"O mighty Lord, under whose wing we find defense and shelter, thou art invisible and impalpable, even as night and the air. How can I, that am so mean and worthless, dare to appear before thy majesty? Stuttering [1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 232.] {p. 187} and with rude lips I speak, ungainly is the manner of my speech as one leaping among furrows, as one advancing unevenly; for all this I fear to raise thine anger, and to provoke instead of appeasing thee; nevertheless, thou wilt do unto me as may please thee. O Lord, _thou hast held it good to forsake us in these days_, according to the counsel that thou hast as well in heaven as in hades,--alas for us, in that thine _anger and indignation has descended upon us in these days_; alas in that the many and grievous afflictions of thy wrath have overgone, and swallowed us up, _coming down even as stones, spears, and arrows upon the wretches that inhabit the earth!_--this is the sore pestilence with which we are afflicted and _almost destroyed_. O valiant and all-powerful Lord, the common people are almost _made an end of and destroyed;_ a great destruction the ruin and pestilence already make in this nation; and, what is most pitiful of all, the little children, that are innocent and understand nothing, only to play with _pebbles and to heap up little mounds of earth, they too die, broken and dashed to pieces as against stones and a wall_--a thing very pitiful and grievous to be seen, for there remain of them not even those in the cradles, nor those that could not walk or speak. Ah, Lord, how _all things become confounded!_ of young and old and of men and women there _remains neither branch nor root;_ thy nation, and thy people, and thy wealth, _are leveled down and destroyed_. "O our Lord, protector of all, most valiant and most kind, _what is this?_ "Thine anger and thine indignation, does it glory or delight in _hurling the stone, and arrow, and spear? The FIRE of the pestilence, made exceeding hot, is upon thy nation_, as a fire in a hut, _burning and smoking, leaving nothing upright or sound_. The grinders of thy teeth," (the falling stones), "are employed, and thy bitter whips upon the miserable of thy people, who have become lean, and of little substance, even as a hollow green cane. Yea, _what doest thou now_, O Lord, most strong, compassionate, invisible, and impalpable, whose will all things obey, upon whose disposal depends the rule of the world, to whom all are subject,--what in thy divine breast {p. 188} hast thou decreed? Peradventure, hast thou altogether forsaken thy nation and thy people? Hast thou verily determined that it _utterly perish_, and that there be no more memory of it in the world, _that the peopled place become a wooded hill, and_ A WILDERNESS OF STONES? Peradventure, wilt thou permit that the temples, and the places of prayer, and the altars, built for thy service, _be razed_ and destroyed, and no memory of them left?