Bricks without straw!
What more sadistic or inhuman law
could cruelty impose?
Yet out of grief's white ashes there arose
undying flame
of courage to go forward in His name.
No fleshpot worth the cost
of further degradation.
One God—one still the power,
compassionate in that hour
to save a nation.
Their last poor sham security could be
abandoned now. And if none of them knew
what plant, if any, grew
for nourishment; what beast
lurked in the wilderness;
what harsh terrain
might strain
conviction or strength,
they stood at length
united, ready to move
out of slavery, to prove
God's infinite love, to be led
out of that land of darkness
and the dead.
Column of cloud remembered
marks our path by day.
Pillar of fire in darkness
lights our way.
