John Seely Hart

Name: The Young Rector
Author: John Seely Hart

The Young Rector (1852)

Summary

“The Young Rector”, published in 1852, is a work by John Seely Hart. It explores elements such as young rector, strains and fainter.

Quotes from The Young Rector (John Seely Hart)

John Seely Hart, The Young Rector (1852)

“ Soft strains of music were heard in the distance, growing fainter and fainter, till they were lost upon the ear. And now the right arm gradually rose, and a taper finger pointed upward. Following it with his eye, he descried, distant far and almost unseen, a crown, irradiated with a soft halo of golden light, and bearing these words: “This awaits thee in Heaven.”
One arm upraised, and one extending towards him the cross, her eye riveted upon him, she stood motionless as a statue. Again rose the soft strains of music, mingled with voices of angelic sweetness. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Seely Hart, The Young Rector (1852)

“ Oh! to be ever thus—to know such transcendent peace! This it is to be in communion with the angels.
And now the beauteous vision, with its garments of silver vapour, stood upright upon the fleecy masses of the cloud, with her eye unmoved from the face of the entranced beholder. Her left arm slowly advanced from the mists around her, and, bending gently towards him, she extended the cross, one arm of it encircled by a crown of thorns, the other draped with the purple robe, and over it this motto: “On earth thou wilt wear these, for thy Saviour’s sake.” ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Seely Hart, The Young Rector (1852)

“ The marble pavement noiselessly spread itself beneath his feet, and he sat before the high altar of a great cathedral. Upon it stood seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst a golden censer. Soft moonlight, tinged with the rainbow dyes of the stained glass through which it passed, rested on the surrounding objects. There was a silence, so deep, so solemn, that it pervaded his whole being; and then the strains of the organ, soft, distant, as if amid the spheres, rolled through the high arches, which, as they grew deeper and louder, trembled beneath the vibrations. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Seely Hart, The Young Rector (1852)

“ Yet, if “millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth,” might not this be one, sent on a mission of mercy to his suffering, struggling spirit; to raise him from despondency; to bid him bear on unmurmuringly, and, while wearing the cross, to look ever upward and onward to the promised crown?
When the Rector awoke the next morning, the sun was brighter to his eye, the wind fell more softly on his cheek, and stirred the light clustering hair upon his brow. He was no more alone, for that ministering angel had taken up her abode within his soul, and her serene smile was fixed upon him ever. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Seely Hart, The Young Rector (1852)

“ Dimly and indistinctly he sees her, cradled within those misty folds; and slowly the silvery mass descends with its heavenly burden, until it rests above the sacred altar. A holy influence steals over his senses—an unspeakable serenity—a calm like that of Gennesareth, when the voice of the Saviour spoke to the troubled waters. ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Seely Hart, The Young Rector (1852)

“ Love—love to God, and love to man—was the prevailing attribute of his soul; and those who listened that day to the voice of their rector in his village church, felt, though they knew not why, a higher, fuller sense of the “beauty of holiness.” His words were fraught with a new energy; his voice rose with his choir in the full strains of the Christmas anthem; and when he entered his pulpit, a new and divine inspiration seemed to have touched his lips, as with a live coal from the altar.
That vision of the night became to the young rector the vision also of his waking hours ”

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Source: Wikisource

John Seely Hart, The Young Rector (1852)

“ Again and again they returned to the charge, and at every onset they became an ever-increasing, darkening host, resistless in their power. He tried to picture to his imagination those happy homes, which were drawing around them at this festive season, as round a dazzling nucleus, the wanderers who had gone out from them on the voyage of life. He fancied the happy meetings and the glad welcome home; the merry fire would sparkle in the grate, and send forth its ruddiest glow; the cheerful board would be spread ”

John Seely Hart

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Quotes from The Young Rector (John Seely Hart)

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