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The "Word was first, says the revelation:
 * Justice is older than error or strife;

The Word preceded the Incarnation
 * As symbol and type of law and life.

And always so are the mighty changes:
 * The Word must be sown in the heart like seed;

Men's hands must tend it, their lives defend it.
 * Till it burst into flower as a deathless Deed.

The primal truth neither dies nor slumbers.
 * But lives as the test of the common right,

That the laws proclaimed by the sworded numbers
 * May stand arraigned in the people's sight.

The Word is great, and no Deed is greater,
 * When both are of God, to follow or lead;

But, alas, for the truth when the Word comes later,
 * With questioned steps, to sustain the Deed.