See Dr. A. Clarke on the text.
To make prayers, intercessions, supplications, thanksgivings for national authorities you now clearly see is a command from heaven. Obey it, and you shall be blessed—always do it, and you shall be made a blessing to others. Whom God has blessed no man can curse. If God has blessed this nation, neither internal foes, nor foreign enemies can crush it.
But God will bless it if it will do right, administering justice to each and to all, protecting the weak as well as the strong, and throwing the broad wings of its power equally over men of every color. This is God-like, and God will bless his own image, be it in a nation or in a man. Then, O my country, “shall thy light break forth as the morning—thy health shall spring forth speedily—thy righteousness shall go before thee,” and “the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.”
Then shall justice be engraven on our arms, and righteousness on our star-spangled banners; our armies shall then be led to battle by the Lord, and victory secured by the right arm of our God.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation, spelling, and printer's errors were silently corrected.
Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.