STILLNESS.
And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.—I. Kings, xix. 11, 12.
Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.—Psalm iv. 4.
Be still, and know that I am God.—Psalm xlvi. 10.
’Tis stillness now! A sudden stay
Has check’d the wild wind on its way,
As, screaming on its mother’s breast,
At once the infant sinks to rest.
And now, throughout the wood, that late
Wav’d bending to the tempest’s weight,
Nor could its depths an echo form,
Save to the wailing of the storm;
Nor bends a twig, nor breathes a breath:
’Tis silence, like the calm of death.
’Twould seem that winter had foregone,
By wrong unsurp’d, his stormy throne,
And giv’n the rightful sway again
To mild October’s placid reign.
Or rather He, whose boundless force
Directs each month’s, each season’s course,
Who formed creation’s works of old,
And, what He form’d, hath still controll’d,
Even He hath said, at whose high will
The wind or swells or falls, “Be still!”
Mant.
The Almighty King,
Not always in the splendid scene of pomp
Tremendous, on the sounding tempest rides,
Or sweeping whirlwind; nor in the awful peal
Of echoing thunder is He always heard,
Or seen in lightning’s livid flames; but oft,
When every turbid element is hushed,
In the still voice of nature stands confest
The Lord Omnipotent.
Samuel Hayes.