Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-03-16
Rsli9inns department.
THE HEAVENLY COUNTRY

the ear, the strength from the limb
nor the JOY of youth from our heart;
a land where life is not measured out
by the sands of an hour-glass, the |
figures on dial, or the beats of
pulse; where there is no counting OF
years, no yesterdays to sigh over, no
to-morrows to long for-but perenni-
al youth, gladness, no more growing
old. am glad there is a country
where there shall be ''neither sorrow
nor crying" where there are no es-
arrangements, no forgettings, where
no farewells are ever spoken, no
fond ties sundered, no loving hearts
bereft, land where time and tide
drift none apart; where friendship is
forever and love eternal.
/ am glad there is country where
no funeral bells are tolled, no dirges
are sung, no requiems chanted;
land where the hearse and the casket
and the dark plumes never lead the
way, where the cypress bends over
no grassy mounds, and the head
stone, the footstone and the sculptur-
ed shaft are not seen upon the hill
sides.
am glad there is country where
there is rest for all the weary and
heavy laden" where every burden
may be laid down and not taken up
again, where every journey has an
end, every task its completion, where
the millwheels turn no more, the
shuttle ceases its flying and the clink-
ing hammer and the breathing forge
are no more heard.
am glad there is country where
no bitter winds ever blow, no storms
arise, no darkness falls, 10 days are
dreary; q land where no raging
floods ever break forth, no mighty
ocean heaves its angry pillows, where
there are no gloomy wildernesses, no
arid wastes; a land where the sun
smites not by day nor the moon by
night. and "the lamb is the light
thereof"
l am glad there is country where
there shall not be ''any more pain, ="
where there are no sightless eyes, no
withered limbs, DO speeches. lips,
where no hands toss in agony, and
no wasting disease drags its slow
length along, and the raging breath
of pestilence is forever stayed.
/ am glad there is a country where
famine never lays its hands upon the
Threats of the people, where the wolf
never bowls at the door of hut OF
howell, where no little children evel
cry for bread, and mothers never
weep and moan for the help they
cannot give; a land where there are
no beggars by the wayside, ant
squalor and misery 40 more lift VI
their hands for charity.
am glad there is a country wher'
there are no prisons and no need o
any, no sullen faces looking out o
grated windows, no iron doors swing
ing to open not again, no clank O
CHAINS in dreary dungeon cells, n
racks with groaning victims, n
blood-stained blocks, no gallow
standing by the way.
/ am glad there is country wEer
tyrants never sway the sceptre, whel
the people are not doomed to endles
slavery to prop a monarch's throne
where no palaces of ease and luXul
stand side by side with the abodes {
poverty and thankless toll, and IL
life of the few is the death of IL
many.
l am glad there is country whe
there are no battlefields, where Il
call 'to arms" is never sounded, Il
roll of the war-drum is never hear
nor the tramp of armed hosts mare
ing by; land where the sword
ever sheathed and the rifles Graz
and the lannon's roar never rise
the air, where the shrieks of t
wounded and the groans of the dyi
make no music for the pomp of wf
and mangled bodies and bleachi
bones are not taken as the pathw
to glory.
/ am glad, how glad | cannot te
that the way is opened into Il
country, where none grow old, no
are weary-where there is no idea
neither sorrow, nor crying "a
that "there shall in no wise enter il
it anything that defileth, neitl
whatsoever wolketh abomination,
maketh lie; but they that are w
ten in the Lambs book of life. =
One Of the Old Folks.