Page:Poems (IA poems00harp).pdf/20

A crusade for the rights of man
 To brighten history's page.

Where labor faints and bows her head,
 And want consorts with crime;
Or men grown faithless sadly say
 That evil is the time.

There is the field, the vantage ground
 For every earnest heart;
To side with justice, truth and right
 And act a noble part.

To save from ignorance and vice
 The poorest, humblest child;
To make our age the fairest one
 On which the sun has smiled;

To plant the roots of coming years.
 In mercy, love and truth;
And bid our weary, saddened earth
 Again renew her youth.

Oh! earnest hearts! toil on in hope,
 'Till darkness shrinks from light;
To fill the earth with peace and joy,
 Let youth and age unite;