Once to Every Man and Nation

Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide
In the strife of truth with falsehood
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever
‘Twixt that darkness and that light

Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust’
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And ‘tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied

Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own. Amen.
© James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)