Egypt! Back rolls the curtain, and we view
From out the past a scene that will endure.
We follow Joseph once again into that land
So rich in all of the false senses' lure;
We see him tempted, tried, yet faithful still
To God, and by his God sustained;
We see good overcoming evil's claim to power,
And hate o'ercome by purity and love unfeigned.
Egypt! Straightway into our thought there comes
The memory of Israel being led
From out that land of cruel bondage, pain, and grief,
And by the hand of God divinely fed,
As through the wilderness they murmuring went
And sighed for fleshpots, nor forgot
The bread left in that alien land where they had wept
And prayed to be delivered from their wretched lot.
Egypt! We know you now to be unreal—
The dream wherein by sense men are enslaved.
Rejoicing, too, we know that from the senses' bonds
By faith and truth and love men e'er are saved.
Like Joseph, may we conquer error's claim
With love, however real it seems,
And may we murmur not, but gratefully rejoice
When being led from out the wilderness of dreams.
