A CANOPY OP FIRE

Otago Witness, Issue 2707, 31 January 1906, Page 40

A CANOPY OP FIRE

(By a Bankib.)

The receit fine display Aurora Borealis 'In Great Britain and on the American continent and elsewhere recalls to mind the -'Magnificent pageant which immediately suc)eeded the great magnetic storm which so Agitated the photosphere of the sun in the jtuiumn of 1859 — a display probably equalling in grandeur and gorgeous solemnity any ever observed in the memory of man.

As the twilight deepens into night, and ■sthe stars one by one shine forth, a strangely weird and inconstant glow, ever varying, ever intensifying, pervades all the northern hemisphere, which, as at length the last glimmer of the shaves of evening has sunk away m • (the west, has assumed the form of a gigantic, •Joined arch, flashing in many-hued fires, a stately and majestic array of lustrous blazing "columns, depending from the great arc which epans the dark vault of heaven. Soon the -«ulire atmosphere is scintillating in a blaze v«f glory ; the great refulgent columns now * quivering into a very flood of coruscating, glistening fires; now sinking for a brief moment into a lurid dimness, a moment later vibrating into a yet more intense and vivid

transplendency. ,And ao it goes on half through the night, „ never quiescent, never the same. Here a,

'anassive hanging column shimmering in a • ,-,delie»te mamr-e, changing momentarily into " Amethyst, and anon into perhaps a vivid emerald or' carmine. Here another, banded and ribbed, glowing in a dark azure or a livid! purple. Or heTe s a clustered sheaf of pendent versicoloured pillars, now, as a waveof spasmodic tremor throbs through the flam'iijg axe, pulsating from one brilliant tint to another, or now, for a. few moments more "/.Quiescent;- glittering in less brilliant glory. The spectacle now presents a grandeur and Overwhelming sublimity which no pen could' describe, no limner portray. To the north, cast; and west, the vaulted canopy of heaven •11 aglow in the splendour and radiance of ■these scintillating, ever-throbbing fires, everpalpitating shafts of opalescent, nrany-hued lays. Above, almost approaching to the zenith, the bases of the varied hanging eclumns pendent in the skies. And to the tonth, augmenting by contrast the majestic dignity of the great pageant, the dark obscurity of the unillumined night. And. who, unless his heart were very adamant itself, could witness that stately dis- . fslay without emotion? And to many, too, the mind must have reverted to the descrip-

Hlon of the throne of the Majesty of Heaven,

tncireled with a flashing rainbow, which must infinitely surpass in sumptuous splendour " £yen this superb exhibition of Nature's glories. . And those who, having laid hold of the Scarred hand of the Son of God, ever lovingly lield out to all who will believe on Him, and whose names are thereby written in the ißook of Life, will do homage befoie that jdorious throne, and will offer their ardent devotion to him, Who, by dying for them, has jitined for them*that splendid inheritance.