Its slow, uncertain thread of wandering blue,

As ’twere the only living element

In all the church, so deeply the stillness grew;

It seemed one might have heard it, as it went,

Give out an audible rustle, curling through

The midnight silence of the awe-struck air,

More hushed than death, though no such life was there.

Jas. R. Lowell.

When on Sinai’s top I see

God descend in majesty,