America The Beautiful | Brent Simpson

In 1893, at the age of 33, English professor Katharine Lee Bates climbed to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado and gazed at the incredible beauty. She wrote, "All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse." Suddenly, in the midst of this magical moment a poem began to rise in her soul. And it was there amidst God’s incredible creation that these words came to her: “O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountains majesties, Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee…”

America the beautiful was published two years later on July 4th, 1895 and has been a beloved American anthem every since.

Tomorrow at Arise we will examine both the Bible and American history to discover what makes America beautiful, and why “God shed his grace on thee.”