Thunder Storms


THE season for thunder and lightning has again

returned. And we shall doubtless witness a great

many terrific storms. The heavens will become

black, the thunders will roll, the lightnings glare,

buildings and trees will be struck and consumed,

and many persons will lose their lives.

Children are often dreadfully afraid of thunder

storms, and especially bad ones: for lightning is

an agent God often employs to summon wicked

people to their accounts. And then again, a 

violent thunder storm is a lively type of the 

judgment day, when the Lord will be revealed 

from heaven in "flaming fire" and destroy all 

those who have lived ungodly.

When I was small I used to be very much

afraid of thunder and lightning. There was 

nothing that I dreaded so much as a storm 

accompanied with lightning and thunder. Many 

a time when I used to go "hunting the cows," 

have I left my pocket knife at home, or hid it in 

a stump or fence for fear the steel would attract

 the electrical bolt too near. And I find now a 

great many children have similar fears.

But why do we fear the lightning or dread the

wild tornado? These are only the agents which

the Lord employs to fulfill his purposes in the

world. And we should dread them only as we feel

our distance from God. "Perfect love," says the

Apostle, "casteth out fear." "If our heart 

condemn us not," we shall never be afraid of

 thunder-storms, hurricanes, cholera or plague,

 or the solemn hour and article of death. "Perfect

 love" will remove all this fear, and more 

wonderful yet, it will give us "boldness in the 

day of judgment!"

Children give your hearts to God, and then in

place of a "spirit of fear" you will have the 

"peace of God which passeth all understanding."





O. W. A.