Sweet Cicely — or Josiah Allen as a PoliticianHolley, Marietta
Religion
Sweet Cicely — or Josiah Allen as a Politician
Holley, Marietta
Methodist Church (U.S.) -- Fiction; Temperance and religion -- Fiction; Women -- Suffrage -- Fiction
The low walls fade away; the dusky rafters part to admit the infinite,
infinite longin's to do and dare, infinite resolves to emulate those
deeds of valor and heroism. How the calm blue eyes look down into the
boy's impassioned soul, how the shadowy hands beckon him upward, up the
rocky heights of noble endeavor, noble deeds! How the inspiration of
this life, these deeds of might and valor, nerve the young heart for
future strivings for freedom and justice and truth!
Is it not a blessed thing to thus live on forever in true, eager hearts,
to nerve the hero's arm, to inspire deeds of courage and daring? The
weary body may rest; but to do this, is surely not to die; no, it is
to live, to be immortal, to thus become the beating heart, the living,
struggling, daring soul of the future.
And right while I was thinkin' these thoughts, and lookin' off over the
still landscape, the peaceful waters, this band of dark singers stood
with reverent faces and uncovered heads, and begun singin' one of their
sweetest melodies,--
“He rose, he rose, he rose from the dead.”
Oh! as them inspired, hantin' notes rose through the soft, listenin'
air, and hanted me, walked right round inside my heart and soul, and
inspired me--why! how many emotions I did have,--more'n 85 a minute
right along!
As I thought of how many times since the asscension of our Lord, tombs
have opened, and the dead come forth alive; how Faith and Justice will
triumph in the end; how you can't bury 'em deep enough, or roll a stun
big enough and hard enough before the door, but what, in some calm
mornin', the earliest watcher shall see a tall, fair angel standin'
where the dead has lain, bearin' the message of the risen Lord, “He rose
from the dead.”
I thought how George W. and our other old 4 fathers thought in the long,
toilsome, weary hours before the dawnin', that fair Freedom was dead;
but she rose, she rose.
I thought how the dusky race whose sweet songs was a floatin' round the
grave of him who loved freedom, and gave his life for it; I thought
how, durin' the dreary time when they was captives in a strange land,
chained, scourged, and tortured, how they thought, through this long,
long night of years, that Justice was dead, and Mercy and Pity and
Righteousness.
But there come a glorious mornin' when fathers and mothers clasped their
children in their arms, their own once more, in arms that was their own,
to labor and protect, and they sung together of Freedom and Right, how
though they wuz buried deep, and the night wuz long, and the watchers
by the tomb weary, weary unto death, yet they rose, they rose from the
dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account