Suggestive programs for special day exercises/Our Nations Birthday/Centennial Hymn
CENTENNIAL HYMN.
Our father’s God! from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,
We meet today, united, free,
And loyal to our land and thee.
To thank thee for the era done,
And trust thee for the opening one.
Here, where of old, by thy design.
The fathers spake that word of thine,
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended bolts and falling chain,—
To grace our festal time, from all
The zones of earth our guests we call.
Be with us while the New World greets
The Old World thronging all its streets,
Unveiling all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun;
And unto common good ordain
The rivalship of hand and brain.
Thou who hast here in concord furled
The war-flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our western skies fulfill
The Orient’s mission of good will;
And freighted with love’s golden fleece,
Send back the Argonauts of peace.
For art and labor met in truce,
For beauty made the bride of use,
We thank thee, while withal we crave
The austere virtues strong to save;
The honor, proof to place or gold,
The manhood, never bought or sold.
O! make thou us through centuries long,
In peace secure, in justice strong;
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of thy righteous law;
And, cast in some diviner mold.
Let the new cycle shame the old!
Note.—The music for this is found in Riverside Song Book.