An overflow crowd of 300,000 people on the National Mall heard Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin speak at a "Restoring Honor" rally yesterday, with Beck telling the gathering of enthusiastic fans that "for too long, this country has wandered in darkness."

"Something beyond imagination is happening," said Beck, the conservative Fox News Channel host and the rally's organizer, pacing back and forth on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

"America today begins to turn back to God."

The focus of the event was on religion and national service -- even though it featured two of the most recognizable faces of the anti-tax Tea Party movement.

Beck instructed the gathering to keep believing in the country's potential for greatness.

"We have had moments of brilliance and moments of darkness," he said. "But this country has spent far too long worried about scars, and thinking about, scars and concentrating on scars.

"Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished -- and the things that we can do tomorrow."

Palin echoed those sentiments, telling the crowd they also had "the same steel spine and moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King."

"We must not fundamentally transform America, as some want. We must restore America, and restore her honor."

The rally took place on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King's civil-rights march on Washington, with Beck and Palin speaking just steps from the spot where King made his "I Have a Dream" speech.

His niece, Alveda King, an anti-abortion activist, told the crowd, "If Uncle Martin were here today, he would surely commend us for giving honor where honor is due."

But the timing angered others. A counter-rally, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton in DC, featured speeches by King's son, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous and Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

"Now, the folks who criticized us for marching are trying to have a march themselves," Sharpton said of Beck.

Beck's rally also featured baseball superstar Albert Pujols, who received an award for his off-the-field charity work. The St. Louis Cardinals slugger was introduced by his manager, Tony LaRussa, who said the speeches he heard had "invigorated him."

Many attending the event said they were pleased that Beck billed it as nonpolitical.

Lisa Horn, 28, an accountant from Houston, said she identifies with the Tea Party movement, although she said the rally was not about either the tea party or politics.

"I think this says that the people are uniting. We know we are not the only ones," she said.

tim.perone@nypost.com

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