Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1871-09-02
NO SECT IN HEAVEN.

| Watching the souls as they onward NOV,
Over the waves, to the realms above.
crowd of mere Journalists first cam
down,
Each sure to himself Of a heavenly crown
Because baptized and regenerate so,
Made child Of God and redeemed fror
woe,
Resting their hopes on what forms ha
doAe,
| Instead of by faith, upon Christ alone.
Onward they pressed without doubt or ieai
When a voice from above cried loud an
clear:
| ono outward rite or mere empty form,
Can ever sinner to Christ conform;
Mere water from out the baptismal bowl
Is powerless TO wash away sin from tn
soul.
Whoever these gates would enter IN
Must by the spirit be cleaHsed from sin;
BE renewed in heart-like the Saviour be
Or he never the world Of life can see!'
And at these words, in the upper air,
A flaming sword was seen wayins there
And away-away from the shining shore
IL drove them back to return no more.
A Romanist, next. to the river strayed,
Who all his life to the saints had prayed;
To the priest had looked, to the Virgin
elung,
AZ though all his hopes upon her wer'
hung;
But his near approach TO the rolling stream
Dispersed the mists of his Popish dream,
And the wooden cross which he thus fal
bore
In the light which from over the rivei
shone,
l saw him look unto Christ alone;
To Him, in this hour of his need, he cried
And thus safely passed to the other side,
While "Popes'' and Councils" and
"Church" forever
FIoated away on the rolling river.
An EpiscoBdlidn, next, drew nigh,
When a voice addressed him out of the sky;
Good pilgrim stop; when you cross this
tide
You must leave your robes on the other
side,'
But, set in his way, he did not mind,
And his gown still fioated out behind,
And on 70 the stream his way he took,
VI ith both hands claspins silt-OdsSd
book.
"rm going TO Heaven, and when Pm there
shall want my book of Common Prayer
And though may wear 4 starry crown,
1 should feel quite lost without my gown"
So he fixed his eyes on the shining track,
But his gown was heavy, and held him
back,
And though struggling hard, he tried in
vain
A single step in the food to gain.
l saw him, seon. on the other side,
But his gown was floating away on the tide,
And his written prayers to the winds were
given,
For he felt no wish for such forms in
Heaven;
And no one asked in that blissful spot
Whether he belonged to ''the Church or
not.
Next down to the liver Quaker strayed;
His dress Of a sober hue was made.
"NIy coat and my hat must be all of gray,
And wear them must on my Heavenward
way"
So he buttonsd his coat straight up to his
chin,
And staidly, solemnly waded in,
And his broad-brimmed beaver he pulled
down tight
A.-,,. III Forabaal - cold anil white.
But a strong wind carried away his hat,
And moment he wistfully gazed at that;
And then, as he looked TO the further shore,
His coat slipped of and was seen no more.
As he entered Heaven his suit of gray
Went qaietly sailing away, away;
And none Of the angels questioned him
About the width of his beavers brim;
there,
The only dress tor which angels care.
A Scotchmdn, next, with King DaviGs
Psalms,
Clasping them tight in his aged arms,
Believing 'twould be an unheard-ot thing
If the ransomed in Heaven aught else should
sing.
But heard him heaye an anxious sigh
As he saw the river run broad and high;
And astonished he looked, aS, like a stone,
The book of his "Psalms" in the waves
went down;
And he found that in Heaven the count
less thronS
Sing only, and eUer, the Lambs He,o song.
Next came, with serious, solemn look,
A Vesleyan with his Methodist ''Book."
In the fullness OF faith through the waves
he oppressed,
Looking upward, with joy, to his coming
rest;
But he saw, rs he turned his glance below,
That the water had soaked his discipline
through;
And that next, on the river, far and wide,
1t aoated away on the rolling tide,
While the saint, astonished passed through
alone,
Without his ..Discipline' up to the throne
Forever assured, in that blessed place,
That he never again should fall from gIace
Two saints came next to the rivers brink
But one from the other appeared to shrink
And rs they were passing along the way,
heard the one to the other say:
Il fear, indeed that you've not, my friend
Rightly attained unto life's great end;
You've had but few drops on your brow
While have been plunged, as you'll set
me now,
And really think it will hardly do,
As I'm "close-communion," to cross with
you;
You're going, grant, to the world of bliss
But do you so that way, and I'll 80 this
So straI ghtway plunging with all his might
Away to the left, and his friend to the right
Apdrt they went IRON this world Of sin,
But saw that together they entered in
The light of eternity making it plain
That plunging or sprinkling, alike, is VAN
That the water itself was meant to be
The emblem of inward purity;
That the mode is nothing-the only flood
That can cleanse from sin is the Saviour
blood.
And, now, where the riverw was rolling higl
A Presbyterian Church drew nigh
The Bible each right hand firmly graSped
While Confessions of Faith" in the let
they elasped;
Their leaders were marked with thought
profound,