COVENANT—RAINBOW.
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me.
But with thee will I establish my covenant.—Genesis, vi. 13, 18.
And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.
And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.—Genesis, ix. 14, 15.
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.—Deuteronomy, vii. 9.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.—Hebrews, viii. 7.
Still young and fine, but what is still in view,
We slight as old and soil’d, though fresh and new;
How bright wert thou when Shem’s admiring eye
Thy burnished flaming arch did first descry;
When Zarah, Nahor, Haran, Abram, Lot,
The youthful world’s grey fathers, in one knot,
Did, with intentive looks, watch every hour
For thy new light, and trembled at each shower!
When thou dost shine, darkness looks white and fair;
Forms turn to music, clouds to smiles and air;
Rain gently spreads his honey-drops, and pours
Balm on the cleft earth, milk on grass and flowers.
Bright pledge of peace and sunshine, the sure tye
Of the Lord’s hand, the object of his eye;
When I behold thee, though my light be dim,
Distant, and low, I can in thine see Him
Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne,
And minds the covenant betwixt all and One.
Henry Vaughan.
The rainbow bending in the sky,
Bedecked with sundry hues,
Is like the seat of God on high,
And seems to tell these news:—
That as, thereby, He promised
To drown the world no more,
So, by the blood which Christ has shed,
He will our souls restore.
George Gascoigne.
When Science from Creation’s face
Enchantment’s veil withdraws,
What lovely visions yield their place,
To cold material laws!
And yet, fair bow, no fabling beams,
But words of the Most High,
Have told why first thy robe of beams
Was woven in the sky.
When o’er the green undeluged earth,
Heaven’s covenant thou didst shine,
How came the world’s grey fathers forth,
To watch thy sacred sign!
And when the yellow lustre smiled
O’er mountains yet untrod,
Each mother held aloft her child,
To bless the bow of God.
Methinks, thy jubilee to keep,
The first-made anthem rang
On earth delivered from the deep,
And the first poet sang.
Nor ever shall the Muse’s eye,
Unraptured greet thy beam:
Theme of primeval prophecy,
Be still the poet’s theme!
Campbell.
Bow in the cloud, what token dost thou bear?
—That justice still cries “strike,” and mercy “spare.”
J. Montgomery.
Such thou hast shone, bright rainbow! when the sky
Has clothed in clouds its blue serenity;
And such shall 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 their 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!
Anon.