Yet rest unshaken on his sure defence,
Invincible through his omnipotence:
"Oh! step by step," they cry, "direct our way,
And give thy grace, like manna, day by day;
The store of yesterday will not suffice,
To-morrow's sun to us may never rise;
Safe only when our souls are stay'd on Thee;
Rich only when we know our poverty."
And step by step the Lord those suppliants led;
gave them daily grace like daily bread;
By sea, on shore, through all their pilgrimage,
In rest and labour, to their latest age,
Sharp though their trials, and their comforts scant,
God was their refuge, and they knew not want.
On rustling pinions, like an unseen bird,
Among the yards a stirring breeze is heard;
The conscious vessel wakes as from a trance,
Her colours float, the filling sails advance;
White from her prow the murmuring surge recedes :
-So the swan, startled from her nest of reeds,
Swells into beauty, and with curving chest,
Cleaves the blue lake, with motion soft as rest.
Light o'er the liquid lawn the pageant glides;
Her helm the well-experienced pilot guides,
And while he threads the mist-enveloped maze,
Turns to the magnet his inquiring gaze,
In whose mute oracle, where'er he steers,
The pointing hand of Providence appears;
With this, though months of gloom the main enrobe,
His keel might plough a furrow round the globe.
Again the night ascends without a star:
Low sounds come booming o'er the waves afar,
As if conflicting navies shook the flood,
With human thunders in the strife of blood,
That slay more victims in one brief campaign,
Than heaven's own bolt through centuries have slain.
The seaman hearkens;-colour flies his cheek,
His stout heart throbs with fears he dares not speak;
No lightning-splendours streak the unbroken gloom;
-His bark may shoot the gulf beyond the tomb,
And he, if e'er it come, may meet a light,
Which never yet hath dawn'd on living sight.
Fresher and fresher blows the insurgent gale;
He reefs his tops, he narrows sail by sail,
Yet feels the ship with swifter impulse sweep
O'er mightier billows, the recoiling deep;
While still, with doleful omen on his ear,
Come the deaf echoes of those sounds of fear,
Distant, yet every volley rolls more near.
Oh! in that agony of thought forlorn,
How longs th' impatient mariner for morn!
She wakes, his eyes are wither'd to behold
The scene which her disastrous beams unfold:
The fog is vanish'd, but the welkin lowers,
Sharp hail descends, and sleet in blinding showers;
Ocean one bed of foam, with fury tost,
In undistinguishable whiteness lost,
Save where vast fields of ice their surface show,
Buoyant, but many a fathom sunk below:
Changing his station as the fragments pass,
Death stands the pilot of each ponderous mass;
Gathering his brow into the darkest frown,
He bolts his raft to run the victim down,
But shoots astern :-the shock the vessel feels,
A moment in the giddy whirlpool reels,
Then like an arrow soars, as through the air,
So high the salient waves their burden bear.
Quick skirmishes with floating batteries past,
Ruin inevitable threats at last :
Athwart the north, like ships of battle spread,
Winter's flotilla, by their captain led,
(Who boasts with these to make his prowess known,
And plant his foot beyond the arctic zone,)
Islands of ice, so wedged and grappled lie,
One moving continent appals the eye,
And to the ear renews those notes of doom,
That brought portentous warnings through the gloom;
For loud and louder, with explosive shocks,
Sudden convulsions split the frost-bound rocks,
And launch loose mountains on the frothing ooze.
As pirate-barks, on summer seas to cruize.
In front this perilous array ;-behind,
Borne on the surges, driven by the wind,
The vessel hurries to the brink of fate;
All efforts fail,-but prayer is not too late :
Then, in the imminent and ghastly fall
Foul on destruction,-the disciples call
On Him, their Master, who, in human form,
Slept in the lap of the devouring storm;
On Him, who in the midnight watch was seen,
Walking the gulf, ineffably serene,
At whose rebuke the tempest ceased to roar,
The winds caress'd the waves, the waves the shore.
On Him they call;-their prayer, in faith preferr'd,
Amidst the frantic hurricane is heard;
He gives the sign, by none in earth or heaven
Known, but by him to whom the charge is given,
The Angel of the Waters;-he, whose wrath
Had hurl'd the vessel on that shipwreck path,
Becomes a minister of grace;-his breath
Blows, and the enemies are scatter'd,-Death,
Reft of his quarry, plunges through the wave,
Buried himself where he had mark'd their grave.
The line of battle broken, and the chain
Of that armada, which oppress'd the main,
Snapt hopelessly asunder, quickly all
The enormous masses in disruption fall,
And the weak vessel, through the chaos wild
Led by the mighty Angel,-as a child,
Snatch'd from its crib, and in the mother's arms
Borne through a midnight tumult of alarms,-
Escapes the wrecks; nor slackens her career,
Till sink the forms, and cease the sounds of fear,
And He, who rules the universe at will,
Saith to the reinless elements, "Be still."
Then rise sweet hymns of gratulation; praise
From hearts and voices, in harmonious lays ;-
So Israel sang deliverance, when he stood
By the Red Sea, and saw the morning-flood,
That in its terrible embraces bore
The slain pursuers and their spoils on shore.
Light-breathing gales awhile their course propel, The billows roll with pleasurable swell,
Till the seventh dawn; when o'er the pure expanse
The sun, like lightning, throws his earliest glance,
"Land! Land!" exclaims the ship-boy from the mast,
"Land! Land!" with one electric shock hath pass'd
From lip to lip, and every eye hath caught
The cheering glimpse so long, so dearly sought;
Yet must imagination half supply
The doubtful streak, dividing sea and sky;
Not clearly known, till in sublimer day,
From icy cliffs refracted splendours play,
And clouds of sea-fowl high in ether sweep,
Or fall like stars through sunshine on the deep.
'Tis Greenland! but so desolately bare,
Amphibious life alone inhabits there;
'Tis Greenland! yet so beautiful the sight,
The Brethren gaze with undisturb'd delight:
In silence (as before the throne), they stand,
And pray, in prospect of that promised land,
That He, who sends them thither may abide
Through the waste howling wilderness their guide;
And the good shepherd seek his straying flocks,
Lost on those frozen waves and herbless rocks,
By the still waters of his comforts lead,
And in the pastures of salvation feed.
Their faith must yet be tried :-the sun at noon
Shrinks from the shadow of the passing moon,
Till, ray by ray, of all his pomp bereft
(Save one slight ring of quivering lustre left),
Total eclipse involves his peerless eye:
Portentous twilight creeps around the sky;
The frighted sea-birds to their haunts repair;
There is a freezing stillness in the air,
As if the blood through Nature's veins ran cold,
A prodigy so fearful to behold;
A few faint stars gleam through the dread serene,
Trembling and pale spectators of the scene;
While the rude mariners, with stern amaze,
As on some tragic execution gaze,
When calm but awful guilt is stretcht to feel
The torturing fire, or dislocating wheel,
And life, like light from yonder orb, retires,
Spark after spark, till the whole man expires.
Yet may the darken'd sun and mourning skies
Point to a higher, holier sacrifice;
The Brethren's thoughts to Calvary's brow ascend,
Round the Redeemer's Cross their spirits bend,
And while heaven frowns, earth shudders, graves disclose
The forms of sleepers, startled from repose,
They catch the blessing of his latest breath,
Mark his last look, and through th' eclipse of death
See lovelier beams than Tabor's vision shed,
Wreathe a meek halo round his sacred head.
To Greenland then, with quick compassion, turn
Their deepest sympathies; their bosoms burn,
To her barbarian race, with tongues of flame,
His love, his grief, his glory to proclaim.
Oh could they view, in this alarming hour,
Those wretched ones, themselves beneath the power
Of darkness, while the shadow clips the sun!
How to their dens the fierce sea-hunters run,
Who death in every shape of peril brave,
By storms and monsters, on the faithless wave,
But now in speechless horror lie aghast,
Till the malignant prodigy be past:
While bolder females, with tormenting spells,
Consult their household dogs as oracles,
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