Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/218

218THE HALLIG.

the last few hours ; and Mander passed a night, by the
bed-side of his son, which, he confessed afterward, was
for him a school of the severest, and yet most whole-
some discipline.
  The morning came, and with it came to Oswald the
new creating Word, with its note of triumph, "old
things have passed away, and behold all things have be-
come new." The tempest in his breast was still ; the
troubled sea was calm and smooth ; and the star of
divine hope was mirrored in its depths. This transition
from the most torturing distress to the most happy
peace, was not like the gradual subsiding of the waves,
when the tempest grows weaker and weaker, but rather
resembled that miraculous change that took place when,
at the prayer of his disciples, "Lord save us ; we perish !"
the Lord rose, and rebuked the wind and the sea. Then
there was a great calm. In like manner, here too, had
the cry, "Lord save us, we perish," been uttered at the
right moment ; and in the wildest night of gloom, the
sun of peace and triumph suddenly arose. So does the
hour of spiritual regeneration often resemble that of
the natural birth. And are there not often, in our
seasons of devotion — unless our prayers are but a feeble
knocking, and have no entrance to the Father — mo-
ments in which the feeling of God's presence, and the
joy of communion with him, completely overflow the
heart, without gradual elevation or subsequent depres-
sion ? Oswald was like a child that has just waked from
a frightful dream, and. sees the bright display of his
Christmas pleasures all spread out before him. No
thought of the anguish which had but just now rent his
soul, disturbed the hosanna of the new life.