Upon Moriah's lonely height,
And Jacob, 'neath the midnight skies,
In hallowed dreams beheld its light;
And o'er Arabia's desert sand
Where weary Israel wandered on,
In doubt and fear toward Canaan's land,
The hallowed dawning brighter shone.

Ages roll on 'mid deep'ning day,
And prophet-bard and holy seer
Watch eagerly the kindling ray,
To see the blessed sun appear--
Watch, till along the mountain-heights
The long-expected radiance streams,
_And lo! a bloody Cross it lights,
And o'er a blood-stained victim gleams!_

And higher climbed the rising sun,
And brighter glowed the joyous day,
And Earth the bowed and weary one
Kindled beneath the blessed ray
A little while--then, dense and drear,
Back rolled the heavy clouds of night,
Till through the murky atmosphere
Scarce stole a single gleam of light

Then Superstition piled her fires
With slaughtered saints,--and dungeons lone
Echoed the tortured victims' prayers,
The stifled shriek, the smothered groan: