Valley Forge
I run in the path of your commends,
For you have set my heart free.
Psalm 119:32
We know so little, we forget so much
Of our country's history of long ago.
Let us go with Washington to Valley Forge
And face the bitter wind, the blinding snow,
The ragged clothing, the frostbiten feet,
The dishearened men, too ill at times to satnd.
Yet every hardship that they bored was shared
By the sympathetic leader in command.
He built into the fabric of a dream
The fact that this, our country, could be great.
He shared that dream with others, some who found
Its bright fulfillment coming all too late.
He suffered for that dream; he fought a fight
That tore the heart with anger and distress.
He strove for a nation's gloriois destiny
With a steadfast faith in ultimate success--
A faith that blossomed like a flower
Out of the bitter soil of that dark hour.
---Grace Noll Crowell
Parting Thought
America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.
--- Daniel Webster.
Prayer Concern
Our Father, remove from us the sopistication of our age and the skepticism that has come, like frost, to blight our faith and to make it weak. Bring us back to a faith that makes great and strong, a faith that enables us to love and live, the faith by which we are triumphant, and the faith by which we alone can walk with thee. We pray for a return of that simple faith, that old-fashioned trust in God, that made strong and great the homes of our ancestors who built this good land and who in building left us our heritage.
In the strong name of Jesus our Lord, we make this prayer. AMEN.
--- Peter Marshall (1949), Mr Jones, Meet the Master, p 159
May the men and women in our Nation's service in foreign fields plant a heritage of healing and freedom in those poor broken lands.
Happy Independence Day!
The series of articles from Exodus returns on July 11.
For further reading:
Please visit my website, http://www.richardsbarnett.com.
Please check http://www.biblicalgeology.com for information about the place of rocks and minerals in the Bible.