Have you heard the golden city
Mentioned in the legends old
Everlasting light shines o'er it,
Wondrous tales of it are told
Only righteous men and women
Dwell within its gleaming walls.
Wrong is banished from its borders
Justice reigns supreme o'er all.
We are builders of that city.
All our joys and all ours groans
Help to rear its shining ramparts
All our lives are building stones.
But the work that we have builded
Oft with bleeding hands and tears
And in error and in anguish
Will not perish with the years.
It will be at last made perfect,
In the universal plan
It will help to crown the labors
Of the toiling hosts of man.
It will last and shine transfigured
In the final reign of right,
It will merge into the splendor
Of the city of the light.