The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-12-04
WORD PICTURES.
Prose Poems by Murray on Immortality
and the Man Charles Dickens.


and the Man Charles Dickens.
Apropos of the readings Of w. II. H.
Murray, the following selections may
prove of interest. They are from a
volume published in 1878 by Lee &
Shepard, and are fairly characteristic
of the man and fair samples Of his pull
pit utterances. While new to many, to
some they will be as welcome as the
face Of an old lriend, while all will, no
doubt, recognize in them the hand of a
master in word painting.
There is a bird that mariners call
"frigate bird" of strange habits and of
strange power. Men see him in all
climes; but never yet has human eye
seen him near the earth. With wings
Of mighty stretch, high borne, he sails
along, Men Of the far North see him at
midnight moving amid auroral fires,
sailing along with set wings amid those
| awful flames, taking the color of the
waves of light which swell and heave
around him. Men in the tropics see him
ut hottest noon, his plumage
all incarnadined by the fierce
rays that SIM e innocuous upon
him. Amid their ardent feryor he bears
along, majestic, tireless. Never was he
known to stoop from his lofty line of
flight, never to swerve. To many he is
Il myth; to all q mystery. Where is his
perch? Where does he rest? Where
was he brooded? None know They
only know that above cloud, above the
reach of tempest, above the tumult of
transverse currents, this bird of Heaven,
so let us call him, on self-supporting
vans that disdain to beat the air on
which they rest, moves grandly on. So
shall my hope be. At ther pole of
life, above the clouds of sorrow, super
Tor to the tempests that beat upon me,
on lofty and tireless wing, scorning the
earth, it shall move along. Never shall
it stoOp, never swerye from its sublime
line of flight. Men shall see it in the
morning OF my life; they shall see it in
its hot MONDAY; and when the shadows
fall, my sun having set, the last they
shall see Of me- &all be this hope of gain
in dying, as it sails out on steady wing,
and disappears amid the everlasting
light.
can not close until have alluded 20
him who has so lately died across the
sea, While all the pulp,ts of the land
were speaking, this was silent, lecause
, felt that better words than might
, speak would tell how America mourned
above his bier. But since Il division of
, utteranccs has occurred and lest my
silence should be misunderstood, o. speak.
| join no dispute above Charles Dick
, ems grave touching his personal habits,
his errors or his theological views, the
circumstances and conditions of his life
/, were too unlike mine for me to be his
: Judge. That the man loved his fellow.
; men, | know; that he loved his God.
E. no c, and have faith to believe. Ir
/ thought | stand uncovered beside the
tomb in which his body sleeps, in sient
| sadness that so sweet and gentle spirit
| is taken from the earth. In reveren
| gratitude | thank the Lord that He die
bless mankind with the birth Of such {
= mind ! thank Him as for n blessing
} vouchsafed to me personally. ! fec
| that am a better man than / should
: have been had no Charles Dickens lived
1 More than once has he lightencd my
I burdens by his words; more than oucC
) warmed my heart towards men; more
= than once assisted me to hate hypocrisy
= and detest wrong. Did all other hand
Y bring thorns, mine should bring thu
t sweetest rose of all the fields, and plan
it on his grave.
1 Where else in all the pages of on
S mother tongue as in his works can yol
D find humOr so refined, wit so keen
: yet so free from coarseness, that
t mother might read it to her children
a before they say their prayers? Wher
e will you find warmer heart, free
e hand. a spirit more generous to comics
n an error or a wrong? Never more vii
|. the bells ring at Christmas eve but tina
C to me Il nute of sadness will mingl
r with their chimes; for he who laugh
r the world the lesson of the festival, who
o using it as a text, preached, as no pul
/. pit ever preached, a sermon of charit
d and love-the hand that touched tn
h bells of England and made the Who'll
5, world melodious with Christmas chimes
= is cold and motionless forever! Fare
e well, gentle spirit! Thou vast not pei
$ feet until now. Thou didst have tn
IS passions and thy share of human error.
1t but death has freed thee. Thou art n
is longer trammeled. Thou art delyere
y out of bondage, and thy freed spir
$ walks in glory. Though dead, tho
" speakest. Thy voice is universal in il
lie reach. The ages will be thy audienc,
h Thy memory will be as a grcwin
v. wreath above thy grave. 1t will tax
Is root in the soil that covers thee anC
n with the years, renew its blossoms an
O. its leaves rennia'ly.-BoStos GIOjt.