Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-11-06
"Sweet Day" "
BY 3. r. TAYLOR.

> ing bell 10 Vespers.
Neither was it the gray, grim day tn
. Puritsns made Of it, who, and with som
S small show OF truth, the Westminster Re
2 view declures, invented the sin of Sabbath
r breaking, but jus, dear, oid-fashioned Sun
day.
Such al one-it was longer ago thai
yesterday-shiaes like star Just ready tt
set, cut of the far Past, of which it seems
to US we are writing out of the fuliness G
ou- own heart, in Our own words and no
anOiher's,
Sweet day, go pure, so calm, 50 bright,
lhe bridal 81 the earth s.4d SKY.
/, And new, as we think, the fear possesses
!, US that such days have allen out of the
calenda; that the gold devil has got int
this Eden Ol Time, and fg leaves and apror
makers obtained full sway in Paradise.
Very beautiful used to be the approache:
to that Sunday in those old days. TIE tide
OF passion and the glow Of ambition, went
do@n with Sundays sun, and life's fever
was followed BY t sleep. The blacksmith
bellows grew breathiess, and his hammer
lay silent on the anvil; the ftful tinkling OF
& bell denoted the lasl wa1derer of the flock
safe ia the fold; the mills "big wheel" stood
still, and the upper and lower sections of It's
battened door we're closed; the "ironng''
of the old fashioned mother was aired and
| folded, and laid smay; the last loaf was
withdrawn from .he glowing cavern of the
old brick oven; the boys had come back
! from the creek, their brown feet twink ing
whittier in the grass, and their damp hair a
shade darker than il went; light glimmers
dimly through the great windows of the
church; young men aud maideas go by in
pairs, and pretty soon, through the shadowy
air, there floats the blended vJices that we
used to love, in Windha,n, Near. and Silver
street. "Dundee's wild, warbling measures
rise,'' and sweet oil Corinth falls upon the
ear; the noon surmounIS the woods, and
rides & moment ike ship upon the leafy
waves Of June, then bears away for "the
blue water Of Gods Egean, ami over all
that scene and night it rules.
The dew grows radiant and restless in tie
| grass beneath it, as i earth uere our moth
er, and she really breatheG; in the mists of
gray that Eith the willows fringe the stream
OF silver; and the memory Of that hour is
gold.
Morning comes. and with it the robins
song they did not eat The robins then; a
little dock ol white clouds graZes silently
in The eastern field Of Heaven, and the hills
al the west OF Us are red with Days new
sacrific ce, The first lamb from its fold OF ours.
East across The river-perhaps it will do no
harm to name it-Gcross the Black River
stand in majesty, rank after rank, the etern-
al woods, and among their coronals, and
wreathed with leaves, there always lie in
such June mornings. three silver clouds,
three breaths OF beau:y, rom three forest
lakes beneath. TAey ALWAYS seemed to Us
three syallables Of thanksgiving the Sun
discovered on their nightly way TO God.
The Lombardy PoP.ars, III long array,
that seem iore'er going oTer Clinion's hill,
year CROWNS q fisme; an6 there, with
sentry Lombards round about, aa.id wilder
ness of woods, hard by the river, in the
Valleys heart, lies the swee. village, the
sweeter Day did Cad. That vas : haunt
Tor Sunday, and might have been rs home
stead.
There under the risen sun, the village lay
in Sabbath slumber. The blinds Of the two
Windows of the store, the eyes Of commerce
unspeculaIive, were fast closed; the village
school and village mill had grown murmur-
less together; not wheel ratified down The
street;not shout Or boisterous song fOat-
ed up the valley it was Elk O'Clock, and
Sunday morning.
And SO it wore away till the hour of wor-
chip, then over the village, over the clear
ings, over the woods, the music Of the bell
floated all abroad, aud from the hills there
came an answer back, and voices OF bells
from among the trees. And then from the
country round they came, on horseback, by
twes-there were piilioas theR-on foot in
groups, in wagons BY families, and now and
then chaise, aud went up-for 1t was set
upon hill--lo the House of the Lord in
company. Guiltless of adornings, there it
stood, grown gray in time and storm, its
spire like solemn finger, pointing ever un-
to heaven, its pulpit, like acswali0w's nest,
fast to the wall, midway 'twixt earth and
sky; its seats naked rs Truth, icr the lux
uries of religion were not kept at one store;
its unearpeted aisies, its ungilded hymn
books, its ungilded congregation. Unfashion-
able they may have been, but they are gone,
the most of them, we cannot doubt, where
tine styles do not change with the moon,and
robes of white, and crowns and harps OF
gold are the fashion forever.
How, midsummer Though it W as, the heads.
of that congregation were sprinkled with
snow. And the Mnister--the gifts of gray
hair and Of wisdom were his-strange that
he should die; We did Rot think he could
| How simple was his doctrine, how clear his
reasoning, how earneet his exbortation, how
homely his phrase, bet how beautiful! his
| spirit. He might have stood or Mares Hill;
he might have taken the place and the pill
low of the beloved disciple;' but "the pray
ers of David, the son Of Jesse, ere ended"
and we shall hear his voice no more.
And the hymns they used to sing then,
and the singers that sang them united TO
the music and the choir of Heaven. The
blacksmith that sang base bas exchanged
iron for gold, and the girl that sang air has
put off the blue dress she wore then for d
garment of glory.
The morning services done, then came
the "nooning," and in groups, in the church,
and out of doors under the trees, and at the
neighbors' hard by, and in the place of
graves, they passed the hour, and there W as
the fragrance Of caraway, of new app,es ,and
roses.
: The sermon done, as did the disciples of
old, "they sang hymn, and :went OUT
Kind words Iwere said by the way, and
hands were clasped by honest hands aeain,
and the inquisiticn of frienship was satisf.
ed: "the corn was promising; the sheep
was sheared, the baby was WE'LL" one w as
! waiting he said, 'tor his turn over Jordan:
and another would "pfoug she new clear.
A,l