THE Banyan of the Indian Isles,
     Strikes deeply down, its massive root;
And spreads its branching life, abroad,
     And bends, to earth, with scarlet fruit
And, when the branches reach the ground,
     They firmly plant themselves, again
Then rise, and spread, and droop, and root;
     An ever green, and endless, chain.

And, so, the Church of Jesus Christ,
     The blessed Banyan of our God,
Fast rooted, upon Sion's Mount,
     Has sent its sheltering arms, abroad
And every branch, that, from it, springs,
     In sacred beauty, spreading wide,
As, low, it bends, to bless the earth,
     Still, plants another, by its side.

Long, as the world, itself, shall last,
     The sacred Banyan, still, shall spread
From clime to clime, from age to age,
     Its sheltering shadow shall be shed
Nations shall seek its "pillared shade,"
     Its leaves shall, for their healing, be:
The circling flood, that feeds its life,
     The blood, that crimsoned Calvary.

RIVERSIDE, 2d Sunday after Easter, 1851.

* Written for the third Jubilee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

Project Canterbury