DARKNESS.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.—Genesis, i. 1, 2.
Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.—Psalm civ. 20.
The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.—Matthew, iv. 16.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.—Matthew, viii. 12.
He here with us to be
Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.
Milton.
When joy no longer soothes or cheers,
And even the hope that threw
A moment’s sparkle o’er our tears
Is dimm’d and vanish’d too!
O who would bear life’s stormy doom,
Did not thy wing of love
Come brightly wafting through the gloom
One peace-branch from above!
Then sorrow touched by thee grows bright
With more than rapture’s ray,
As darkness shows us worlds of light
We never saw by day.
Moore.
’Tis gone, that bright and orbed blaze,
Fast fading from our wistful gaze;
Yon mantling cloud has hid from sight
The last faint pulse of quivering light.
In darkness and in weariness
The traveller on his way must press,
No gleam to watch on tree or tower,
Whiling away the lonesome hour.
Thou Framer of the light and dark,
Steer through the tempest thine own ark:
Amid the howling wintry sea
We are in port if we have Thee.
Keble.