The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-09-30
NATURES LONELINESS.
THE EVER VARYING BEAUTY OF THE
CLOUDS.


An Eloquent Tribute to the Greatness of
Things Well.
BY ANNA TWEEDY.
When the sight is raised above the
surrounding scenes of earth to the
wide expansive heavens, it rests on
the blending glories of the celestial
world. Who has not felt its sweet
enchanting power and magic infu-
ence? And who, when soothed by
the scene, has not felt each gloomy
thought give way, and a holier feel
ing, with humble resignation in its
paths, arise? As we watch the
variegated mantle of blue, tinged
with the golden hue of the sun, it
seems veil of indescribable beauty
thrown over, or rather under, the
sky to give brighter glimpse of the
i world on high, too glorious for
mortal eyes to view.
Our conceptions are too limited to
imagine, and our visions too feeble
to scan the rich and ever VARYING
beauty of the clouds as they glow
with their brightest beams, though
their splendor is only borrowed and
reflected. Shadows of beauty fit
around, and in the cold heaven they
brighten ere they die. Myriads of
golden apparitions are borne on the
air, and when they disappear in rain,
do we search for their. place as for
that of the bubble which on the
water has burst.
90, if my pen were skilled IN love,
The tempting prize | might secure:
Then might boast its matchless power
That brings success in this glad hour
Geology teaches of wonderful
changes, but long ages ago we know
that beautiful hills, lovely fields of
flowers, mountains with their gloomy
grotoes, dismal with the weird muir
murings of the orcards, valleys with
their wild rose hedges and tangled
ravines, their sparkling rivulets,
their silvery lakes and dark Gifted
rivers, the ocean with its wild waves,
its sporting mermaids and drifting
icebergs, made earth our glad. sweet
home, and bending far above it all
was the blue dome of heaven, with
its glorious clouds Then, as now,
dark storm clouds gathered over
blue skies snow white folds came
up with the breezes, and at sunset
golden bands Of them stretched
along the horizon. Just as in olden
times, when the Galilean fisherman
watched the reflected beauty and
grandeur of the clouds as they how
cred darkly over the waters just as
the ancient shepherds when at night
fall they gathered in mysterious
silence near the walls of Bethlehem
to await the appearance of the star
in the east, watched the peaceful
floating clouds-do we now see and
note their ever changing beauty.
We find calm, restfnl beauty in them
as they float sereneiy in misty, feecy
l.quietness, so far above us; but the
most beautiful cloud picture is the
one that appears after storm when
at eventide, beneath and far beyond
a bank of the still black and drifting
clouds appear, bank of pure white
ones family tinged with sunshine,
with the soft tint of the evening sky
beyond They look so far, far away,
50 serene, peaceful, and glorious that
in an underlined state they are a
silent reminder of the Getty of our
God. =
Therefore it follows, that.a such
beauty Is only a reflection Of the
passive qualities OF the cloud, subject
to variation, Then there can be no
limit to the variety of its transform
ations. Beauty is called a fading
| flower, and even the ever varying
beauty of the cloud is transitory
/ We often hear the saying, beauty
is as beauty does aud we think il
little worth, when it proves to be as
variable as the cloud
The ornament of meek and quiet
spirit is better adjournment, in the
sight of God, than that of plating
| the hair, wearing of gold or putting
on. of apparel. Ficklemindednes'
may be compared with the eve