O Ship of State - H. W. Longfellow (read by S. W. Chambers)

During his last sermon as General Superintendent of  the United Pentecostal Church, Stanley W. Chambers read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "O Ship of State" to the 1977 General Conference in Indianapolis, IN. The title of the sermon was "The United Pentecost Church Must Survive the Onslaught of History."

Below is an audio link to that reading and some comments by the preacher:
http://k005.kiwi6.com/hotlink/9a78l6umu5/o_ship_of_state_henry_wadsworth_longfellow.mp3

O Ship of State

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, -are all with thee!

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Also:

http://kiwi6.com/file/9a78l6umu5