“Lead, Kindly Light”

This tiny lamp of fragile clay
Once shed its faint and flick’ring ray,
To cheer perchance some sage’s hall;
Its light extinct, ’mid wreck it lies,
Through seventeen rolling centuries;
Till disentombed, behold the truth,
Bright with the glow of pristine youth,
“The light of Christ shines for us all!”

Hail, glorious truth! Thy music thrills
In echoes from time’s distant hills;
And still thy tones melodious fall.
Still may poor wand’rers lift their heads
To Him, whose face benignant sheds
Effulgent rays, to warm and cheer,
To waken hope, and banish fear;
“The light of Christ still shines for all!”

The ice-built screens by bigots planned,--
As children’s barriers in the sand,
Dashed by the wild waves, sink and fall--
Melt in the beams from Jesus’ face,
Exhale in mist and leave no trace:
Free as the breeze on mountain side,
Wide as the ocean’s rolling tide,
“The light of Christ still shines for all!”

Light, light for Afric’s dusky throng;
Light for the pris’ners held so long
In superstition’s blinding thrall;
Light for the savage and the sage,
For smiling youth, and trembling age;
Light for all sorrowing, sin-struck eyes
That seek the pathway to the skies;
“The light of Christ still shines for all!”