As morning broke, a dense pillar of ashes rose from the burning, roaring
mountain; the school-house, where sixty Maori boys and girls used to be
taught, was struck by lightning; and while burning, overwhelmed with
torrents of hot mud and stones. Sad to say, the schoolmaster and most of
his family were killed, the two eldest daughters only being rescued from
the buried house. How well it is to know that Mr. Hazard and the four
children who were taken out dead from the ruins, were ready, quite ready
for whatever might happen, because they knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their
Saviour!
God allowed them to lose their lives upon that dreadful day; but for them
the eruption of the volcano was only the "chariot of fire" by which He was
pleased to take them away in a moment, to be for ever with the Lord, who
had loved them and given Himself for them.
The darkness caused by the ashes which fell in a ceaseless shower for
eighteen hours, continued till noon the next day, when it was seen that not
only had the beautiful marble terraces vanished, but the whole valley had
been blown into the air by the tremendous force of imprisoned steam. A
traveller describing the scene of desolation says,[Footnote: Miss Gordon
Cumming on "The Eruption of Tarawera in 1885."] "Even living birds were
coated with mud, while for some days after the eruption the poor bewildered
cattle roamed about this dreary wilderness mad with hunger and thirst,
gnawing boughs of trees or decayed wood, bellowing pitifully, and with eyes
bloodshot and nostrils choked with greasy slate-coloured mud, which lay an
inch thick all over their coats.
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