REFUGE.
The eternal God is thy refuge.—Deuteronomy, xxxiii. 27.
The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.—Psalm ix. 9.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress.—Psalm xci. 2.
At length life’s stormy voyage well nigh done,
These waves shall toss my fragile bark no more,
But ah! there waits the judge, the unerring one,
Who shall each word, and work, and thought explore.
And is it so? the fantasy is o’er
That made enshrined art my idol still;
And many a flying shade I chased before,
As my chief good was but a specious ill!
What, if when death has wrack’d his power to kill,
The living death beyond the grave be mine.
The pencil and the chisel have no skill
To chain such thoughts to rest. O Love Divine
Who didst spread wide thy arms on Calvary,
Be thou my refuge, Lord! for I have none save thine!
Michael Angelo.
When rising winds and rain descending,
A near approaching storm declare;
With trembling speed their wings extending,
The birds to sheltering trees repair.
So I, by faith, with sin oppressed,
Would refuge taste, O Christ, in thee;
Thou art my hiding-place and rest,
From every evil shelter me.
From the German.
Except the Lord the city keep
All vainly may the watchman wake,
The careless souls within who sleep
In fear and terror well may quake.
Except the soul for safety flee
For refuge to the city built
By God for trembling sinners, he
Will be o’ertaken in his guilt.
Egone.