Telegram Herald

IN MEMORY OF HAYNE

A Picturesque Little Church Erected at Grovetown, Ga. It Is the Work of an Association of Ladies In First Place. Who Have Been Greatly Assisted by George W. Childs and Other Men.

"The Church of the Heavenly Rest" is the name of a beautiful memorial chapel recently completed at Grovetown, Columbia county, Ga. A marble tablet, soon to be placed on the wall, will bear the following inscription: "This church is built to the glory of God and in memory of Paul Hamilton Hayne, poet, patriot, Christian, philanthropist."

THE HAYNE MEMORIAL CHURCH

The public exercises attending the opening of the church were solemn and impressive, and attended by a large congregation. The religious services were conducted by Rev. John Gass, of the Church of Atonement, Augusta, Ga.

Never has the memory of a poet been so inconspicuously honored. The history of literature furnishes no example of love and admiration similar to this unique conception, materialized in a form so suggestive of the pure and exalted character of the man and the poet whose life and genius this sacred edifice commemorates.

This noble monument to the memory of Hayne owes its existence to the devotion of an association of ladies at Grovetown, who have been graciously aided in their labor of love by friends and admirers of the late poet in all parts of the country and in Europe; Jean Ingelow, Blackmore, Swinburne and others in England: George W. Childs, Whittier, Holmes and others at the north. The architect's plan was accepted and work begun early in last January, and the edifice, with the exception of some interior adornments, stands completed. It is one of the prettiest and most attractive rural chapels in Georgia. It is constructed of native pine, beautifully polished and painted. The interior, though plainly furnished, is a picture of simple grace and refined taste. The charming sylvan sanctuary nestles peacefully among the pines, of which the poet has often sung so sweetly, and is within a short distance of the little cottage at "Copse Hill" (the Rydal Mount of the south), where the famous poet lived and died. The visitor is deeply impressed by the restful and holy calm which pervades the scene, and one feels that the name of this woodland shrine, "The Heavenly Rest," was suggested by an inspiration.

A small but highly intelligent and refined congregation now assemble here for worship, twice every Sunday and twice during the week. The venerable and universally beloved widow of the poet, and her brilliant son, are communicants and regular attendants. The presence of Mrs. Hayne and her son at the opening exercises added greatly to the impressiveness of the occasion. The world knows that the home life of the poet and his family was an idyl of love and contentment, a communion of exquisitely refined and delicate souls. In his home the poet found an unfailing spring for his purest inspirations, his loftiest poetic ideals. The music and beauty of his verse owe their richest charms to the beauty and the harmony which made this lowly and lonely cottage among the pines of Georgia the terrestrial ante-chamber of Paradise.

In an eloquent discourse the reverend speaker formally announced the name and purpose of the building, as follows:

"The Church of the Heavenly Rest is built to the glory of God in memory of Paul Hamilton Hayne, a man beloved, honored, revered by all who knew him— a man whose gracious influence is not bound in to this land, but has crossed the swelling waters of a great ocean and been potent in foreign lands: above, beyond all, a man whose influence, whether expressed in life or uttered in sweet notes, was to the glory of God.

Such influence can never die. Today his spirit lives in the Church of the Heavenly Rest.

"In whose staid heights and most ethereal chime Beauty, faith, and plastic passion meet.

"Of all memorials that will ever be rendered to him in sculptured marble, or pinnacled brass, or printed book, none will be so dear to his purified heart as this, because it is reared in and for the glory of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Here the pines and hills made sacred by his songs are made more sacred by the presence of a church in his memory, built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and his Apostles to the glory of God."

The church is situated at a prominent point near the railway station, and is the most conspicuous ornament of the pretty village, which takes pride in the fact that within its precincts are found famous "Copse Hill," as well as the poet's monument, though his dust sleeps in the cemetery at Augusta.

The ladies of Grovetown are continuing their labors in endeavoring to secure an organ for the chapel and to still further decorate it. No doubt they will continue to receive, as heretofore, substantial tokens of affection and esteem from those who value the memory of one who as a man and a Christian, was the entelechy of our ideals a perfect manhood, and whose graceful muse enriched the chapter of American literature.

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