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๐๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐๐ฒ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐
So long ago that all was wilderness
Where now our love has root,
There came from other lands in eagerness
For freedom, men of might, standing for right,
Who sowed the seed of faith. Then in the light
Of Christ there grew, in loving earnestness,
This Church, our home, their fruit.
Here persecution drove the steadfast Scot;
Men from North Ireland fled;
From England others sped;
Suffering, bereft, the high-souled Huguenot
Escaped to find a safer, happier lot,
Free heart and honest bread.
From these we spring in faith and in descent,
Their very names we bear.
The Christ for whom this blood, these lives were spent,
Shows us the world in anguish, sick with strife,
Wearily waiting rest, hoping to hear
Of Godโs great peace! Oh! pray that we be lent
True wisdom, strength, the power to persevere,
To show Godโs love, to tell of heavenly life,
Until our Lord appear.
โ Louisa C. Smythe Stoney, in Margaret A. Gist, Presbyterian Women of South Carolina (1929), p. xiii