 | Poems of home and country |  |
JEHOVAH REIGNS.
Swiftly the years roll on; so swiftly comes
The day when every nation unto God
Shall swell Salvation's song. From the far South
The scented breezes bring a welcome voice
Upon their wings,—the voice of many tongues,
Asking of Christ and heaven. The western fields,
Far stretching towards the setting sun, send back,
From all the busy hum of gathering tribes,
The call for men of God. The frozen North,
With her sparse nations, and the swarming East,
Have heard that Christ for man was lifted up.
The story, simply told on some stray leaf,
That came, they know not whence, wakens a thrill
Of deep responsive feeling. There's a chord
That answers in the human breast to all
The word of God declares. As for the light
The eye is formed, and for the eye the light,—
So for the heart of man the words of life;
And for those words the human heart was made.
They send their soothing cry o'er ocean's waste;
The voice is heard above the roaring storm
Of earth's wild bustle. Many a stolid ear
Erects itself to hear; and many a heart
Cries in its fervor,—“I will go and tell
The dark idolater the way to God.”
The day when every nation unto God
Shall swell Salvation's song. From the far South
The scented breezes bring a welcome voice
Upon their wings,—the voice of many tongues,
Asking of Christ and heaven. The western fields,
Far stretching towards the setting sun, send back,
From all the busy hum of gathering tribes,
The call for men of God. The frozen North,
With her sparse nations, and the swarming East,
Have heard that Christ for man was lifted up.
The story, simply told on some stray leaf,
That came, they know not whence, wakens a thrill
Of deep responsive feeling. There's a chord
That answers in the human breast to all
The word of God declares. As for the light
The eye is formed, and for the eye the light,—
So for the heart of man the words of life;
And for those words the human heart was made.
287
The voice is heard above the roaring storm
Of earth's wild bustle. Many a stolid ear
Erects itself to hear; and many a heart
Cries in its fervor,—“I will go and tell
The dark idolater the way to God.”
O ye of little faith, 't is but a day,
And sin will vanish! All earth's withering woes
Will pass away; the Gospel's blessed words,
Borne by its ministers to every land,
Will heal them all. God will be glorified
In human blessedness; and, morn and eve,
The ransomed tribes shall send up to the throne,
From all earth's surface, hallelujahs, sweet,
And loud as many waters. Heaven itself
Will seem descended; earth will seem a heaven.
And sin will vanish! All earth's withering woes
Will pass away; the Gospel's blessed words,
Borne by its ministers to every land,
Will heal them all. God will be glorified
In human blessedness; and, morn and eve,
The ransomed tribes shall send up to the throne,
From all earth's surface, hallelujahs, sweet,
And loud as many waters. Heaven itself
Will seem descended; earth will seem a heaven.
Come, O Thou Lamb of God, hasten Thy work;
Cut short the reign of sin; and if not here,
Oh, soon from our bright thrones above the sky,
Let us but catch the strain from all who dwell
Upon the earth—JEHOVAH REIGNS!
Cut short the reign of sin; and if not here,
Oh, soon from our bright thrones above the sky,
Let us but catch the strain from all who dwell
Upon the earth—JEHOVAH REIGNS!
| Poems of home and country | |