LET US GO FORTH

HEBREWS 13:13.

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SILENT, like men in solemn haste,

Girded wayfarers of the waste,

We pass out at the world's wide gate,

Turning our back on all its state;

We press along the narrow road

That leads to life, to bliss, to God.

What though with weariness oppressed?

‘Tis but a little and we rest.

This throbbing heart and burning brain

Will soon be calm and cool again:

Night is far spent and morn is near—

Morn of the cloudless and the clear.

No idling now, no slothful sleep,

From Christian toil our pow’rs to keep;

No shrinking from the desperate fight,

No thought of yielding or of flight:

No love of present gain or ease,

No seeking man or self to please.

 No sorrow for the loss of fame,

 No dread of scandal on our name;

 No terror for the world’s sharp scorn,

 No wish that taunting to return;

 No hatred can to hatred move

 The soul that’s filled with pitying love.

No sigh far laughter left behind,

Or pleasures scattered to the wind;

No looking back on Sodom’s plains,

No listening still to Babel’s strains;

No tears for Egypt’s song and smile,

No thirsting for its flowing Nile.

‘Tis but a little and we come

To our reward, our crown, our home!

Another year, or more, or less,

And we have crossed the wilderness;

Finished the toil, the rest begun,

The battle fought, the triumph won!

We grudge not, then, the toil, the way;

Its ending is the endless day!

We shrink not from these tempests keen,

With little of the calm between;

We welcome each descending sun;

Ere morn our joy may be begun!

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