The 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July America!

Click for Fireworks Wav

(Psalms 33:12) Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: and the People whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.

[America] [The Star Spangled Banner] [My Country Tis of Thee] [Bottom of Page]

God Bless America ~ Irving Berlin

[Click to play music]
God Bless America (1938)
While the storm clouds gather far across the sea
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer

God bless America
Land that I love

Stand beside her
And guide her
Through the night
With a light
From above

From the mountains
To the prairies
To the oceans white with foam

God bless America
My home, sweet home
God bless America
My home, sweet home

America the Beautiful - 1913

[Click to play music]

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!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stem impassioned - stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend shine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved -
In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

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
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life !
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

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!

It was the valiant defense of Fort McHenry
by American forces during the British attack
on September 13, 1814 that inspired 35-year old,
poet-lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the poem
which was to become our national anthem,
"The Star-Spangled Banner."
The poem was written to match the
meter of the English song, "To Anacreon in Heaven."
In 1931 the Congress of The
United States of America enacted
legislation that made "The Star-Spangled Banner"
the official national anthem.

The Star-Spangled Banner - Francis Scott
[Click to play music]

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

AMERICA ('Tis of Thee)
(Samuel F. Smith)
[Click to play music]

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty
Of thee, I sing
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride
From every mountain side, let freedom ring.

My native country, thee - Land of the noble free
Thy name I love
I love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills
My heart with rapture thrill, like that above.

Let music swell the breeze, and ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song
Let mortal tongues awake, let all that breathe partake
Let rocks their silence break, The sound prolong.

Our father's God to thee, author of liberty
To thee we sing
Long may our land be bright with freedom's holy light
Protect us by Thy might, great God, our king.

Born in the USA!

The Constitution of the United States of America