O'er the Present proudly striding
Like Colossus o'er the wave,
And a beacon-light high holding,
While the tempests loudly rave:
Laying bare in truthful teaching
Treach'rous breakers round the bay,
That the good old barque of England
May in safety sail away:
Though the tongue of fiercest Faction
In its Folly may deride,
Still he stands in lofty learning
Like a giant o'er the tide,
While the murmuring wavelets passing
Far beneath his kingly hand,
Looking upward, blindly babble
Where they cannot understand.
When his country's proudest sceptre
He was called upon to sway,
Ruled he with a noble purpose
That will never pass away:
So, the Future, of his striving
With its trumpet-tongue shall tell:
How he battled for the Bible;
How he loved old England well:
How his nature, though not faultless
(Human nature may not be),
Bore the never-dying impress
Of life's truest chivalry,
How they wrote upon the marble,
Where he lay beneath the sod:
"Faithfully he served his country,"
"Truthfully he served his God."