Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-02-07


a-w-a-y.
They cry, C-o-m-e a-w-a-y
Co---me a----way,
A--w--n-y
All party distinctions in the choir seemed to
have disappeared in the moment. Even the |
clocks" opened their mouths and leaned for
ward from the loft in a perfect deuge of har-
mony, and it was some time after the last lin
gering "Come away" had crept off through the
vacuum of the "old maids pew" and vanished,
before the congregation came back to them
selves. Watched Parson Harrison. He looked
very solemn, and kept stroking the top of his
head. | could understand why he should do it
now to prevent his hair from rising up, though
do not know that this was his real motive.
GLOW did you like the singing?" was on ev-
crybody's lips as We came out of church. Twas
non-committa, for really did not know what
to say. My thoughts had taken a sort of spiral
motion, and | preferred waiting till they sub
sided into their own channel. / saw the Cleve-
lands walking ahead of me, and quicked my
pace and came up with Ellen.
81 didn't hear your voice in the choir to-day"
"No. / sat below"
ment?"
80, don't care a fig where the singers si,.
'Tisn't of so much consequence where the seats
are as who fills them"
81 expected to hear you to-day, as I under
stand you belong to the traps p"
"Well-l mean to open my mouth so as to
let the words come without hitting, when there's
anything to come out"
THAT singing this afternoon consider rath-
er remarkable"
"Gammon."
The same performance was repeated two or
three Sundays, after which the chorster sent
notice to the pulpit that another voluntary was
to come off.
Parson Harrison was one of the best of men,
though when he had something disagreeable to
say, or something which required more moral
courage than usual, he never looked his audi
ence in the face, but always looked straight at
old Dicks pew. have heard him preach some
exceedingly pungent sermons, but he always
poured them all in upon the negroes Once,
remember, he preached a sermon against dane
ing. all of which went straight as an arrow at
old Dick, though the poor old cripple couldn't
dance step to save his life The minister in
his new emergency, after the last prayer, made
a pause, stroked the top of his head, which he
seldom did in tn, pulpit, and looked at old
Dick, from which knew he was going to say
something that gave him pain.
"The voluntary can be omitted. Shall we
receive the divine blessing?" And the congre-
CATION were dismissed.
Father Harrison had told some one that he
thought the voluntary dissipated the solemn i'm
preston which he wanted the sermon to leave
upon the minds of the people, and he fell
obliged to leave it out.
We have now come to what may be called
the decline and Fall" in the history of the
Oxford singing school, if not of the OXFORD
parish itself. The next Sunday both the quad
rang lie and the pigeon loft were deserted ant
desolate. The hymns were given out, but no.
body responded. know how deeply the min
lister felt it, for he looked under the stairs anC
preached at old Dick all day. In the afternoon
however, he gave out "Hymn 14S," which, il
Dwights edition of Watts, you will see, if yot
turn to it, is preserved in its original beauty
having not been tinkered for the modern com
pilations. There was a subdued pleading in tn,
voice of the venerable man, which was yer,
tender and touching as he read these stanzas
"Come, We that love the Lord,
And let our Joys be known;
Join in q song of sweet accord,
, And thus surround the throne.
! Let those refuse to sing
J That nerer kneU our God;
, But tavorites of the heavenly King
May speak their joys abroad"
, The pastor sat down after reading the hymn
! and stroked the top of his head three times, a
, il waiting for response. | could not see no,
the old singers below could resist the appeain
2 pathos of his voice, as it quivered through tn
/. stanzas thought Peter Belts would certainl
| open his mouth. But it had closed forever o
e the melodies and shut them in. The paste
: was just taking up his notes when a femal
t voice broke forth. at first subdued and almo'
S choked with emotion, but finally it scared clea
and bird like, scaling the empty pigeon loft an
y waking its echoes. 1t was Ellen Cleveland's.-
One voice after another dropped in as the strai
went on. Even old Dick and black Phil
opened their mouths, and Cornelius responde
= from under the opposite stairs and the a'
stanzas of the hymn went up from every pal
n of the house, with an JUNCTION have seldom vii
It nessed:-
d The hill of Zion yields
n A thousand sacred sweets,
:, Before we reach the heavenly fields
- - And walk the golden Streets
a., 1t went up from the congregation as if
Il mighty wind had come suddenly and swel