Look where we will, we can not find a ground For any mournful song: Call up the clashing elements around, And test the right and wrong! On one side, pledges broken, creeds that lie, Religion sunk in vague philosophy, Empty professions, pharisaic leaven, Souls that would sell their birthright in the sky, Philanthropists who pass the beggar by, And laws which controvert the laws of Heaven. And, on the other--first, a righteous cause! Then, honor without flaws, Truth, Bible reverence, charitable wealth, And for the poor and humble, laws which give, Not the mean right to buy the right to live, But life, and home, and health. To doubt the issue were distrust in God! If in his Providence he hath decreed That to the peace for which we pray, Through the Red Sea of War must lie our way, Doubt not, O brothers, we shall find at need A Moses with his rod! IV. But let our fears--if fears we have--be still, And turn us to the future! Could we climb Some Alp in thought, and view the coming time, We should indeed behold a sight to fill Our eyes with happy tears! Not for the glories which a hundred years Shall bring us; not for lands from sea to sea, And wealth, and power, and peace, though these shall be; But for the distant peoples we shall bless, And the hushed murmurs of a world's distress: For, to give food and clothing to the poor, The whole sad planet o'er, And save from crime its humblest human door, Our mission is! The hour is not yet ripe When all shall see it, but behold the type Of what we are and shall be to the world, In our own grand and genial Gulf stream furled, Which through the vast and colder ocean pours Its waters, so that far-off Arctic shores May sometimes catch upon the softened breeze Strange tropic warmth and hints of summer seas. THE SOUTHERN CROSS. BY ST. GEORGE TUCKER. AIR--_The Star Spangled Banner_. Oh, say, can you see, through the gloom and the storm, More bright for the darkness, that pure constellation? Like the symbol of love and redemption its form, As it points to the haven of hope for the nation. How radiant, each star, as the beacon afar, Giving promise of peace, or assurance in war; 'Tis the Cross of the South, which shall ever remain, To light us to Freedom and Glory again! How peaceful and blest was America's soil, Till betrayed by the guile of the Puritan demon, Which lurks under virtue, and springs from its coil To fasten its fangs in the life-blood of freemen. Then loudly appeal, to each heart that can feel, And crush the foul viper 'neath Liberty's heel! And the Cross of the South shall forever remain, To light us to Freedom and Glory again!