Author 
 
 Title 
 
 tSz^so 
 
 Class 
 
 Book A... 15^416 
 
 Imprint 
 

 
 
 
m 
 
 POEM 
 
 BEAD BEFORE THE 
 
 % 
 
 I DELTA KAPPA SIGMA, 
 
 WiIli!Sit0tt cf^minatjj, 
 
 June 28tli, 1§65. 
 
 F'OHSAN ET H.EC OLIJI JIEMIXISSE JUVATJIT. 
 
 NEW HAVEN: 
 
 ITTTI,!:. MOUEIIOUSE A TAYLOR, STEAM PRINTERS. 
 
 1865. 
 
jgP" Mr. Lyman has declined to have his Oration published. 
 
POEM 
 
 READ BEFORE THE 
 
 DELTA KAPPA SIGMA, 
 
 WiUij$t0w ^^mitiatjj, 
 
 June 2§tta, 1865. 
 
 " — FORSAN ET H^C OLIJI MEMINISSE JUVAT3IT." 
 
 NEW HAVEN: 
 
 TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR. STEAM PRINTERS. 
 
 1865. 
 
T52.^tQ 
 
 
THE LAST D 5: CADE. 
 
 A POEM, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REY. JOHN C. MIDDLETON, M. A.— Yale. 
 Class of 1855, Willistox Seminary. 
 
POEM. 
 
 I. 
 
 1. 
 
 Large-hearted Memory, we are met 
 Around our chosen Altar-stone, 
 
 To gather up the priceless gems, 
 The years have left us, one by one ! 
 
 2. 
 Here, in our finished Mystic-home — 
 
 Each gilded spire with glory dight — 
 Beneath our chosen roof-tree, lend 
 
 The influence of Thy Power to-night. 
 
 3. 
 
 Pass in review the golden years, 
 That fade so gently from our ken. 
 
 And all the joys of " Auld Lang Syne" 
 For a brief spell restore again. 
 
 11. 
 
 How swift, yet noiseless, run the wheels of Time 
 On ever towards Eternity — the end 
 Of earthly toil and warfare, and the rest. 
 Much longed for, of the Paradise of God ! 
 His mighty chariot rolls not on like man's ! 
 No rattling wheels, or prancing, snorting steeds, 
 Or dust cloud, rising from its traveled way, 
 
Proclaim its passage or mark out its path. 
 Silent as His own exercise of power, 
 Whicli calls worlds into being, and again 
 At will of His, makes blank their room in space. 
 On the broad track of ages, marked by j'ears, 
 As mile-stones on the causeway, speeds the car. 
 And bears us ever from the seen, and felt, 
 Into the great, invisible, Unknown ! 
 The scenes and objects near us hurry by 
 Scarce noticed, in our swift and onward course, 
 But far off, on the horizon's edge, they stand 
 In groups as God has piled them. 
 
 There a plain 
 Rich with a thousand memories of years 
 And men, now entered on the silent Past ; 
 And there some mountain range, high towering o'er 
 The rolling valleys and the level plains, 
 U|jlifting into th' Eternal vault of Heaven 
 The deeds and lives of earthly great ones — lives 
 That, as by Grod's own hand, stand out in power 
 And majesty sublime upon the earth. 
 
 For He, in Whose hands are the heavens and all 
 The hosts that sliine from out the night, as there 
 He sets the glittering throng that glads our eyes 
 So, o'er the earth. He marshals, as He wills. 
 The bright Ones of this lower sphere, and on 
 This mundane scroll spreads forth His chosen Ones 
 That, gathering round appointed centres, form 
 The Constellations of Historic Life. 
 
 Six days He wrought in the deep vault of heaven 
 And in, and on, the solid globe of earth 
 Till all was done, and lo ! it all was good. 
 And suns, with all their retinue complete. 
 In dazzling circuits ran their dizzy course 
 Eound the far distant centre of His Thi'one. 
 
But clays stretch on to ages when He works 
 In the more subtle essence of the mind ! 
 The centre still His throne, thence circle round 
 All man's invention, power and majesty, 
 Eeflected from the One great source of all. 
 Yet varying ever as the stars in Heaven, 
 
 III. 
 
 Some deeds and men are born to die, and some 
 Are made immortal that they never die ! 
 As in yon heavens the same bright stars shine still 
 That gladdened Adam's sight, and smiled on Eve 
 What time this Earth was all a Paradise : 
 While others that they saw have ceased to be. 
 And Heaven's densest darkness is their pall. 
 
 Of these abiding landmarks of the Past 
 They stand, the primal elements, whose hearts 
 Beat warmly for their fellows, and whose hands 
 Banded together stretch to human souls 
 And, through the perfect Man, reach up to God. 
 For they, who add to life's completest work 
 By training, at each step, the heart and brain 
 Live longest in the memory of their kind. — 
 So years ago we planted here the seed. 
 To intellect and learning, and the pure 
 Warm hearted fellowship of kindred souls. 
 Forever consecrate by common vow ; 
 And o'er the arbor of our Mystic sign. 
 Had trained its upward growth to blossom forth 
 Perennial flowers to cheer and bless life's way. 
 And hoped its verdant mantle should make green 
 The walls of this, our Alma Mater's home, 
 Until our sons and children's children here 
 Should come and, 'neath its grateful shade, 
 'Mid studious cares, find solace and content. 
 
 But hands, as rude as Vandals, or as his 
 
Who held the torch to Alexandria's tomes, 
 Seized on its climbing tendrils, dashing down 
 To earth its burdened branches ; and, beneath 
 The ruin, buried deep the priceless love 
 Of its two hundred sons — tliosc too sent forth 
 From this old homestead, with their brows adorned 
 By Alma Mater^s hands, with hard earned uireaths 
 Of Victory. 
 
 And to-day we meet to bear 
 The stricken branches to a nobler soil. 
 And plant them, in our memories, evergreen. 
 
 IV. 
 
 1. 
 
 These are to day no burial rites — 
 We bend above no saddening bier — 
 We are no mourners gathered here — 
 
 No funeral pageant us invites ! 
 
 2. 
 
 For other language speaketh this 
 To every true and loyal son : 
 Her earthly work and labor done 
 
 We make Her Apotheosis ! 
 
 3. 
 
 " Ad Astra " with Her golden name 
 Triune in mystic majesty. 
 The sacred symbol hence shall be 
 
 Writ in the starry dome of fame ! 
 
 4. 
 
 "Ad Astra,'' round the central pole 
 Of Heaven's scintillating band. 
 Transplanted to a better land 
 
 Shall still survive Its nobler soul. 
 
5. 
 
 ■" Ad Astra," on Her living sons 
 Her smile shall ever twinkle bright, 
 Her glory crown, with peaceful light, 
 
 Her strong and brave victorious ones. 
 
 6. 
 
 Ah, when, in future times, shall rise 
 Some new Astronomer on earth, 
 With reverent wonder at Her birth 
 
 He '11 seek Her station in the skies, 
 
 And as Her glory grows apace, 
 As rising Hesper brighter shines, 
 He'll read afresh Her mystic signs 
 
 Adorning Heaven with newer grace ! 
 
 8. 
 
 For so God writes, in symbols fair, 
 
 On earth, in Heaven, men's nobler deeds : 
 And ages hence, who seeks shall read 
 
 Our common watchword written there. 
 
 V. 
 
 A decade since we met to bid adieu 
 To classic shade and boyhood's well loved haunts ; 
 For the last time, as Students, climbed yon mount. 
 For the last time trod yonder shaded banks, 
 Ard plunged beneath the Manhan's silver waves. 
 Kicked the last foot-ball, sung our farewell song, 
 And then, with well trained oratory, made 
 Our public Valediction on this stage 
 To President and Teachers all revered. 
 Yet not the final parting ; for no one 
 2 
 
10 
 
 But sought, with tremulous voice and tearful mien, 
 To grasp once more the hand of Him, well loved, 
 Who through our tender years had led us on, 
 By easy guidance, through Homeric lore, 
 And taught ns the sweet words of Mantua's son, — 
 One, whose well halanced life had soothed our souls. 
 And, on our wayward hearts, had gently shed 
 Such Heavenly blessings as do still remain. 
 
 "Nomen Amabile" — that parting w'ord 
 Still lingers, and anew to-day we feel 
 The pressure of his guiding hand, and seem 
 To hear afresh his kindly blessing, as we go, 
 Mingled with reverent counsel to be true 
 And honest to ourselves, and God, and men. 
 
 Thus, sad at heart, we parted — and ten years 
 Have rolled, each day, upon us newer cares 
 And duties, changing with the passing hours. 
 Yet, in our soberer moments, lessons taught 
 Us here have given to each the will and power 
 To fight and conquer — though ofttimes defeat 
 Has carried to the Heavens, mayhap, our guilt 
 In throwing off the armor furnished here. 
 
 Ten years ! Ah, how the names we loved have gone,- 
 Each followed by a star, to tell where youth, 
 And hope, and budding genius, found their tomb I 
 The child has grown to be the elder boy — 
 The boy has grown into the riper man — 
 While he, who walked advance of us in life, 
 Has turned the corner in the sloping way 
 That leads to the dark river banks beyond — 
 And locks, once rivaling the raven's hue, 
 Are flecked to-day with silver threads, that tell 
 Of Time's refining for a purer state, 
 Or the fast ripening for the Reaper's Call ! 
 Ten years — one breath of an eternal life, — 
 Each big with great events, stand in the gap 
 
11 
 
 Wh overlook to-day ; and, on this pier. 
 Which God has huilded in this newest time, 
 We rear a bridge of memory, to cross 
 And rest a moment on the other side. 
 Beneath us flows a portion of the wave 
 That makes the shoreless ocean-tide ; and down 
 Its ever widening waters float away 
 The barks that bore us whilom company ; 
 And far, far off their snowy sails die out. 
 And vanish in the gathering mist of years. 
 
 Gaze we now, m thoughtful wonder 
 
 On these swift receding years, — 
 Each one telling us its story 
 
 Of its joys, and hopes, and fears, 
 Of its purpose, high and holy ; 
 
 Of its objects lost or won ; 
 Of its golden moments numbered ; 
 
 Of its hours forever gone ! 
 Ghost-like seem the fleeting shadows 
 
 As they melt into the Past; 
 Fitful visions, quaint and comely, 
 
 All alas ! too fair to last. 
 But, as parcels of Life's Treasure 
 
 Borne upon historic tide, 
 We can count their worth and value 
 
 Which shall evermore abide ; — 
 Count upon the world's great story 
 
 Every smile, and groan, and sigh, 
 Every reaching for Perfection, 
 
 Every hope and purpose high. 
 And, as ships that enter laden 
 
 Into port from foreign shore, 
 
12 
 
 There to leave their precious cargoes 
 
 Then pass on, and come no more, — 
 So these years have come, full freighted, 
 
 Brought their priceless wealth and on 
 Into the eternal Ocean 
 
 Silently and calmly gone. 
 Onrs the treasures they have borne us, 
 
 See them, piled on every side : 
 Though the ships have passed on seaward 
 
 Yet their ladings still abide. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Ten golden years — all burthened with the fair 
 And costly products of the mighty Past ! 
 Its proud traditions, its deep principles, 
 Athenian culture, Roman law, and rude 
 But weighty Anglo-Saxon right, and our 
 Own great discoveries in civil Kule 
 By this age's wondrous Alchemy wrought out 
 To form the current coin of daily life ; 
 With all of beauty, love, and truth, that man 
 Has culled from century fields : and these the years 
 Have brought us as our lasting heritage. 
 
 How long the Decade seems — and yet how short ! 
 These well loved Academic scenes appear 
 Now gifted with the power to lead us back 
 Across the spanning arch of Memory, 
 And make us, earnest men, seem boys again ! 
 For I remember in that early Past 
 When, with hope buoyant, and our spirits high, 
 We met first time as brothers ; and our tie, 
 Made holy by our genial bond of love. 
 Cemented us together, as we laid 
 The deep foundations of our mystic Home, 
 And watched its gradual rising day by day 
 Into a thing of beauty, and new forms 
 
13 
 
 Of quiet strength, and dignity combined; 
 
 Wiiere every heart had place, and under all, 
 
 -*' A common aim " was the Foundation stone. 
 
 Here, year by year, we have returned to greet 
 
 Our newer brethren in these well-known courts ; 
 
 To wake anew the memories of our youth ; 
 
 To pour libations out, trom flowing bowls, 
 
 Before our boyhood's ever hallowed shrine; 
 
 Or watch the curling incense heavenward rise 
 
 From consecrated pipes of peace and love. 
 
 Oh there was wondrous potency in this 
 
 To draw us hither from our scenes of toil. 
 
 And lead us to our Alma Mater's side 
 
 To wake anew the dreams of years gone by 
 
 And gather newer courage for the strife, 
 
 In which we battled for Her reverend Name, 
 
 As well as toiled and prayed for Truth and Right. 
 
 VII. 
 
 What dreams those years have kindled, — 
 
 These hallowed student years — 
 When we talked of our ambitions, 
 
 And confessed our hopes and fears! 
 As we wandered o'er the Classic page. 
 
 And learned the Old World's story, 
 And read, on Time's grim battlements, 
 
 Names lumii^ous with glory, — 
 We planned how on some future page. 
 
 Some future sons, yet Brothers, 
 Should read our names emblazoned there, 
 
 Among the many others ; 
 Names of the honored and the true, 
 
 Names without spot or stigma, 
 And proudly say, " These were the sons 
 
 Of Delia Kappa Sigma." 
 
14 
 
 VIII. 
 
 That was the seed-time of our dawning lives : 
 And though the time for harvest be not yet, 
 And though the ripening sheaves ungathered be, 
 Yet is the promise of the future good, 
 When He shall send His Reapers to our fields 
 Sowu with this Ten Years' seed of noble thought 
 And stern resolves for God and Human Right. 
 
 Far and wide scattered are Her ten score Sons> 
 Yet in each heart there burns to-day a light 
 At this loved Altar kindled. 
 
 Some have borne 
 It far across the seas and laid it down 
 Before the Cross of Christ: until The Light 
 That came into the world to lighten men 
 Has made it brighter and more glorious far. 
 Till it has shone in jungles dark, and led 
 Earth's sad benighted ones to turn away 
 From blind idolatry and sightless faith 
 To Him, in Whose blest radiance all is light. 
 
 Others have lifted high the same clear beams 
 At home, and poured their concentrated rays 
 On darkened souls, and hearts in vicious night 
 Enshrouded: and the murky gloom has felt 
 Its heavenly influence, while enfranchised man 
 Has found his long lost sight restored again — 
 " Men as trees walking " — till his eyes have met 
 The Saviour's ; then, all darkness passed away, 
 In His light seeing all things, blind no more, 
 He walks erect the narrow way that leads 
 Within the pearly gates, beside the Throne, 
 Where the kind Father waits to greet His Sons. 
 
 Others have seen it change to glory wreaths 
 As they have gathered round their country's Flag 
 And borne it on from gory field to field, 
 
15 
 
 And seen each star grow brighter in its gleams, 
 As Heaven-born Freedom stooped to hold it forth 
 To light their weary footsteps on the march 
 And, in the contest, guide to victory ! 
 Tor, in this strife for Freedom and for Right, 
 Her sons have left (heir peaceful homes and donned 
 ■" The Nation's Blue," and in the murderous track 
 Of traitorous shot and shell have firmly stood 
 Unyielding as their own New England's hills ; 
 Which, though the storm beat madly, and the winds 
 Toss furiously their gnarled pines, stand proud 
 With concious strength, and laugh the gale to scorn. 
 
 And some have gone — but never to return ! 
 For where the blood ran deepest, and the heaps 
 Of glory covered heroes lay, they fell 
 dasting one look apast the flag to Heaven 
 And, shouting Victory — well pleased to give 
 Their lives for Freedom and their native Land — 
 Wreathed amarantliine chaplets for their brows 
 And Her's who trained them for such mighty deeds. 
 
 To-day, upon our temple's finished walls, 
 We hang our votive offerings 'neath their names. 
 No chiseled marble, no engraven bronze 
 May mark their place of sleeping ! Yet upon 
 A hundred battle fields, enwrought in blood. 
 Their deeds stand registered — forevermore 
 Unfading and immortal ! 
 
 Liberty 
 
 Will yearly gather all her youthful sons 
 And, mid the daisies and the violets 
 That pour their incense out above their beds. 
 Will read to them her roll of deathless Fame. 
 
 IX. 
 
 When here we parted, and the last good bye 
 iStood tremulous on many a quivering lip,' 
 
16 
 
 As hand pressed hand and we for far off homes 
 And halls, gray with the rime of age, set forth^ 
 In all our dreams of future years, and plans 
 To carve our names upon the cliflFs of Time, 
 We thought not of another strife than that 
 Which war of arguments, and clash of words 
 Might lead to. 
 
 Church and State, pulpit and bar, 
 Or farm, or counting house, or busy trade, 
 .Seemed the arena of our life-long work, 
 With here and there a dream of love and home. 
 None dreamed of girding to his side the sword. 
 None thought of ball, or bayonet, or blare 
 Of martial bugles on the crimson field ! 
 Peace smiled upon the land, and from each height 
 The gorgeous Banner of the country shone. 
 Spanning from Orient shore to Western sea — 
 The Bow of concord and blest harmony. 
 
 Yet 't was a specious dream ! A fiendish power 
 Was hatching into life a deadly brood 
 Of death-producing evils, and foul hands 
 Were plotting at our Nation's sacred Life ! 
 Like thunder from the clear blue sky of noon 
 The bolt fell on us, and the hissing shrieks 
 Of Treason's fiery messengers, that dashed 
 In mad confusion on old Sumter's walls 
 Awoke, with their hoarse screams, the astonished North 
 To see athwart the night the meteor storm 
 And hideous glare of fratricidal war ! 
 Then from the East to furthest West uprose 
 The cry of Freedom ; and the Red Cross Light, 
 That roused to battle stern a million hearts, 
 G-lowed instant into being at the sound, 
 And blazed from Maine's pine hills to Alleghan, 
 Thence bounding, glared from white Nevada's peak 
 And hurried ocean-ward with kindling might. 
 
17 
 
 As erst, from Ida's wooded height, the Fire God burst npon the 
 
 night, 
 And leaped in dazzling glory on, from hoary Lemnos, till it shone 
 O'er the Euripus' rushing stream, and kindled with its eager beam 
 Messapion's height, whence swooping down, warming to life its 
 
 heath-fields brown. 
 It woke into mysterious day the stillness of Cythaeron gray — 
 Telling where e'er its glory shone of ended strife and victory won, — 
 So Freedom's Banner-light gleamed forth, and roused the Freemen 
 
 of the North 
 To war begun, and victory sure, if hearts and hands could well 
 
 endure 
 The awful conflict ; — for the fight was now to be for God and 
 
 Right ! 
 
 And the Nation rose in its awful might. 
 
 And girding on the sword 
 Their hosts went forth from th' unwavering North — 
 
 Their trust was in the Lord. 
 And thus they chanted, and thus they sung 
 Till the whole of our God-given country rung 
 
 With the battle-cry 
 Of men who were sworn to conquer or die ! 
 
 Cry war from East to West ! Cry war from South to North 
 Let all the mighty men, the men of war, come forth — 
 Each ploughshare make a sword, each pruning hook a spear! 
 Ho ! wake ye sleeping men, ye men of war draw near. 
 who so weak to-day, as not some strength to feel ! 
 O who so coward heart as not to draw his steel ! 
 Leave house, and lands, and farms, — leave children, wife, and home ! 
 To the tented fields of war, where the conflict thickens, come ! 
 Cry war from East to West, cry war from South to North ; 
 Let all true hearted ones, and noble meu come forth ! 
 And God, our Israel's trusted King, will sure and speedy victory 
 bring. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 X. 
 
 So they went forth : and they, who long since fought 
 
 At Bunker Hill and Lexington, 
 Watched from the jewelled battlements of Heaven 
 
 As they struggled at Bull Run, — 
 And followed all their changing course along 
 
 Until, above the seething clouds, 
 Our armies pushed the now disheartened foe» 
 
 And drove his craven crowds. 
 
 Then ancient Concord's valiant band. 
 And they from Lexington ^ 
 
 And Bunker Hill's and Yorktown's hosts 
 Beheld our Victory won. 
 And as the cheers of triumph rose, to dash against the stars. 
 
 These sacred shades of other days. 
 
 Whose phantom-brows were bound with bays. 
 Loud answer made with theirs. 
 Henceforth with Heaven and Earth conjoined 
 Our soldiers marched along 
 
 From victory to victory, from Chattanooga to the sea. 
 Through Georgia's fertile plains — through Carolina's 
 haughty crew 
 
 Till, one by one, our armies drew 
 Around the central foe, and gave 
 It battle — where they dug a grave 
 And Treason red, and Slavery foul 
 
 They buried in a Southern soil 
 Without a prayer, 
 Or a mark to show what was hidden there \ 
 
 XL 
 
 1. 
 
 But ah ! the tears of these bitter years. 
 
 And alas! the mourning and sorrow; 
 Alas for the homes where nevermore co«nes 
 
 The loved one, expected each morrow ! 
 
19 
 
 2. 
 
 The truest and best, have gone to their rest 
 With no mother or sister beside them ; 
 
 With no service of Prayer to comfort them there, 
 For even that boon was denied them ! 
 
 3. 
 Ah, weep for the left, of their loved ones bereft ; 
 
 But bemoan not your sons, crowned with glory ; 
 They have each gained a name in the roster of Fame, 
 
 And they never shall perish iu story ,' 
 
 4. 
 
 Mingle funeral strain, with triumphal refrain ; 
 
 Merge your loss in the Cause so victorious — 
 And thus honor the brave, who, through death and the 
 
 grave, 
 Have bequeathed us a future so glorious ! 
 
 5. 
 Hardly a huure but had its dead — 
 
 The land was billowed o'er 
 With myriad graves, and Rachel-cries 
 Were ever reaching to the skies 
 
 For those who were no more, 
 
 XII. 
 
 It was the Day when Christ's own Church, in sorrow far and wide. 
 
 Was telling o'er the story of the grea: Crucified, 
 
 And wondering at that law of Grod, in all His working plan> 
 
 That without shedding forth of blood, there is no hofe for man. 
 
 Our hearts were sad and solemn as we gazed upon the Tree 
 
 That bore the lifeless Body of Christ on Calvary : 
 
 But we trusted that the same great law might work the Nation's weal 
 
 And He, Who saw our crimson stains, our Country's wound would 
 
 heal ; 
 Would grant us what we prayed for— would bid the war to cease, 
 
20 
 
 And, righting every fearful wrong, give us a lasting Peace. 
 Nor knew we that another life, the Noblest of them all. 
 Must needs be offered ere we kept our Easter Festival ! 
 But the same law was working still, and, 'ere the midnight came, 
 A Martyr's crowo was wrought in Heaven to grace a Martyr's 
 name ! 
 
 Martyr for our nation's weal 
 Rest thee in holy quiet now, 
 The Victor's laurel binds thy brow. 
 
 Thy blood the People's wound shall heal. 
 
 Rest in thy quiet retrospect 
 
 Of all thy short but mighty past — 
 Thy steady purpose first and last — 
 
 Thou did'st but lead as He direct ! 
 
 Sleep calmly, martyred Child of Time, 
 Thy children, left behind, shall vie 
 In winning immortality 
 
 For all thy deeds and death sublime. 
 
 Rest — thou hast seen our banner bright 
 On Sumter's crest in glory rise. 
 Hailing with joy the southern skies, 
 
 Proclaiming war's eternal flight. 
 
 Rest thee — of million hearts a score — 
 A ransomed land — shall guard thy bed ; 
 And they, whom thou to Freedom led. 
 
 Shall pay thee reverence evermore. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 So ends the Decade with the blessed Peace 
 That comes again to soothe our sad unrest. 
 And cheer the million hearts made desolate 
 By these four years of carnage and of war. 
 
21 
 
 From out these troublous times we have grown strong 
 In all that makes a people strong and great. 
 Dead in its grave lies Treason's bloody corse, 
 And dead forevermore that fatal curse 
 Which hundred-handed clutched the Nation's throat, 
 Which weakened manly power when needed most. 
 And made a noble race of freemen slaves. 
 Our foes are vanquished and rebellious states 
 Have wheeled again into that august line 
 Which challenges the world's respect and fear. 
 
 As ever on the circling year appear 
 The frosts of winter, and the smiles of June, 
 The genial April shower and tempest roar, 
 So has this pregnant period been enwrought 
 With ever changeful scenes of war and peace. 
 With smiles of victory and tears of woe. 
 With chant of triumph and with requiem. 
 In mighty grandeur has it passed away. 
 Swift wheeling in historic line, and borne 
 Us nearer the millenial age when man 
 Shall converse hold with God, and Christ shall be 
 The Type of our redeemed humanity. 
 And we be sons of God and Heirs of Heaven. 
 
 For over these ten years shall ever shine 
 One ray, at least, from the eternal Throne, 
 Burstmg through pearly gates, and struggling out 
 From jasper walls to gladden human hearts ! 
 And joyous carols from cherubic choirs 
 Flow gently down between the golden stars ; 
 And as when erst on that first Christmas morn 
 They sung of "God's good will," and "Peace on earth," 
 They quire exultant measures, to couvey 
 Heaven's choicest bressings to our native Land, 
 By God's good mercy wow forever Free ! 
 And Liberty shall ever date her growth 
 
22 
 
 To perfect being from this golden time, 
 
 While Ethiopia's children, as they stretch 
 
 Their hands to Him who freed them, shall break forth 
 
 With joy and sing their song of Jubilee ! 
 
 Joy, joy, no longer rises up, throngh the morning's balmy air, 
 To pierce the bending dome of Heaven, the slaves importunate 
 
 prayer ! 
 No clanking of chains, no hideous groa^-s, blend with the June bird's 
 song, 
 No thirsty hound on man's track is found, for our God has blasted 
 the wrong ! 
 
 O Praise to His almighty arm ! what wonders hath He done ! 
 
 Not unto us, not unto us, to Him be praise alone ! 
 0, reverent bless His holy Name ; O, reverent bow the knee, 
 
 The curse is gone, and, freedom won, Man evermore is free. 
 
 High raise the nation's stars and stripes— fling out each wavy fold — 
 Till its union blue pierce the sether through, and its stars o 
 undimmed gold 
 rind a holy place in heaven's dome, glowing o'er land and sea 
 For every nation, the Constellation, of God-given Liberty ! 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Brothers, let us to day thank God anew 
 That in these years our lives have grown apace, 
 Our patriotism strengthened, and our trust 
 In Him made strong, and sure our confidence 
 In His wide-reading plans for human good. 
 Aye, thank Him too that in these noble deeds 
 Which gild this last quadrennium of our times 
 Our much loved Mother had a noble share ! 
 Her Sons, our Brothers, bore a manly part 
 And each, in his own sphere, gained for her brow 
 Honors, immortal as the good that comes 
 From gallant acts and words of Christ-like love ; 
 
23 
 
 Entluring as henceforth the broadening lands 
 
 That lift their bending crops through fields of blood, 
 
 And tell of peace through costly sacrifice. 
 
 Ten years ago we leainied our duty well 
 
 Pirst to our God, then to the State and home. — 
 
 Though He Who taught us is no longer here, 
 
 Yet lias He watched us all the growing years 
 
 In academic hall, in earnest life 
 
 Beyond the cloister, and, on some, have fallen 
 
 His frequent words of kind encouragement ! 
 
 Our DELTA KAPPA SIGMA owes to him 
 Most hearty reverence. At Her birth he stood 
 God-Father, and Her steadfast friend, he led 
 Her step by step, till on the highest round 
 Of Seminary honors — Queen of all — 
 She gave Her favors to the aspiring tlirong 
 That sought Her dazzling height. 
 
 'Tis well 
 That other hands should lay Her in the dust. 
 If things immortal ever thither fall. 
 He left Her in Her glory, and to-day 
 We turn our glories back to rest on him, 
 To chase the shadows that an envious sun 
 Shall cast before him on the lessening way 
 Which ends ere-while at Heaven's open gate. 
 
 And if, at this our farewell hour, we make 
 One wish more earnest, sacred, and sincere 
 For his Successor, it is this — to be. 
 Like Hi7n, shrined in unnumbered students' hearts 
 And e'er remembered with a student's love : 
 That so the passing years should bring to him 
 Its meed of glory from each parting class 
 Trained by a noble life to noble deeds ; 
 And from a myriad homes, from North to South, 
 Find tendrils of affection reaching back 
 Inseparably knitting them to him. 
 
24 
 
 XV. 
 
 1. 
 
 My Brothers true, from homes of blue, 
 
 The stars of evening shine 
 As once they shone in days now gone 
 
 Of treasured " auld lang syne." 
 How sweet the light, that falls to night 
 
 Upon our holy shrine, 
 And bids return its flame, to burn 
 
 As oft in " auld lang syne." 
 
 2. 
 Ah never yet shall we forget 
 
 Our " auld acquaintance " here ! 
 The Past shall be to Memory 
 
 And Love forever dear. 
 The tried and true, our boyhood knew 
 
 Beneath our Mystic Sign, 
 Though dead and gone, shall still live on 
 
 In thoughts of " auld lang syne." 
 
 3. 
 Each woodland haunt, yon towering mount, 
 
 The river's gurgling stream, 
 Each well trod path, our mutual Jb'aith, 
 
 How bright and fresh they seem ! 
 Oh 'round the hour of Friendship's power 
 
 Fond memories gently twine ; 
 The flight of years so short appears 
 
 To days of our " lang syne !" 
 
 4. 
 
 How brief the spell the evening's bell 
 
 With cruel tongue breaks through ; 
 For I must give, and you receive, 
 
 Brothers, our last adieu. 
 But, ere we part, pledge heart to heart 
 
 For glorious " auld lang syne," 
 Nor check the tear to memory dear 
 
 Of "Auld Lang Syne." 
 
^ 
 
o-fv.', , 
 
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