“From world to world His couriers fly,
Thought-winged and shod with fire;
The angel of His stormy sky
Rides down the sunken wire.
“What saith the herald of the Lord?
‘The world’s long strife is done;
Close wedded by that mystic chord,
Its continents are one.
“ ‘And one in heart, as one in blood,
Shall all her peoples be;
The hands of human brotherhood
Are clasped beneath the sea.
“ ‘Through Orient seas, o’er Afric’s plain,
And Asian mountains borne,
The vigor of the Northern brain
Shall nerve the world outworn.
“ ‘From clime to clime, from shore to shore,
Shall thrill the magic thread;
The new Prometheus steals once more
The fire that wakes the dead.’
“Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat
From answering beach to beach;
Fuse nations in thy kindly heat,
And melt the chains of each!
“Wild terror of the sky above,
Glide tamed and dumb below;
Bear gently, ocean’s carrier-dove,
Thy errands to and fro.
“Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord,
Beneath the deep so far,
The bridal-robe of earth’s accord,
The funeral shroud of war.
“For lo! the fall of ocean’s wall,
Space mocked and time outrun;
And round the world the thought of all
Is as the thought of one!
“The poles unite, the zones agree,
The tongues of striving cease;
As on the Sea of Galilee
The Christ is whispering Peace!”