Classic Poem

From many ways and wide apart,
Obedient to thy call,
Hither we turn with loyal heart,
Dear Mother of us all!

We walk the well-known paths once more
Amid the summer's bloom;
We pass familiar thresholds o'er,
And breathe the air of home.

Nor we alone; they come unseen,
Unheard their footsteps fall;
Voices long hushed to earth within
The cloistered silence call.

O, more than gold has been the lore
We learned beside thy knee, —
The faith that grows from more to more,
The truth that maketh free;

The strength to do and to endure
Through good report and ill,
The heart of love, the conscience pure,
And the undaunted will.

Be proud, O Mother, of thy past!
It lives in thee to-day;
And still its high traditions cast
Their light upon thy way.

Our love and hope ring out their chime
Above thy festival;
Blessings upon thee through all time,
Thou who hast blessed us all!