STAND up before your God You army bold and bright, Saints, martyrs, and confessors, In your robes of white; The church below doth challenge you To an act of praise; Ready with mirth in all the earth Her matin song to raise. Stand up before your God In beautiful array, Make ready all your instruments The while we mourn and pray; For we must stay to mourn and pray Some prelude to our song; The fear of death has clogg'd our breath And our foes are swift and strong. But ye before your God Are hushed from all alarm, Out through the grave and gate of death Ye have past into the calm; Your fight is done, your victory won, Through peril, and toil, and blood; Among the slain on the battle plain We buried ye where ye stood. Stand up before your God, Although we cannot hear The new song he hath taught you With our fleshly ear; Our bosoms burn that hymn to learn, And from the church below E'en while we sing, on heavenward wing Some happy souls shall go. Ye stand before your God, But we press onward still, The soldiers of his army, The servants of his will: A captive band in foreign land Long ages we have been; But our dearest theme and our fondest dream Is the home we have not seen. We soon shall meet our God, The hour is wafting on, The day-spring from on high hath risen, And the night is spent and gone; The light of earth it had its birth And it shall have its doom; The sons of earth they are few in birth, But many in the tomb. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LENNIE SWENSON by KAREN SWENSON SONGS IN ABSENCE: 7. THE SHIP by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD: SONG by OLIVER GOLDSMITH THE HIGH TIDE AT [OR, ON THE COAST OF] LINCOLNSHIRE by JEAN INGELOW SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: AMANDA BARKER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |