The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-03-20
THE CIRCUIT PREACHER.
BY GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.


! His thin wfe's cheek grows pinched and
: pale with anxiousnesS intense;
He sees the brethren's prayerful ewes DER
all the Conference;
He hears the Bishop slowly call the long
appointment rolls,
( Where, in his vineyard, God would place
these gatherers Of souls.
Apart, austere, the knot of grim Presiding
/ Elders sit:
He wonders if some city 'Charge' may
not for him have writ;
! Certes, could they his sermon hear on Paul
! and Luke awreck,
! Then had his talent ne'er been hid on Ammo
! mesix Neck.
! Poor, rugged heart! be still awhile, and
! you, worn wife, be meek
Two years of Punishment they read, far
down the Chesapeake;
! Though Brother Bates, less eloquent, by
| Wilmington is wooed,
The Lord that counts the sparrows shall
feed his little brood.
"Cheer up, my girl. here's Brother Riggs
our Circuit knows will please
He raised three hundred dollars there be.
sides the marriage fees.
! What. tears from us, who preached the
word these thirty years or So
Two years on barren Chincoteasuc and two
in Tuckahoeo
"The schools are good, the Brethren say,
and our church holds the wheel;
The Presbyterians lost their house, the
Baptists lost their zeal;
The parsonage is clean and dry, the town
has friendly folk
! Not half so dull as Rehoboth, nor proud
| like Pocomoke.
Oh! thy just will, our Lord be DONE though
these eight seasons more
We see our ague- crippled boys pine on the
| Eastern Shore,
! While we, thy stewards, journey out our
dedicated years
Mid foresters of Nanticoke, or heather of
Tangiers!
"Yea. some must serve on Gods frontiers,
and l shall fall perforce,
| To SOW upon some better ground my most
select discourse;
At Sassafras, or Smyrna, preach my argu-
| ment on Drink
My series on the Pentateuch at Appoquini-
mink.
"Gray am l, Brethren, in the work, though
tough to bear my part,
1t is these dropping little ones that some
times 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.
"Thcse hairs were brown, when, full of
hope, ent'ring these holy lists,
Proud of my Order as a knght-the shout
ing Methodists-
| 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
fairest sisters smiles;
Still I recall how Elder Smith of Worten
Heights averred
My Apostolic Parallels the best he ever
heard.
CAN Winter long rode the SHOWS, reioic-
ing on my way;
At midnight our Revival hymns rolled DER
the sobbing bay;
Three Sabbath sermons every eek, should
tire a man of brass
And still our fervent membership must
have their extra Class.
"Aggressive with the zeal of youth, in
many a warm requite
l terrified Immersionists and scourged the
Milerite;
But larger, tenderer charities such vain
debates supplant,
When the dear wife, saved by my zeal,
loved the Itinerant.
Ono cooling dove, of storms afeared, she
shared my life's distress,
A singing Miriam, always, in Gods poor
wilderness;
The wretched at her footstep smiled, the
frivolous were still:
A bright path marked her pilgrimage, from
| Blackbrd to Snowfall"