THE BOW IN THE CLOUD.

ANONYMOUS.

And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations.

I do set my Bow in the Cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth-GENESIS ix. 11, 12, 13.

HAIL! beauteous meteor of the thousand dyes,
Emblazoned like a trophy on the skies.

Heaven's richest hues inlay thy lightsome span,
Kindled to glory for a sign to man.

Those vivid tints that through the welkin shine,
Proclaim thy matchless Architect divine.
Gemmed by the rain-drops was the tissue spun,
With golden threads, irradiate of the sun,
Like stars enwreathed, whose myriad spangles throw
The prism's gay lustre to the world below.

Weft of mute music thou, whose pictured tones
Blend in accord, and melt in kindred zones.

Sweet solace ours, when lurid tempests frown,
To mark thy gradual braid the horizon crown!

First, faint brief segments spring on either hand,
Whence lost abrupt, soon longer curves expand;
More massive, high upreared, the glowing form
In bolder contrast now bestrides the storm.
Fain its bright column would our arms embrace,
Yet at each step a fleeting beam we chase;
And whilst we fear lest, ere the whole be viewed,
The subtle vision may our sight elude,

Mercy, fleet herald from the realms above,
Buoyed in the ambient air of heavenly love,
With steadfast key-link binds the quivering arch,
Then speeds thereon to earth her volant march.

See! through the dark depths of the unfathomed main The mirrored brilliance softly gleams again; Warning the surges that their ruthless might No more shall revel on the mountain height, Nor through the fertile banks and valleys rave, Engulfing nature in the whirling wave. No! for when 'neath Armenia's summits hoar The shrunken waters lashed their slimy shore, And found, whene'er they strove beyond to roam, The rising cliffs rebuke their baffled foam;— When the glad fathers of man's rescued race, Exulting on the lone ark's resting-place, Had bent the knee, invoked the Almighty name, Drawn votive blood, and fanned the sacred flame;— When o'er fair nature burst that sunny smile, More lovely for her glistening tears the while;— Then from the heavens was heard an awful voice, That bade the favoured Patriarch rejoice:

THE BOW IN THE CLOUD.

Well pleased, the Deity had seen arise

Prayer mingling with the smoke of sacrifice;
And now the solemn covenant He swore,

That he would flood the new-born land no more;

Then rays from heaven with tears from earth He blent, And wrote His promise on the firmament.

View it, vain man, whose dull, unheeding soul
No cheering hopes, no startling fears control,
Nor the pale splendour of the moon absorbs,
Nor the deep rapture of the hymning orbs;

Whose sordid thought ne'er searched creation's laws,
For the vast goodness of the omniscient Cause,
Ne'er felt ecstatic joy when laughing May

Wreathes with young flowers the verdant brow of day,
Nor owned, with transport chastened, awed, refined,
Night on the mountain, wonder in the wind:
Behold! and though thou deignest nought to bless,
Yet inly scan thy very nothingness.

Such thou hast shone, bright rainbow! when the sky Has clothed in clouds its blue serenity;

And such shalt shine; while, grateful for the vow,

All nations of the earth to heaven shall bow.

Curbing the tempest on its thunder path,

Chaining the boisterous billows in their wrath;

Majestic symbol of thy Maker's might!

Girdle of beauty! coronal of light!

God's own blest handmark, mystic, sure, sublime,

Graven in glory to the end of time!

47

Nor dost thou live for earth and time alone:
In Paradise, around th' eternal throne,
Thine emerald lightnings play; thine every gem
Is treasured for the Conqueror's diadem.
When, with a shout that will earth's centre rend,
Christ, with his saints and angels shall descend,
Careering kingly over sun and star,

The winds his coursers, and a cloud his car:—
No watery deluge then earth's funeral pall,
But sulphurous flames enwrap the reeling ball.
Thus thy triumphal banner floats unfurled
Above the wrecks of this self-ruined world,

From cloud, from throne, from crown, betokening mild
Jehovah to lost sinners reconciled.