Henry Van Dyke suggested that the following two stanzas be added to this song: I love thine inland seas, Thy river's mighty sweep, Thy silver eastern strands, Thy flowery southland fair, Whether we agree with Mr. Van Dyke or not about adding these two stanzas to "America," we can feel their beauty and the patriotism that inspired them. SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES 1. Tell the story of the origin of this song. 2. How is every one made to feel that the song is his own? 3. How many things mentioned endear our country to us? 4. In what spirit should the first three stanzas be sung? 5. What spirit seems to enrapture all hearts and awaken in them love of country? 6. What prayer in the closing stanza? 7. What does this hymn now call to mind and consecrate in our country's history? 8. Have the whole school sing the hymn with the thought of all it stands for. REFERENCES BROOKS: Our Native Land. LANIER: America. THOMPSON: Rule, Britannia! ROUGET DE LISLE: The Marseillaise. MAX SCHNECKENBURGER: Die Wacht am Rhein. God Save the King. Russian National Hymn. Austrian National Hymn. Swedish National Hymn. TIMROD: Carolina. BATES: America. TAYLOR: America. DICKINSON: Hail, Columbia! HOVEY: Unmanifest Destiny. BRYANT: America. JOSEPH HOPKINSON: Hail, Columbia! MONTGOMERY: My Country. MORRIS: I'm With You Once Again. OUR NATIVE LAND God bless our native land! For her our prayers shall rise On him we wait: -C. T. Brooks. PAUL'S SPEECH ON MARS HILL HE apostle Paul was a man who knew how to THE do things. He attempted to do just one thing and he did it with all his might. He felt that his work was to establish the divine kingdom on earth. After he had traveled through Asia Minor and established churches there and had taught the message of the Christian religion throughout the cities of Macedonia, he set sail for Athens, the capital city of Greece. While there "his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." On every corner he saw busts of Hermes, and at every turn he saw temples to the various Greek gods. In fact, everything that the Greek did not understand he worshiped as a god. Sunrise, sunset, echo, the storms at sea, changes of season, even day and night, were worshiped as gods. Lest they might omit some deity and thus bring the deity's wrath upon themselves, the Athenians even erected an altar inscribed, "To the Unknown God." So fervently did they believe in their religion that their laws required that any one who taught other gods should be put to death. Into such a situation came Paul, the great missionary, with his heart burning with enthusiasm to overthrow such a false system. He went about the city and in the synagogues protesting against such a religious system. The Greek philosophers contended against him. They called him "babbler" and one who set forth "strange gods." Finally they took him up to the Areopagus, directing him to explain fully his teachings, and said to him, "We would know, therefore, what these things mean." Paul's fuller explanation, in which he answered their question and proclaimed the doctrine of one God, is given in the following address. PAUL'S SPEECH ON MARS HILL Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too religious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. NOTES 1. Areopagus. The Mars Hill council where public questions were frequently discussed. 2. To the Unknown God. Paul used this inscription to justify himself in proclaiming a God the Greeks had never known. 3. Temples made with hands. Many beautiful Greek temples were in sight of Paul as he stood before the Greeks. 4. Worshiped with men's hands. Paul believed in the spirit of true worship and not in idolatrous worship. 5. As certain also of your poets have said. Paul refers to the legend recited by the Greek poet, Homer, in which Homer tells how Athene, patron goddess of Athens, sprang fully armed from the head of Zeus, the father of the gods. The Greeks were supposed to have descended directly from the gods. 6. Too religious. The reading is too superstitious in the King James Version, but the literal translation of the original is too religious. 7. Be prepared to define and to give meanings of the following words and expressions: religious, devotions, inscription, temples made with hands, one blood, determined, bounds of their habitations, haply, offspring of God, times of this ignorance, winked, repent. SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES 1. Under what circumstances did Paul deliver this address? 2. Tell something of the Greek religion at the time Paul made this address? 3. Why did Paul say, "I perceive that in all things ye are too religious"? 4. What explanation did he give to support this statement? |