The Wheeling Daily Register

THE CENTENNIAL HYMN

[John G. Whittier, the famous poet of New England, has the honor of being poet laureate to the Centennial Exposition, and has produced the following exquisitely appropriate hymn to be sung at the opening of the exposition. The music therefor is composed by J. K. Payne, and a rehearsal of it by nine hundred voices, under Theodore Thomas' baton, has given proof of its excellent adaptation to the occasion.]

THE HYMN.

Our fathers' God, from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,
We meet to-day, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.

Here, where of old, by Thy design,
The fathers spoke that word of Thine
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rended bolt and falling chain,
To grace our festal time from all
The zones of earth our guests we call.

Be with us while the New World greets
The Old World, thronging all its streets,
Unveiling all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun:
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of hand and brain.

Thou who hast here in concord furled
The war flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our western skies fulfill
The Orient's mission of good will,
And, freighted with Love's golden fleece,
Send back the Argonauts of peace.

For art and labor met in truce,
For beauty made the bride of use,
We thank Thee, while withal we crave
The austere virtues strong to save,
The honor proof to place or gold,
The manhood never bought or sold.

O! make Thou us, through centuries long,
In peace secure, and justice strong:
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of Thy righteous law:
And cast in some diviner mold,
Let the new cycle shame the old.