Orleans County Monitor

"BY AND BY."
Somewhere down the stream of Time
on which we are floating, is a beautiful
island called the "By and By." It may
be just before us, beyond the next turn
of the river, or we may not find it until
the stream disembogues into the stream
of eternity. But we all look for it, from
infancy to old age, and dream that all
evil will be banished when we arrive at
that beautiful island-By and By.
All day we float down the turbulent
stream; the blue color of heaven burns
above us; the mysteries of God and im-
mortality stream in upon us with awful
splendors, and truths that have con-
founded the loftiest intellects-truths
that in all ages have roused up the soul
from its foundations, baptized it with
reverence, kindled it with love-environ
us with intensity, and all the thoughts
of the island are banished from the
mind. But when the solemn gray of
twilight falls around our bark, in fancy
we see our magical shores, green with
the trees of beauty, flitting before us
like stars over the broad shadow of
years, and our longings all return to
wander on its fairy banks, and listen to
the silvery voices of its inhabitants.
And as the rosy flush of the day fades
in the west, and the watching stars open
one after another, their holy eyes, we
go to rest in the happy belief that the
morning sunrise will gild this immortal
island, full in our vision-this clime we
have sought so long and vainly, and
whatever have fled all the Summer of
our youth, that we besought with tears
to stay.
A land of promise is that By and By.
In it we all have possession, the antici-
pated enjoyment of which alone renders
life tolerable. The past has proven a
weary way; the present full of thorns
and beset with danger, but in the gold-
en By and By there is recompense for
all. There the broken heart shall be
healed and the weary spirit find a rest.
Who shall sell his birthright in this
land? Though poverty, gloom and des-
olations environ us here, we have wealth
and loving friends in that fair clime.
How eagerly we look for that island!
If it were laid down on any chart, no
matter how distant, so that we knew
that it should surely come, we should be
satisfied in the prospect. But no Ariadne
comes to reveal its labyrinthine secrets,
and we must be content in its anticipa-
tion, and possess it only in our dreams.