And calms the troubled breast;
’Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary, rest.”
God’s Angels in Charge
A characteristic of Alice Freeman Palmer, who at the age of twenty-six became the President of Wellesley College, was her calmness. What would terrify another would leave her undisturbed. From her early girlhood she had learned the lesson of Christian trustfulness. Her husband, Dr. George Herbert Palmer, who wrote the story of her life, records the fact that one day, while at her summer home at Boxford, she was ill in bed. A thunderstorm came swiftly out of the southwest and struck the house, and the room next to her own was destroyed. “She seemed at the time much interested in the novel event, as if it were something contrived for her entertainment.” After her death, however, he found among her papers a hymn with that date attached. This was sung at the memorial service held in Harvard Chapel; and Doctor Palmer printed it under the title of “The Tempest.” Suggestions from the Psalms find expression in this poem, and the opening lines conform closely to Psalm 91:11, which reads:
“For he will give his angels charge over thee,
To keep thee in all thy ways.”
The hymn of Mrs. Palmer reveals a spirit of confidence in the power and love of God, and she felt comforted by the fact that she could nestle into the strong arms of God. These are her words:
“He shall give His angels charge
Over thee in all thy ways.