And if a heavy cloud, opaque at night, In which the sun may seem embodied, Deprived of all its dregs we see so white, Burning in liquid gold its watery head, Or round with ivory edges silvered; What lustre supereminent will HE Lighten on those who shall his sunshine see In that all-glorious _court_, in which all glories be. _Giles Fletcher._ Quivering fears, heart-tearing cares, Anxious sighs, untimely tears. Fly, fly to _courts_; Fly to fond worldlings’ sports, Where strain’d sardonic smiles are glossing still, And grief is forced to laugh against her will; Where mirth’s but mummery; And sorrows only real be! _Sir Walter Raleigh._ COVENANT--RAINBOW. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me. But with thee will I establish my _covenant_.--Genesis, vi. 13, 18. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my _covenant_, which is between me and you, and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.--Genesis, ix. 14, 15. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth _covenant_ and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.--Deuteronomy, vii. 9. For if that first _covenant_ had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.--Hebrews, viii. 7. Still young and fine, but what is still in view, We slight as old and soil’d, though fresh and new; How bright wert thou when Shem’s admiring eye Thy burnished flaming arch did first descry; When Zarah, Nahor, Haran, Abram, Lot, The youthful world’s grey fathers, in one knot, Did, with intentive looks, watch every hour For thy new light, and trembled at each shower! When thou dost shine, darkness looks white and fair; Forms turn to music, clouds to smiles and air; Rain gently spreads his honey-drops, and pours Balm on the cleft earth, milk on grass and flowers. Bright pledge of peace and sunshine, the sure tye Of the Lord’s hand, the object of his eye; When I behold thee, though my light be dim, Distant, and low, I can in thine see Him Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne, And minds the _covenant_ betwixt all and One. _Henry Vaughan._ The _rainbow_ bending in the sky, Bedecked with sundry hues, Is like the seat of God on high, And seems to tell these news:-- That as, thereby, He promised To drown the world no more, So, by the blood which Christ has shed, He will our souls restore. _George Gascoigne._