THE REST-BELL.
"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed."—i Cor. xv. 51.
"Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off."—Isaiah xxxiii. 17.
[In many parts of Switzerland, particularly in Savoy, a bell from the principal tower calls the people to rest at noon. Five minutes before the hour strikes, the welcome rest-bell sounds sweetly on the ear. The laborer in the harvest-field throws down his sickle. The song and jest cease in the vineyard; and soon beneath the shadow of the chestnut and maple, you learn that the sleep of the laboring man is sweet. It was in one of these golden harvest-days, as I listened to the bell swelling over the smiling plains of Savoy, that a beloved friend fell asleep in Jesus—to use her own words, she had been called to rest by a message from the Throne.]
To my ear it seems to be
Thy dear voice, my Heavenly Master:
"Come apart, and rest with Me!"
Know the daily summons well;
O'er the woodland vale and mountain
Sweetly sounds the noontide bell.
Many a weary head is laid
'Neath the vineyard's leafy bower,
Or the chestnut's sheltering shade.
