The Army and Navy Hymnal/Orders of Worship/The American Flag and American Ideals

Layout 2

XV.The American flag and American Ideals

A Service for		Flag Day, June 14
		Independence Day, July 4
		Armistice Day, November 11
		Citizenship Day

Trumpet Fanfare or Martial Music
Hynm (Standing)

O God of Hosts, with Thy Strong Hand
(hageup L.M)
Nordahl Rolfsen		Edward H. Grieg

1. O God of Hosts, with thy strong hand
   Protect our homes and fatherland;
   Be thou our shield in war and peace
   And guide our steps till life shall cease.
   
2. Defend, God, this land of ours,
   Its grassy plains,its mountain tow'rs;
   Thy blessing be upon it shed
   Like morning dew on flow'ry bed.
   Teach us in truth and light to grow,
   Thy laws to love, thy word to know;
   In thee we will for aye abide;
   O King of glory, be our guide! A-men.

Responses
Leader:
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Assembly:
Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.
Leader:
When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
If thou hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
The Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth.

Leader:
And all these blessings shall overtake thee.
Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground.
Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face.
Assembly:
Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
Loose the bands of wickedness and undo the heavy burdens.
Let the oppressed go free ; break every yoke.
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning,
And thine health shall spring forth speedily.
And thy righteousness shall go before thee :

And the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.

(Seated)

Leader:— ATHENIAN OATH (Translated from the Greek)
We will never bring disgrace to this, our nation, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks; we will fight for the ideals of the nation: both alone and with others: we will revere and respect our nation's laws, and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence in those above us who are prone to annul and set them at naught; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public's sense of civic duty, thus in all these ways, we will transmit this nation not only not less but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.

All:

FROM CONCORD BRIDGE TO THE MEUSE

The road from Concord Bridge to the heights above the Meuse is long, but it runs straight, and along it men are still led by the same love of liberty and service of democracy which was revealed in our first battle morning nearly a century and a half ago. Frank H. Simonds

All:
Freedom

My name is Liberty! From out a mighty land I face the ancient sea, I lift to God my hand:

By day in heaven's light A pillar of fire by night At ocean's gate I stand Nor bend the knee.

Clarence Stedman

Union
Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State!
Sail on, Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable. Daniel Webster

America, the Shouts of War Shall Cease
(ALL SAINTS. C. M. D.)
Allen Eastmen Cross, 1918		Henry S. Cutler,, 1872

1. America, America,
   The shouts of war shall cease ;
   The glory dawns ! the day is come
   Of victory and peace
   And now upon a larger plan
   We'll build the common good,
   The temple of the love of man,
   The House of Brotherhood!
   
2. What though its stones were laid in tears,
   Its pillars red with wrong,
   Its walls shall rise through patient years
   To soaring spires of song!
   For on this house shall faith attend
   With Joy on airy wing,
   And flaming loyalty ascend
   To God the only King!
   
3. America, America,
   Ring out the glad refrain
   Salute the flag salute the dead
   That have not died in vain!
   O glory! glory to thy plan
   To build the common good
   The temple of the rights of .man,
   The House of Brotherhood! Amen.

Equality
We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That all men are created equal;
That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Thomas Jefferson

Humanity

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. Abraham Lincoln

Service

God hath made of one blood all nations of men, and we are his children, brothers and sisters all.

We are citizens of these United States, and we believe our Flag stands for self-sacrifice for the good of all the people. We want, therefore, to be true citizens of our great country, and will show our love for her by our works.

Our country asks us to live for her, and so to live and so to act that her government may be pure, her officers honest, and every corner of her territory shall be a place fit to grow the best men and women, who shall rule over her. Mary McDowell

Education and Americanization

The Flag means universal education light for every mind, knowledge for every child. We must have but one flag. We must also have but one language.

This must be the language of the Declaration of Independence Woodrow Wilson

Righteousness

I have lived a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth,

That God Governs in the Affairs of Men.

And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it possible that an empire can rise without his aid ?

We have been assured in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. Benjamin Franklin

World Brotherhood

But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free, Woodrow Wilson

The Flag and What It Stands For

Processional March (Instrumental. All standing at attention)

National flag borne by Color Guard to platform or altar.

Apostropbe to the Flag (All uniting)

All hail to our glorious ensign!

Courage to the heart, and strength to the hand, to which, in all time, it shall be entrusted. On whatsoever spot it is planted, there may freedom have a foot- hold, humanity a brave champion, and religion an altar Edward Everett.

In the name of God we lift up our banner, and dedicate it to peace, 'union, and liberty now and forevermore. Henry Ward Beecher

I am what you make me, nothing more.

I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color.

A symbol of yourself.

A pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation.

My stars and my stripes are your dream and your labors.

They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you have made them so out of your hearts.

We are all making the flag Franklin K. Lane

Salute to the Flag

I pledge allegiance to my flag

And to the republic for which it stands;

One nation, indivisible,

With liberty and justice for all.

National Anthem

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light

What so proudly we nailed 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 still wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

(All seated)

Prayer O God of purity and peace, God of light and freedom, God of comfort and joy, we thank thee for our country, this great land of hope, whose wide doors thou hast opened to so many millions that struggle with hardship and with hunger in the crowded Old World. We give thanks to the power that has made and preserved us a nation, that has carried our ship of state through storm and darkness and has given us a place of honor and power that we might bear aloft the standard of impartial liberty and impartial law. May our altars and our schools ever stand as pillars of welfare; may the broad land be filled with homes of intelligent and contented industry, that through the long generations our land may be a happy land and our country a power of good will among the nations. Amen. Charles Gordon Ames