Today's Beautiful Gem: `The Battle Hymn of the Republic'
by Julia Ward Howe.

"Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord;
He is treading out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His Truth is marching on.

"I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His Day is marching on.

"I have read a fiery Gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel;
`As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal;'
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel;
Since God is marching on.

"He has sounded forth His trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His Judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubiliant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.

"In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that that transfigures ye and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free;
While God is marching on.

"He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave;
He is wisdom to the mighty, he is succour to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool and the soul of time His slave;
Our God is marching on.

Note: This is one of my favourite American songs on patriotism.

Om s'aantih: Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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