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Once to every man and nation

by James Russell Lowell

Representative text

As printed in The Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal (1985), no. 606.

Verse 1

Once to every man and nation, Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, For the good or evil side; Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, Offering each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.

Verse 2

Then to side with truth is noble, When we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, And ’tis prosperous to be just; Then it is the brave man chooses While the coward stands aside, Till the multitude make virtue Of the faith they had denied.

Verse 3

By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track, Toiling up new Calvaries ever With the cross that turns not back; New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth, They must upward still and onward, Who would keep abreast of truth.

Verse 4

Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet ’tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong; Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own.

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