Spiritual Sunday – July 4th
Ralph Waldo Emerson has written one of the best poems to read on the 4th of July. “A Nation’s Strength” does not engage in patriotic idolatry, where men worship wealth and military power and strut their superiority before the world. God, Emerson writes, has struck such pride down “in ashes at his feet.”
No, a nation is strong only when it has “men who for truth and honor’s sake/ Stand fast and suffer long.”
Remember those words: Truth and Honor. And use it as criteria to judge our current leaders.
Happy July 4th.
A Nation’s Strength
By Ralph Waldo EmersonWhat makes a nation’s pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly…
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.