The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-03-16
took on the words. which sounded like
an anthem of praise:
s'ExtoI the stem Of Jesse's rod,
And crown Him Lord OF all

took on the words. which sounded like
an anthem of praise;
sExtol the stem Of Jesse's rod.
And crown Him Lord OF all"
We were now approaching the mid
die of the lake, where the water was
the deepest; so deep, indeed, that no
line in the village could reach the bot
tom, and where the ice must be the
thinnest because it was the last to
freeze there. I knew this, but felt
that We were going with such rapidity
there would be no new danger so long
as there was no break in the singing.
l singled out a tree on the shore we
were trying TO make, and calculated if,
at the rate we were then singing, there
were verses enough to last until we
reached. feared lest the leader might
omit a stanza, as was sometimes done
in church, and there might be space
over which we would be left to pass in
silence, or with nothing to disturb the
silence but the cracking of the ice.
had no cause for alarm, however,
in the matter. There was, indeed, that
dreadful Observation-Disclosures of the ice
distinctly heard during the singing of
one line in each stanza of the hymn, but
it was either that l had become more
accustomed to it or because it was more
faint than little time before that it
failed to affect me as at first. So. too,
there was a little breadth of ice to be
passed over after the singers had closed
the verse;
Let every kindred. every tribe
On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all''
But our momentum was then such
that knew we should reach the shore
in safety, which we soon did. On
reaching the shore there was the same
| boisterous noise that marked our start
ing, each one untying his sled or sleigh
and joining the little party with which
he came. But of the peril through
which they had passed. The
danger from which they had been
rescued, no one of them had
the slightest intimation. The two
who knew all remained on the sandy
beach after the party had gone to their
/ homes. Their arms were about each
Others necks as they knelt, and a trem-
or closed the lips that would have
prayed. The next day was Thanksgiv-
ing. Singularly enough, the opening
hymn in the church service was the one
that was sung on the ice, but it was
not strange that two hands holding
hymn-books trembled when all the
congregation sang Coronation. y
Rodney WEIGH, ia Chicago Times.
NOte.-This sketch, an actual Incl
dent in my life. was written substan-
TALLY as it is here nearly twenty years
ago, and published in u weekly paper
issued in this city The religious press
kindly took it up and carried it, 1 be-
lieve, round the globe. It was printed
in paper on the banks of the Clyde,
and in one on the banks of the Ganges.
l saw it in several papers published in
Australia and New Zealand. About a
year after it was published 1 received a
letter from a minister located in the
northern part of New England setting
forth the troubles he had encountered
in finding the author of the story.
was informed that it had been read Al
a prayer meeting in his church, and
that cit had been the means of putting
new spiritual life into his society, re
calling many back-sliders, and con
verting twenty-seven sinners. Fol
once, only once, 1 presume, l had writ
ten better than 1 knew. This incident
has led me to inquire how many of us
engaged in the hard, dull drudgery O.
common life, writing to fill a space in {
newspaper, planting trees, tending the
sick, repairing old clothes, Winding
babies and doing housework-un lOved
unappreciated, uncared for, so W,
think-may be all unconseiously max
ing stars to wear in a crown of glor1
forever and dayP R. w.