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| O ISRAEL! wanderer through the weary years | |
| Of wild unrest; | |
| A world-wide pilgrimage of hopes and fears, | |
| Sometimes in joy, but oft’ner far in tears, | |
| As God knows best. | 5 |
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| Since Jacob laid him down that night to sleep | |
| On Bethel’s stone, | |
| And saw the angel legions downward sweep, | |
| Their watch around the fugitive to keep— | |
| Never alone. | 10 |
| |
| Beside the majestic Nile, on Egypt’s sand, | |
| He pitched his tent; | |
| There on the desert saw the uplifted hand, | |
| In cloud and fire still pointing to the land | |
| Of sweet content. | 15 |
| |
| Beside the Euphrates, where Babylon’s wall | |
| So proudly stood | |
| He saw the giant empires rise and fall, | |
| A captive exile, yet unharmed through all, | |
| Beside that flood. | 20 |
| |
| And when in wrath the Roman eagles came | |
| To Zion’s Hill, | |
| And drove him out in thunder and in flame, | |
| A stranger in the earth—Jehovah’s name | |
| Upheld him still. | 25 |
| |
| See yonder, on the snow-clad Russian plain, | |
| His children driven, | |
| Beset and hunted by the imperial train | |
| Like sheep by wolves. But surely not in vain | |
| They cry to Heaven. | 30 |
| |
| Far brighter than the Northern-lights that gleam | |
| Upon the air, | |
| The signals of the great Shekinah stream | |
| And, like the memories of a blessed dream, | |
| Bid him good cheer! | 35 |
| |
| Good cheer, O Jacob! though a wanderer still | |
| In all the earth. | |
| Thy foes will but the promises fulfill | |
| And drive the exile home to Zion’s Hill, | |
| That gave him birth. | 40 |
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| A nation scattered through the earth, yet one | |
| In every land; | |
| As the blue waters of the Gulf-stream run | |
| Through the high seas, yet mingling still with none, | |
| Behold God’s hand! | 45 |
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| God speed the day when Jew and Gentiles all | |
| Shall meet as one | |
| At the glad welcome of their Father’s call | |
| In the dear home where shadows never fall, | |
| Their warfare done. | 50 |
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