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Hagar

The Singing Maiden, with Other Stories and Rhymes,

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THE TIME SERVER.
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THE TIME SERVER.

Room for the world's beloved, the man of time!
They swell his glorious train,
They twine a wreath to-day;
And weave the song and lay,
And deem his never-dying name,
As the proud sun shall shine, thro' all the years sublime!

146

Room for the hero, who has bent his knee
Too lowly for his manhood's pride;
And in a dark dark hour,
Eager for fame and power,
God and his truth belied,
And bowed all slavishly to wrong's dread tyranny.
Room for the traitor, on whose burning brow
Is set the mark of Cain.
Wo! for the toiling slaves,
Wo! for the martyrs' graves,
Wo! for the years of ceaseless pain.
To which his perjured vow hath doomed earth's millions now!
Is this thy triumph hour? There was a time,
When fainting hearts looked up to thee;
And hung upon thy words,
Sweet as the songs of birds,
Yet ever strong and grand as the sea,
Which wafts thy truths sublime to every race and clime.
O, 'twas a glorious day—the tyrant, on his throne
Trembled to hear his doom,
And one more blessed ray
Dawned on God's poor that day,
As through the gathering gloom;
A faint hope dimly shone, that God had heard his moan.

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Alas! he was but clay, and yet we mourn that he
Hath fallen on the way,
And gird us for the fight,
Of holy truth and right;
God is our hope and stay!
Press on—our cause shall be crowned with His victory.