Читать книгу The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions - Ruth Edwards Dudley - Страница 18

The Orangeman is a man of truth,

Who scorns all fraud and art;

And rear’d in truth, from his early youth,

He has shrin’d it in his heart;

For it proves to him a mighty shield

Against every foeman’s dart;

And his life he’d yield, on the blood-stain’d field,

Ere with that bright gem he’d part.

The Orangeman is a man of might,

But trusts not in fleshly arm;

He dares to fight for freedom and right,

And he knows no vain alarm.

But strong in truth, in virtue bold,

He fears no earthly harm;

For his heart’s stronghold, like his sires of old,

Is in virtue’s potent charm.

The Orangeman is a man of thought,

He dwells upon glories past;

Upon battles fought and great deeds wrought,

Where blew war’s deadliest blast;

And remembers mercies heaven bestowed,

When affection’s waves roll’d fast;

When man’s wrath o’erflowed, on life’s rough road

Were thorns and brambles cast.

The Orangeman is a man of faith,

He believes what is written – all,

And reveres till death what the Scripture saith,

No matter what does befall.

He hears, as it were, from heaven’s high throne,

His uprisen Master call;

And he takes his cross, and enduring loss,

Bursts through the world’s dead thrall.

The Orangeman is a man of prayer,

To heaven looks for aid;

Against want and care and every snare,

For his soul’s dread ruin laid.

And a prayerful man is never known

In perils to be afraid;

For God’s power is shown when he alone

Can save from the foeman’s blade.

The Orangeman is a man of peace,

But purity peace precedes;

And when ills increase, he cannot cease

To be warlike in his deeds.

Thus does he become a man of strife,

Of strife in a holy cause;

And when danger is rife, he would risk his life

For the King, and Church, and laws.

The Orangeman is a man of love,

He prays for his enemies,

And he’d seek to move the great King above,

On his humble bended-knees.

He loves his Bible, he loves his King,

And all good men he sees;

He loves the Orange, nor hates the Green,

And he bows to the law’s decrees.

E. Harper, ‘The Orangeman’