Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/341

At the earthquake's dreadful shock.
Will you flee to the hills for refuge?
Lo, their rock-ribbed sides are rent
To emit the poisonous vapors
In the earth's interior pent!
Stand still in Jehovah's presence.
Will you still His anger provoke
 Who "looketh on the earth and it trembleth,"
 Who "toucheth the hills and they smoke?"

"Tis a voice from the buried cities,
From the dust where they long have lain;
From their crumbling shrines and idols,
From the ashes of their slain.
Was it only a law of Nature,
When those pent-up vapors became
A mighty force, that the mountains
Burst forth in floods of flame?
Ah! 'tis the words of the psalmist,
With their swift destruction yoked:'
 "He looketh on the earth and it trembleth,
 He toucheth the hills and they smoke."

Be calm, oh my soul within me,
Thy God will thy refuge find;
Who maketh the clouds His chariot,
Who rideth on the wings of the wind.
Whose voice in its awful grandeur,
As heard in the thunder's crash;
Whose arrows flying earthward
In the lightning's lurid flash,
May strike down the proud in a moment
Or splinter the giant oak.
 Who "looketh on the earth and it trembleth,
 Who toucheth the hills and they smoke."

[ 311 ]