What image of a higher, holier day
Does each returning sun earth's children bring?
Bright as o'er land and sea he takes his way,
He seems the herald of the heavenly King;
Before him fly the murky shades of night,
That veil from sight earth's plains and mountains high;
The sea's thick rolling vapors take their flight,
And vanish upward in the kindling sky.
I gaze upon the scene, and from within
A light too streams upon the suffering earth;
I see the promised day of God begin,
And all earth's children share the second birth;
And to my mind the image doth unfold
Of Life and Joy and Peace so long foretold.