Emerson's Ode

This was sung in the town hall
 at Concord, Massachusetts on Independence Day
July 4, 1857

Concord Town Hall

Concord Massachusetts

O tenderly the haughty day

Fills his blue urn with fire;

One morn is the mighty heaven,

And one in our desire.

The cannon booms from town to town,

Our pulses beat not less,

The joy bells chime their tidings down,

Which children's voices bless.

For He that flung the broad blue fold

O'ermantling land and sea,

One-third part of the sky unrolled

For the banner of the free.

The men are ripe of Saxon kind

To build an equal state,

To take the statue from the mind

And make of duty fate.

United States! the ages plead,-

Present and Past in under-song,-

Go put your creed into your deed

Nor speak with double tongue.

For sea and land don't understand

Nor skies without a frown

See rights for which the one hand fights

By the other cloven down.

Be just at home; then write your scroll

Of honor o'er the sea,

And bid the broad Atlantic roll

A ferry of the free.

And henceforth there shall be no chain,

Save underneath the sea

The wires shall murmur through the main

Sweet songs of liberty.

The conscious stars accord above,

The waters wild below,

And under, through the cable wove

Her fiery errands go.

For He that worketh high and wise,

Nor pauses in His plan,

Will take the sun out of the skies

Ere freedom out of man.

"Ode"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803-1882)

American poet

Happy Birthday America!

O beautiful land of freedom,

America, America!

Of spacious skies and amber waves of grain,

Purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain,

America, America!

God shed His grace on thee!

America,  America!

She's 242 years young today!

 America,  My beloved America!

May God continue to shed His grace on thee.

-Pamela Denise Brida

Purple Mountains Majesty

Clingman's Dome

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

North Carolina-Tennessee

THE FOURTH OF JULY

Day of glory! Welcome day!

Freedom's banners greet thy ray;

See! how cheerfully they play

With thy morning breeze,

On the rocks where pilgrims kneeled,

On the heights where squadrons wheeled,

When a tyrant's thunder pealed

O'er the trembling seas.

God of armies! did thy stars

On their courses smite his ears;

Blast his arm, and wrest his bars

From the heaving tide?

On our standard, lo! they burn,

And, when days like this return,

Sparkle o'er the soldier's urn

Who for freedom died.

God of peace! whose spirit fills

All the echoes of our hills,

All the murmur of our rills,

Now the storm is o'er,

O let freemen be our sons,

And let future Washingtons

Rise, to lead their valiant ones

till there's war no more!

"The Fourth Of July"

John Pierpont

(1785-1866)

American poet

Yankee Doodle

The Spirit of  1776

(Originally titled "Yankee Doodle")

Archibald MacNeal Willard

(1876)

Father and I went to camp,

Along with Captain Gooding,

And there we see the men and boys

As thick as hasty pudding.

(chorus)

Yankee Doodle keep it up,

Yankee Doodle, dandy,

Mind the music and the step

And with the girls be handy.

And there we see a thousand men,

As rich as 'Squire David;

And what they wasted every day

I wish it could be saved.

And there we see a swamping gun

Large as a log of maple,

Upon a deuced little cart,

A load for father's cattle.

And every time they shoot it off,

It takes a horn of powder,

And makes a noise like father's gun,

Only a nation louder.

I see a little barrel too,

The heads were made of leather,

They knocked upon't with little clubs

And called the folks together.

And there was Captain Washington,

And gentlefolks about him,

They say he's grown so tarnal proud

He will not ride without'em.

Hour Of Victory

Washington And His Army

On The March To Trenton 1776

Edward Percy Moran

(1862-1935)

He got him on his meeting clothes,

Upon a strapping stallion,

He set the world along the rows,

In hundreds and in millions.

I see another snarl of men

A-digging graves they told me,

So tarnal long, so tarnal deep,

They 'tended they should hold me.

It scared me so, I hooked it off,

Nor stopped, as I remember,

Nor turned about, till I got home,

Locked up in mother's chamber.

"Yankee Doodle"

(1775-76)

 Edward Bangs

(1758-1818)

American balladeer who served as

a minuteman at the Battle of Lexington

July's Blood Moon

"And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse

of the heavens to separate the day from the night,

and let them be signs and tokens of God's 

provident care, and to mark seasons,

days and years."

Genesis 1:14

Astronomers are reporting that on July 27th, 
the planet Mars will appear ten times brighter than usual, 
and the moon will have a reddish appearance,
 but only for a few hours, as the longest total lunar eclipse

 of the century will occur for 1 hour and 43 minutes.

The eclipse will be visible from Africa, the Middle East, southern Asia, and

the Indian Ocean.  The greatest time of the eclipse will be 4:21 pm (EDT)

on July 27th according to the website EarthSky.org.

According to the website Space.com there will be two significant celestial events

coming up at the end of this month, when the planet Mars 

and the moon will appear red in the sky.

The event known as a "Blood Moon" occurs when the moon moves

completely into the deepest part of the Earth's shadow, known as the umbra.

This causes the moon to turn red instead of going black.  The red color comes

from some of the sunlight going through Earth's atmosphere.

While I believe that God sends us signs and wonders in the heavens

to contemplate His awesomeness as the Creator of the universe, I am also

aware of what the Bible says regarding the signs which will occur

before the return of the Lord for His bride.

The prophet Joel attests, "The sun shall be turned to darkness and the

moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes."

Joel 2:31

 In the Book of Revelation, the apostle John declares, "When He (the Lamb) broke

open the sixth seal, I looked, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun

grew as black as sackcloth of hair (the full disc of) the moon became like blood."

Revelation 6:12

When I see the battle lines being drawn between the forces of
good and the forces of evil almost on a daily basis, both here in
America, and around the world,  I am often reminded of the
words Jesus spoke when He told us:  "As in the days of Noah,

so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For just as in those

days before the flood they were eating and drinking and marrying

and being given in marriage, until the very day when Noah went into the ark."

Matthew 24:37:38

Although no one knows the exact day or the hour of the Lord's coming...

"But of that exact day and hour no one knows, not even the angels

of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

(Matthew 24:36)

...we believers are required to live with an air of expectancy!

So do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid my brothers and sisters!

And keeping looking up... for our redemption draws ever near!

"...and every eye shall see Him."
Revelation 1:7

Times and Things

"It's the simple things in life that make living worthwhile-

sweet fundamental things such as love."

-Laura Ingalls Wilder

My neighbor who came from a city where her husband

worked for a salary said to me,

"There is a great difference between having a good paycheck

coming twice a month or having only the little cash one can take

in on a small farm. Why we scarcely have any money at all to spend!"

"You spent the paycheck for your living expenses did you not?" I asked.

"All of it," she answered. Every bit! We never could save a cent of it."

"And you have your living now off the farm?" said I.

"Yes and a good one," she replied,  "With a little left over. But it was

great fun spending the paycheck. If we'd had a little less fun, we might 

have had more left."

All of which brings us to the question the little girl asked: "Would

you rather have times or things-good times to remember or things to

keep, like bank accounts, homes of our own, and such things?"

Things alone are very unsatisfying.  Happiness is not to be found

in money or in houses and lands, not even in modern kitchens or a late

model motor car. Such things add to our happiness only because of

the pleasant times they bring us.

But times would be bad without some things. We cannot enjoy

ourselves if we are worried over how we shall pay our bills or the

taxes or buy what the children need.

And so we must mix our times and things, but let's mix'em with brains,

as the famous artist said he mixed his paints, using good judgment, in

the amount we take.

"Times and Things"

(July 1922)

By Laura Ingalls Wilder

An essay from the book,

"Little House In The Ozarks"

A Laura Ingalls Wilder Sampler

The Rediscovered Writings"

Edited by Stephen Hines

1991 Guidepost Edition

July

When the scarlet cardinal tells

Her dream to the dragon fly,

And the lazy breeze makes a nest in the trees,

And murmurs a lullaby

It is July.

When the tangled cobweb pulls

The cornflower's cap awry,

And the lilies tall lean over the wall

To bow to the butterfly,

It's July.

When the heat like a mist veil floats,

And poppies flame in the rye,

And the silver note in the streamlet's throat

Has softened almost to a sigh

It is July.

When the hours are so still that time

Forgets them, and lets them lie

'Neath petals pink till the night stars wink

At the sunset in the sky,

It is July.

A stunning view of the sunset from Cadillac Mountain 

 in Maine's Acadia National Park

"July"

Susan Hartley Swett

19th century American writer and poet from Maine

First Sunday Meditation: Glorious Freedom! Wonderful Freedom!

"Live as free people, yet, without employing

your freedom as a pretext for wickedness;

but live at all times as servants of God."

1 Peter 2:16

The Invitation
Nathan Greene

Once I was bound by sin's galling fetters;

Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain.

But I received a glorious freedom,

When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.

Glorious freedom! Wonderful freedom!

No more chains of sin I repine!

Jesus the glorious Emancipator-

Now and forever He shall be mine.

Freedom from all the carnal affections;

Freedom from envy, hatred, and strife;

Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions;

Freedom from all that saddened my life!

Freedom from pride and all sinful follies;

Freedom from love and glitter of gold;

Freedom from evil temper and anger;

Glorious freedom, rapture untold!

Freedom from fear with all of its torments;

Freedom from care with all of its pain;

Freedom in Christ, my blessed Redeemer-

He who has rent my fetters in twain.

Glorious freedom! Wonderful freedom!

No more chains of sin I repine!

Jesus the glorious Emancipator-

Now and forever He shall be mine.

Glorious Freedom
The Gaither Vocal Band


"Glorious Freedom"
(1917)
Written by Haldor Lillenas
(1885-1959)
American Hymn Writer