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! | |
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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! | |
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Let us kneel: | |
Gods 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! | |
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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! | |
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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 |
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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? | |
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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! | |
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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! | |
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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! | |
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Ring and swing, | 55 |
Bells of joy! On mornings 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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