A Godly People Bless the Earth

The following poem by John A. Lant, titled "A Godly People Bless the Earth" and dedicated to "the brethren of the Central States Mission", appeared in The Improvement Era 10/3 (January 1907): 198. I hope I have the second and third stanzas in the proper order. Compare to an earlier poem by John Lant, courtesy of Ardis E. Parshall at her Keepapitchinin blog.

A godly people bless the earth,
By kindly deeds and saintly worth;
America! thou grand and free!
To gospel glories bend the knee,
In humble thankfulness and prayer,
For these are gaining everywhere;

From revelation's reop'd fount,
These glorious latter days they count,
When men from strife and wrong shall flee,
And earth - a paradise to be -
Receive the lessons hidden long
In joy sublime and gladsome song.

Let menace to all evil come,
With good disproving slander's tongue.
Ope thy heart, each soul who bore
False witness, thoughtless, o'er and o'er;
Thou art forgiven; canst thou forgive,
And "Mormon" precepts strive to live?

These Latter-days mean peace for all -
These Saints in gladness meekly call
To share the joys bequeathed from heaven
For them, for thee, the precious leaven -
That all God's children born to earth
May merit life divine from birth.