A City Set upon an Hill

(The Sanatorium of The Christian Science Benevolent Association)

IVA B. LINEBARGER

Fair city set upon an hill!
Thy healing light cannot be hid!
A beacon in a darkened world,
Performing deeds the Master did.
No glory dost thou claim thine own;
Thy mighty works Love doth supply;
Thou, too, bidst men to look on these
And God alone to glorify!

As daylight fades and shadows fall,
When out of sight the sun sinks low,
Still sun-kissed stands yon mountain's brow,
Reflecting back its borrowed glow;
So stands this hill-top city there,
A light still piercing hopeless night
For mortals in the plains below,
When darkness hideth God from sight.

Benighted souls have caught thy light
And followed in a ceaseless flow—
The sick, the grieved, the halt, the maimed,
The rich, the poor, the high, the low—
Up to thy gates held open wide,
As only true benevolence can,
Where Love knows neither Scythian, Jew,
Nor bond, nor free,—but perfect man!