Divine Providence by Ira A. Clute

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 25, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 42.

Divine Providence

By Ira A. Clute

THE city sleeps in silence Through the tropic summer night, No sense of coming danger Their peaceful dreams affrights. In revelry and feasting, In sleep and worldly lust, The many are indulging Who shall soon return to dust.

Ah! the cruelty of Satan! How he lures men on to try All earth's madness, with the promise, "Nay, thou shalt not surely die!" How he burns with earth's wild fever All man's love for truth or God, Till, as in the days of Noah, Naught but sin is all abroad.

Can we wonder at the judgment— That an earthquake rends the earth? That the powers of heaven are shaken, Drowning all the cries of mirth? Not in Kingston, that doomed city, But in all the earth's wide bound, Can we wonder that God's thunders Shake the skies and rend the ground?

When we see the ranks of Satan Forward march in gay array, Luring smiles upon their faces, In their hearts, "Deceive, betray," Shall all perish in the chaos? Nay. As on the southern isle, God's own band of faithful workers May find favor in His smile.

Providence divine protects them. "Hide thyself," while storms o'ercast, "As it were, a little moment Till the indignation's past." Tho we shudder at the sadness That the power of Satan gave, We may shout: "This is our Saviour! We have waited! He will save!" Famine, pestilence, and earthquake, Little understood, tho heard, Shall fulfil prophetic Scriptures, Strengthen and support His Word.

Westmoreland, New York.