The lyrics of the familiar song “America the Beautiful” hearken back to our passionate American spirit of faith, liberty, and nobility.
The first verse expresses our country’s varied and splendid physical beauty stretching forth “from sea to shining sea”. Above and beyond the spacious skies and alabaster cities, our country is crowned by the higher, lasting gifts of faith and charity. We recognize everything as gift coming from the generous hand of God who has granted them to us despite our unworthiness.
The spirit of Christianity on which our country was founded puts generosity and eagerness to do good into the American heart. We ask God for the preservation of these higher gifts that we may seek the good not for ourselves alone but for others too. We sing:
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!
Enjoy their rendition of “America the Beautiful” starting at 22:10
