The next Sabbath the pastor of the church discoursed upon the subject, and an indescribable thrill pervaded the hearts of some of the people as they repeated the words, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
GONE AWAY.
Here, where now are mighty
cities,
Once
the Indians’ wigwam stood;
Once their council-fires illumined,
Far and near, the tangled
wood.
Here,
on many a grass-grown border,
Then they met, a happy throng;
Rock
and hill and valley sounded
With the music of their song.
Now
they are not,—they have vanished,
And a voice doth seem to say,
Unto
him who waits and listens,
“Gone
away,—gone away.”
Yonder in those valleys gathered
Many
a sage in days gone by;
Thence the wigwam’s
smoke ascended,
Slowly,
peacefully, on high.
Indian mothers thus their
children
Taught
around the birchen fire,—
“Look ye up to the great
Spirit!
To
his hunting-grounds aspire.”
Now those fires are all extinguished;
Fire
and wigwam, where are they?
Hear ye not those voices whispering,
“Gone
away,—gone away!”
Here the Indian girl her tresses
Braided
with a maiden’s pride;
Here the lover wooed and won
her,
On
Tri-mountain’s grassy side.
Here they roamed from rock
to river,
Mountain
peak and hidden cave;
Here the light canoe they
paddled
O’er
the undulating wave.
All have vanished-lovers,
maidens,
Meet
not on these hills to-day,
But unnumbered voices whisper,
“Gone
away,—gone away!”
“Gone away!” Yes,
where the waters
Of
the Mississippi roll,
And Niagara’s ceaseless
thunders
With
their might subdue the soul,
Now the noble Indian standeth
Gazing
at the eagle’s flight,
Conscious that the great good
Spirit
Will
accomplish all things right.
Though like forest-leaves
they’re passing,
They
who once held boundless sway,
And of them ’t will
soon be written,
“Gone
away,—gone away!”
As they stand upon the mountain,
And
behold the white man press
Onward, onward, never ceasing,
Mighty
in his earnestness;
As they view his temples rising,
And
his white sails dot the seas,
And his myriad thousands gathering,
Hewing
down the forest trees;
Thus they muse: “Let
them press onward,
Not
far distant is the day
When of them a voice shall
whisper,
‘Gone
away,—gone away!’”
LINES TO MY WIFE.