Part 4 (1/2)

It can be heard through the nations, around the world.

Whether Caucasian or Mongolian--he can talk about the globe.

And distance-vanis.h.i.+ng Fulton, you were one; Who--launching upon the waters the first steam-propelled s.h.i.+p, the Cleremont, From who's experimental hull leaped into existence The Savanah, the Great Eastern and Britannia, Each moving faster, faster than the one before-- Was the first to draw together the continents, like some Colossus with a shortening cord of time Until from coast range to distant sh.o.r.es And from distant sh.o.r.es to coast range Each new speeding steamer brings us closer, Making more certain the intermingling of the races preparing for the brotherhood of man.

And great Augustine, dissolute as a youth But angelic as a man, you were one; Who--the humblest and the quickest to recognize That since the day of Christ all n.o.ble men were sent, And that constrained and resolute with Paul and with Peter they had gone-- Was the first--thank G.o.d you appeared--to marshal the good men for conquest, To organize into missionary ranks the vision'd souls of the church, Dispatching spirit-armored heroes from Rome to early England's soil And preventing the annihilation of Christian hope and truth.

n.o.ble prophet! Little did you know, O Augustine, what you had done.

Unbrazened in the face, illuminated with the divine, With the crystal eye of goodness looking light and health into pagan nights, And cowering l.u.s.t's mountain hurling hosts, Followed by new recruits, since then the ranks have grown.

Men have come one by one and year by year Until fifteen thousand heralded volunteers and ninety thousand native workers Now can be seen from glad heavens Missionary Ridge, offering light and character on heathen fields!

Far-reaching, sea-exploring, colonizing England in its youth saved for enlightenment!

Christ inspired it! But you achieved it!

And today, as the oceans and the continents are united, So five hundred and sixty-five million followers are gradually demanding that the races and the peoples In essential Christianity--the good recognizing in other faiths--shall be one.

And mind-emanc.i.p.ating Luther, thou art one-- Fearing only G.o.d and truth.

Hating naught but sham and falsehood!

For traveling back from our day into medieval darkness-- (The chains, hear them rattle! But also hear them snap in a true reformers clutch Causing mult.i.tudes to rise from superst.i.tion And stand upon their feet, erect in the freedom of a simple faith)-- We there behold the pioneer of intellectual freedom, A simple monk, commanding the low-browed ignorance of a whole dark continent to think, Awakening the western world to science, to true religion and to thought; Until the mind of the sullen ma.s.ses of Europe now is brooding, And in America it is voting, While the public mind of the world is becoming more and more habituated to reason for international concourse.

For the Bible, the rocks and the skys are unchained, Because Luther lived and honestly dared for the truth!

These are the men--inspired by Him who altered times calendar and began an Easter day-- Who took epochal steps for the world's conquest.

That directly achieved in encircling the globe.

But there are others, a host of others, worthy, n.o.ble, world pioneers.

O indispensable pioneers, see them moving out in history, Just as bravely, just as necessary, often giving inspiration to the first, Most of them impelled forward by Columbus and Copernicus-- The inspirers of explorers, the pioneers of the pioneers.

Consecrated to humanity and the world, look backward and see the host of sphere-ward moving men; See the explorers--with Columbus, Balboa, Drake, Desoto opening up a new west.

See the scientists--Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, daring to say that G.o.d is in life.

See the philosophers--Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, Kant and Eucken.

See the missionaries--Judson, Carey, Thomas, Livingstone, Moffat and Morrison.

See the inventors--Stevenson, Watt, Marconi, Edison and Bell.

See the patriots--Solon, Savonarola, Cromwell, Henry, Lincoln and Gladstone.

Mighty huers through the forests,-- See them laboring for a nation in some special task or knowledge, But incidentally and emphatically for the world.

And turn your eyes from the past to the present to observe your own world inspired sons!

See them moving toward the international congress and the Hague, The greatest educators, amba.s.sadors and financiers, See them increasing in their numbers, for they also will be counted with the world pioneers.