Oh beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned 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...
This patriotic song is really a hymn, and this hymn is really a prayer. The last two lines of this under-utilized verse are especially relevant. Can anyone doubt that America breathed prayer, then and even still -- though prayer is too often overcrowded on the airwaves with cynicism towards all things godly and religious?
For an excellent article on America, The Beautiful, wander over to Mark Steyn at http://www.steynonline.com.
Happy Fourth of July, and, as another song puts it, "God bless America".
And that's the way the neighbour-to-the-North Ball bounces.
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