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In last week's article...another in the series "The Rebirth of America", under the title "One Nation Under God", in the process of putting that article into print, the name of the author, Rus Walton, was inadvertently deleted.

Since the error was discovered after the press run was completed, it could not be corrected that day.

Walton, in addition to being the author of the article, is also the executive director of Plymouth Rock Foundation, Marlborough, N.H. The foundation's main objective is "...to advance the kingdom of the Lord, Jesus Christ".

In an exchange of correspondence to get Walton's permission to reprint the article, he commented..."Many thanks for sending me tearsheets of your column from The Review Times. If only we had more works such as yours in papers across the nation, perhaps we could lift the United States out of the morass of immorality which now degrades its standards and infests its institutions".

The Review Times and the author of Potluck regrets the error of omitting Rus Walton's name as the author of the article.

WHAT LIES BEHIND ABUNDANCE AND FREEDOMS?

Half the world goes to bed hungry. And half the world lies under Communist rule, where freedom, as Americans known it, simply does not exist.

Homemakers in much of the world might never see in a lifetime the quantity of food which the American housewife can choose in just one trip to the supermaket.

Is this abundance and this freedom ours merely by chance?

Is it wholly due to what Americans like to perceive as U.S. energy and know how?

If God indeed has blessed America, why?

THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA'S LAND

One of our most moving patriotic hymns cites the beauty of America...a beauty that all who have traveled across the continent surly recognize. Kathlerine Lee Bates stood atop Pike's Peak and scanned the sweep of the land, then wrote of the "purple mountain majestics, and the amber waves of grain".

She concluded that God has shed His grace on this land...a vast unexplored wilderness that, in an astonishingly short period, grew into a great nation.

It would be foolish to deny that the rich natural resources of the land itself have not helped to make America. The oil, the ore, the timber, the water, the soil and climate, all have combined to nourish a civilization that would eventually spread from sea to shining sea.

Other nations too, though have been blessed with fine resources, yet somehow these have not risen to such greatness.

THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA'S PEOPLE

Others have said that America's people have made her great. Lyman Abott once said; "A nation is made great, not by its mines, but by the men who build and run them. America was a great land when Columbus discovered it; Americans have made it a great nation".

And so they have. For they pioneered a continent, subdued the elements that at first worked against them, molded a society of peoples from all over the world. America's initiative and ingenuity are known across the earth. Other nations have looked on in awe at her ability over the decades to produce not only her own needs, but much more.

THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA'S SYSTEM

America's free enterprise system and the spirit of her people, it would seem have combined to deliver a flood of mass produced goods to the consumer at relatively low cost. At the same time, American economic genius has also helped to produce nillions of jobs...from the factories to the professions... which gave Americans the income to buy the goods they produce.

THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA'S GENEROSITY

Thus far America has escaped the spectre of widescale hunger at home, and she has been able to feed at least some of the hungry abroad. Through the decades she has opened her heart to the poor of the world. She has given generously to every nation, even her enemies, in the time of emergency.

THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA'S FREEDOMS

In spite of certain social ills, the U.S. has passed more social legislation and enacted more laws providing individual liberty than any other nation in world history. And because of her belief in freedom of speech she has not hidden her scars...they are there for the world to see...while those totalitarian regimes that run a controlled press look on amazed.

All of those blessings point back to her foundations and to the providential hand of God. After all, the purple mountain majesties and the fruited plains originated with God. America's blessings, despite her ills, call forth thanksgiving from all those who enjoy them. The great spiritual heritage that built America unfolded by remarkable design. So also did American democracy, the U.S. Constitution and along with these, the great freedoms they ensure.

No, America, did not just happen by chance, as is obvious to a person who truly understands the unfolding saga of events that shaped that nation. Other articles in this series about "The Rebirth of America" will highlight some of this evidence, not that we should look back, but that we should better understand where America is today, how she arrived here, and where she must turn at this critical hour.

For as Thomas Jessferson once asked, "Can the liberties of a nation be secure, when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?