Chapter IV: Part 4

Besides the lesson of solemn warning and terror another of a character acceptable and gladdening was offered to my thoughts, as I stood on the river's bank at the Falls; for I beheld a rainbow of a full semi-circle or more, the ends almost under my feet, stretching over the awful chasm, deepest in color low down at each extremity, where the turmoil of mist was the thickest. This lesson I here put in rhyme, and with it, in accordance with the sentiment of the hundredth sonnet which a few days ago passed through the press, I now close this little book.

If the reader will consider, that my threatening illness has now had a continuance of many months and that to-day closes seventy-six years of my life, he will find reason to conclude, that my thoughts here expressed, although in verse, are utterances in the sincerity of faith and the honesty of truth: and so I bid him farewell, wishing him "a happy New Year" and a blessed Eternity!

Jan. 1, 1860.

NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1860.

I praise thee, God of love! for this Day's light,
Which leads the train of days in this new year,――
For months not seeming destin'd to me here,
But ah instead thereof a darksome night
In the low grave, of all earth's joys the blight.――
I live! And in my thoughts old scenes appear.
The mighty Falls, where gazing I stood near
In happy youth, rise up in splendor bright,
When, as I gaz'd, there met my wond'ring eye
Amid the wat'ry strife the beauteous Bow,
As if brought down from its high place, the sky,
And planted deep in the thick mist below;――
God's bow of promise to the earth beneath,――
Symbol of Peace 'mid Sin and War and Death!

* * * * *

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Punctuation has been standardized.

Some alternate spellings have been retained.

This book contained an errata page at the end. The errata have been applied to the e-text by the transcriber without further note.

p. 24: "Aud" changed to "And" (And with the holy who in glory shine!)

p. 71: Missing word inserted: "an" (Remaining more than an hour)

p. 94: "shewing" changed to "showing" (showing that the true Supreme God is meant)

End of Project Gutenberg's A Book of Christian Sonnets, by William Allen