He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible, swift sword,

His truth is marching on!

I have seen Him in the watchfires 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!

There 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!”