The Rainbow

Representative Text

1 When, deaf to every warning given,
Man braved the patient power of heaven,
Great in his anger, God arose,
Deluged the world, and drowned his foes.

2 Vengeance, that called for this just doom,
Retired to make sweet mercy room;
God, of his wrath repenting, swore
A flood should drown the earth no more.

3 That future ages this might know,
He placed in heaven his radiant bow;
The sign, till time itself shall fail,
That waters shall no more prevail.

4 [The beauties of this bow but shine
To vulgar eyes as something fine;
Others investigate their cause
By mediums drawn from nature’s laws.

5 But what great ends can men pursue
From schemes like these, suppose them true?
Describe the form, the cause define,
The rainbow still remains a sign.

6 A sign in which by faith we read
The covenant God with Noah made;
A noble end and truly great;
But something greater lies there yet.]

7 This bow that beams with vivid light,
Presents a sign to Christian sight,
That God has sworn (who dares condemn?)
He will no more be wroth with them.

8 [Thus the believer, when he views
The rainbow in its various hues,
May say, “Those lively colours shine
To show that heaven is surely mine.

9 “See in yon cloud what tinctures glow,
And gild the smiling vales below;
So smiles my cheerful soul to see
My God is reconciled to me.”]

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #791

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Author: J. Hart

Hart, Joseph, was born in London in 1712. His early life is involved in obscurity. His education was fairly good; and from the testimony of his brother-in-law, and successor in the ministry in Jewin Street, the Rev. John Hughes, "his civil calling was" for some time "that of a teacher of the learned languages." His early life, according to his own Experience which he prefaced to his Hymns, was a curious mixture of loose conduct, serious conviction of sin, and endeavours after amendment of life, and not until Whitsuntide, 1757, did he realize a permanent change, which was brought about mainly through his attending divine service at the Moravian Chapel, in Fetter Lane, London, and hearing a sermon on Rev. iii. 10. During the next two years ma… Go to person page >

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