INDIA

A land of lights and shadows intervolved,

A land of blazing sun and blackest night,

A fortress armed, and guarded jealously,

With every portal barred against the Light.

A land in thrall to ancient mystic faiths,

A land of iron creeds and gruesome deeds,

A land of superstitions vast and grim,

And all the noisome growths that Darkness breeds.

Like sunny waves upon an iron-bound coast,

The Light beats up against the close-barred doors,

And seeks vain entrance, yet beats on and on,

In hopeful faith which all defeat ignores.

But — time shall come, when, like a swelling tide,

The Word shall leap the barriers, and The Light

Shall sweep the land; and Faith and Love and Hope

Shall win for Christ this stronghold of the night.