Religious Liberty
 
1. From the darkness of the ages, light and life were stirred awake;
As their purity unfolded, church and state began to quake.
From oppression's tyrant power, conscience struggled to be free;
For the Bible's living power brought the dawn of liberty. 
 
2. Then the bloody law enacted threaten'd to consume the free,
Who would stand for God's true service and depart from man's decree.
Pope and prelate, priest and people, like a flood upon the just,
Made them flee into the new world, there to serve the God they trust. 
 
3. These were salt: the world's preservers; who had learned self-government;
Built upon this strong foundation came a new experiment.
Two strong pillars were erected for religious liberty:
Conscience freedom (toleration), government by people free. 
 
4. So this land became a haven, and it prospered and increas'd;
But with passing generations this great reformation ceased.
When the church is not progressing then she loses all her pow'r,
When the salt has lost its savor it is fit for salt no more. 
 
5. But eternal rights of conscience never can be wholly lost,
While the Lord still has His servants, who will serve at any cost.
Bless the Lord who gave our fathers peace upon a foreign shore;
Unto Him who gave soul-freedom: praise and thanks forevermore. 

Text: based on The Great Controversy, ch. 16, "The Pilgrim Fathers"