Showing posts with label Memorial Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memorial Day. Show all posts

Friday, January 19, 2018

A Memorial Day Prayer

       Almighty God, Maker of the heavens and the earth, King of kings, Lord of lords. Creator of all men, and Father of all spirits:
       We worship Thee this day as the source of all our benefits and blessings. We thank Thee for our conscious lives, for our republic, for our homes, which are the foundations of the republic; for our churches and our schools, and for all the moral forces which have shaped the nation of which we are a part.
       We thank Thee for the literature, the just laws, the sciences, the liberal benefactions, the mutual human trust, and the generous impulses which procure and preserve amity and peace among civilized  peoples.
       We thank Thee for the manliness, courage, devotion, and conscientious convictions which made possible our brave men and heroic women in the years when armies took the field against us, and dared to assail that for which our forefathers suffered and died.
       We thank Thee for our noble mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, and for their undying patriotism and love manifested when they sadly but gladly permitted their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons to leave their dear ones to the care of God and risk their all upon the field of battle.
       While we are assembled here today, may God make vivid, emphasize, and impress upon this great congregation a sense of the priceless value of all that for which women have suffered at home, and of that for which men were willing to yield all save their sacred honor.
       Pardon all our sins; remit the guilt of that in our national laws or habits or indulgences for which we may have become responsible through our ignorance or by our indifference to the bounden duties
of citzinship.
       Revive within us a just appreciation of all that which by Thy blessing has preserved the nation until this day. Re-awaken us to the conditions upon which God will alone continue our national life.  We pray Thee to increase the number of our honest. God-fearing office-bearers, and to graciously rebuke and remove from power all those who have abused their sacred trusts.
       Grant Thy special blessings upon the family whose heroic husband and father is named by every voice in the nation today. May our grateful memories rival even this bronze in commemorating heroic
and patriotic deeds. We pray Thee to stimulate our gratitude toward all those who fought for the republic, and to quicken the spirit of genuine patriotism in every American heart.
       Impress each one of us with the sense of personal responsibility for our homes, for our nation, and for the continued existence of Christian civilization upon the earth.
       Help us to serve Thee by serving our fellowmen, and in the end bring us to the better kingdom above through Him who hath loved us and gave Himself for us. Amen. Delivered at the unveiling of
the Logan Statue, by Rev. Arthur Edwards.

Commemoration Ode Of 1865

Commemoration Ode Of 1865 
by James Russell Lowell.

Be proud! for she is saved, and all have helped to save her!
She that lifts up the manhood of the poor,
She of the open soul and open door.
With room about her hearth for all mankind!

What were our lives without thee?
What all our lives to save thee?
We reck not what we gave thee;
We will not dare to doubt thee.
But ask whatever else, and we will dare! 

Anniversary Poem

Anniversary Poem
John Greenleaf Whittier

I knew that truth would crush the lie,
Somehow, sometime the end would be;
Yet scarcely dared I hope to see
The triumph with my mortal eye.
"But now I see it! In the sun
A free flag floats from yonder dome.
And at the nation's hearth and home
The justice long delayed is done.
"Not as we hoped, in calm of prayer.
The message of deliverance comes.
But heralded by roll of drums
On waves of battle-troubled air!
"Not as we hoped - but what are we?
Above our broken dreams and plans
God lays, with wiser hand than man's
The corner-stones of liberty."

From "The Cotter's Saturday Night."

From "the Cotter's Saturday Night."
by Robert Burns

O, Scotia! my dear, my native soil!
For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent!
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil
Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content!
And, O, may Heaven their simple lives prevent
From luxury's contagion, weak and vile;
Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent,
A virtuous populace may rise the while.
And stand ' a wall of fire around their much-lov'd isle.

O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide
That stream'd thro' Wallace's undaunted heart;
Who dar'd to, nobly, stem tyrannic pride.
Or nobly die, the second glorious part,
(The patriot's God, peculiarly thou art.
His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!)
O never, never, Scotia's realm desert.
But still the patriot, and the patriot-bard,
In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard!

From Locksley Hall

From Locksley Hall
by Alfred Tennyson

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see.
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies or magic sails.
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly dew
From the nation's airy navies grappling in the central blue;

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm.
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thunderstorm;

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

Recessional

Recessional
by Rudyard Kipling

God of our fathers, known of old -
Lord of our far-flung battle-line -
Beneath Whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine -
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies -
The captains and the kings depart -
Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet.
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away -
On dune and headland sinks the fire -
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet.
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe -
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the Law -
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet.
Lest we forget - lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard -
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard -
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord! Amen.