My country, ‘tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountainside,
Let freedom ring!
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and drills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King.
About the writer: Samuel Francis Smith, a Baptist minister, was born in Boston in 1808. He attended the Boston Latin School and entered Harvard College in 1825. After leaving Harvard in 1829 he entered Andover Theological Seminary, graduating in 1832. His first pastorate was at Waterville, Maine where he remained eight years. In 1842 he became the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts. He resigned from this position in 1854 and became the editor of the Baptist Missionary Union. He helped prepare the Baptist collection of hymns titled The Psalmist, 1843. He died in 1895.
Key Verse: And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. –John 8:32