FROM thickest darkness, 'mid the lightning's glare,
And the loud thunder, bursting from the cloud,
When God came down in fire, and the dread blare
Of the great trumpet sounded long and loud;
When Sinai quaked, and Israel thrilled with awe,
Then God proclaimed aloud His holy Law.
Deeply important and most solemn hour,
When by Jehovah—Lord of earth and heaven—
Mid awful pomp, and manifested power,
That Law, so holy, just, and good, was given!
But say, what was our gracious God's design
In giving thus to man His Law divine?
Speak, hoary Mount, on whose dread summit God
Sat throned in clouds; can thy commandments bless
The lost and guilty? Can thy holy code
Furnish frail man with perfect righteousness?
It can, and does reveal sin's awful
To cleanse the guilty sinner hath it skill?
Ah no! the righteous law can only curse
Unrighteous man, when placed beneath its sway;
He is not subject to it and still worse,
He neither can nor will its hests obey.
Offending worm! he surely must be trod
Beneath the feet of an offended God.
But, joyful news! not to Sinai dread
That God commandeth sinners frail to come;
That were a call destruction's path to tread,
And thus ensure weak man's eternal doom.
God opes to all the riches of His grace,
Which from the soul can every sin efface.
O truth most precious! 'tis the grace of God
That brings salvation to the lost, to all,
Which, by removing sin's tremendous load,
Undoes the evil of the primal fall;
Nay more, it brings us, now redemption's won,
As near to God as His beloved Son.
Dost thou ask how? From heaven the Lord descends,
Leaving in glory bright His vacant place,
To Calvary's cross His lonely way He tends,
To ope the floodgates of eternal grace.
He dies! the gates are opened! far and wide
Through the dark world now flows the healing tide.
Thus God His love commendeth; when in sin
We lay supine, 'twas then that Jesus died
To cleanse us, save us, and our love to win,
That we might dwell forever at His side.
Come to the living waters! come with speed;
'Tis grace alone that meets the sinner's need.
H. M.