Last comes the splendid STANZA OF DEDICATION. In the spirit of fervent prayer, Francis Scott Key closes his lyric with a lifting look to the future—a resolve not only for Americans, but for liberty-loving people over all the world.

Oh, thus be it ever, when free men shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

When time permits the singing of but one stanza of our National Anthem, may it be this stanza of DEDICATION.

Our Star-Spangled Banner—like the songs “America” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”—closes in the spirit of prayer. “Old Glory” rises to its crest in these ringing lines:

Then conquer we must when our cause it is just,
and this be our motto, ‘In God is our trust.’”

Americans, claim your heritage by learning every one of the four stanzas of this stirring song. Capture for yourselves its feeling and message. Learn the dramatic story out of which, amid the battle of smoke, it was born. Then with minds alert to its meaning, and hearts attuned to its patriotic spirit sing our national anthem—THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.

PLEDGE OF ALLIGIANCE
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.

This “Symbol of Our Liberty” account came from the pamphlet
“New Light on Old Glory” by Howard R. Driggs
Copyright 1955 and published
by Wheelwright Lithographing Company
Permission was given to print by Perry Driggs.