Why had he craved God's pity? Once his poor child was blither than the panther of the wilderness and happier than the young lamb that sports in springtime.If she was blind, she knew not what it was to see; and if she was deaf, she knew not what it was to hear;and if she was dumb, she knew not what it was to speak.
Nothing did she miss of sight or sound or speech any more than of the wings of the eagle or the dove.Yet he would not be content;he would not be appeased.Oh! subtlety of the devil which had brought this evil upon him!
But the God whom Israel in his agony and his madness rebuked in this manner sent His angel to make a great silence, and the storm lapsed to a breathless quiet.
And when the tempest was gone Naomi's delirium passed away.
She seemed to look, and nothing could she see; and then to listen, and nothing could she hear; and then she clasped the hand of her father that lay over her hand, and sighed and sank down again.
"Ah!"
It was even as if peace had come to her with the thought that she was back in the land of great silence once again, and that the voices which had startled her, and the storm which had terrified her, had been nothing but an evil dream.
In that sweet respite she fell asleep, and Israel forgot the reproaches with which he had reproached his God, and looked tenderly down at her, and said within himself, "It was her baptism.Now she will walk the world with confidence, and never again will she be afraid.
Truly the Lord our God is king over all kingdoms and wise beyond all wisdom!"Then, with one look backward at Naomi where she slept, he crept out of the room on tiptoe.