The Rocky Island

The Rocky Island, by Samuel
Wilberforce

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Wilberforce
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Title: The Rocky Island and Other Similitudes
Author: Samuel Wilberforce

Release Date: February 7, 2007 [eBook #20541]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
ROCKY ISLAND***

Transcribed from the 1849 (tenth) Francis & John Rivington edition by
David Price, email [email protected]

THE ROCKY ISLAND, AND OTHER SIMILITUDES.
BY SAMUEL WILBERFORCE, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.
"Fed my lambs."--S. JOHN xxi. 15.
TENTH EDITION
LONDON: FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH
YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE. 1849.
{The Rocky Island: p0.jpg}

PREFACE.
The advertisement to a work of similar character to the present
expresses the author's principle and wishes as to this little volume. It is
constructed on the same plan, and, like the former, has had the test of
the observations of his own children before it was given to the public.
The reception of "Agathos" has shewn that many parents have felt the
want which these little volumes are intended to supply, and leads the
author to hope that he has in some measure been able to meet it.
It is a peculiar gratification to him to be able thus to enter many a
Christian household, and fulfil, in some measure, his Master's charge,
"Feed my lambs."
May it please God to give His blessing to this new attempt.
S. W
Winchester, Sept. 29, 1840.

The Rocky Island.

I saw in my dream a rough rocky island rising straight out of the midst
of a roaring sea. In the midst of the island rose a black steep mountain;
dark clouds rested gloomily upon its top; and into the midst of the
clouds it cast forth ever and anon red flames, which lit them up like the
thick curling smoke at the top of a furnace-chimney. Peals of loud
thunder sounded constantly from these thick clouds; and now and then
angry lightning shot its forked tongue, white, and red, and blue, from
the midst of them, and fell upon the rocks, or the few trees which just
clung to their sides, splitting them violently down, and scattering the
broken and shivered pieces on all sides. It was a sad, dreary-looking
island at the first view, and I thought that no one could dwell in it; but
as I looked closer at its shores, I saw that they were covered with
children at play. A soft white sand formed its beach, and there these
children played. I saw no grown people among them; but the children
were all busy--some picking up shells; some playing with the
bright-coloured berries of a prickly dwarf-plant which grew upon those
sands; some watching the waves as they ran up and then fell back again
on that shore; some running after the sea-birds, which ran with quick
light feet along the wet sand, and ever flew off, skimming just along
the wave-top, and uttering a quick sharp note as the children came close
upon them:--so some sported in one way, and some in another, but all
were busily at play. Now I wondered in my dream to see these children
thus busy whilst the burning mountain lay close behind them, and the
thunder made the air ring.
Sometimes, indeed, when it shone out redder and fiercer than usual, or
when the thunder seemed close over their heads, the children would be
startled for a little while, and run together, and cry, and scream; but
very soon it was all forgotten, and they were as full of their sports as
ever.
While I was musing upon this, I saw a man appear suddenly amongst
the children. He was of a noble and kingly countenance, and yet so
gentle withal that there was not a child of them all who seemed afraid
to look in his face, or to listen to his kind voice when he opened his
mouth, for soon I found that he was speaking to them. "My dear
children," I heard him say, "you will all be certainly killed, if you stay

upon this rocky island. Here no one ever grows up happily. Here all
play turns into death--the burning mountain, and the forked lightning,
and the dreadful breath of the hill-storm,--these sweep down over all
that stay here, and slay them all; and if you stay here, for these childish
pleasures of yours, you will all perish."
Then the children grew very grave, and they gazed one upon another,
and all looked up into