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Show The Little Church Back Home. (Leslie's AVeckly.) When the big pipe organ's swellin' an' the city choir sings. An' you almos' hear the swishin' of the lovin' angels' wings. An' the congregation's musin' on the proneness for to sin. Sort o' leanin', listless, waitin' for the preacher to begin; In that holy hush it happens that I clean forget the place. An' again I'm meek an' lowly 'fore a throne of savin' grace; A throne that wasn't nestliu" 'neath a spire or a dome, But the sinners sought their Savior in that little church back home. When we had protracted meetin's. why, 'twould done you good to hear The congregation singin' with a blend o' voices clear. How the "Rock o' Ages" towered like a shelt'rin' sort o' wall. An' our souls soared up to glory since the Rock was cleft for all. Kv'ry face was wreathed with sweetness, 'an' we always had a smile For the stranger, saint or sinner, in the pew across the aisle; For a diamond's often gathered from the commonest of loam. An' we didn't mind the settin in the little lit-tle church back home. There were weddln's where the neighbors gathered In from far an' wide. An' the bovs looked on In envy while their sisters kissed the bride: There were fun'rals, too. where neighbors 1 didn't feel ashamed to cry When they laid to rest the sleeper in the little, yard close by. Each pew seemed sort o' sacred, an' the lowlv pulpit there 'Pears like a holy gateway to a firmament firma-ment that's fair; Where the sweet, supernal sunshine softly soft-ly scatters sorrow's gloam An' lets us enter heaven from the little church back home. The city choir's voices rise in cadences so sweet As thev sing about the river where the sainted ones shall meet. An' the preacher's voice is pleadln' as he asks us. soft an low. To treat all men as brothers In this weary vale of woe. This citv church Is handsome an' the congregation's con-gregation's large, The preacher's doin' nobly with his heav-en-seekin' charge: The choir's swellin' anthems soar to heaven heav-en through the dome. But my old heart is sighin' for the little church back home. |