And  makes  us  white  within,
Who  knows  how  Holy  Jesus

May  love  that  tinted  skin!
For  none  can  tell  how  darkly

The  sun  of  Jewry  shed
Its  burning  shadows  starkly

On  Jesus'  homeless  head !


i


«*^l!J    rniKi'Y    NOBLE    NATIONS."  486

And  lo!   One  great  salvation

Hath  burst  upon  The  VVojld, —
And  God's  Illumination

Like  noonday  shines  unfurled;
Shall  bonds  or  color  pale  it?  _

Candace's  Eunuch  —  say, —
The  first,  though  black,  to  hail  it,

And  love  the  Gospel  Day!

Columbia,  well  I  note  it

That  half  your  sons  are  strong
Against  this  ill,  and  vote  it

A  folly  and  a  wrong;
Yet,  lurks  there  not  a  loatliing,

Aye,  with  your  best  inclined,
Against  that  sable  clothmg

bt  Man*8  own  heart  and  mind?

I  charge  you  by  your  power,

Your  freedom,  and  your  fame,
To  speed  the  blessed  hour

That  wipes  away  this  Shame ;
By  all  life's  hopes  and  wishes,

And  fears  beyond  the  grave.
Renounce  these  blood-bought  riches.
And  frankly  free  the  slave!

So  let  wnaicver  tareaten.
While  God  is  on  our  side,
Columbia  and  Britain

The  world  shall  well  divide, —
Divide?  —  No!  in  one  tether

Of  Anglo-Saxon  might
We'll  hold  the  world  together

In  peace  and  love  and  right!


486  MISCELLANEOUS   POEMS


CONCLUSION.
Alas  !  poor  Muse,  thy  songs  are  out  of  time,

Thy  lot  hath  fallen  on  an  iron  age,

When  unrelenting  war  the  sordid  wage
Against  thee,  —  counting  it  no  venial  crime

To  fling  down  in  thy  cause  the  champion's  gage,
And  utterly  scorning  him,  who  dares  to  rhyme:

O  that  thy  thoughts  had  filled  an  earlier  page,
And  won  the  favoring  ears  of  holier  men !
Whose  spirits  might  with  thee  have  soared  sublime.
