April 19, 2013 (Friday)
“The shot heard round the world” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Concord Hymn
On this date, April 19, 1775, What had been much talk of independence for the British Colonies became actual war as American militiamen engaged British Regulars in battle at Lexington, Concord, and several other towns in Massachusetts. The troops faced each other in a standoff until a shot–no one knows who fired it–was heard. Suddenly there was great confusion on both sides as the American Revolution began. (This event is celebrated on “Patriot’s Day,” now observed in some states on the third Monday of April).
In 1837, to commemorate the battles and to raise a monument to the revolution, a memorial obelisk with appropriate engraving was raised in Concord. Ralph Waldo Emerson was asked to write a poem for the occasion. His work was entitled, “The Concord Hymn,” and was sung to the tune of the “Old Hundredth,” which we would recognize as “The Doxology.” The first verse of the poem went like this:
*By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
And so today’s date is a key one in the history of the United States of America. On that day, the rhetoric of independence yielded to the musket and ball, and the war was on. With General George Washington leading the troops, Americans fought the war for the next eight years, and ultimately won the victory.
Our Constitution was ratified in 1788, and a new government under George Washington as first president, was established in New York in 1789. The Bill of Rights was ratified by the states in 1791, as a guarantee of the “inalienable rights” so prominently mentioned in the Declaration of Independence of 1776.
How sad that on the anniversary of this date in 1995, the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed, killing 168 people, including 19 children under the age of 6, and injuring more than 680 people within a sixteen block radius. This awful event reminds us that Freedom brings with it the obligation to be civil and act responsibly in order to preserve it. Terrorism can in no way be equated with Patriotism in the United States of America.
Devotional Thought:
Any person familiar with military strategies and armaments would tell us that the Patriots’ fight against the British army was a hopeless cause. Yet they won that war. Most of us see the hand of God in the establishment of this nation. We have our problems today, as a nation, and the one great answer to our troubled times is this word from God: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV).
* Read all the verses of “The Concord Hymn” in Wikipedia. Click here.