Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-06-03
BY REV. L. p. BOWEN, d. d.

Brought Presbytery to it's own again.
Like Canaan for her Abraham,
Awaiting break of day,
So waited there between her Bays
The old Peninsula.
Fragrant as myrtle mid her pines.
Strong as her sturdiest oak,
He comes the Paul of Accomac,
The Knox of Pocomoke!
Popery was raging on the Continent:
Prelacy ran amuck in the British Isles:
The blood of Presbyterian martyrs
flowed
Der hill and dale and cried to Heaven;
Our God was sitting out the finest
wheat,
To fling it broadcast DER the Western
wilds;
Between the Bays. covert from the
And sheltered in pine-groves, staunch
refugees
From fire and sword of Prelates and
mad Kings,
Sighed back to Ulster for leadership
and guide.
Upon the hills of Donegal
A young man hears the plea;
From hearth and home he turns away
And sails the unknown sea.
Mackenzie comesi Along the coast.
The streaks of dawn awoke
John Calvin of the Matchatank,
John Knox of Pocomoke!
AS Paul on every shore sought Gods
elect
And faced unmoved the Mediterranean
So went Mackenzie forth to all the winds;
His sloop Tabitha on hundred streams,
His high-bred Button trudging through
the swamps,
He planted Churches as he planted
corn
Rehoboth, Snow Hill, Wicomico,
Pitts Creek, Rockawalkin, Monakin,
From far Onancock up to Buckingham,
The seabirds and the lilies sang his
raids.
hear the brave forefathers sing,
| hear the old-time Psalm;
1t echoes from the blue Bayside
And stirs old Buckingham.
BY cabin fires, in woodland glens,
The Gospel sunrise broke
Apostle of the Land of Streams,
The Knox of Pocomoke!
The Western world had need of one
like him
The true, historic, Presbyterian grit!
Grim prosecutors still were on his
tracks.
To feed and aggrandize an alien faith.
They wrested the Goddess tithes from all
he had;
Corrupt Cornbury, bitter Anglican,
Arrested, swindled, flung him into Jail;
Americas first legal fight for dear
Religious liberty, he waged and won:
From Barbados to Boston flashed the
light!
Unfinching, bold, serene he stood
And braved the despot's frown;
To Pope and Prelate's myrmidons
He threw the gauntlet down;
With sturdy fist he struck the blow
Which rent expressions s yoke
This Calvin of the Eastern Shore,
This Knox of Pocomoke!
Down by the glistening waves of Hol-
den's Creek,
Arose the model home. The genial
winds
From Bay and Ocean fann'd its graves
ana MOWERS,
There fair Naomie, bonny Virginian
bride,
Enriched his life and gave two little
girls,
Wee Bette, loyal Anne. And homes
like that,
The Simon-pure of Presbyterian type,
His Calvinistic Gospel planted far and
wide;
C..x ..,S.:.4 L~v~.o. ,.,L:ol .~.~xLo~l
you and me,
And beam'd like stars amid the heavens
blue.
Ye Cabins of the pioneers,
Old fashioned, rude and quaint,
You've sown these ancient graveyards
With many grand old saint!
You listened and your firesides warm'd
While rapt Mackenzie spoke
High-Admiral of the Chesapeake,
The Knox of Pocomoke!
Time came, predestinated of our God,
When to the Northward, in the Town of
Penn,
A Presbytery met, by our old leader
A Western bloom from Apostolic gar
dens,
Such as Paul saw ordaining Timothy.
The wilderness blossom'd, solitudes
were glad,
Quakers look'd on askance, Anglicans
demurred;
But now was launched force, destined
to leave
The Ritual and the Mystic, both ex-
tremes, benumbed,
And light the land from Hither to
Farther Sea.
All hail, We stout old Presbyters!
For you the cross and crown,
Ordain'd to start America
Toward her Millennial dawn.
Mackenzie sees and heeds the sign,
Gods time-peice on the stroke
The Prophet of the Eastern Shore,
The Knox of Pocomokei
Upon the shores of Holden's Creek he
sleeps.