CALAMITY.
They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay.—II. Samuel, xxii. 19.
Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!—Job, vi. 2.
Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.—Psalm lvii. 1.
He that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.—Proverbs, xvii. 5.
Strict necessity
Subdues me, and calamitous constraint!
Lest in my hand both sin and punishment,
However insupportable, be all
Devolved.
Milton.
Much rather I shall choose
To live the poorest in my tribe, than richest
To be in that calamitous prison left.
Milton.
From adverse shores in safety let her hear
Foreign calamity, and distant war;
Of which, great heav’n, let her no portion bear.
Prior.
Friends counsel quick dismission of our grief;
Mistaken kindness! Our hearts heal too soon,
Are they more kind than He who struck the blow?
Who bids it do His errand in our hearts,
And banish peace till nobler guests arrive,
And bring it back, a true and endless peace?
Calamities are friends.
Young.
When great calamities afflict the soul,
Then, God of Mercy, then, we cry to Thee!
Thou the physician art to make us whole;
Thou art the help in our calamity.
But when the clouds of grief be overpast,
And we may bask in sunshine once again,
Then praise and prayer become a weary task;
Thee we forget, and so neglect to ask
The aid we implored amid our grief and pain.
Calamities are links of that bright chain
Of love divine around us ever cast,
Weaning us from the world, and all things light and vain.
Egone.