Strong arms are powerless to strike down the thought
By which the stars burn and the worlds are wrought, —
“Let there be light!” The same Almighty Word
Stirs the black deeps of human wrong, that stirred
The gulfs of darkness, and with power the same
To flood our lives with unconvincing flame,
To sweep the chords of harmony till man
Sings with the stars that sang when earth began.
No steel can reach the vital core of Truth,
And ages leave her in eternal youth;
Around her banner all perfections move,
And fight the battles of redeeming Love:
For Truth is mighty in her boundless field,
And trust in God is more than sword and shield.
When Israel, bowed beneath an alien yoke,
Rose, and sublime her shameful bondage broke,
Led by the soul of Deborah and her son
Of Abinoam, spear and shield was none
Among their thousands, – then the Morning Stars
Fought against Sisera; o’er his iron cars
The river Kishon, swelling from its banks,
Swept them away with all their sounding ranks.
So when the Assyrian, like a winter’s flood
Rolled down in terrors, swoll’n with spoil and blood,
Jehovah’s wrath breathed on them but one breath,
And all that living flood stood still in death!
But if no vengeance hurtle from the sky,
No chartered earthquake reel in terror by,
Shall any dare to trample, iron-heeled,
On the thick bosses of Jehovah’s shield?
and safe from human law, unscathed presume
To wrest her balance from the hand of Doom?
God lives! and reigns, supreme in earth as heaven,
He rides the storm and hurls the flashing levin,
Plants peace perennial in the heart of love,
Sends there the vulture, here the mystic Dove.
Eternal Justice looks with sleepless eyes,
And her hand smites the refuges of lies;
While the wine glows in Babel’s bannered hall,
The red hand-writing burns upon the wall!
No wrong is safe, no right without defence;
For all things bide the law of recompense.
Now, as forever, to the true and just,
Who serve the Highest with unwavering trust,
He makes the Wind his angel, and the Fire
His swift-winged ministers! The rocks conspire;
Mountains and rivers, and waves that lash the coast,
Are leagued against Oppression’s alien host;
The sun sheds courage warmer than its light,
For truth the high stars in their courses fight;
And He who marshals on our midnight arch
Their burning sabaoth in eternal march,
Made them the glowing vanguard of his line,
Power’s fiery script, and victory’s golden sign!
All chainless things are allies of the free;
The strong lend strength, the pure give purity;
Commissioned angels breathe unconscious cheer,
And side by side the immortal dead are here;
Man’s vervid Thought, and Heart of many woes,
Crown with undying love the wrestler with man’s foes!
