“WHEN GATHERING CLOUDS AROUND I VIEW.”
One of the restful strains breathed out of illness and affliction to relieve one soul and bless millions. It was written by Sir Robert Grant (1785–1838).
When gathering clouds around I view,
And days are dark, and friends are few,
On Him I lean who not in vain
Experienced every human pain.
The lines are no less admirable for their literary beauty than for their feeling and their faith. Unconsciously, it may be, to the writer, in this and the following stanza are woven an epitome of the Saviour's history. He—
Experienced every human pain,
—felt temptation's power,
—wept o'er Lazarus dead,
—and the crowning assurance of Jesus' human sympathy is expressed in the closing prayer,—
—when I have safely passed
Thro' every conflict but the last,
Still, still unchanging watch beside
My painful bed—for Thou hast died.