We Hope That God, Who Stirred Up The Spirit Of
Cyrus To Set Forward Temple Work, Has Stirred Us Up
To ask, and
will stir you up to grant, the prayer of our petition; so shall
your humble petitioners ever
Pray, as in duty bound - " And so the
temple work went forward here to a happy conclusion. Yonder in
Carlisle the building of the temple was many wearisome years
delayed, not that there was wanting of Shittim wood, or the gold
of Ophir, but a site therefor convenient to all the worshippers;
whether on "Buttrick's Plain," or rather on "Poplar Hill." - It
was a tedious question.
In this Billerica solid men must have lived, select from year to
year; a series of town clerks, at least; and there are old
records that you may search. Some spring the white man came,
built him a house, and made a clearing here, letting in the sun,
dried up a farm, piled up the old gray stones in fences, cut down
the pines around his dwelling, planted orchard seeds brought from
the old country, and persuaded the civil apple-tree to blossom
next to the wild pine and the juniper, shedding its perfume in
the wilderness. Their old stocks still remain. He culled the
graceful elm from out the woods and from the river-side, and so
refined and smoothed his village plot. He rudely bridged the
stream, and drove his team afield into the river meadows, cut the
wild grass, and laid bare the homes of beaver, otter, muskrat,
and with the whetting of his scythe scared off the deer and bear.
He set up a mill, and fields of English grain sprang in the
virgin soil.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 49 of 422
Words from 13520 to 13804
of 116321
