To the noontide of thy word.

Bowring, from the Russian.

I saw one man, armed simply with God’s Word,

Enter the souls of many fellow-men,

And pierce them sharply as a two-edged sword,

While conscience echoed back his words again;

Till, even as showers of fertilizing rain

Sink through the bosom of the valley clod,

So their hearts opened to the wholesome pain,

And hundreds knelt upon the flowery sod,