• “We need Jesus!…He is our joy…without Him, the world and all it calls good, is poverty, wretchedness and woe! With Him, a wilderness is a paradise, a cottage a palace and the lowliest spot of earth a little heaven below” – Mary Winslow

The Mountain After the Quake – Streams in the Desert 05/04

“He maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth and his hands make whole” (Job 5:18).

The ministry of a great sorrow.

As we pass beneath the hills which have been shaken by the earthquake and torn by convulsion, we find that periods of perfect repose succeed those of destruction. The pools of calm water lie clear beneath their fallen rocks, the water lilies gleam, and the reeds whisper among the shadows; the village rises again over the forgotten graves, and its church tower, white through the storm twilight, proclaims a renewed appeal to His protection “in whose hand are all the corners of the earth, and the strength of the hills is his also.” –Ruskin

God ploughed one day with an earthquake,
And drove His furrows deep!
The huddling plains upstarted,
The hills were all aleap!
But that is the mountains’ secret,
Age-hidden in their breast;
“God’s peace is everlasting,”
Are the dream-words of their rest.
He made them the haunts of beauty,
The home elect of His grace;
He spreadeth His mornings upon them,
His sunsets light their face.
His winds bring messages to them
Wild storm-news from the main;
They sing it down the valleys
In the love-song of the rain.
They are nurseries for young rivers,
Nests for His flying cloud,
Homesteads for new-born races,
Masterful, free, and proud.
The people of tired cities
Come up to their shrines and pray;
God freshens again within them,
As He passes by all day.
And lo, I have caught their secret!
The beauty deeper than all!
This faith–that life’s hard moments,
When the jarring sorrows befall,
Are but God ploughing His mountains;
And those mountains yet shall be
The source of His grace and freshness,
And His peace everlasting to me.
–William C. Gannett

Share to Google Plus

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

  • “Maturity starts with the willingness to give oneself.” – Elisabeth Elliot (Let Me Be a Woman)

Copyrighted works are the property of the copyright holders. All works are shown free of charge for educational purposes only in accordance with fair use guidelines. If we have inadvertently included a copyrighted work that the copyright holder does not wish to be displayed, we will remove it within 48 hours upon notification by the owner or the owner’s legal representative.

Verse of the Day

[A Heavenly Inheritance] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, — 1 Peter 1:3 (NKJV)

Stay Connected

Recent Comments

Return to Homepage