Reader:
Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
People:
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Reader:
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
People:
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.
Reader:
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
People:
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come,
treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Reader:
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
People:
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Reader:
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
People:
Lest our feet stray from the places,
our God,
where we met Thee,
our hearts drunk with the wine of the world,
we forget Thee;
Reader:
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.