A SYMPHONY OF DISCORD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 76

A SYMPHONY OF DISCORD.

.«. By a Banker. It is a glorious morning; the sun shining brilliantly in a sky altogether cloudless saya for a few wisps of fleecy vapour high up in the azure. The broad ocean, flecked with. a> few brown-sa'led fishing craft, and farther steamers and! sailing vessels, glitters and 1 cff towards the Horizon' several coasting sparkles in the solar rays. Advancing rapidly up channel is a large squadron o£ Ih-e "powerful British fleet; several mighty battleships, a number of cruisers of various grades, with! the accompanying smia-ller crait— destroyers, scouts, and torpedo boats. But eastward a heavy bank of dense fog is seen to be rapidly advancing, and in ai short tirrue. the squadron is hidden from view, although on the summit of the lofty cliff the euu still shines, illumining thai upper surface of the fcg, which, appears as) though, it were the s>oa- itself; while here and there a volume of black smoke issues from the fogbank, as though, some submarine volcanic action were taking place. And now the air is rent with an outburst of harsh-, stridailous discord as though a chorus of wild animals were giving vent to their rage 1 , as the hideous sirens of the various vessels, all of different tones, blare forth, scan© acute and shrill, some gruff and hoarse, some earsplitting and resonant. Now it is es thougj* a drove of hungry hyenas were fiercely quarrelling and fightirg; now a lion roars in all its might, changing suddenly into thel yelping of a pack of wolves ; or now a gram', sepulchral howl finishes up with a series of! snarling hoots and yap=. And so it goes on, a symphony of dis-> cord, until in a short time the fog commences to settle down more and more;' revealing first to the spectators an ths summit of the cliff the tcps of the masts, then. as the fog sinks still lower, the fighting; tops and the mouths of the funnels; the' appearance presented now being that of a{ gr-e-at naval disaster, as if every vessel hac' been torpedoed and was resting upon the bottom of a shallow tea And then at length* the fcg disappears altogether, and the fleet* again proceeds full steam ahead. And some, too immersed in the fogr 1 of doubt and misgiving, and misled by the specious arguments ci those whose chiefi object in life if to discredit the Holy Bible, feel themselves to be plunged in a lurid darknsss altogether insupportable. But ifl all such would only cry with all earnestness! to their Heavenly Father by the aid of Hig Holy Spirit to rev.eal His truth untci them, the fogs and' ob c x:urities of unbelief would) disappear, and they would realise that t-hc< Saviour of the world, by Himself, in their stead 1 , suffering thfe retributive justice duet to> them, has blotted out the record against them, and has made them meet for an in.-* heritance in glory.