Behold they come, a strong resistless force
Unstopped by opposition's adamant
But pressing onward in their kingly course
Truth's principles immortal to implant;
Unstopped by opposition's adamant
But pressing onward in their kingly course
Truth's principles immortal to implant;
Yet not like plumed knights bearing pennons gay
Down Fancy's lighted avenues they come,
O what a thoughtful, earnest train are they
Advancing to old Time's year-measured drum,
Not like grim soldiers marching on to war,
Not like exultant gatherings national
No wave-washed empire boundary can bar
From any realm what they have won for all!
Down Fancy's lighted avenues they come,
O what a thoughtful, earnest train are they
Advancing to old Time's year-measured drum,
Not like grim soldiers marching on to war,
Not like exultant gatherings national
No wave-washed empire boundary can bar
From any realm what they have won for all!
They who have laid Truth's pearl-hewn corner stone
And struck unerring blows at Falsity
'Till her proud atoms to the four-winds blown
But Prophecy, how great her fall shall be!
Ah! many figures there we recognize,
Not by a memory of form or face
But by that recognition that defies
The cold, remorseless sweep of time and space.
And struck unerring blows at Falsity
'Till her proud atoms to the four-winds blown
But Prophecy, how great her fall shall be!
Ah! many figures there we recognize,
Not by a memory of form or face
But by that recognition that defies
The cold, remorseless sweep of time and space.
Have we not walked with them in paths apart,
Held with their thoughts benign communion sweet,
Whispering soul to soul and heart to heart
Or sat like children learning at their feet?
But, lo, among their numbers there is none
Like to One only, more than all beside
Thorns for unfading laurel-wreaths He won
He, who for man alone, hath lived and died.
Held with their thoughts benign communion sweet,
Whispering soul to soul and heart to heart
Or sat like children learning at their feet?
But, lo, among their numbers there is none
Like to One only, more than all beside
Thorns for unfading laurel-wreaths He won
He, who for man alone, hath lived and died.
The wreckless curb-stone-crowds, how many yet
Are scattering cruel briers in His path,
O, do they in their heedlessness forget
That heavens of mercy yet will cloud with wrath!
Are scattering cruel briers in His path,
O, do they in their heedlessness forget
That heavens of mercy yet will cloud with wrath!
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