OH, TALK TO ME OF HEAVEN. Oh, talk to me of heaven! I love For there doth many a loved one dwell Oh tell me how they shine and sing, Oh, happy, happy country! where And death, who keeps his portals fair, May never once come in. No grief can change their day to night- Glitters a bright and dazzling gem Oh, lovely, blooming country! there There is the home, the land of birth The storms that rack this world beneath Oh, happy, happy land! in thee Shedding through each adoring breast A holy calm, a halcyon rest. And those blest souls whom death did sever, Have met to mingle joys for ever. Oh! soon may heaven unclose to me! Oh! may I soon that glory see! LAND A-HEAD. REV. GEORGE BRYAN. Sweet music in the wave-worn ear! It is the seaman's cry, When the first speck of home-land near Breaks on the eager eye; Then, loud as lip the news can spread, O, as those gladsome tidings speed, And blithe ones to the top-mast thread Once-and 'tis still a happy day - Where earth had but a shadowy sway, The heavens seemed past, and light instead Whose years had through life's little span Where he had fought, and watched and bled, Those scenes are now for ever past; I gently pressed his feeble hand, And wonder'd if his heart was mann'd To meet that dreadful day; When, as if in my looks he read The thought, he cried out LAND A-HEAD !" O he could see beyond the skies And thither he went up at length, And walks the regions o'er Which arm'd those lingering hours with strength, And cheer'd for years before. If sweet to see, how sweet to tread Celestial land the "Land a-head !" THE DEIFIED BOOK OF THE KARENS. REV. ROBERT W. CUSHMAN. In the year 1828, a Karen prophet, and several of his disciples visited Rev. George D. Boardman at Tavoy with a book, of the language of which they were entirely ignorant ; but which they had worshipped for twelve years. Having a tradition among them that light should come to the Karens from the West, they had travelled from their native wilderness for the purpose of laying the deified book before the missionary : "We have heard of the Gospel of Jesus Christ," said they, "and are persuaded of its truth; and we wish to know if this book contains the doctrines of that gospel." The old man then opened a large basket, and after having removed fold after fold of wrappers, produced an old tattered volume, which, upon examination, the missionary found to be none other than an English copy of The Book of Common Prayer! Mr. B. told them it was a good book; and they must worship, not the book, but the God of whom it spake. This remarkable circumstance was often related by the Rev. Jonathan Wade, and his wife, during a visit to the United States, in 1833 and 1834, with two native converts, and it was on the occasion of a farewell meeting, previous to the return of these missionaries, that the following lines, under the title of " The quest of the Karen," were composed and sung : Lo! on a mount that Burmah rears And westward turns his longing eyes. No sacrifice the man prepares, For gods of stone, or gods of gold ; |