Middletown transcript., 1875-06-12
Re-published by Request.
BY GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.

Poor rugged heart, be still pause, and yol
worn wife, be meek
Two years of Punishment they read far dow
the Chesapeake!
Though Brother Bates, less eloquent, by VII
mington is wooed,
The Lord that courts the sparrow's fall shal
feed his little brood.
"Cheer up! my girl, here Brother Riggs ou
circuit knows twill please;
He raised three hundred dollars there beside
the marriage fees.
What tears from us who preached the wore
these thirty years or SO?
Two years on barren ChIncoteague, and twt
in Tuckahoe?
1.-THE schools are good, the brethren say, ant
our Church holds the wheel;
The Presby yterians lost their house; the Bap
lists lost their zeal.
The parsonage is clean and dry the town hal
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 age-crippled boys pine on the
Eastern Shore;
While we, thy stewards, journey out our ded-
icated years
Midst foresters Of Nanticoke, or heather Of
Tangiers
s.Yea! some must serve on Gods frontiers,
and l shall fill, perforce,
To SOW upon some better ground my most Sc
lect discourse;
At Sassairas, or Smyrna, preach my article
on Drink,
My series on the Pentateuch, at Appoquini-
"Gray am /, brethren, in the work, though
tough to bear my part;
1t is these dropping little ones that sometimes
wiring my heart,
And cheat me with the vain concsit the clev-
erness is mine,
To fill the churches of the Elk, and pass the
Brandywine.
"These 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 fair
est sisters smiles;
Still recall how Elder Smith, of Worton
Heights, averred
Ny Apostolic Parallels the best he ever
heard.
"All winter long rode the SHOWS, rejoicing
on my way;
At midnight our Revival hymns rolled DER
the sobbing bay;
Three Sabbath sermons, every week, snould
tire man of brass
And still our fervent membership must have
their extra Glass
"Aggressive with the zeal of youth, in many.
warm requite
terrified Immersionists, and scourged the
Millerite;
But larger, tenderer charities such vain de-
bates supplant,
When the dear wife, saved by my zeal, loved
the Itinerant.
"No cooling dove of storms afeard, she shared
my life's distress,
A singing Miriam, alway, in Gods poor will
derness;
The wretched at her footstep smiled, the friv-
olous were still;
A bright path marked her pilgrimage, from
Blackbird to Snowhill.
"A new face in the parsonage, at church a
double pride
Like the Madonna and her babe they filled
the tAmen-side'-
Crouched at my feet in the old gig, my boy,
so fair and frank,
Nascongo's darkest marshes cheered, and
sluices of Choptank.
"My cloth drew close; too fruitful love my
fruitless love outran;
The townfolk marveled, when we moved, at
such caravanl
I wonder not my lads grew wild, when, bright
without the door
Spread the ripe, Turing, wanton world, and
we, within, SO poor
"For, down the silent cypress aisles came
shapes even me to scout,
Mocking the lean fanks of my mare, my boys
patched roundabout,
And saying: Have these starving Doors, thy
congregation, souls,
That on their dull heads Heaven and thou
pour forth such living coals?"
"Then prayer brought hopes, half secular,
like seers by Endor's witch;
Beyond our barren Maryland Gods folks
were wide and rich;
Where climbing spires and easy pews showed
how the preacher thrived,
And all old brethren paid their rents, and
many young ones wived
81 saw the ships Henlopen pass with chap
lains fat and sleek;
From Bishophead with fancy's sails crossed
the Chesapeake;
In velvet pulpits of the North said my best
sermons DER
And that on Paul to Patmos driven, drew
tears in Baltimore.
"Well well my brethren, il is true We