797. -- Dedication of a Temperance Hall.
1 'Mid homes and shrines forsaken
Of joy and peace divine,
Faint hearts new strength have taken,
A light is seen to shine!
Its beaming revelations
Are shed in mercy far;
A guide to all the nations --
The glorious Temperance star!
2 Hushed be that wail of sadness,
Life, life has come again;
Awake the song of gladness,
Swell high the choral strain!
The lost returns from straying
In sin's destructive way;
That curse is turned to praying,
That night to blissful day!
3 God of this day! Our Father!
In humble praise to thee,
Within these walls we gather --
The spared, the blest, the free;
To hail thy grace far-sounding --
Our Temple dedicate
To hope and life abounding
In Man regenerate!
4 Rest thou within it ever,
As o'er the ark of old;
And here, O may we never
In our great strife wax cold.
Nerve every arm and spirit
For each successful blow,
Till Temperance shall inherit
All temples here below!