The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-06-09
The Old Village Minister. /"

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man administered at the altar, is dead !;
whose feet, ns they walked on Zion's hill,
were very beautiful in our eyes. How we'll
do we remember, when the storm came up
and the sun was hidden, and cloud called out
to cloud, that we wished "the minister"
would come, for surely no harm could enter
the dwelling that he blessed We used to
forget about the falling sparrows, but then
we had faith in him, and many time did we
wonder and doubt whether he ever could die
like other men; and whether he would not
be waited away, like the prophet of old In a
chariot of fire.
Then, they had not thrown away the old
deacon and got one that was new; sleek
looking juvenile deacon, with glossy black
hair. The gallery was not gay with red
curtains on rings, from behind which came
whispers and songs. Then we had ST. Mar.
tins, st. Thomas and Near.
Shall we ever hear Denmark apd Corinth
again Sweetly rose Dundee's Wild warble
in those long-gone days; Old Hundred, and
Wells, and Peterboro'-. '-.how grand they were
when the breath of the great congregation
went up together, and the voices of matron
and maiden were blended.
How distinctly the picture rises in memo
ry; the plain old church and the people sing.
| ing before the Lord The minister read
for their instruction. every Sabbath morn.
ing, and prayed for the lambs of the flock
and for them that were feeble and old; that
God would have them all in his good keep
ing, guide them in green pastures, and lead
them beside the still waters, and gather them
all in the fold at the last. How much snow
there used to be sprinkled about them in
June-time's SHOWS on the locks of the old.
They tell US there is less of it now; that the
children whose feet swung clear OF the floor,
are the men and women to-day; and the
voice of the elder is stlled, and the prayers
that he uttered are ended. They have re-.
moved the old square pulpit, as high as a
house, that succeeded the swallows nest OF
predecessor against the wall; the ewal-
lows nest of pulpit, that hung there be-
meath flower. shaped bell that Linneus ne.
yer numbered nor named.
We are sorry that the old square lookout
between heaven and earth is removed, for it
was for years among the mysteries of child.
hood, what there might be in tiff ever an
angel, and where the minister went when
we could not see him. Often had we stood
at the foot of the stairs that led up to the
mystery; but only once did we ever venture
to ascend them. Judge of our disappolnt,
ment, that there was nothing of gold there;
no glories that we had read of in the Apoca-
lypse; for we fancied there were; there was
u rough, bare floor, an uncushoned bench,
an old worn Bible, an ancient copy of
Watts Psalmody, and little pile Of Sunday
School books in corner.
And it was thence, from the midst OF such
place, those words OF cloquence had come,
that charmed, and thrilled and awed US then;
tha. charm, and thrill and awe us in memo.
ry yet. We ascended the little platform,
and standing upon tiptoe, looked over the
high breast work upon the empty pews;
there was something very grand about it, we
thought, that almost mode us breathess, and,
stealing down we left the sacred place; more
sacred to us than any we have seen since,
save the spot where the minister hiss wea-
ried and slept.
The members of the old congregation
have gone up TO loitier courts, and we shall
see them no more. The grandmothers, in
sober black, that come tottering in with their
white handkerchiefs smoothly folded md laid
upon their arms the fair. browed girls, that
sung the alto and the treble; the children, with
the springs OF carraway and dill the deacon,
whose head blossomed like an almond tree,
hard by the pulpit door; the old woman,
that in winter time brought the tin foot
stoves for uesolace the little paper fans
that waved, when days were summer, like
80 many little wings about the church, as if
the old minister had q family Of cherubims
for audience; ; the old doxology they used
to sing last in the afternoon ; the trembling
benediction, like the blessing of patriarch,
they received these we shall never see and
here again as they were.
No longer, in Sabbath Moons, do they sit
upon the grass beneath the old poplars, and
talk in tones subdued, while taking their
frugal meal no longer do they inger among
the old, gray gravestones of "the burying
ground" that is since a"cemetery," and con.
template the stone-willows that never put
forth leaf; for the times have changed,
and there is but one sermon aday, q nd those
who brought their dinners Of old, have set
down the most Of them, to the feast of the
Lamb, where the tree of life, the true tree
of heaven, lar is blooming forever.
The deaf who sat on the pulpit stairs in
those old times, can hear the waving of
seraph's wing to-day, for the "dauehters
Of music" have been lifted from the dust
wherein they were lying the old blind man,
whose doubtful feet young eyes did guide,
lives now IN morning light ; and old black