GOD IN THE STORM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 23, 26 January 1877, Page 2

GOD IN THE STORM.

<f Did you hear the storm last night, my child As it burst o'er the midnight sky, When the thunder rattled loud and wild And the lightning flicker'd by, ?" " I heard no; tempest mother mine i I was buried in slumber sweet ; Dreaming" I stood in the soft moonshine, With flowers about my feet." : : " Can it be, my child! that you did not hear The rear of the tempest breath, ; Asit scattered the rent leaves far anfl near In many an eddying wreath?" i " ; "No mother ; my happy sleep was full : Of gentle and. holy things — , Shapes that were graceful and beautiful, And the music of 'Augels' mugs." ' "Ypt the storm was loud, my darling child— '- There wa3 death on the hurrying blast: « And vapors dark, o'erhead were piled; As the hoarse wind bellowed past." "I thought not of clouds, my.mqiL'er dear, When I rose on my nurse's kr.ee; You taught me that^God is for e*rer near, So what danger could I see?" \ H : " I taught you well, my sinless one; '- ■ Yet my own weak spirit quail'd, ' A3 the midnight blast roll'd madly on, r : ~ And the i moon's calm lustre fail'di" ' ' L '* ;: " Were you wrong then, mother, when you said- .; •. That God's eye turned not away, But in darkness watch'd about my bed As it did on my path by day?" : "I am rebuked!" was the meek; reply, . As the. mother bent her knee;- --" On the lips of babes may a lesson lie— I have learnfc one, child, f roni thee : - His wrath, vyhich makes the sinner weep, : By guilty conscience ves'd, Does bit deepen the sinless infant's sleep, And rock it to gentle rest. . . . <-■ And while thunders hoarsely peal around, Speaking woe to the worldling's ear, The world in His mercy stills their sound, When innocence is near : V And while his living fire appals The guilty here below, l ; The shadow of the Saviour falls : On childhood's sleeping brow." : >•. ;■ By MiS3 Paedob, in Pen and Plough. \