While without are screams and curses, loathsome vice and drunken brawls,
Here within, God's flowers are sheltered in the shadow of these walls.
Still they stand, a hold unshaken, while the turbid stream of life
Swirls around their bulwarks, brawling, black with sin, with sorrows rife,
While still from the dizzy whirlpool drowning souls creep to the door;
For the House of God, unchanging, stands now and forevermore.
Struggling in life's lonely battle, wounded, faint with many falls
We have found a mighty fortress in the shadow of these walls.
John Hopkins Denison.