Israel and Columbia

O GLORY of an elder age!

O wonder of time’s later days!

Foremost for aye as priest and sage,

Ne’er absent from broad history’s ways,

Let us not fail on thee to place

Some share of our Columbian crown,

For one of all thy favored race

Sailed with that fleet from Palos town.

Prophetic dreams of worlds behind

The secret of the sundown seas,

Slept deep in science heart-confined

From Maneth on to Genoese.

Well said Isaiah, seer sublime,

“Surely the isles shall wait for thee,

And ships of Tarshish bide the time

When Hebrews face the western sea.”

The gates of unknown worlds were sealed

While progress waits the Jewish hand,

And David’s earth possessing shield,

To lead her to the Promised Land.

Herculean Pillars vainly rear

Their frowning ne-plus-ultra bound

In paths where fiery pillars steer

The conquest of the planet round.

Spain drove thee forth from mart and school,

Princes of commerce, thought, and verse,

Thine angel led to broader rule

In lands which laugh at Europe’s curse.

We hear Jah’s voice through all thy course,

“More yet beyond, for thou art mine,”

And with thee dwells the secret force

That makes the march of man divine.

For thou art Hebrew—Abram’s seed—

The child of him God called His friend,

And son of Whom the nations read,

“Thy kingdom hath not bound nor end.”

Yes, Hebrew, man from realms beyond,

Upreared to lead hope’s splendid quest,

Instinct with powers by ages crowned,

Restless, thou guidest man to rest.

So Israel’s world-wide moving sons,

We hail you at each opening gate,

Through which your flaming promise runs,

While Jacob’s star leads on our fate.

And more than admiral or crew,

Whose memory nations now adorn,

We hail that nameless sailor Jew

As herald of the New World’s morn.

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