Recently, my eldest son asked that I switch from singing Silent Night at bedtime to our National Anthem. No, I am not a wonderful singer, marginal at best. However, I have been singing to the boys since Number 1 was an infant. It is part of our bedtime routine, As I looked up the words and reviewed them I was again reminded that the first 3 generations of Americans really felt that America was a blessed and special land. Many believed that it was a land dedicated to the God of Heaven, this can be seen here:
“On April 18, 1775 John Adams and John Hancock were at the home of Rev. Jonas Clarke, a Lexington pastor and militia leader. That same night Paul Revere arrived to warn them of the approaching Redcoats. The next morning British Major Pitcairn shouted to an assembled regiment of Minutemen; “Disperse, ye villains, lay down your arms in the name of George the Sovereign King of England.” The immediate response of Rev. Jonas Clarke or one of his company was:
“We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus.”
In this crucial hour of our nation’s history it is past time that the true saints of God give total allegiance to the Kingship of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The crisis of the ages demands that we renew the historic battle-cry of our Christian Forefathers –
“WE HAVE NO KING BUT KING JESUS!”
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!” Patrick Henry
“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty…of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” John Jay, First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court” (1)
This nation, was founded by religious people who loved their faith and their God. It can still be seen in many places where law suits have not forced the removal of them from the public square. The reason that these first generations spoke in such terms and referred to God is because of those persecuted Christians that fled England. (2) We started as a nation with clear values and over time they have been eroded through bureaucracy, legislation, and law suits. These events sadden me because it has shifted our faith and our focus from “equality under the law” to equality for all. (3)
I hope that one day soon, our nation will turn back to the morals and values that have provided the prosperity and economic growth which has made the United States the most powerful nation in the world. Not because we are “better”, not because we have smarter people; it is because when we allow men to govern themselves with a clear understanding of the freedoms, values, and morals that drove our nation in it’s first century. No, I don’t claim that we are perfect. I do believe that we are a good and just nation when we act with the foundation with which were established.
iron wil
Full Text:
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
’Tis the star-spangled banner – O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
