The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1873-01-18

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work, and eat, and rest We are sacred
liar uses. Our business is with Eter
1ity, and the Church, and Heaven.
Call on us no more to commune with
5he things of the world, and earth, and
time. We are your cathedral bells, but |
we will be your household clock-chimes
40 longer"
Then the voice died away on the |
night air. For few minutes there was
silence, but soon II was broken by soba |
and lamentations, and all the people |
lifted up their voice as one man, and
wept.
The house father said, "Shall We
never more hear your voice calling us
to morning and evening prayer When
ever you told us it WIS the hour, the
mother came from her work, and the
children from their play, and together
we knelt, a united family, and com
mitted each other to God.
And the mother said, "Your voices
are blended with every happy house
hold time. Sweet bells, will you min
gle with our family joys no more In
the morning you wakened us to begin
another busy day, and the suns beams
and your voices came together to call
us to serve God in our lowly calling
and both, we thought, came to us from
heaven; and both, we thought, We're
meek and lawly, and ready to minister
to Us 10 q. daily lives, because both
were sent frofn HIM Who came among
us once, not to be administered unto,
but to minister; and both, we thought,
had caught something Of the light of
the eyes which wept at Bethany, and
of the tones of the voice which spoke
at Cana and at Main. At midday you
told me it was time to send the dinner
sons. At six your voice was
welcome to us all, because we knew
the fathers step would soon be. on the
threshold. At eight you reminded me
it was time to lay the little ones to
rest and many time have you
brought happy and holy thoughts TO
me in those psalms you sang 10 me
whilst [ hushed my babes sleep; and
all my every day life seemed to be
more linked with sacred things, to be-
C me. as it were, part of the serv-
Ice Of God, because 1t moves to the
music of your voices. And again at
night your tones were welcome, as III
the morning, when they told us the
| days work was over, and, wearied, we
lay down to peaceful rest, for through
the night We knew your sacred voices
would sound to Heaven above our
sleeping city, like the voices of the
angels, who rest not day nor night,
| 81 hol Il.
will you never chime Tor us again ~
And the children said, IN their dear,
sweet, ringing voices, "Dear chimes
do not cease to play for us. You wake
us to the happy day, you set us Tree
from school, and send US home laugh
ing and dancing for JOY; you call our
fathers home to US, at night you sing
us to sleep, and your voices are blend.
ed with our mothers in oar happy
dreams. Sweet chimes: you sang SO
many years to our fathers and mothers;
end our grandfathers remember YOU
when they were little children like us.
Dear chimes sing to US still"
And from the sick chamber which
looked into the cathedral square,
where the windows were darkened all
day and sand was strewn before the
door, that the din of the passing wheels
might Just jar less roughly on the ach-
ing heaxFwitlr1n, came a low ard plant
i've voice, -" Sweet bells. your com
monest tones are sacred to me. You
are my church music, the ontv church
music. can ever hear. When ] hear
you chime the hours on Sundays and
on the festivals, / feel myself among
the multitude within your sacred walls;
ana your voice seems to bear their
Songs OF praise to me, and / am no
more alone, but one of the worshippers.
But at night it is prize you most. All
through the hours Of darkness, SO often
sleepless to me, your voice is the voice
OF friend, familiar as my mothers,
yet solemn as the chants of the choir.
1t helps me to measure the hours OF
pain. and say, Thank God, an
hour less of night, and an
hour nearer morning. And how often,
when my suffering is great, you have
come with the old psalm tune, and ev-
cry tone has brought its word to me,
and spoken to me as if direct from God,
and filled my heart with trust and
peace. Your least sprinkles OF sweet
sound are precious to me / fancy they
are like the waters OF time falling
unsteady from stone to stone on then
way to the great sea, | feel they are as
the echoes OF the footsteps of Him who
is drawing nearer and nearer to me
and they draw my heart nearer to Him
Sweet bells your commonest tones
are sacred; fer what is the world but
that which becomes the church when
it learns how God has loved it, and
turns from self to Him, and what is
earth but the floor of Heaven, which
heavenly feet once trod, and what is
time but the little fragment of eternity
III which we live on earth Sweet
bells make not my sleeplcss nights
lonely and silent, but sing to me, sing
to us all, as of old Make all our life
sacred by linking every fragment of
our life to God"
But still no responsible sound came
from the cathedral tower, ana the peo-
pie waited on in the silence and the
| darkness, At last young priest, an
Augustinian friar, veDtured bold sug-
| gestion: Are not the devils proud.
and the angels lowly? Did the angel
think it beneath him to say to Elijah.
| Arise, and eat 2 Did Gabriel hesi-
tate to descend from the presence of
God to bear to an aged priest the I'll
| dIngs OF the birth of a child Did the
other angel deem it secular to say to
Peter the apostle, Giro myself, and
bind on thy sandals, and cast thy gar
ment about thee, before he led him
over the stony streets through the