When the tempest raged around us,
In the darkness of the night;
Save one sweet and gentle maiden,
Everyone was filled with fright.
When the tempest had subsided,
And the sea once more was calmed;
Someone asked that gentle maiden
If she had not felt alarmed.
In her hand she held her Bible,
Looking upward as she spoke;
“Stranger, have you never read this?
Don’t you know what’s in this book?”
Then she opened her loved Bible,
And a gentle mark she made
Round the words which are as follows:
“It is I, be not afraid.”
Through the storm I heard a whisper;
And it spoke to me. It said,
“Bear not, loved one. I am with thee,
It is I, be not afraid.”
So when tempests rage around us,
Let us like that gentle maid;
Trust the voice, that gently whispers,
“It is I, be not afraid.”
ML 12/31/1922