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Where brighter suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons emparadise the night;
A land of beauty, virtue, valour, truth,
Time-tutored age, and love exalted youth:
The wandering mariner, whose eye explores
The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair,
Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air;
In every clime the magnet of his soul,
Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole;

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He started up to hear,

A mortal arrow pierced his frame :
He fell, but felt no fear.

Tranquil amidst alarms,
It found him in the field,

A veteran slumbering on his arms,
Beneath his red-cross shield:
His sword was in his hand,
Still warm with recent fight;
Ready that moment at command,
Through rock and steel to smite.

At midnight came the cry,
“To meet thy God prepare!"

He woke, and caught his Captain's eye;

Then, strong in faith and prayer,

His spirit, with a bound,

Burst its encumbering clay;

His tent, at sunrise, on the ground,

A darken'd ruin lay.

The pains of death are past,

Labour and sorrow cease,

And life's long warfare closed at last,

His soul is found in peace.

Soldier of Christ! well done;
Praise be thy new employ ;
And while eternal ages run,
Rest in thy Savour's joy.

HOME.

THERE is a land, of every land the pride,
Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside;
Where brighter suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons emparadise the night;
A land of beauty, virtue, valour, truth,
Time-tutored age, and love exalted youth:
The wandering mariner, whose eye explores
The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair,
Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air;
In every clime the magnet of his soul,
Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole;

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He started up to hear,

A mortal arrow pierced his frame:
He fell,-but felt no fear.

Tranquil amidst alarms,
It found him in the field,

A veteran slumbering on his arms,
Beneath his red-cross shield:
His sword was in his hand,
Still warm with recent fight;
Ready that moment at command,
Through rock and steel to smite.

At midnight came the cry,
"To meet thy God prepare!"

He woke,—and caught his Captain's eye;

Then, strong in faith and prayer,

His spirit, with a bound,

Burst its encumbering clay;

His tent, at sunrise, on the ground,

A darken'd ruin lay.

The pains of death are past,

Labour and sorrow cease,

And life's long warfare closed at last,

His soul is found in peace.

Soldier of Christ! well done;
Praise be thy new employ ;
And while eternal ages run,
Rest in thy Savour's joy.

HOME.

THERE is a land, of every land the pride,
Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside;
Where brighter suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons emparadise the night ;
A land of beauty, virtue, valour, truth,
Time-tutored age, and love exalted youth:
The wandering mariner, whose eye explores
The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair,
Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air;
In every clime the magnet of his soul,
Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole;

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