Garrison

The storm and peril overpast,     The hounding hatred shamed and still,     Go, soul of freedom! take at last     The place which thou alone canst fill.     Confirm the lesson taught of old     Life saved for self is lost, while they     Who lose it in His service hold     The lease of God's eternal day.     Not for thyself, but for the slave     Thy words of thunder shook the world;     No selfish griefs or hatred gave     The strength wherewith thy bolts were hurled.     From lips that Sinai's trumpet blew     We heard a tender under song;     Thy very wrath from pity grew,     From love of man thy hate of wrong.     Now past and present are as one;     The life below is life above;     Thy mortal years have but begun     Thy immortality of love.     With somewhat of thy lofty faith     We lay thy outworn garment by,     Give death but what belongs to death,     And life the life that cannot die!     Not for a soul like thine the calm     Of selfish ease and joys of sense;     But duty, more than crown or palm,     Its own exceeding recompense.     Go up and on! thy day well done,     Its morning promise well fulfilled,     Arise to triumphs yet unwon,     To holier tasks that God has willed.     Go, leave behind thee all that mars     The work below of man for man;     With the white legions of the stars     Do service such as angels can.     Wherever wrong shall right deny     Or suffering spirits urge their plea,     Be thine a voice to smite the lie,     A hand to set the captive free