And now, the thickening sky Like a dark ceiling stood; down rushed the rain Impetuous, and continued till the earth No more was seen. The floating vessel swam Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow, Rode tilting o’er the waves; all dwellings else _Flood_ overwhelmed, and them, with all their pomp, Deep under water rolled; sea covered sea, Sea without shore; and in their palaces, Where luxury late reigned, sea monsters whelped And stabled. Of mankind, so numerous late, All left in one small bottom swam imbarked. _Milton._ Methinks I see a distant vessel ride, A lonely object on the shoreless tide, Within whose ark the innocent have found Safety, when stayed destruction ravens round; Thus, in the hour of vengeance, God, who knows His servants, spares them, while He smites His foes. _James Montgomery._ Sunk beneath the wave, The guilty share an universal grave; One wilderness of waters rolls in view, And heaven and ocean wear one turbid hue; Still stream unbroken torrents from the skies, Higher, beneath, the inundations rise; A lurid twilight glares athwart the scene, Now thunders peal, faint lightnings flash between. _James Montgomery._ Down rush the torrents from above; the deep Opens in all its fountains, ceaseless, still Ceaseless: the muddy waters eddying fill The valleys. High on every mound and steep, In crowds, men, women, children, cattle, sheep, Stand shivering with dismay, the horrible Confusion eyeing; and, from hill to hill, They shout in agony, or shriek, or weep, In vain! the waters gain upon them. Lo! The ark careering past, their hands they stretch For help; and now you see some drowning wretch Pursue the sacred vessel; but in woe No pity must they have; so on they go.-- Now all is one wide sea without a beach. _Morehead._ Behold the awful Deity enthroned In darkness awful--inaccessible, And order almost unto chaos changed; Tremendous gloom! that blots the sun’s bright beams, And more than midnight horrors shroud the skies, The faint grey twilight gleaming thro’ the clouds, Discover, floating on a shoreless sea, The chosen eight embosom’d in the Ark, One family preserved to renovate The world, Jehovah’s judgments have destroyed. * * * * * But see the bow its new-created dyes Begin to beam propitious from the cloud-- “Destructive waters shall no more prevail, No more become a _flood_ upon the earth.” _S. Hughes._ FLOWERS. Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.