IT is done! | |
| Clang of bell and roar of gun | |
| Send the tidings up and down. | |
| How the belfries rock and reel! | |
| How the great guns, peal on peal, | 5 |
| Fling the joy from town to town! | |
| |
| Ring, O bells! | |
| Every stroke exulting tells | |
| Of the burial hour of crime. | |
| Loud and long, that all may hear, | 10 |
| Ring for every listening ear | |
| Of Eternity and Time! | |
| |
| Let us kneel: | |
| God’s own voice is in that peal, | |
| And this spot is holy ground. | 15 |
| Lord, forgive us! What are we, | |
| That our eyes this glory see, | |
| That our ears have heard the sound! | |
| |
| For the Lord | |
| On the whirlwind is abroad; | 20 |
| In the earthquake he has spoken; | |
| He has smitten with his thunder | |
| The iron walls asunder, | |
| And the gates of brass are broken! | |
| |
| Loud and long | 25 |
| Lift the old exulting song; | |
| Sing with Miriam by the sea | |
| He has cast the mighty down; | |
| Horse and rider sink and drown; | |
| “He hath triumphed gloriously!” | 30 |
| |
| Did we dare, | |
| In our agony of prayer, | |
| Ask for more than He has done? | |
| When was ever his right hand | |
| Over any time or land | 35 |
| Stretched as now beneath the sun? | |
| |
| How they pale, | |
| Ancient myth and song and tale, | |
| In this wonder of our days, | |
| When the cruel rod of war | 40 |
| Blossoms white with righteous law, | |
| And the wrath of man is praise! | |
| |
| Blotted out! | |
| All within and all about | |
| Shall a fresher life begin; | 45 |
| Freer breathe the universe | |
| As it rolls its heavy curse | |
| On the dead and buried sin! | |
| |
| It is done! | |
| In the circuit of the sun | 50 |
| Shall the sound thereof go forth. | |
| It shall bid the sad rejoice, | |
| It shall give the dumb a voice, | |
| It shall belt with joy the earth! | |
| |
| Ring and swing, | 55 |
| Bells of joy! On morning’s wing | |
| Send the song of praise abroad! | |
| With a sound of broken chains | |
| Tell the nations that He reigns, | |
| Who alone is Lord and God! | 60 |
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