together at a time when the rest of the country will not. |
| 1944 | On D-Day, the president goes on the radio and leads the whole country in a prayer. |
| 2023 | A chapel service at Asbury University ends, and the students stay. It does not stop for two weeks. |
And twenty-seven more1579 to today
People who read it early.
“A clarion call to remember God's faithfulness. Read this book, answer the call, and help rebuild the walls of prayer protecting our nation.”
The Honorable Cathy McMorris RodgersFormer Member of Congress
“This book stirred my soul. Cyril Rayan brings a unique perspective to America's spiritual history that no one else has. I couldn't put it down.”
Geoff EckartChairman, National Prayer Committee · Pastor, Daybreak Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan
“Through 35 true stories, Cyril Rayan uncovers the powerful truth of America's spiritual birth and the God-committed covenant that made this nation great.”
Ken EldredEntrepreneur and Christian business author
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“History is still being written. This is our moment.”