Denouncing wide Jehovah’s ire Like that which palsied Egypt’s might; And though no literal darkness spreads Upon the land its sable gloom, And seems to fling around our heads The awful terrors of the tomb; Yet to the eye of him who reads The fate of nations past and gone, And marks with care the wrongful deeds By which their power was overthrown,-- Worse plagues than Egypt ever felt Are seen wide-spreading through the land, Announcing that the heinous guilt On which the nation proudly stands, Has risen to Jehovah’s throne, And kindled his Almighty ire, And broadcast through the land has sown The seeds of a devouring fire; Blasting with foul pestiferous breath, The fountain springs of moral life, And planting deep the seeds of death, And future germs of deadly strife; And moral darkness spreads its gloom Over the land in every part, And buries in a living tomb Each generous prompting of the heart. Vice in its darkest, deadliest stains, Here walks with brazen front abroad, And foul corruption proudly reigns Triumphant in the church of God, And sinks so low the Christian name, In foul degrading vice and shame, That Moslem, Heathen, Atheist, Jew, And men of every faith and creed, To their professions far more true, More liberal both in word and deed, May well reject with loathing scorn The doctrines taught by those who sell Their brethren in the Saviour born, Down into slavery’s hateful hell; And with the price of Christian blood Build temples to the Christian’s God, And offer up as sacrifice, And incense to the God of heaven, The mourning wail, and bitter cries, Of mothers from their children riven; Of virgin purity profaned To sate some brutal ruffian’s lust, Millions of godlike minds ordained To grovel ever in the dust, Shut out by Christian power and might From every ray of Christian light. How long, O Lord! shall such vile deeds Be acted in thy holy name, And senseless bigots o’er their creeds Fill the whole world with war and flame? How long shall ruthless tyrants claim Thy sanction to their bloody laws, And throw the mantle of thy name Around their foul, unhallowed cause? How long shall all the people bow As vassals of the favored few, And shame the pride of manhood’s brow,-- Give what to God alone is due, Homage, to wealth, and rank, and power, Vain shadows of a passing hour? Oh for a pen of living fire, A tongue of flame, an arm of steel! To rouse the people’s slumbering ire, And teach the tyrants’ hearts to feel. O Lord! in vengeance now appear, And guide the battles for the right, The spirits of the fainting cheer, And nerve the patriot’s arm with might; Till slavery, banished from the world, And tyrants from their power hurled, And all mankind from bondage free, Exult in glorious liberty!