Imploring Divine Assistance against the King's
unhappy deluded Subjects in America, now in
open rebellion against the Crown, 1776:
O Blessed Lord, who hast commanded us by the beloved Son to love our Enemies, and to extend our charity in praying even for those who despitefully use us, give grace, we beseech thee, to our unhappy fellow subjects in America, that seeing and confessing the error of their ways, and having a due sense of their ingratitude for the many blessings of thy Providence, preserved to them by the indulgent care and protection of these kingdoms, they may again return to their duty, and make themselves worthy of thy pardon and forgiveness."
Don't you kind of like the way we're still over here, deluded, unhappy & ungrateful, having never yet confessed the error of our ways? I do!
photograph by Jay Beets, Kirksville, MissouriSunrise, 4th of July 2011
I don't know why this great stanza
from "America the Beautiful"
is often omitted:
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
Katharine Lee Bates (1859- 1929)
This song we love was originally written as a poem entitled "Pikes Peak" and first published in the 1895 Fourth of July edition The Congregationalist.
Bates describes stopping to jot down her thoughts as she neared the conclusion of a long excursion toward the top of Pikes Peak: "I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse."
For additional verses, see scoutsongs.com
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