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This nation under God
Book by Sill, Sterling W
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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January 1, 2010
I like the emphasis he places on near-forgotten strength of virtues, and he is at his best when conveying knowledge distilled from great literature. How truly he spoke, of the house of Israel and of America: "Even God cannot make a great nation out of a group of adulterers, murderers, liars, and Sabbath breakers" (27; see 192).
At times disjointed and often cheesy (see 61-62), some of his chapters are masterpieces in descriptive thought provoking, as with his tribute to Mormon in conceptualization (really, read it!), Washington in words, and Lincoln in sheer force of research. (I should know the latter, as I once had to compress more than 20 books about Lincoln into a page or so.) This patriot appropriately cast the issues in more than once utilizing Patrick Henry's "is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" and "we must fight! . . . . the war is inevitable, and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!" in demonstrating the curiosity that "there is nothing the devil loves so much as peace," the peace offered by the murderous double talk of Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin (46). He quoted France's Petain to good effect about World War I: "Our spirit of enjoyment/Was greater than our spirit of sacrifice./We wanted to have/More than we wanted to give./We tried to spare effort and we met disaster" (133). (He does demonstrate an understanding of the role of peace with aggression on 213, as "'Fighting is not the best way to win an argument.' If carried to its ultimate conclusions, the old idea of 'an eye for an eye' eventually ends in making everybody blind." Elders Oaks and Holland have addressed this.)
Don't let the fact that Chapter 1 consists solely of a recitation of "How Great Thou Art" deter you. Again, expect a fair smattering of flowery and meaningless phrases, buying into the idea that multiplying words enhances an audience's attention. Some examples: "Loyalty is a quality opposite to the baser traits of treason, treachery, and betrayal" (191); "One who is loyal develops a kind of radioactivity of spirit" (224); "Even now, two centuries later, if we strained the ears of our imaginations we might still hear the hurrying hoofbeats of a gallant steed carrying the message of freedom through that moonlit New England countryside" (137); "Hang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes" (125); "One of the greatest days in the life of any individual is the day of his birth. If anyone should fail in this all-important event of getting himself born, there is nothing else that would be of very great consequence so far as he is concerned" (129); "We should remember that God runs the most effective beauty parlor ever known" (177).
All the same, I enjoy spending time with this man who appreciated Lincoln's fervor, "What I want to know is in books, and my best friend is the one who will get me a book I haven't read," and wrote on his own strength, "As books have become much more plentiful, we have lost much of our incentive, ability, and desire to read. . . . The man who chooses the right class of books and papers becomes more accurate in his thinking, more rooted in his convictions, and greater in his mental strength" (228, 232).
At times disjointed and often cheesy (see 61-62), some of his chapters are masterpieces in descriptive thought provoking, as with his tribute to Mormon in conceptualization (really, read it!), Washington in words, and Lincoln in sheer force of research. (I should know the latter, as I once had to compress more than 20 books about Lincoln into a page or so.) This patriot appropriately cast the issues in more than once utilizing Patrick Henry's "is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" and "we must fight! . . . . the war is inevitable, and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!" in demonstrating the curiosity that "there is nothing the devil loves so much as peace," the peace offered by the murderous double talk of Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin (46). He quoted France's Petain to good effect about World War I: "Our spirit of enjoyment/Was greater than our spirit of sacrifice./We wanted to have/More than we wanted to give./We tried to spare effort and we met disaster" (133). (He does demonstrate an understanding of the role of peace with aggression on 213, as "'Fighting is not the best way to win an argument.' If carried to its ultimate conclusions, the old idea of 'an eye for an eye' eventually ends in making everybody blind." Elders Oaks and Holland have addressed this.)
Don't let the fact that Chapter 1 consists solely of a recitation of "How Great Thou Art" deter you. Again, expect a fair smattering of flowery and meaningless phrases, buying into the idea that multiplying words enhances an audience's attention. Some examples: "Loyalty is a quality opposite to the baser traits of treason, treachery, and betrayal" (191); "One who is loyal develops a kind of radioactivity of spirit" (224); "Even now, two centuries later, if we strained the ears of our imaginations we might still hear the hurrying hoofbeats of a gallant steed carrying the message of freedom through that moonlit New England countryside" (137); "Hang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes" (125); "One of the greatest days in the life of any individual is the day of his birth. If anyone should fail in this all-important event of getting himself born, there is nothing else that would be of very great consequence so far as he is concerned" (129); "We should remember that God runs the most effective beauty parlor ever known" (177).
All the same, I enjoy spending time with this man who appreciated Lincoln's fervor, "What I want to know is in books, and my best friend is the one who will get me a book I haven't read," and wrote on his own strength, "As books have become much more plentiful, we have lost much of our incentive, ability, and desire to read. . . . The man who chooses the right class of books and papers becomes more accurate in his thinking, more rooted in his convictions, and greater in his mental strength" (228, 232).
Displaying 1 of 1 review