Yet ever, Truth, through blood and tears,
Pursued her dark, tempestuous way,
And Faith illumed those stormy years,
With promises of brighter day.

It came at last--through parted clouds
The blessed sunlight burst once more,
And a broad flood of glory swept
O'er vale and plain, o'er sea and shore;
Earth, from her wildering dream of tears,
And blood and anguish, guilt and wrong--
The long, dark, troubled dream of years--
Awoke, and once again was strong.

Then crumbled thrones--then empires fell,
As Science, Freedom, Truth, arose,
And, shaking off their numbing spell,
Closed in stern conflict with their foes:
And onward still, with unbowed head,
Faith's dauntless legions held their way,
Marking with heaps of martyred dead
The pathway that behind them lay.

And still that steady march is on,
Through storm and gloom, through strife and tears.
Still Faith points upward to the sun
Whose glories brighten with the years--
Whose steady light and heat at length
Shall scatter every cloud away,
And Truth, majestic in her strength,