America Must PrayBy Dr. Mal Couch Public prayer, spiritual publications of poems and music, have always been a part of America, until recently. There are forces now trying to silence the Christian spiritual heritage of open and free expression to our God that made this nation great. Each week I’ll add some historical tidbits as how Christian expression and public prayer was a vital part of our nation’s blessing. We may not fully know of the spiritual state of all the men we examine, but we do know none of them were fearful of prayers to the God of the Bible in the public setting. If you are a pastor or Sunday school teacher, please print off these little bits of our history and share them with others. The Warner Sisters It is said that some of the spiritual speeches given by Abraham Lincoln inspired these two sisters, Anna and Susan, to write some of our most familiar songs that actually were prayers put to music. What inspired them the most was a speech by Lincoln in which he said: We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessing were produced by some superior wisdom, and virtue of our own. … We have become too proud to pray to the God that made us. The Warner sisters were Sunday school teachers in West Point, New York. They taught the cadets in the U.S. Military Academy of which most ended up in the Civil War, with many fighting each other on the battlefield. From the hearts of the sisters came "Jesus Loves Me." For the Bible tells me so; Little ones to Him belong, They are weak but He is strong. Jesus loves me! He will stay Close beside me all the way; Thou hast bled and died for me, I will henceforth live for Thee. As the Civil War went on many men and women on both sides produced prayers and songs that glorified the struggle but that also called upon the mercies of God. One such was Robert Lowry, a professor of rhetoric and the pastor of the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn. He had become depressed at reading the war casualty list and also because some of his friends and parishioners had come down with the deadly typhoid disease. As Robert put it, his "imagination began to take itself wings" and he began to think how he could raise everyone’s spirits. In fifteen minutes one evening he had sketched out the words for "Shall We Gather At the River." He immediately sat down and worked out the melody on the parsonage organ.
Where bright angel feet have trod, With its crystal tide forever Flowing by the throne of God? Yes, we’ll gather at the river, The beautiful, the beautiful river; Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God. While riding on a train after the war, Lowry heard a group of drunken lumbermen singing his hymn, and singing through every word of it! He realized that what he had written would endure long after he was gone. |