The Judgement of the Flood :: :: University of Virginia Library

Change rules in life, as death. Transfigured, there,
Elihu stood. As when Messiah took
Apart, into a mountain high, those Three,
Who saw his face shine as the sun in heaven;
His raiment pure even as the light; the while
Talked Moses, and Elias, there, with him;
Anon, o'ershadowed with a radiant cloud,
Whence cried a Voice, ‘This is my Son beloved,
In whom I well delight me; hear ye him:’
Over Elihu such the change that came.
His face glowed, and a spirit breathed; enrapt,
As if a vision dawned upon his soul,
And warmed him with its lustre; nay, enlarged
His attitude into such majesty
As would become a god; . . . and, like a god,
Thus he that group bespake.

‘Effectual is
The prayer of pious men; and Lamech hath,
That which he prayed for, Death; his fittest doom.
Thus blessed, whom God corrects; if for past sins,
That they may be forsaken, and forgiven;
If righteous, that bliss future may surpass
The present pain, or be in joy secured:
Else taken from the ill to come away;
And for the sufferer, in the worst extreme,
A crown of glory incorruptible
The Eternal hath prepared. Mine hath it been,
To comfort the expiring saint, who meets
Elihu now in Hades; there, before,

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Gone with his brethren, on that fatal plain
Doomed to the slaughter. Ye, too, have your tasks.
Thine be it, Shem, the interiour of the Ark
To furnish; both for use, and ornament.
Thine, Japhet, outside to protect, and watch
'Gainst the designs of foes; for such will be.
And, Ham; thy passion, and thy crafty skill,
Well, if well used, shall find employment meet.
—Go forth: and, from the desart, and the wild,
Bring forth the savage; beast, and bird. Know, strength,
And wisdom shall be given thee, in the hour
Of trial in the chase. Thereafter, will
The time appointed come. For He shall make
Small water-drops; and they shall pour down rain,
According to their vapour, from the clouds
Dropt, and on man abundantly distilled.
Then, unbelieving man may question God,
If he can understand. Or let him, now,
Tell, if he knows, the spreadings of the clouds,
The noises of his tabernacle; and mark
The growing gloom, whence cometh peal on peal:
My human heart is moved—when God thus speaks.’

Thus spake the Incarnate: glowing more, and more,
With glory still diviner. Sensibly,
Voices, and lightnings, from the electric cloud,
The presence of the Omnipotent announced.
Anon, the sound of whirlwind, and of wings;
Ministering seraphs, o'er his awful head,
A canopy expanded of their plumes,
As of a fiery sky; while, from amidst
That dread pavilion, Thunders thus discoursed.