Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1857-04-25
A Short Patent Sermon.
By DOW, JI

A Short Patent Sermon.
By DOW, JR.
My text today is as follows
And thus it sung, with tnklng tongue;
Thatrippling shadowy river
+" Youths brightest day will fade away,
Forever and foreyerw
And thus it sung with tuneful tongue,
That bird beside the river
When youth is gone, true love shines OH,
Forever aud forever"
My Hearers: Time, that seems to us old
fogies, to hum and whirr upon-patridge-like
pipions, sails uoiselessly by the silkeu wings
To she happy, unheeding youth. Well,
youth is too busy with its own affairs to
mark whethor the old gentleman with the
oushscythe, glass end forelock hobbies up
on crutches, goes by steam, by taIeoranh
or propels himself with, those antiquated
pinions upon his shoulders. Youth "takes
no note of time" but receives the pure gold
in regular daily installneuts, and fondly
imagines he is thus peusioned for life. He
knows aud cares nothingabout"h "hard times"
except when he is sent for chips on frosty
morning, or gets his ears boxed for not
minding his mother. His hours are each
as long as day at the summers solstce !;
his days are weeks---his weeks months
his months, years--and his years, oh, my
brethren his years are just about five.
eights of an eternity. While busily gath
erng his flowers, sailing his shingle ship
caging hop toads, shooting marbles, play,
ing borae, extorting molasses from verdant
grasshoppers, fishing with pin-hooks, and
building-not castles in the air, but stables
for corn-cob cattle--he thinks of nothing
but of the far distant tine when he shall
have outgrown his spense, and become n
man, with the same blossoms Of youth still
garlanding his heart, and money enough
in his pocket to carry out his ncipient ideas
of happiness approaching TO perfect bliss.
While my friends, the youth is culGng
beautiful flowers upon the river bank, and
is delighted with the sparkling sheen of
that ripping, shadowy river, he is unaware
that tits telling him with tinkling tongue.
that youths brightest day will fade away,
forever and forevern Forever and foyeyeri-
how truthtully, solerun!y expressive the SEN
tence! As that slvery, gleesome river los.
es its lustre as it approaches its eternal
ocean home. so forever fade away mans
early joys as he enters upon the dull low
lands of life, where for him the violet buds
and the heathbel blooms in vain Fade
away forever thus do these fragrant po.
sizes which children gather upon the rivers
brink. Little recks the bIithesome lad Of
their doom and less heeds their warning :;
that thus away shall fade the flowers of
YOUTH forever aud forever! All my dear
friends, they do fade away-imperceptibly
fade, droop and decay. You grow up to
manhood, and sometimes imagine, as You
pick your way amid the briars, thorns and
thistles of life. that they still bloom in all
the original enthusiastically unlike those
that bloomed "at Beltane, in winerto fade"
And so they do; but where matured, mel
ancboly mortals, do they blossom for You I
Asmy friend Tom Moore says, it is nowhere
else but Z" in memorys wasten--the old
ploughe1-out field of the past Oh that
dry, sa dy soil of memory what,lovely
amaranthine flowers it is capable of produc
ing and yet you can do nothing more than
grieve to think that you are not permitted
TO roam and revel among them with the
same body, breecbes, soul and spirit as in
days now eternally numbered with the
Fast.
My brethren; suppose you expect me
to tell you what kind Of bird that was which
sat beside the river, mildly nodded his head,
wigwagged Install, and of true love SO tu..e
fully sang. 1t couldn't have been a ,ng.
fisher-for, instead Of being tupeful, he
CRATES out noise something similar to that
attending the winding up Of a marine clock.
Was it a fish bawk2 never heard the
fellow sing or say word in my life; and
yet he may keep up a most musical think
ing about love for the little finny. creation.
BY no means ould it have been lean
shitpoke, who without single poetic utter.
ance, silently-uuike featherless poets
broods over starvation to the last. Nor Is
it likely it was the spindle-shanked teeter-
tail, that so plaintiyely peeps Of love forsa-
ken forever and forever.
Ah-ha my friends, mcthinks behold
the little medodist. It is the rec winged
black bird, swinging upon the willows, and
ssweetly singing true love, that "shneg on,
forever and forever" when the fires of pas
sion have ceased to flame or smouldsr.A4S
There be sits, from dewy morn to shadowy
eve, still singing that old lune--"John An
defson, my jo John" while bis old cara
$pOusa is. perhaps, sedcntarily performing
her last maternal duties. He siugeth, too
how that lyer- although Fastening onward
TO its bay of everlasting rest--sliIl forever
bears upon its ripping bosom loves silvery
sheen. He singeth, also, of that platonic
love ~ hich fndS;ie .rn hiara - a. l..l