Grif.Net

02/04/12 Weekend Grif.Net – Freedom! God! and Right!

02/04/12 Weekend Grif.Net – Freedom! God! and Right!

[The Grif.Net will be off line for a week for needed maintenance. Sorry.]

My great-grandfather William Rogers was both a Methodist circuit-riding
preacher and a soldier in the Second Regiment, 24th Regiment of Foot, South
Wales Borderers. He had been ministering in rural parishes in Western Iowa,
but left his wife and children (including my grandmother Bess – Elizabeth)
to rejoin his unit from the homeland in the Boer War (South Africa).

He never returned. He died in the Transvaal near the beginning of February,
1902. If you know the folk tune of this Welsh Marching Song, raise a glass
and feel free to raise your voice!

1. – Men of Harlech! in the hollow,
Do you hear like rushing billow,
Wave on wave that surging follow
Battle’s distant sound.

‘Tis the tramp of Saxon foemen,
Saxon spearmen, Saxon bowmen;
Be they knights, or hinds, or yeomen,
They shall bite the ground!

Loose the folds asunder,
Flag we conquer under!
The placid sky now bright on high
Shall launch its bolts in thunder!

Onward, ’tis the country needs us.
He is bravest, he who leads us!
Honor’s self now proudly heeds us,
Freedom! God! and Right!

2. – Rocky steep and passes narrow
Flash with spear and flight of arrow.
Who would think of death or sorrow?
Death is glory now!

Hurl the reeling horsemen over,
Let the earth dead foemen cover.
Fate of friend, of wife, of lover,
Trembles on a blow!

Strands of life are riven!
Blow for blow is given
In deadly lock or battle shock,
And mercy shrieks from heaven!

Men of Harlech! young or hoary,
Would you win a name in story?
Strike for home, for life, for glory!
Freedom! God! and Right!

~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”