Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-04-06

Than like perfumed Paris turn and hy
O fear not in world like this,
And thou shalt know erelong,
Know how sublime thing 1t is
To suffer and be strong.
When the hours of day are numbered,
And the voices of the Night
Wake the better soul that slumbered
To holy, calm delight; 18 uff
Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
And, like phantoms grim and tall,
Shadows from the 6tfui freight ~.
Dance upon the parlor wall;
Then the forms of the departed
Enter at the open door;
The beloved, the true hearted,
Come to visit me once more.
o, though oft depressed and lonely,
All my fears are laid aside,
If butremember only
Such as these have lived and died.
All are scattered now and fed,
Some are married, and some ara dead;
And when ask, with throbs of pain,
.Ah, when shall they all meet again p
AS in the days long since gone By,
The ancient timepiece makes reply
"Forever-neyerl
Never--foreyerw
Never here, forever there,
Where all parting, pain, and care,
And death and time shall disappear,-
Forever there, but never herei
The horologue of EterRity
Sayeth this incessantly-
"Forever-neverp
Never-forever?"
There is no flock, however watched and
tended.
But one dead lamb is there!
There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended,
But has one vacant chair.
There is no death. What seems so is
transition, -rszss.
This life of mortal breath tf
Is but the suburb of the life elysian,
Whose portal we call Death.
She Is not asad-the child of our affec-
tion-
But gone unto that school
Where she no longer needs our poor pro-
lection, "ile
And Christ himself doth rule.
We have no title deeds to house or lands;
Owners and occupants of earlier dates
From graves forgotten stretch their dus-
ty hands,
And hold in mortmain still their old es-
tates.
The spirit world around this world Of
sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and every
where
Watts through these earthly mists and
vapors dense
A vital breath Of more ETHEREAL air.
Our little lives are kept in equipOse
By opposite attractions and desires;
The struggle of the instinct that enjoys
And the more noble instinct that inspires
These perturbations, this perpetual jar
OF earthly wants and aspirations high
Come from the influence of an unseen
star,
An undiscovered planet in our sky.
And as the moon from some dark gate
of cloud
Throws DER the sea floating bridge Of
light
Across whose trembling planks our fan.
eies crowd tt
Into the realms of mystery and night =
So from the world of spirits there de-
scends
A bridge of light, connecting it with
this, E..s,ts.
Ger whose unsteady floor. that sways
and bends,
Wander our thoughts above the dark
abyss.
All is Of Godl If He but wave His hand,
The mists collect, the rain falls thick
and loud,
Till, with a smile of light on sea and
land,
Lo, He looks back from the departing
cloud.
Angels of Life and Death alike are His !;
Without His leave they pass no thres-
hold DER;
Who, then, would wish or dare. believing
this,
Against His messengers to shut the
door?
have read in the marvellous heart of
man,
That strange and mystic scroll,
That an army of phantoms vast and wan,
Beleaguer the human soul.
Encamped besides Life's rushing stream
In fancy's misty light, -
Gigantic shapes and shadows CLEAN
Portenteus through the night.
Upon its midnight battle ground
The spectral camp IS seen,
And, with sorr0wful, deep sound,
Flows the river of Life between.
No other voice nor sound is there,
In the army of the grave:
No other challenge breaks the air,
But the rushing of life's wave.
And when the solemn and deep church
bell
Entreats the soul TO fray,
The midnight phantoms feel the spell,
The shadows sweep away.
Down the broad Veil of Tears afar
The spectral camp is fled;
Faith shineth as morning star,
Our ghostfy fear is dead.
Clear fount of light my native land on
high,