The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-05-15
Tho Circuit Preacher.

BIZ GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.
His thin wife's cheek grows pinohed and pale
with 'anxiousneas intense;
He sees the brethren's prayerful eyes DER all
he hears the Bishop slowly call the long zap
Wherein his vineyard God would place tho
gatherers Of souls.
Apart, austere, the knot of grim Presiding
He wonders il some city "Charge" may not
for him havo writ? tt-
Certesl could they his sermon hear on Paul
and Luke awreck,
Then had his talent ne'er been hid on Anno-
messix Neck
Poor rugged heart, be still a pause, and you,
worn wifo, be meekl
Two years Of Punishment they read far down
the Chesapeake
Though Brother Bates, less eloquent, by Will
mington is wooed,
The Lord that counts the sparrows fall shall
feed his little brood.
''Cheer upi my girl, here Brother Riggs our
circuit knows twill please.
He raised three hundred dollars there, besides
the marriage fees.
Whau tears from us who preached the Word
these thirty years or so2 4l
Two years on barren Chincoteague, and two
in Tuokahoe2
''The schools arc good, the brethren cay, and
our Church holds the wheel.
The Presby yterians lost their house; tho Bap-
fists lost their zeal.
The parsonage is clean and dry; the town has
Not half so dull as Rhehoboth, nor proud like
Pocomoke.
s'Ohi thy just will, our Lord, be done, though
these eight seasons more,
We SEQ our ague-crippled boys pine on the
Eastern Shore,
While we, thy stewards. journey out our dcdi-
Midst foresters of Nnnticoke, or hcathcn of
Tangiers!
''Yeai some must serve on Gods frontiers,
and shall fall, perforce.
To SOW upon some better ground my most &C.
lect discourse;
At sassafras, or Smyrna, preach my argument
on Drink
My series on the Pentateuch, at Appoquini-
mink.
''Gray, am I, brethren, in tho work, tho work,
though tough to bear my part;
1t is these dropping little ones that sometimes
wiring my heart,
And cheat me with the vain conceit the
cleverness is mine
To fill the churches Of the Elk, and pass the
Brandywine.
"TbAse hairs were brown, when, full of hope,
ent'ring these holy lists,
Proud OF my Order as knight-the shouting
Methodist
made the pine woods ring with hymns, with
prayer the night winds shook,
And preached from Assawaman Light far
North as Bombay Hook.
''My nag was gray, my gig was new; fast
went the sandy miles;
The eldest Trustees gave me praise, the faireat
sisters smiles;
Still I recall how Elder Smith on Worton
Heights averred
Ny Apostolic Parallels the best he ever heard.
Gail Winter long rode the SHOWS, rejoicing
on my way;
At midnight our Revival hymns rolled o'er
the sobbing bay;
Three Sabbath eermons, every week, should
tire a man OF BRASS
And still our fervent membership must have
their extra Clash
Aggressive with the zeal of youth, in many
warm requite,
] terrified Immersionists and acourged the
But larger, tender charities such vain debates
supplant,
When the dear wife, saved by my ZEAL loved
the Itinerant.
'No cooling dove of-storms afeard, sho shared
my iife's distress,
singing Miriam, Away, in Gods poor wilder.
ness;
The wretched at her footsteps smiled, the
frivolous were still;
bright path marked her pilgrimage from
Biackbird to Snowhiil.
"a new face in the parsonage, at church a
double pride!
Like the Madonna and her babo they filed the
Amen side
Crouched at my feet in tho old gig, my boy,
so fair and fraik,
NoscOngU'5 darkest marshes cheered, and
sluices OF Choptank.
"My. cloth drew close; too fruitful love my
fruitless life Outran;
The townrolk marvelcd, when wo moved, at
such f. carayanl
wonder not my lnds grew wild when, bright,
without tho door,
Spread the ripe, Turing, wanton world, and we,
within, 30 poor!
For, down the silent cypres aisles came
shapes oven me to scout,
Mockng the lean TANKS Of my marc, my boy .
patched roundabout,
And saying-'Have these starveling Doors, thy
congregation. souls.
That on their dull heads Heaven md thou
pour firth such living coale?'
''Then prayer brought hopes, half secular.
like seers by EndOr's witch;
Beyond onr barren Maryland, Gods folks were
Wise ami rich;
When climbing spires and easy pews showed
how the preacher thriyed,
And all old brethren paid their rent, and many
young ones wivedl
II saw the ships Honlopen pass, with chap.
lains fat and setk
from RinhoDhead with fancv's an ila crooo.1