Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1853-07-06
SECTION III,

Humphrey Holbrook taught not his babes
the lessons of wisdom and of futurity; for
when he gathered the son and daughter a.
round him, he told them Of silver and gold
ofits pretty, bright pieces like ilocio, Of its
great value and the nice things it would
buy. He endeavored to instill into their
youthful minds that to make gold and to
lay up stores for long and merry life were
the only great concerns in living-the on
ly thing desirable-the only thing worthy
Of mans thought and struggles. Not SO
with Mary, the mother; day unto day she
called her two babes from their play and
like lambs they would come skipping and
kneel on the cushion to listen to the moth
er tell of the flowers, the stars, the holy
one praying in the garden, the watching
angels, good children and Heaven; and
they would clap their chubby hands in an
ecstasy of wild delight, sing duett of sin
gle praise and say how much better is
this than fathers gold !"
The mother taught them to lay not their
hearts upon gold and silver for it would
not save them from death, and they believ-
ed it, but they wondered together if good
little children ever died. And they asked
their mother if good little children ever
died.
And she brushed bright tear from her
eye, and said yes, and then sent them away
to play again, but they played not; for
they sat upon the grassmound and talked
familiarly of death and they grew trou-
bled in heart for the first time and kneel-
ing together they prayed that when the one
must die the other might lay down in the
cold sleep too, in the deep tomb-lockeC
in the death embrace sleeping long days
and nights in the icy lap of death together
They prayed and sang together under
meath the cool shade until late in the eve
ming, and gauze like cloud flew through
the air like canvass strained arg0sy anC
from its bosom sifted the feecy mist upol
the face of the earth, and the sunbeam
woye their spangled gold through it, ant
the majestic bow of God rearedits triumph
i 0nt arch aud loaned IL saipst- +ha- e~aa--
sky.
And the children saw it, and they clap
ped their hands, and they shouted to
gether -
Bright
Beautiful"
d" IIosanna ~
" Shout"
" Hail to the Great High Priest ~
" And to the Lamb"
!, d" Forever"
" And ever"
q Amen"
Amen :"
And they ran to their mother and poin
] ed to the cast and earnestly besought h
to tell them of the bright beauty of so man
hower-colors all woven together like m
. jestic riband, iris-likc and gay.
= And Mary told them of the flood, Il
! ark, the preacher of righteousness, II
:. dove, the olive leaf and the bow in the hea
l. ens-God's immutable covenant.
I. And they went to their downy bed al
=. y talked of the bright bow with many strang
- childish fancies they wondered until tn
=. - believed it was the golden paved street th
= led to the great gate of Heaven, alo
: which the good little children were led
! y Angel hands; and they almost wished til
! tHey were away lIOHl tiLG IltiS bCu anu
- ing hand in hand over the bright highw
= of many colors up to Heaven. And tn
: - talked of the bow and sung until they f
:. : asleep, and the brother dreamed drear
s Everettc dreamed that the bow was re
i - ly Heavens highway; that pretty lit
: = Angel told him so and took him by
= hand leading him gently over the smoc
- =. mosaick of gold, of bright silver, of spa
). ling diamonds, Of sapphire, of the topez,
- rubies and of thousand gems and preciC
~ stones Of glittcring beauty all woven toge
y er and gemmed with every pleasing ray q
" beam by the mystic wand of rofraction.
Il And the Angel and the boy flew up
~ bright bow heavenward, gently, swiftly
I'll if zephyr driven, and the grand arch :
nj nj gained without struggle, and the bow
,bt brightly beaming.
5ool And the brother stopped moment
,ev gazcd from his great height upon the wo
tty and he saw his sister in the little cot slt
en-, ing and smiling. And the brother dre
nov, cd he hailed her with pretty song, but