That he to that great audience-seat was called;
To stand before the Majesty of Heaven,
And wait His high behests.
Of a dark cave he stood. He stood alone :
No mortal foot, save his, trod those stern wastes :
No mortal sound roused echo from the rocks,
And high-arched vaults. All being seemed to wait,
Intent, the mighty conference, and hold
The breath of expectation. Savage beasts,
That roamed those rude domains, now slunk from view; And the fierce tenants of the high-piled clouds
Stayed their marauding wing and towering flight, the solemn scene.
Deep was the stillness; and it bid, at once,
The Prophet gird his spirit, and prepare
For the great colloquy. Oh, how may thought
Explore and fathom those self-communings;
That solemn search, that retrospective gaze
Into the pregnant past? His being's scope
And grasp, hopes, purposes, life's wondrous story,
Spread, as a map before him. Filled was his soul,
Pressed down the inmost man;
By trembling, hopeless dread.
yet not o'erborne
Full well he knew
His native taint and primal stain; he knew
His bosom fault, his warped and biassed will;
Faith from her slumbers woke; and pleas for fear
And flight, which potent seemed, were now found weak :
He knew his powers to mighty ends bestowed;
His spirit heaven-informed to heavenly aims:
Well had he scanned the interval and gulf
Between the mortal and the Infinite,
Who there t' arraign him came-the child of dust,
And Him who WAS before Time took his course :-
All this he knew, he felt; but he, too, knew,
That high as Heaven o'erspreads this puny earth,
So is Jehovah's mercy great; as far
As east's immeasurable space transcends
The searchless west, so far He casts away
Man's utmost guilt; and, as a father's love
Yearns towards his child, the pity of their God
O'erflows to them that fear Him. And yet more—
By sweet illapse prophetical, he knew
Who was to stand as hostage 'twixt man's sin
And justice infinite; who pay, in coming times,
The bleeding ransom for his sumless debt :
What wondrous scheme, what plan ineffable,
Had been evolved in the Eternal councils,
To raise a race seduced, polluted, lost,
To life and immortality and heaven.
This, as a golden chain from thence, sustained
His sinking soul; this was his panoply
And covering shield; this placed, immoveable,
His feet upon the everlasting hills!
And now, as pomp of heraldry proclaims
Some mighty presence, waited for by crowds
In silent breathlessness; a voice was borne
Into the prophet's ear and soul, and told
His Lord's approach. Few were the solemn words,
(As Deity beseemed;) "What doest thou,
Elijah, here?" alone was said. Alas!
Was it infirmity of spirit, grief,
The overflowing bitterness of heart,
That waked the prompt, self-justifying plea ;
That bade him urge to an omniscient eye,
His jealousy for God, the Lord of hosts;
The peoples breach of covenant; o'erthrown
His altars, slain His priests ?" And I, alone
"Left, and my life is sought !"-No answer, then,
Jehovah gave, no replication deigned;
But bade him change his standing place and wait.
Upon a broad and massy rock he stood, And viewed the wond'rous panorama o'er. Loftier and ruder towered the jagged peaks; In mightier masses, pile on pile, the rocks Fantastic lay. Deeper and darker frowned The murky caves. All told-within, without, Above, beneath, around-his God was near.
He looked; a sudden darkness clothed the heavens ;
Forth from their airy magazines the winds
To conflict rushed with desolating wings;
In vollied blasts, in eddying whirls, they smote
The mighty peaks; hurled, as autumnal leaves,
The rocky masses; heaved, in columns huge,
The drifting sands; and roused to hollow groans
The yawning caves. Unmoved Elijah stood;
He knew his God the clouds His chariot makes,
But not in hurricanes and tempest comes.
Again he looked; lo! on all sides the earth With throes convulsive heaved, as if the day Of doom were come. Vast fissures, which might hosts Have sucked to swift destruction, sudden gaped; The ponderous rocks shook to their deep foundations; And the tall peaks bowed like the forest pines Before the blast. Yet still Elijah knew, Jehovah with His earthquakes shakes the world, But He Himself dwells not within their throes.
Still looked he forth; crimsoning the earth and air,
A mighty fire, self-kindled, as of cities
Engulphed in flame burst forth. The fiery flood
Rolled o'er the arid plains, and shapeless rocks,
And to its centre scorched the calcined soil.
Still firm the prophet stood, for well he knew,
(Yea, locked the truth within his inmost heart)
The Lord of peace and love comes not to man
In storms, in earthquakes, in consuming flames,
(Though all He use, as instruments, to melt
To penitence, and break the stony soul;)
He in eternity's recesses dwells,
The high, the holy place; but His choice seat
Makes in the contrite heart, the humble spirit,
And his that trembles at his God's rebuke.
Hushed was the tempest, stilled the throes
And heavings of the earthquakes, quenched the flames : Peace reigned o'er earth and sky. In solemn silence Elijah yet the mighty advent waits;
When lo! into the deep recesses of his soul
A still, small voice was borne !
-No fine-drawn chord, trembling to flexile touch;
No tones that float from flock-clothed hills, and wake
The echoes of the vales; no solemn swell,
Majestic leading the assembled praise
In holy fane; no sounds, incarcerate,
Caught from the vagrant gales, and turned, by skill
Of instrumental alchemy, to strains
Of breathing sweetness; none of these, nor all
Combined (for oh, what sounds from earth or air
With heavenly melody may vie ?) e'er took
With such a sacred and resistless force
The sense and filled the spirit. The prophet knew
His present God; and in his mantle wrapping
Lowly his face, waited His high behests.
Again the words were few; but-thus renewed The solemn question-by the conscious thought And heart interpreted, it seemed to say;
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