P s 991 \\F3 KB 5 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 5 I ?S^lH. — } I j?aJi Aim... I _____ i * UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FAST OR FEAST: 3. -JJoBtorol-Bgl. Rev. A., B., and C, IN COUNCIL, FOLLOWING THE FAST OF I873, On the Question : PRAY or PLAY. A TRIPARTITE COUNCIL. IBosfon:: IPU BEISHED FOR THE A.TJ r rHOJR. LEE AND SHEPARD. 1876. * COPYRIGHT. LEE & SHEPARD a. r>. 1876. boston : alfkkd mudgb and son, printers. TO THE Reverend D , d. d., LONG THE MODEL, NOW THE PATRIARCH, OF "OUR FAIR-RIVER" MINISTERS. m PROEM. The interest of the discourse, upon which this idyllic form of report is founded, was necessarily due to the peculiar at- tention with which the Fast-Day exercise of a favorite pastor is always anticipated, and especially to the course of illustra- tion pursued in it, from incidents sufficiently familiar to those addressed to touch the chord of curiosity. This feeling was tested in one or both of the neighboring parishes referred to in the text, with similar effect ; and when the report was com- municated, in the form here presented, to a popular religious newspaper of the .vicinity, as a contribution to its current discussion of the question of Christian liberty in personal en- joyment, in the line of which its argument was developed, an unexpected local gratification was the result, with less of crit- ical objection than the attempt could have deserved. As a memorial of the circumstances referred to, as an illus- tration of the relations of the pulpit to social life through the channels with which it is so intimate, of private affection, more than all, as an incidental expression in detail of those grateful relations of personal friendship, by which the feelings of public instructors are so greatly and so essentially attem- pered for their professional duties, the article is now yielded to a more indifferent tribunal, for such disposal as partial affinities can no longer affect, and for such benefit to others as their own better natures may incline them to assimilate. A PASTORAL-IDYL. Where Power has laid aside its crown, And Hate its bows and arrows down, And gentle Trust the traveller guides, And Industry at home abides, — The crystal of the mountain springs In our fair river shines and sings, And every verdant hue is laid O'er all the scene of light and shade. Our towns along the river meet, The green the centre, or the street, Or make, by rail and waterfall, A common centre for them all. The scene in summer's charm is still The loveliness of vale and hill, And where the crested ridges fail, The sweetness of the intervale. 8 FAST or feast: With softer grace than waterfall's The country's glamour tints the walls Of church and homestead, 'mid the green Of flowing field and forest seen. Here are the seats, the freest hearts Of man supply with peaceful arts, And here the ministry divine Tends branches of the living vine. Nor gentle bosom ever knew A scene more fair, a home more true, Nor manly spirit found reward In purer garden of the Lord. 'T is mingled labor, thought, and care, — The better, these are everywhere, — And, God consenting, just as true The pleasures of affection too. The clergy have their works and ways, Their days of toil, and other days ; Sundays they preach and then keep Monday, And Saturday after government Sunday. A PASTORAL-IDYL. 9 The extra labor brings more rest, Exchanges make it doubly blessed ; At times, when neighbors meet together, We exchange notes and save bad weather. Two 2 friends were here on Saturday, One came to preach and one to play ; But e'er the preacher's text was done The player's music had begun. My nearest friends, a friend in college, Well read, but more for wit than knowledge ; And one, he calls our reverend double In lore and faith, without the trouble. Each has his home, for home remains With tenderer plants for sorrow's rains; A home the cheerful bachelor makes, Whose joke, if cracked, no crockery breaks. Each has his study, too, of course, And each as colleague keeps a horse, That at his post till dinner frets, Which, since the war, he feels he gets. IO FAST OR FEAST! Meeting, the silver cord is loosed With which the pastoral care is noosed, The golden bowl is filled, not broken, Of life of better life the token. The seats we took were turned away From wintry stove to vernal ray, — A hint that on the window's plinth Was breathing in a hyacinth. And glistening eye and smiling lip, All spring-like from the morning trip, In laying wintry robes aside, Brought in the sunshine of the ride. Each sacred tongue Euphrates knew Its test profane of strife withdrew ; 3 And left the order of the day, Fast sermons, to begin with A. A. My brethren, man was born to die — B. Not in the Bible, and a lie ; A PASTORAL-IDYL. I I All nature does the converse give, That men with pain were born to live. The brother looked a mite perplexed — A. This truth, I did not say my text, Fills, half the Bible and the earth ; Death is the end of every birth. B. Be sure ; but put it as a riddle, And is not honest life the middle ? And if we trust the word, my friend, Is it quite certain, death 's the end ? A. True, brother ; wait, and hear me through. B. The very thing I hate to do ; No privilege of the pews I '11 borrow, Let patience take its turn to-morrow. A. You 're wrong ; but not to urge my part, And try your critic humor's art, 12 FAST OR FEAST! I '11 hold, till each has had his say ; What did you preach on yesterday ? . B. Election ; and my doctrine was, Each saint 's a sinner without cause ; If to succeed on Election day, Then female suffrage is the way. I hit the bird, and missed the tree. A What was your topic, Brother C. ? C. Dead reckoning, and I naively said, Faith without works is d d when dead. A. Both topics of the hour ! 4 'T is well. I tolled the old "Atlantic's" bell When I was young, and took the pen To trace her tragic fate again. 5 Her knell, in every tide sublime, Had rung for me a second time, A PASTORAL-IDYL. I 3 When, like a stranger lost in town, The murdered "Arctic's" prow went down. 6 But 't was a change of time and tide ; No currents turned their course aside, Nor had our ship of State, to err, Made such sad wrecks of character. What was there left was safe and new ? The union 7 dodge would never do. I asked my daughter, last and least. She answered, smiling, Fast or Feast ? B. Tippee for she ! Marry that daughter To the first man you " had not ought to "; He 's older, doubtless, than herself, And looks for wit, and not for pelf. A. She knew my heart and met my want, As shame in sacred places cant. 8 She felt the current of the day, From fast to feast, from pray to play. 14 FAST or feast: My brethren, man was born to die, The dart of death is in his eye, But living safe from mortal pain, And dying, shall he live again ? I Cor. xv, 22 9 : I read before the chapter through, And first the way of life presented To death, then life that death repented. Eve listened once for man and all, — B. No other mortal, great or small ; A. And listened in a heart the same As ours, to hear with praise or blame. Forbid by Him that gave the mind A law of life to suit its kind, In pleasure's vein the poison ran And steeped the will. She gave the man. B. Oh, no ! Oh, no ! She kept the will, It is her several tenure still. A PASTORAL-IDYL 1 5 Would that then used his nature blunt Had patented the manly wont. A. T was Evil as a serpent crept Into Eve's sight when Adam slept ; And raised to hers his basilisk eye, And said, Thou shall not surely die. They see not well who see but man, The subject of the infinite plan ; Nor interests that forever last, Sprung from the arches of the past. Into the sphere of aw to rise Enters the chambers of the skies, The Judge confronts 'mid subject foes, And all the aneelic aids he knows. l £> With them the part of man is plain, On pleasure bent, the end is pain ; Forbidden, false — One must atone, And make that fatal will his own. 1 6 FAST or feast: They see not well, who fail to think Freedom is free to rise or sink By law, or, ruling death and grave, Infinite freedom free to save. I see my critic friend is dreaming ; B. Hearing, my friend, and only seeming ; We know that secondly is dull, A full cap followed by a lull. A. The balance thus : The very law Doth clouds with radiant mercy draw To bring the first and' latter rain, And raise the wheat and other grain ; Touches the heart of love within, To germinate from death and sin, Its correlate the law of prayer, — So doth the Fast the Feast prepare. B. Ah ! days of days in native land, At heaven's gate on either hand A PASTORAL-IDYL. I 7 To bring the offering of the year, Their tenderness and joy appear. Deep in the bosom of the Fast, The ashen shade of grief is cast ; The free acceptance of his vow- Shines on the Feast-day's ruddy brow. From April's softly-sighing air, There come the hope, the pledge of prayer ; From brief November's rosy day, The love that swells the festal lay. And all their house are with them come, That fear their God or love their home ; And all fresh numbered, Lord, by Thee, For penitence and jubilee. A. Is love the spell forbidden choice Has trusted from the tempter's voice, And hasted to obscure the sin From the sad monitress within ? 3 1 8 FAST or feast: Is it the cup of amber wine, Whose sparkles rise, whose bubbles shine, Whose fervor to the heart retires, And pleasure moves from passion's fires ? These wrecks about the living scene, But tombs of pleasure in their mien, Six thousand years since Adam fell, Are Eden's choice renewed of hell. Our nature's infancy was youth Formed in the freedom of the truth ; And lest a gem of grace should fall, The Sabbath was the crown of all. B. O Sabbath calm, the rapturous hour Of all things formed to bloom in flower. Still mirror of creation's might At rest, in form and life and light. O Sabbath calm, thy sceptred hand The gift of peace in every land ; The joy, if none its rule deny, And presence of eternity. A PASTORAL-IDYL. I 9 O Sabbath sweet, with Eden's tear Of broken hope, to man more dear Than when the praise of every day With glory came and went away. O Sabbath sweet, with Eden's tear Is God's return of pardon here, More tender to the trust we bear, More vital to the life we share. O Sabbath calm, in azure pure, And humble faith thy joys endure, When sinking in the place of prayer Thy music fills the fragrant air. A. The Lucifer that bore the light Tempestuous o'er shades of night, Away, another presence shone In softer splendor near the throne. And his the secret of the law, The life divine from God to draw, And find, when death and nature meet, Its throne beside the mercy-seat. 20 FAST OR FEAST! In him the seed of wheat is set, That brings celestial harvest yet ; In him the lost and loved combine The severed branch and living vine. We shall not surely die, they said, Nor then for them had any bled ; But in the life of life they erred : 'T was then and ever in the Word. Not in the green of Eden's bowers The wave of health that laved their powers ; Nor melody of heart or voice, But in obedience of choice. The child that knows New England hills, The health that every feeling fills, And every promise from the word, Asks why a Fast to Feast 's preferred. We tell him, Ask the winter's snow ; Not flowers but feelings fairer grow That catch the taintless breath of cold, And make his active spirit bold. A PASTORAL-IDYL. 21 He climbs the cliff, he threads the marsh, He never deems December harsh, But chooses triumph won by trial : The price of strength is self-denial. B. And so his playmate's little sister, She ran, was caught, our hero kissed her : Brief lesson, not too sweet to last, And yet the moral not too fast. A. He is a woodsman by the tree, He is a master on the sea, And cleaves the wave where steamers climb, And only feasts Thanksgiving time. I never starved his soul, you know ; Gave him the bread of life, not snow; I poured the only wine he knew, And blessed his flag, — red, white, and blue. Not even life his nerve betrayed, Of death he never was afraid ; 22 FAST OR FEAST: He feared his Maker to adore Him — I said the last calm requiem o'er him. B. The brave that should be brave is blessed ; Woman ! nurse such at the breast, And when your country's star is dim, Give him his sword and vote'for him. A. We all the spring of life behold In those first children of the mould, The many-colored liverwort And slight spring-beauty, fair and pert. 1 knew one in her early May, With petal of the whitest ray E'er falls a shadow from the wood, And tinted with the purest blood. There was a perfect growth of life, Of spirit fit for maid or wife, To please, to govern, to endure, Her fate her own, but was it sure ? A PASTORAL-IDYL. 23 Ah ! it was pleasure found her heart, And after it the tempter's art ; He set a slight on plighted truth, A dazzling light on wasted youth. His was the pride of life that fell, With art a legacy of Hell ; A hooded light that hid the shore, Shaded the surf and stilled its roar. It was not passion dimmed her sight, Of hidden reef in marriage rite. — Apostate, knave, and debauchee, — She struck, and listed to the sea. B. Great Heaven ! and the gayest soul, Saddened in love, has lost the whole. Eve listed, and your point is clear, — Was Adam not a volunteer ? A. Ah ! every tide of death was there, No life, but in its boat of prayer, 24 FAST OR FEAST! That, hanging on the billow's brim, Waits for her constancy to him. The Morning Star of heavenly life Shines on the hope-deluded wife, And sprinkles with its radiancy A paradise and no more sea. That angel of the covenant, With faith enough, alone I want ; Through Him by grace to fast and pray, Through Him with grace to feast and play. IMPROVEMENT 10 B. Vain the attempt to make ! Dismiss the meeting, for love's sake. You know the tale of Captain Skinner, And what is that to waiting dinner ? A. I wait the word of Brother C, — A passing host for courtesy, A PASTORAL-IDYL. 25 Who, silent still, has heard us both. If Arba can have laid the cloth ? B. I saw the little boy appear, I heard a voice you would not hear, But swung your specs and talked the louder. I could have stopped your fire with powder ! A. Dear brethren, man was born to die, But where his hopes in ashes lie, If faith assure the spirit's trust, Diviner blossom from the dust. The law is like the firmament, About the life immortal bent : It girds the track of time, if pure, It makes celestial feet secure. Lo ! from the windowed sky above, Descends the messenger of love, To point the Word with living ray — This is the Son, — He is the way. 4 26 FAST OR FEAST: 'T was choice made all things beautiful ; 'Twas faith made all things dutiful, That, forfeited to law above, Returns renewed, redeemed by love. The verdant, breezy mountain-crest Sighs o'er the slumberer in its breast, Whose birth of human love alone Is chronicled on crumbling stone. Once with us but a little while, One never seen without a smile, Majestic in his manly port, And child-like in his love of sport. — Back at his home, without the flower That bowed the oak's transcendent power, He toiled, he played, it may be grieved, He died ; he never had believed. The mountain pastor was the pride He cherished nearest for his bride ; But when the hope of love was dim Had no communion left for him. A PASTORAL-IDYL. 2 J How proud his eye where forests fell, — His axe had met their phalanx well, — Where roads were laid, or churches built, With which pride's piety is gilt, That his had been the lion's share ; His, too, the trophy of the bear, Perhaps the midnight vanity Of play, that reads not born to die. His neighbor's trust, his townsmen's hope, Wide as their mountain fancies' scope ; His own the best of dale and hill, His own, alas for him ! his will. B. He made it then, and left his doxy A husband's care and dower by proxy ; Or did he leave it to the bears, The place that should have gone to heirs ? A. But where the sea's low surges moan, And strangers read the names unknown 28 FAST OR FEAST: The graves retain 'neath wintry skies, Nor heed the hope the dead shall rise ; Borne from the city, where they dwelt, And fasted, feasted, revelled, knelt ; Nor they that bear them long remain — B. They straight return another train. A. And summer cannot mask the sight With drooping leaves of marbles white, Nor art with beauty chain above, The memory of buried love. Where Wealth without its jewels sleeps, And Fortune smiles if Feeling weeps, Or faltering hears a doleful sound — B. Is 't Legion from the tombs around ? A. It is the text, a wail of sorrow, Except a joy of life we borrow, A PASTORAL-IDYL. 29 Transmuting the Redeemer's pain, The life that each may live again. Enshrined among them, not alone, To me who knew the ties they own, The fairest of her home has rest, Nor loveliness nor loss expressed. A fortune theirs, that was the dower The lily lacked to paint its flower, That gave the rose a richer bloom, The violet a new perfume. Its luxury supplied the soul, But charity refined the whole, And made it generous, till thought The sparkling crown of duty sought. And learning wooed her youthful breast, Each charm of art her hand caressed, Each exercise of beauty proud, The horse, the dance, not with the crowd. Not to a touch, but conscious mind With gentle favor made her kind ; 30 FAST or feast: While fortune went, then friends, but love Withheld her from their scene above. And still her life was duty here, And the deep heart's attractions dear : A church that could its shrine protect, A people that her prayers reflect. And here the end, and solitude Where loved the beautiful and good ; Her picture with her offspring blessed ; n But more to me her Green-wood rest. There breathes the text and shakes the tear The dew has hung, reflected here ; But with the light of life, the rain Of grief itself brings life again. Her robe of youth, that shone, the vest Of righteousness anew replaced ; She only laid one burden down, The anchor hope, for harp and crown. A PASTORAL-IDYL. 3 1 B. The text indeed has brought you through, The topic scarcely stuck to you ! I argue the discussion settled, C. is convinced and I am nettled. C. Our meeting held, Arbella sends Her compliments to both her friends, To say a lady's pleasure waits To suit with beans your several plates. B. Most lucky day, when meals return That need not cool and will not burn ! The Christian heeds the inner life, With ministers the minister's wife. L'ENVOY. There is a voice, I know but one, Softer than the harmonicon ; Muffled by feeling to the ear, It is more soft, but not so clear. It smoothed the honors of the board, And when the ideal wine was poured, That moved aright along its thrill, — It read, B. said, C.'s codicil. For A, to tip his coffee-spoon, Pleaded the promise of a tune ; And B, the balance not to jar, To clip the tip of his cigar. A single curl of former year, Untouched with gray, hangs at her ear ; Nor line of care upon her brow Betrays a furrow from its plow. A PASTORAL-IDYL. 33 Arbella said, by way of wine She thought to read a verse of mine. B. The hymn ! We Ve had the other sort Dear madam, is the metre short? A a {reads). The silver string that leads the lute, Oh ! touch it when the night Has waited till the winds are mute, And dews are beaded bright ; Then let the hand the subject suit, And touch and voice unite. 'T is then, if e'er, the tears of God Come melting on the heart, He breaks in two the bigot's rod, Bids sin and hate depart, And setting gems along the sod Bids praise in music start. Oh ! near to thee his sleepless care, As through the starry space 5 34 FAST OR FEAST. The beams of quiet beauty bear The glories of his face, Till praises take the place of prayer, His presence of his grace. And when the orb of night goes by, And day in brightness shines, I '11 see in light Jehovah's eye, That life and light combines, And in his glory fearless, I Will chant these midnight lines : The love that wedding guests among Changed water into wine, That blessed young children as they sprung, Not grafted in the vine, Among the rocks and shadows flung, Is not the less divine. NOTES. 1 The locality referred to, in addition to the attractions of its scenery, has a store of historical associations to lend it, in some degree, " The interest high That genius beams from beauty's eye." The contrast of the earlier period with the present is cher- ished with some interest of kindred as well as that of place, and imparts some germs of character in return. 2 The habit of association among neighboring clergymen, aside from formal professional occasions for meeting, has none more appropriate to their feelings of fellowship, as a class, than this, too rarely adopted, springing from the circum- stances of contiguity in which they are placed. 3 Each sacred tongue, etc. A bone of contention has come into the genial discussions of our circle, not a little menacing in character as well as ominous in its source. It is the question as to the original primitive tongue which was con- founded at Babel, which B., a professed philologian, claims was what he calls the popular Chaldaic, but which our senior confederate, whose learning is all professional, holds was pure Hebrew. 4 The u topics of the hour," more precisely stated, were, first, the woman question, which B. opened from i Timothy, 36 NOTES. ii, 13, — For Adam 7vas first formed then Eve, — in a doctrine as tersely expressed by Robert Burns, rather than inferred by the apostle, but deducing a moral from his view, as re- lated to the questions of our time, quite consonant with that of the latter. It was preached subsequently in A.'s pulpit, on an occasion of exchange. The recent shipwreck of the At- lantic steamship near Halifax, the shock of which had reached every household of the land, suggested the topic of the other discourse, from Proverbs xxviii, 26, Whoso walketh wisely shall be delivered, — an argument for the ingenuous use of pro- fane science. 5 The shipwreck of the "old Atlantic," a steamer connect- ing a New York and Boston railroad line, by Long Island, at New London, occurred off Fisher's Island. This was another of those events which enter so strongly into the feel- ings of a community through identities of a common life, more than of a common humanity. Occurring so nearly upon the festal season, when family associations are made glow- ing by the reunion from journeys more or less distant, it en- tered into the record of these meetings ; and when, months afterward, it was reported from steamers and other craft, constantly passing the vicinity of the wreck, that at a certain period of the tide the bell of the wrecked vessel was rung by the current, the announcement was felt as melancholy more than as weird and poetical. 6 The shipwreck of the " Arctic," of the American Collins line of ocean steamers, occurred not far out from the New- foundland coast, in a beautiful term of mild September weather in 1854, when the smoky atmosphere on the land was made thick upon the water with a mixture of fog, and in the early morning the ship was struck, by a nameless and reckless craft, NOTES. 37 below her bowsprit. As the day advanced, the fog concealed nothing, and the splendid ship went to her destruction in a calm, open sea, together with half her freight of lives, for whom no adequate rescue by means of boats had been pro- vided. 7 A " Union " service, a too frequent resort from the alterna- tive of a thin house, by those who find a grace in combining with Christian assemblies of other names for worship on days of public appointment, implies a rebuke, perhaps, of those whose indifference to the occasion justifies such a measure, rather than a reflection upon the interest expected in the proper exercise itself. 8 " Shame in sacred places cant." The example of this feeling, so characteristic of him who expressed it, rare as it is in quality, is by no means so rare in fact, as the turbulent agitation of press and pulpit in 1873 would seem to have imported. Doubtless, there were editors as well as preachers, whose refined training, as well as expe- rience of men, disqualified them for sympathy with a spirit of obloquy so gross and wholesale as to do violence to fact and sentiment alike. 9 1 Cor. xv, 22. What is ventured in respect to the salient points of the discourse, in the report, is certainly not appro- priate to be amplified in a note. If simplicity by it is not diluted to weakness, directness perverted into quaintness, something of the attraction may remain to its manner which is the mature growth of auditorial address, when the feeling and understanding are in fullest rapport between pastor and people. Though a stranger's paragraphs may be more ad- mired, but one man can preach the pastor's belter sermons. 38 NOTES. Even in pure theology, an address of this kind is not a thesis for review : parts intended for the youth are not intended for critics ; the correction of an error is not for completeness of statement. Something of a train of argument wanting for individual conviction is supplied upon the instant ; here a little and there a little, the method of parochial preaching that edifies and makes alive. His period and place will have prescribed a certain school of preaching ; but his personal qualities assign to the preacher a sphere and authority of his own, as to which that of a scholar and "-the Lord's brother," is easily conceded to A. But partial justice is assumed to be done to the argument of the discourse, and only less defect from modification to remain to the principal illustrations. 10 Improvement. Like many who are wedded to antiquity, B. is hostile to what is old-fashioned. On the contrary, A. is tenacious of forms in vogue with sermonizers who were venera- ble in his youth, as forms retaining them without concession of substance. The antiquity he values has a nearer limit, a nar- rower horizon, it may be said, than is conventionally allowed to that term. As a sphere of personal affection and duty, the new heaven and the new earth would seem to have come to him in New England, and the intenser sacred associations of the Scriptures to reproduce themselves to him chiefly in the clearer light they reflect upon his own age and country. 11 Her picture blessed. There are four or five well known portraits in the village of — — , which, as the chef Heu of its district, was an old stage-town. One o: these is that of the stage proprietor, who kept also the hotel, and is a full-sized, plain work, and was probably accepted in the payment of a board bill. In another house is a pair of portraits represent- ing the heads of the family, now deceased, executed, as it is NOTES. 39 understood, in Boston. A picture of a youthful student, who died, was painted by a friend of his own age, who also died early. The characters of the two were very different, but the picture perpetuates the remembrance of the genius of each. The fifth is a true picture of a woman, no more lovely than real, and is a souvenir universally cherished by the people for whose dearest interests she had seemed to live. [I am reminded that the most elaborate picture in A.'s par- ish is not in the village, but at a farm-place two miles out, in the house of one of his best supporters. Here have been no children, except the nephew and niece of the owner, received by him with generous affection when orphaned at a very early age. The picture was the work of an artist of high persgnal qualities, born in a neighboring town, whose hand was fre- quently employed upon subjects in his native district, to his feeling, perhaps, the choicest for portraiture, as its native scenes might be in landscape. It is known as " The Harness- ing of the Goat," and represents two children grouped with the goat, the boy at the work of harnessing, the girl sitting in front of the animal, weaving a wreath of flowers for it. Their future characters are wrought into the faces of these children. That divine discernment, which sees what is, detects as well what will be. There is control in the pose of the boy's left hand, energy in his plain figure, and an eager expression in the face of pleasure in accomplishing his work. The girl's character is more in repose ; its pride in the lip, its depth and sweetness in the eye, and beauty peering through the bent form immaturely, — the beauty of nine years old. These chil- dren became by time the companion pieces of the two first illustrations of the pastor's discourse, and, by their early as- sociation with him in youth, recalled into their softer atmos- phere the bolder outlines of the third. The sister, on coming of age, had chosen to make a second home with friends in her 40 • NOTES. native mill-village, where B. was subsequently settled, after the catastrophe of her marriage had removed her. She had been in youth a favorite of the wife of A., who honored her generous partiality of sex in a sympathy on his own part for the boy.] 12 L 'Envoy. The Troubadours have given this name to their poetical form of last words, but do not prescribe any charm to make us linger for the explanation of it. In a parish purely rural, ancient for its place^ parting words have been often heard in peace and war, sometimes sung, some- times printed, if little read. I have myself followed after their expression, guided past the green by attendant rows of elms and maples to the post-office, when friends have left, and private letters, or the voice of the world through the press, proffered a solace for the change from company. In the new parish in which B. presides, as his friend leaves him aside to reach it, many mute voices of natural song, cherished in his personal hours, hushed in his absence, are waiting to renew their melody, each in the language in which its author was born, of different ages and many lands. With more of dignity, passing farther up the stream, his companion carries back with him the impression of adieus, not the less fondly regarded that those once dearest are now no more said, and that welcomes now have more of sweetness in them. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 015 861 886 2 I9c ai