Dark was her brow, and darker
The depths of her liquid eyes
And her hair was dark as the blackness
Of the moonless midnight skies,
Her robe was the gorgeous colors
Of the Tropic's brazen shield
And costliest incense smoldered
In its Isis folds concealed,
Dawn, noontide and evening together wove
The fabric she loved to wear
And fashioned the rainbow crescent
That shone in her midnight hair,
As she clasped in her hot embraces
And bore through the jungle wild
To her tents in the tangled forest
The cursed and homeless child.
Darker then grew her visage
And fiercer her deep eyes shone
As the smoke from her pagan altars
Curled over her ivory throne,
And the nations quailed before her
And trembled beneath her frown
Nor dared to enter her empire
Or gaze on her crescent crown,
'Till desolate, feared, forgotten,
She reigned in her realm alone,
With the cursed and homeless Canaan
'Till they called her, the Great Unknown.
Once the sweet singer of Israel
Linked with his melody
Of the pagan queen in her darkness
A golden prophecy
That shone in the stars above her
And gleamed from her pagan sod--
"Soon, soon shall proud Ethiopia
Stretch forth her hands unto God."
Dark grew her brow and darker
Grew the darkness about her throne
No ray pierced the midnight blackness
No star in her midnight shone
The suns of the burning Tropics
For centuries scorched her bloom
But they strove in vain to lighten
With one pale ray, her gloom.
Lo! in the listening ages
From the chords where it slumbered long
In the light of its glad fulfillment
Awakes the prophetic song,
'Tis sung by the stars above her,
'Tis harped from her teeming sod
Beautiful, dark Ethiopia
Stretches her hands unto God.
Lo! she hath dashed her idols
And her pagan altars down,
Robed in her gorgeous garments
Crowned with her crescent crown
She stands with benighted Canaan,
She turns from her gory sod
She looks to the stars above her
And stretches her hands unto God.
A light on her midnight breaketh
A brightening, growing light
It darks through her gloom and slowly
Illumines her fearful night,
Her scepter was stained with crimson
Vice lurked in her smile to mar
And over her glorious beauty
Burned Crime's unsightly scar,
And lo, from her pagan palace
Girt 'round with its burning zone
To his Father's righteous dwelling
Canaan is coming home.
