THE WARRING ELEMENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2455, 3 April 1901, Page 71

THE WARRING ELEMENTS.

By a Baniee. Even liv tho = c whose home is on the rolling deep, and who puisne their avocations on the great waters, a very severe storm at sea cannot fail to be' regarded as an undesirable, experience, but to the avcia^e landsman, however brave and couipgeous he may be, a lagmg tempest, which apparently threatens destruction to the good snip m wh-ch he is voyaging, is unouestionably the reverse of enjovab.e. And' truly such a s.to:ni is appahmg and terrifying After r deadly and oppressive calm, the ronner-hued sun sets m n l^y, lund glaie, a^ry'anu threatening. SOO.I the unlacing vic°let-mdi £ o gloom in the west assumes a sable darkness, beneath which a low aich of pallid licrht faintly hovers o\ er the horizon ior a briel space, then, dying away, is rb.orbcd m an ominous bl. ck cloud-wall, appaicnt'y solid and imDenclrab!e, which appeal s to bo lapidly adva'iCin"- ctiaight towards the vessel, impeded by'sonfe uuscen miglity foiccs at its ica*. Liv now v.th an lafunatcd roai, the tempe t buddcaly buists, smiting the ticmbhrg v =el as though foni; giant sea moa&ter had strut k. Utr fall ca the bioadsid?.

The sea, -which not long b- f ore wi sullen as molten lead, is now tori i"to n; 1 g foaivcrested bicake:s, eveij moment gatlunr.g n-c-easel firy, uiiUl, vit'i lr-add^ncc 1 . ficr.zied \themence the might;- boiling hiiice seethes as though some submeiged \olcmio were furiously veiitTrg forth its stre.igth be.ie-.th the torn and agitated waters, row tocs.ng huge columns of curling foam h gh 111 air, r.o\v hur.irg whole lolling billow -3 with shattering force r gainst the quivering ship, which, now appaiently descending straight to the \eiy . li; smal depths row climbing the uprearcd rquco.is mcuntams, at each cruel Vow trembles ai.d gioans as if it had been struck by j. thousand colos«al battering rams. And now a pitchy, cm.rerun d,irk,ie«s has suuervened, a, daikiicss fiat rai-ht be felt, weird and gruesome, fooh, hov^er, to be aispelled by continuous and unmtoimitti.ig outbursts of dazzling sulrhureous lightning, flaming streams of liquid. coiu3c?ti:ig file pouring forth in angry flashes of vivid, radiant energy; while the live thunder with resoundirg crash peals forth with detonating roar, reverberating in dreadful fulminations as if the worlds were engaged in some titanic war. And *o the temble nmht parses the boats one by one torn off end hurled into the deep, yards and spars snapped off. shiouds and stays rent into ribbons, until, as the day dawns, the hurricane subsides, the rising tun gilds the curling billows m p flood of rose-pink light, and the galhmt f=hir> cleaves her way through tho now blithely dnnciug waves, un^ til she arrives safe and sound 111 port. And so with this life. Sometimes sailing over the halcyon waters of gladness and delight, sometimes .buffeted by angiv storms, and torn and rent by a veiy hurricane of contending passions and cmotio.is , fomctinips tremb'ing under the thunder of an offended Deity , the soul which grasps the hand of the Saviour of the world, who foi him, and" that he might live, endured iao:e of the pimjs mid ariows of anguish and poignant suffering than a.iv child of earn has e\er borne, will safely ride tho stoim , and, if he loecs not his hold, will reach the glorious haven of eternal re s t and neveiendmg joy. __ m ___ m _ mmm _____^ mm