The Judgement of the Flood by John A. Heraud. A New Edition. Revised and Re-Arranged |
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 | The Judgement of the Flood |  |
A solemn thought then sate on Japhet's brow:
‘A happy man is he whom God corrects;
Therefore despise not chastening divine.
Speaketh not God in dreams? Here, watching thee-
Thought was tumultuous; visionary, night;
Deep sleep on all had fallen; and none beheld,
Or heard, beside myself, the fearful Thing:
For lo, a Spirit passed before my face.
I trembled, my bones rattled horribly;
My flesh crept, and its hair all bristled up:
I could not choose but gaze—and It stood still—
That Shape, if shape it were; for what its form
Discern I might not. But an Image stood
Before me, silent: then, I heard a Voice—
‘Shall Man, who mourns, be justified before
The Almighty?—Man, in best estate, be pure
In his Creator's presence? Angels he
With folly charges; and is man exempt,
Dwelling in clay, and founded in the dust;
Crushed ere the moth, and perished ere the eve;
His beauty first departed, and devoid
Of wisdom; mind with body even decayed?’
—Then be not wroth: commit thy cause to God.
Thy seed he can increase; thine offspring yet
Perpetuate, like the verdure of the earth;
And save thee from the grave till latest age,
A shock of corn in season fully ripe.’
‘A happy man is he whom God corrects;
Therefore despise not chastening divine.
Speaketh not God in dreams? Here, watching thee-
Thought was tumultuous; visionary, night;
Deep sleep on all had fallen; and none beheld,
Or heard, beside myself, the fearful Thing:
For lo, a Spirit passed before my face.
I trembled, my bones rattled horribly;
My flesh crept, and its hair all bristled up:
I could not choose but gaze—and It stood still—
That Shape, if shape it were; for what its form
Discern I might not. But an Image stood
Before me, silent: then, I heard a Voice—
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The Almighty?—Man, in best estate, be pure
In his Creator's presence? Angels he
With folly charges; and is man exempt,
Dwelling in clay, and founded in the dust;
Crushed ere the moth, and perished ere the eve;
His beauty first departed, and devoid
Of wisdom; mind with body even decayed?’
—Then be not wroth: commit thy cause to God.
Thy seed he can increase; thine offspring yet
Perpetuate, like the verdure of the earth;
And save thee from the grave till latest age,
A shock of corn in season fully ripe.’
| The Judgement of the Flood | |