Hymn - Why o'er the Mighty Waters

                                       I.
Why o'er the mighty waters.
     The tide of feeling pour,
While Afric’s sons and daughters.
     Are pining at our door?

                                       II.
Why seek for far-off heathen,
     Across the ocean’s foam,
While scourges we are wreathing,
     And bands for those at home?

                                       III.
The bondman, sad and weary,
     His dark’ned soul hath bow’d
Beneath the shadows dreary
     Of slavery’s thunder-cloud.

                                       IV.
The midnight of oppression
     Hangs dismal as the tomb;
And deeds of dark transgression
     Are done beneath its gloom.

                                       V.
Yet can our loving kindness
     Extend across the wave;
And pass in wilful blindness
     The robb’d and bleeding slave.

                                       VI.
We starve our home-born brother;
     And o’er the roaring tide,
Send freely to another,
     The bread to him denied.

                                       VII.
The Hindoo by the Ganges
     May claim our pitying aid,
While not a day-beam ranges
     The heathendom we’ve made.

                                       VIII.
Then let us break the fetter,
     In christian love and light;
So shall our lamp be better
     To pierce the pagan night.