America the Beautiful
In 1893, two things inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write “America the Beautiful.” During summer vacation from her college teaching job, she visited Colorado and went to the top of Pike’s Peak. Later that year she went to Chicago to visit the “Columbian Exposition,” a world fair that had opened in 1892 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ first trip to the New World.
In Colorado, she saw the natural grandeur of our country, and in Chicago she saw the possibility for human technological advancement to improve our way of life. Her hymn celebrates both our nation’s God-given gifts of nature and our nation’s God-given technological ingenuity.
For more than 100 years it has been a very popular song, both because of its words, and because it is easy to sing. Some people have even suggested that “America the Beautiful” should replace the “Star Spangled Banner” as our national anthem.
Let’s encourage our Scouts to think seriously about the words as they sing this hymn. Katharine Bates once said, “We must match the greatness of our country with the goodness of personal Godly living,” and that’s the key to “America the Beautiful.”
No person is perfect, and no nation is perfect, and Bates knew this, but she also knew that with God’s help both the people and the nation can become much better than they would be otherwise. With God’s help, we can be useful to God.
Notice that each stanza ends with a prayer for God’s help:
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
Brotherhood is a goal of Scouting. Ask
the Scouts what it would mean for our nation’s goodness to be “crowned”
with brotherhood.
Some people today think it is unpatriotic to say that our nation has flaws, but Bates knew that every country has flaws. Theologians call it “original sin.” Bates suggests that our flaws will be less serious if God helps us live lives of self-control in a nation of God-inspired good laws. That kind of self-control is what the Scout Oath and Law are about.
Scouts may need to have metal refining explained to them. Thousands of years ago the process of heating ore to get pure gold or copper or iron was a great technological advancement, and it led people to think about how God works with us. We all go through difficult times in our lives. After the difficulties are over, we often realize that we are better people because of the difficulties. In a sense, we are like ore that has been refined in a fire.
The Old Testament Prophets of God spoke many times about God being a refining fire, testing us and making us better.
The Prophet Zechariah, speaking on behalf of God, said:
“I will test the third that survives and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to me, and I will answer them. I will tell them that they are my people, and they will confess that I am their God.” (Zechariah 13:9, Good News Translation.)
The Prophet Isaiah, speaking on behalf of God about people who would not respond to God’s commands, said:
“I have tested you in the fire of suffering, as silver is refined in a furnace.
But I have found that you are worthless.” (Isaiah 48:10, Good News Translation.)
The Prophet Isaiah, again speaking on behalf of God, also gave this promise:
“When you pass through fire, you will not be burned;
The hard trials that come will not hurt you.” (Isaiah 43:2b, Good News Translation.)
Katherine Lee Bates knew the Bible very well, and she had the words of the Prophets in mind when she wrote a prayer about God’s refining fire for us to sing.
Scouts want to succeed. They want to earn the rank of Eagle. They want to be selected for Vigil honor in OA. There are many successes they hope for, but if success makes us think we are more important than we really are, then success is worthless. Our success needs to be refined so that it becomes “noble” and “divine.”
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Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
--meditation notes by Richard E. Davies (copyright ©2007).