Journeys Through Bookland Volume Viii Part 24

XI

The priest-like father reads the sacred page, How Abram was the friend of G.o.d on high; Or, Moses bade eternal warfare wage With Amalek's ungracious progeny; Or how the royal bard did groaning lie Beneath the stroke of Heav'n's avenging ire; Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry; Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire; Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre.

XII

Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme, How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed; How He, who bore in heaven the second name, Had not on earth whereon to lay his head; How his first followers and servants sped; The precepts sage they wrote to many a land: How _he_, who lone in Patmos banished, Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand, And heard great Bab'lon's doom p.r.o.nounc'd by Heaven's command.

XIII

Then kneeling down, to Heaven's Eternal King, The saint, the father, and the husband prays: Hope "springs exultant on triumphant wing:"

That thus they all shall meet in future days There ever bask in uncreated rays, No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, Together hymning their Creator's praise, In such society, yet still more dear; While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere.

XIV

Compar'd with this, how poor Religion's pride, In all the pomp of method and of art, When men display to congregations wide, Devotion's ev'ry grace, except the heart!

The Pow'r, incensed, the pageant will desert, The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole; But, haply, in some cottage far apart, May hear, well pleased, the language of the soul; And in the book of life the inmates poor enroll.

XV

Then homeward all take off their sev'ral way; The youngling cottagers retire to rest: The parent-pair their secret homage pay, And proffer up to Heaven the warm request, That He, who stills the raven's clam'rous nest, And decks the lily fair in flow'ry pride, Would, in the way his wisdom sees the best, For them and for their little ones provide; But, chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside.

FOOTNOTES:

[320-1] _Sugh_ means a hollow, roaring sound. It is our word _sough_.

[320-2] _Frae_ is the Scotch word meaning from.

[320-3] _Pleugh_ means _plow_.

[320-4] _Moil_ is a Scotch word meaning _drudgery_.

[320-5] A mattock is a two-bladed instrument for digging.

[320-6] _Stacher_ is the Scotch form of _stagger_.

[320-7] _Flichtering_ means _fluttering_.

[320-8] _Carking_ is _trying_.

[321-9] _Belyve_ means _soon_.

[321-10] _Ca'_ means _drive_.

[321-11] _Tentie_ means _carefully_.

[321-12] _Cannie_ means here _prudent_, or _trusty_.

[321-13] _Braw_ is _fine, gay_.

[322-14] _Sair-won_ is _hard-earned_.

[322-15] _Spiers_ means enquires.

[322-16] The _uncos_ is the _news_.

[322-17] This line means _Makes old clothes look almost as new ones_.

[322-18] The _younkers_ are the _youngsters_.

[322-19] _Eydent_ is _diligent_.

[322-20] To _jauk_ is to _trifle_.

[323-21] _Hame_ is the Scotch form of our word _home_.

[323-22] _E'e_ is a contraction for _eye_.

[323-23] _Hafflins_ means _partly_.

[323-24] _Nae_ means _no_.

[323-25] _Ben_ means _into the room_.

[323-26] That is, _the visit is not unwelcome_.

[323-27] _Cracks_ is a Scotch word meaning _chats_.

[323-28] _Kye_ are _cattle_.

[323-29] _Blate_ means _modest_.

[323-30] _Laithfu'_ is _bashful_.

[323-31] _Sae_ is the Scotch form of _so_.

[323-32] _The lave_ is _the others_: that is, the neighbors' girls.

[324-33] The _halesome parritch_ is the _wholesome porridge_ of oatmeal.

[324-34] _Sowpe_ here means a little quant.i.ty of milk.

[324-35] _Hawkie_ is a _white-faced cow_.

[324-36] That is, _beyond the part.i.tion_.