Katharine Lee Bates was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 1859. The daughter of a minister, she graduated from Wellesley College in 1880. For many years she was a professor of English literature at Wellesley.
She hastily wrote the first draft of America the Beautiful during the summer of 1893, which she spent teaching English at a college in Colorado. As she told the story, “One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pike’s Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. 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.”
The words to her famous poem first appeared in print in The Congregationalist, a weekly religious journal, for Independence Day, July 4, 1895. The poem reached a wider audience when her revised version was printed in a Boston newspaper in 1904. It was later set to the music of Samuel Ward’s familiar tune “Materna”, by which the hymn “God is our Refuge and our Strength” had been sung.
In 1926, a strong push was made to adopt America the Beautiful as the national anthem. But the older, more established Star-Spangled Banner instead won official status when, in 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a bill. Even today, advocates of America the Beautiful continue to seek official anthem status for it.
Practically all of us will recognize Miss Bates’ first stanza. It is the stanza that is always sung:
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
On Memorial Day, or the Fourth of July, we have probably heard these words sung (or sung them ourselves) to Ward’s powerful, uplifting music — while imagining lovely vistas of blue skies, golden grain, and purple mountains. We are reminded of the lovely and rich land where we live. Maybe, if we are in a particularly reflective mood, we might actually pause and thank God for this country and its freedoms and its opportunities — even for the laws and institutions and traditions (and armed forces!) that preserve and insure the freedoms we enjoy.
In this editorial, I write to Americans, because I am an American. (However, I imagine that, with slight modifications, I could also be speaking to my brethren in England, Canada, Australia, and many other countries.)
As Christadelphians, we do not vote, or serve in the military, or seek public office. This is because — in a spiritual sense — we are citizens of God’s coming kingdom and not of the United States.
But in a “this-worldly” sense, we are citizens of the United States of America (or Canada, or some other nation). To the nation of our “this-worldly” citizenship, that has given us many benefits and privileges, we owe certain things.
First of all, we owe obedience:
“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right… Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king” (1 Pet. 2:13,14,16,17).
To the “king” (that is, government, Congress, president, state, or governor) we also owe required taxes and revenues:
“Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities… because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor” (Rom. 13:5-7; cp. Tit. 3:1,2).
I leave it to each of you to ask the question (and answer it): “Do I, in my thoughts and words and actions, always submit to… do I always show respect for… do I always honor… the authorities?”
And… “Do we — as we should — make supplications… do we pray… do we intercede… do we give thanks… for all those in authority?” (1 Tim. 2:1,2).
In my experience, the above questions often meet with the reply: “Yes… when they deserve… obedience, submission, respect, and prayers!” But the above commands are not modified in such a way. Who are we to decide for ourselves when we will obey God’s commands, and when we just won’t bother?
We should give rulers and authorities respect (and all else as required) — not just when we think they deserve it, but always! Why? Because they have been “established”, or “ordained” (KJV), by God (Rom. 13:1). Because they are God’s “servants” (Rom. 13:4). And because disrespect for them is therefore disrespect for God!
*****
How many of us know that Katherine Bates’ hymn has more than one stanza?
The first stanza should lead us to give thanks to God for the wonderful material blessings of this land in which we live, and for His providential arrangement of laws and leaders that have preserved our freedoms, and allowed a “brotherhood” of peoples — of different races, with different religions and philosophies — to live together, generally, in peace. In the East, and in the Caribbean, poor peoples gather their few belongings into bundles, and set out in barges and rafts — trying to reach our shores, knowing they might perish in dangerous seas — all for the chance to live in America. Others wade across rivers and creep through deserts in the dead of night, evading border guards along the way, hoping they and their children can find work and education in America.
All this might be obvious — should be obvious — from nothing more than Miss Bates’ first stanza.
But then she goes beyond these obvious things. In the following stanzas she writes words that are scarcely ever sung (or considered) today — and what a pity! For there is so much there that might exercise our minds, especially in spiritual things.
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
A nation like ours did not happen by chance. It was born in God’s providence because many of our ancestors left settled lives and safe homes to come to a new world — where they hoped to be free to follow their consciences and worship the God of the Bible. We may question some of their particular beliefs, but we cannot question the sincerity that braved frightful ocean storms in flimsy vessels, faced devastating illnesses, and endured frigid winters with little food — so they could openly read their Bibles, and fearlessly teach their children its lessons.
Then they, or their children, or their grandchildren, left the little enclaves on the east coast and crossed mountains and grasslands and prairies, and finally mountains again, still searching for freedom. With “stern, impassioned” steps they marched on across a wilderness. Historians tell us that, toward the end of the era when great wagon trains trekked westward from Missouri to California and Oregon, one might have followed the thousand-mile trail of these pioneers by simply looking for grave markers… so many had died along the way. There were “giants” in the earth in those days, giants of faith and dedication. May God, today, confirm our souls in the self-control that enabled our forefathers to walk across a vast continent, step by weary step, looking for their “promised land”.
O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
In the struggles of those who went before, we see lived-out parables of sacrificial love. Many died so that their brothers, their children, and others who came after might have a freedom that they themselves only saw “afar off”. Others struggled against injustices in society because their minds were enlivened by the dream that, one day, children of every color might join hands in fuller freedom. They all believed, in the words of Jackie Robinson (a “hero” and “pioneer” of another sort, who broke the “color barrier” in baseball), that “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
Surveying the lives of those heroes who have gone before, we begin to understand why the apostle Paul chose soldiers and athletes to exemplify the virtues of strong faith, reliability, endurance, and courage (2 Tim. 2:1-5). Where are men and women today — to whom faith and virtue mean more than life? May God refine the gold of their faith, until they learn to define all success not by the size of bank accounts but by whatever is noble and divine and pure and admirable and praiseworthy (Phil. 4:8).
*****
Miss Bates’ last stanza lifts us to a higher plane yet, and reminds us that America is (or should be) so much more than natural beauty and fruitfulness.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!
In his retirement speech, President Ronald Reagan spoke of America as a “shining city upon a hill”. He borrowed this phrase from John Winthrop, an early Pilgrim, who himself — as we probably all realize — borrowed the phrase from Jesus:
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:14-16).
John Winthrop and, 300 years later, Ronald Reagan saw America as a beacon of light to the world. The Statue of Liberty that overlooks the harbor at New York is the visual representation of America as the shining city: Liberty is portrayed as a woman who holds high the torch of freedom, beckoning “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.
And so America has been, for so many refugees. Not a perfect light — what in this world is perfect? But it has been a great light, a light of hope for generations of immigrants seeking liberty.
Jesus tells us: “In the same way, let your light shine before men.” As individuals, and especially as the ecclesia, whether local or worldwide, we can be lights too — not perfect lights, but lights nonetheless. May God shed His grace upon us, so that we may be like a “shining city on a hill”, lighting the way to the eternal city that will be truly “undimmed by human tears”:
“I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem… Now the dwelling of God is with men… He will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 21:2-4).
When that city is revealed for all the world to see, then will also be revealed a nobler race of men and woman than ever graced the earth before:
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when [Christ] appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
That “nobler race” — of glorified immortals with Christ — will keep once again a Greater Jubilee, celebrating a new and glorious freedom to the whole world — freedom from sin, freedom from death… and freedom to serve God with all one’s being:
“Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you” (Lev. 25:10).
It will be a “whiter jubilee” because the “fields” will be “white to harvest” (John 4:35, KJV), and God’s people will be bound in sheaves (Psa. 126:6) and gathered to Him in astounding abundance.
*****
God has blessed us with a rich land, a rich heritage, and a rich hope. Whether we look around us, or backward, or forward, we rejoice in the vastness of His grace, “from sea to shining sea”, and “from the river to the ends of the earth” (Psa. 72:8).
But God has blessed us, not so that we can keep the “feast” all to ourselves (cf. 2 Kings 7:9). Rather, God has blessed us so that we might be strengthened, and confirmed, in our discipleship. He has blessed us so that we might be refined, and purified, and remade in His glorious image. He has blessed us so that we may shine forth like lights in a dark world (Phil. 2:15), like gleaming alabaster cities reflecting the One who is truly the light of the world (John 8:12), and calling men to him.
In speaking of the “fields white already to harvest” (John 4:35), “Jesus uses words which recall Isaiah’s language concerning the gathering of Zion’s children in the day of her exaltation: ‘Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these [i.e., the approaching Samaritans!] gather themselves together, and come to thee’ (Isa. 49:18). Even then the Lord himself was realizing the joy of sowing and reaping, and gathering fruit unto life eternal” (John Carter, The Gospel of John).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One