For where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
(Matthew 18:20)
Hymn #315 of the 1940 Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America (long extinct),
is a hymn that should shame those who advocate a perfect and literal separation
of Church and State - a principle nowhere expressed in the founding documents
of America, or in her Constitution. Certainly, the First Amendment incorporates
safeguards against the State meddling in religion, but not forbidding religion
as a balm of improvement as Salt & Light to the process of government. If
all morals are disregarded, we have only anarchy or harsh totalitarianism as a
result.
WE GATHER TOGETHER
We gather together to ask the
Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His
will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease
from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He
forgets not His own.
Beside us to guide us, our God
with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His
kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight
we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side,
all glory be Thine!
We all do extol Thee, Thou
Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our
Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape
tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O
Lord, make us free!
As
the great Reformation was breaking over Germany under the courageous Martin
Luther, and throughout other parts of Western Europe by the preaching of
Zwingli and Calvin, the English Reformation was being watered by the blood of
martyrs such as Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer. The Protestant faith, having found
fertile ground for its precious Seed in the Netherlands, was the focus of
intense struggle for religious freedom that was inseparable from that of
political freedom. Just as in America today, religious faith was being
subordinated to that of the Crown of the Holy Roman Empire under the King of
Spain who suborned the religious inclination of the people to the
representative of the Roman Pope (Cardinal de Granvelle) who neither knew, nor
understood, the Dutch people and their faith.
The Dutch Protestants were harshly persecuted. The situation grew into a terrible
and intolerable condition, and the Dutch rebelled under their Prince, William
of Orange. The Spanish King invaded with overwhelming force, but the
Dutch opened the gates of their dikes and flooded the low lying areas so
completely that the Spanish invaders could neither move about nor wage war.
Having no alternative, the King of Spain capitulated and granted independence
to the Netherlands. In 1574, the synod of Dordrecht adopted the Reformed faith
as the official religion of the country. The King of Spain later intimated that
the Dutch victory "must have been sanctioned by Almighty God."
In 1597, to celebrate the Dutch victory, Adrianus Valerius set this hymn (of
unknown authorship) to an old Dutch folk tune. It 's words represent the spirit
of liberty and freedom that inflamed the hearts of the people of the
Netherlands whose religious freedom from Rome came coincidentally joined to the
political freedom they had won from Spain. It would have been hard to convince
these courageous patriots that their religious faith should have taken a back
seat to the secular power. The bleeding and trembling hearts of America that
insist on moral and religious faith being subordinated to government are
selling out their God and their faith much too cheaply. The words were
translated into the English in 1894 by Theodore Baker.
The
words are simple, yet profoundly powerful in meaning and truth. The words
remind us that God, being with us and "beside us" we cannot fail of
victory; however, his people are often chastened first for their sins ere God
lifts the oppressors strong boot from their throats. Many in America are only
beginning to feel the press of that boot. It shall grow more and more intense
until we awaken from our cringing fears and stand up to the oppressor in the
same way of the Dutch. But we need not the sword and lance - for we have the
vote and the Gospel of Truth. The wicked will cease their oppressing the moment
we are made aware of the will of God and resolve to follow that will to the
exclusion of every other. Of course, we must not fail to acknowledge, in
thankfulness, that the victory shall always be the Lord's.
It is God who ordains our freedoms, and it is He who joins in battle array
against a truly defenseless enemy when He is present. Even if the outcome
seems seriously in doubt, there is NO DOUBT of final victory.
The final stanza stands out in stark contrast to the "teeming masses,
yearning to breathe free! on the oppressor's shore:
We all do extol Thee, Thou
Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our
Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape
tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O
Lord, make us free!
If we, with our heart of hearts, truly extol God (Praise highly and glorify),
we shall remain free in both politics and religious faith. If God is our Leader
and King, His kingdom shall be impregnable. What a blessing if the greater part
of the citizenry of a nation are also those of His congregation. "Blessed
is the nation whose God is the Lord!" (Psalm 33;12)
Please peruse the First Amendment and see if the Spanish King, or the American
Emperor, might be in violation by excluding School Prayer, Bible reading, and
religious clubs:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
If the Federal Judiciary, or the Federal Congress, hands down orders that
forbid prayer, Bible reading, or religious gatherings in a school club you will
not find justification for it in the so-called establishment clause -
that is a false proposition not contained in the US Constitution,
but in a private letter of Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist Church which implied a
wall of separation protecting the church from government interference. I am
sure I know how the faithful Dutch would have reacted by the insinuation that
government of man takes precedent over the government of God, but I believe I
can guess.
Sing the hymn in your own private study, or public worship, and be blessed and
strengthened.
