.T76 
 
LITEEAET 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS AND ACHIEVEMENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE BIBLE 
 
 BT 
 
 BEV. W.'TEAIL, A. M., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the CHBISTIAN GEACES" AND "UNSEEN BEAUTIES.' 
 
 CINCINNATI'. 
 HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 
 
 NE]V YORK: 
 
 CARLTON & LANAHAN. 
 
PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 The author has brought to the composition of 
 this volume a taste, a culture, and an earnestness 
 of purpose which have left their impress upon every 
 chapter. He manifestly entered into the spirit of 
 his work. While, with a master hand, he discloses 
 the beauties of the Bible — its high literary char- 
 acteristics, and its wonderful achievements — he is 
 constantly directing the reader to its Divine author- 
 ship. No one can rise from the perusal of this 
 work without feeling that the blessed volume of 
 which it treats, is, 
 
 " On every line, 
 Marked with the seal of high Divinity ; 
 On every leaf, bedewed with drops of love 
 Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
 And signature of God Almighty stamped, 
 From first to last." 
 
 The religious public of Great Britain have at- 
 tested their appreciation of its value in the suc- 
 cessive editions of it that have been demanded. 
 The English press has also bestowed upon it the 
 highest encomiums. It now remains to be seen 
 whether it shall have equal appreciation from the 
 Christian public of America. 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 We have also felt desirous of supplying a want in 
 our denominational literature. Our book catalogue 
 in this department was utterly wanting. As a 
 help to a better appreciation of the character of 
 the Bible and its relations to the literary produc- 
 tions of the human mind uninspired, and also to 
 the better appreciation of its influence upon the 
 literature, science, and intellect of the world, this 
 volume should go into the hands of every Bible 
 student; it should find a place in every Christian 
 home. The Bible class, or Sunday school teacher, 
 who shall read it consecutively, will have his views 
 of the Bible enlarged, and find himself more fully 
 equipped for his work. No Sunday school library 
 should be without a copy. But to the minister, 
 preaching Christ, and presenting the claims of the 
 Bible, it will be found invaluable. 
 
 By its fluent style, its line of thought and mode 
 of discussion, it is eminently adapted to popular 
 reading. It is, in fact, like the Bible itself, a 'peo- 
 ples hook. Learned criticisms — as dry as learned, 
 and as long as dry — we have in abundance. But 
 popular presentations of the Bible, exhibiting its 
 striking characteristics and its adaptations, are few 
 and rare. We have gone over its pages carefully, 
 and given it such adaptation to its mission in Amer- 
 ica as seemed desirable. 
 
 With these brief notes, we now commend it to 
 the Christian public. D. W. C. 
 
 Cincinnati, October 1, 1863. 
 
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 It is not without considerable hesitation that I 
 present this Arolume to the public. The subject, in 
 detached parts, has been treated by far abler pens; 
 but, so far as I am aware, the attempt has not been 
 made, in any single volume at least, to exhibit the 
 subject with the same comprehensiveness and sys- 
 tem. Where I had the labors of preceding writers 
 to direct and aid me, I felt less hesitation; where I 
 had not these guides, the importance of the subject 
 not unfrequently caused me to doubt my own ability 
 to handle it, so as, while gaining the ear of those 
 who are of literary taste and culture, there should 
 be nothing to offend the sensibilities of a pure and 
 simple piety. I had an abiding conviction that a 
 free exhibition of the literature of the Bible is cal- 
 culated to strengthen our belief in its Divine inspi- 
 ration; but on the other hand, it needed caution, 
 while freely exhibiting its literary characteristics, 
 not to present the Bible as merely a literary pro- 
 duction. I have striven to use this caution ; so that, 
 
 although I do not on every other page reiterate my 
 
 5 
 
6 PEEFACE. 
 
 belief in its Divine inspiration, I am hopeful that 
 the reader will find nothing in this volume which 
 can have a tendency to put away from his mind the 
 thought which was constantly present to my own — 
 that the book whose own literary beauties I exam- 
 ine, and whose influence on literature and the arts 
 I endeavor to trace and record, is none other than 
 the Book of God. I shall have sadly failed in my 
 design if what I present to the reader does not 
 increase his devout admiration of the Bible as a 
 book, which is as divinely beautiful as it is divinely 
 true. 
 
 Notwithstanding my misgivings whether I have 
 been at all able to do justice to so important a sub- 
 ject, I am fain to persuade myself that till some 
 one more competent to the task shall undertake it, 
 the present volume may, in some small degree, sup- 
 ply what I have long felt to be a desideratum in 
 sacred literature. 
 
COJSTTEIf TS 
 
 PART FIRST 
 
 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 PAQE. 
 
 A Depknsb and Enfoeckment op the Study op the Litera- 
 
 TUEE OP THE BiBLE 13 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 The Style op the Scbiptuees 35 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 The Fioubativb in the Sceiptuees 51 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Thb Fioubativb in the Sceiptuees — continued 65 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Thb Symbolic in the Sceiptuees 89 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Thb Sublime in the Sceiptuees 102 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Ths Pathetic in the Sceiptuees 121 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 FAOK. 
 
 The Pictubesque in the Scriptubes 141 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Hebbew Poetry 161 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Hebrew Poetby — continued 183 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 The Historical in the Scriptures 198 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 The Bidgbaphies of Scripture 212 
 
 CHAPTER Xm 
 The Two Standards of Litebabt Mebit 221 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Introductory 229 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Bible, the Pioneer op Literature and the Arts 241 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Bible, the Promoter op Literature and the Arts — 
 Modern Postbt 256 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAOE. 
 
 The Biblk the Pbomoteb of Literature and the Arts — 
 Modern Painting 276 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Bible the Promoter op Literature and the Arts — 
 Modern Sculpture and Music 291 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Bible the Promoter of Literature and the Arts — 
 Modern General Literature 302 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Bible the Restorer of Literature and the Arts — 
 when Europe had fallen back into Military Bar- 
 barism 313 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Bible the Restorer of Intellectual Life — when Eu- 
 rope had sunk into an effeminating Superstition 330 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 The Influence of the Bible on Science 344 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Conclusion 356 
 
PAUT FIRST 
 
 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
THE 
 
 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A DEFENSE AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE STUDY OF THE 
 LITERATUIVE OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 There are certain prejudices from which dissent 
 should be entered with a frank acknowledgment of 
 the righteousness of the feeling from which they 
 spring. The subject which we purpose to dis- 
 cuss on these pages will at once suggest a case in 
 which this ought to be done. There are not a few 
 who confess to a strong disinclination to hear the 
 Bible spoken of as a literary production. Now, 
 with the feelings of these we are free to own a 
 sympathy; since what disinclines them to associate 
 it with literature is their devout reverence for the 
 Word of God. And we should have to blame our- 
 selves did we not frankly admit this, while express- 
 ing our entire dissent from their opinion. Indeed, 
 justice to ourselves requires this, for we would not 
 willingly be thought to be one whit behind them in 
 
 our reverence for that Book which, as devoutly as 
 
 13 
 
14 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 they, we believe to be the very Word of God. 
 "With a faith as simple as theirs we would bow to its 
 Divine authority, and with equal reverence we would 
 approach its holy pages. To us, as to them, it is 
 full of God; and could we suppose that there is 
 irreverence or even idle curiosity in examining its 
 literary characteristics, certainly we would never 
 have essayed the task. We venture on our subject 
 not without some misgivings; but among these is 
 not any fear that a study of its literature will lead 
 our readers the less devoutly to believe in the Divine 
 inspiration of the Bible. 
 
 This disinclination which some avow to hear the 
 Sacred Volume spoken of as a literary production, as 
 seems to us, is calculated to do it the great injustice 
 of prejudicing against it such as are of literary 
 tastes and culture; and it may, besides, be shown 
 to proceed from more than one misconception. 
 
 Thus, when the suspicion is expressed that it 
 derogates from the Divine authority of the Scrip- 
 tures to have their literary merits tried by the laws 
 of human criticism, we venture to be of the opin- 
 ion that this suspicion proceeds on a misconception 
 of what these laws are. They are the exponents, 
 not of mere conventional fashions in taste, still less 
 of the caprices of individual opinion, but of those 
 universal notions of the beautiful, which have their 
 seats in human nature itself, having been implanted 
 there by the Creator, who, in this respect, has 
 formed his creatures after his own image. For, 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE LITERATURE. 15 
 
 when reviewing all that he had made, he pro- 
 nounced it to be very good; doubtless he tried the 
 visible forms by those mental conceptions of beauty 
 and fitness which in him are eternal, and in us 
 from him derived. Each several work was good, 
 as answering to his great idea. Now, it is these 
 fundamental principles of beauty, which have a 
 Divine origin, that a correct criticism applies to the 
 Scriptures. We can not, therefore, see how it shall 
 derogate from their Divine authority or majesty to 
 be tested by a standard which is itself divine. 
 
 The truth is, we can not avoid applying the prin- 
 ciples or laws of taste to the Word of God, any more 
 than we can refrain from applying them to his 
 works. And, as we have just said, there is the 
 Divine sanction, or rather the Divine example, for 
 our doing the latter. With regard to the natural 
 landscape, the object of the devout student is not 
 to pronounce how it ought to have been laid out, 
 but rather to discover and expound the actual beau- 
 ties which adorn it. So shall it be the office of the 
 critic, not to bend the Scriptures to the rules of his 
 art, so much as it will be to show that in them 
 these rules have their finest verification. And 
 surely this task is not incompatible with a faith 
 both simple and devout. It shall not nurse the 
 arrogance of pride, but the humility of devotion. 
 Not petulant to fault, but disposed to praise, its 
 work is every way fitted to increase the sentiments 
 of a devout admiration. For, when the critic brings 
 
16 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 his own conceptions of the beautiful within the pre- 
 cincts of inspiration, and shall find, as he is sure to 
 do, that each utterance of the sacred oracle gives 
 full expression to these conceptions and might be said 
 to be the parent voice of which they are the feeble 
 though articulate echo, it is impossible that his 
 admiration of this Divine book shall not be greatly 
 increased. The progress of criticism has enabled 
 him to reduce our notions of the beautiful and the 
 sublime. to certain rules; but here is a most ancient 
 book, great part of which was written during the 
 rudest infancy of literature, which has anticipated 
 these rules; thus showing that its author was most 
 intimately acquainted with the yet unstudied laws 
 of our emotional nature. And surely the discovery 
 of this fact is calculated to raise our admiration 
 both of the book and its author. 
 
 Then, further, if it is thought that an examina- 
 tion of the literature of the Bible implies that we 
 place it on a level with other books, we must pro- 
 nounce this also to be a misconception. For in 
 order rightly to institute the comparison, so far 
 from placing it in the same catalogue with these, 
 we must needs proclaim it to be altogether unique. 
 And although it is not to be expected of us, that 
 on every other page we shall keep reiterating our 
 belief in its divinity, the avowal with which we 
 start in making the comparison is, that it stands 
 forth the one Divine composition which bibliography 
 authenticates; so that there are certain respects in 
 
THE STUDY OF BIBLE LITERATURE. 17 
 
 which it were manifestly improper to compare it 
 with any other composition whatever. Our attempt 
 to show it to be preeminently the book, can never 
 succeed if we lose sight of the fact, though not 
 needlessly reasserting it, that it exclusively is the 
 Divine book. Hence, in any comparison we may 
 institute between the Bible and other books, we at 
 once except the authorship and subject-matter; for 
 in respect of these we should no more think of 
 comparing the Bible with even the very greatest 
 productions of uninspired genius, than we should 
 think of comparing Nature's own artistic master- 
 piece — the bow in the cloud — with the streak of 
 paint-work by which the human artist attempts to 
 imitate it on his canvas. Yet there are certain 
 features which the Bible, as being itself a book, 
 necessarily possesses in common with other books; 
 and it is in respect of these only that we should 
 think of comparing it with them. Thus, for exam- 
 ple, its language is comparable with theirs, seeing 
 that it is composed not in any unique dialect of its 
 own, but in two of the ancient vernaculars. Then, 
 also, it contains history, so that we can institute a 
 comparison between Moses and Luke as historians, 
 and Livy or Herodotus. Also it contains poetry; 
 hence the merits of David, or Asaph, or Ezekiel as 
 poets, can be compared with those of Homer, or 
 Virgil, or Milton. But all the while, so far from 
 forgetting that the Bible is a Divine book, we keep 
 
 this ground idea constantly in the forefront, so that 
 
 2 
 
18 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the comparison at once assumes, and throughout 
 maintains this form : here is God's style and man's 
 style — God's history and man's history — God's po- 
 etry and man's poetry, which, both being presented 
 in human language, can be compared; and the 
 result of that comparison is to determine whether 
 the Book of God does not surpass all other books 
 in literary excellence, just as the works of God, on 
 being compared with all other works, are found to 
 excel them in artistic finish. 
 
 We may not, then, allow ourselves to be forbidden 
 the amenities of sacred literature by a weak pietism 
 which will not itself, nor let others, enter the temple 
 of sacred truth by the gate which is called ''beau- 
 tiful." Nor does it content us merely to defend, 
 for we must go further, and enforce it as a duty to 
 study the literature of the Bible. 
 
 I. Our first argument shall be drawn from the 
 constitution of the human mind itself. One of its 
 primary and essential faculties is imagination. With- 
 out this creative faculty, how much more limited 
 would be the range of human thought ! and without 
 this softening and ornative faculty, in how dry a 
 light would the material forms in nature be seen — 
 sharp, cold, and mechanical ! while the thoughts of 
 the mind itself would either be abrupt impressions 
 with scarcely any coherence, or reasoned inferences 
 hung together by cold links of logic. Depose imag- 
 ination from its seat among the mental faculties, 
 and you introduce a schism into the soul, the result 
 
THE STUDY OF BIBLE LITERATURE. 19 
 
 of whicli would be that its highest affections would 
 remain unexercised. For without the fascinating 
 combinations in which imagination groups, and the 
 picturesque lights in which it variegates the conclu- 
 sions of the reason, the objects of perception, the 
 reminiscences of memory, and the anticipations of 
 hope, it may be questioned whether the exercises of 
 these faculties would long be tolerable. But assign 
 to imagination its due place among the mental pow- 
 ers, and then all are harmonized — the sharp angles 
 at which they would infringe and grate on each 
 other are rounded and smoothed; intellectual labor 
 becomes a pleasure, while the intellect itself is 
 exalted, refined, enlarged. 
 
 From its excursive nature, the imagination re- 
 quires to be kept under the government of the 
 understanding, otherwise it might run into mere 
 fantasies. But when under proper control, the 
 beautiful forms and imagery into which it shapes 
 our thoughts, though some of them more beautiful 
 than actually do exist, are not necessarily untruth- 
 ful or delusive. For the idealizations, we do not 
 say of mere fancy, but of the imagination in its 
 higher sense, are a reality and a truth, in so far as 
 they are • the expression of that yearning in the 
 human soul after some things better, purer, more 
 beautiful — in short, after perfection. 
 
 It can not, therefore, be that so sublime a faculty 
 was given to man unless to be used by him. And 
 in cultivating it, are we to throw open to it every 
 
20 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 domain except that in which it might expatiate 
 with the purest pleasure, and from which it may 
 bring back the richest gatherings? In a word, is 
 imagination to be excluded from the precincts of 
 revelation? We emphatically answer, that no such 
 interdiction has come from the God of revelation. 
 On the contrary, the pages. of his inspired prophets 
 are made redolent with the voice of song, as if 
 purposely to woo the approach of that faculty 
 which poetry specially addresses. And even where 
 the voice of song is not heard there often breathes 
 the spirit of poetry throughout the Bible, which, 
 not to be a continued poem, is perhaps, of all books, 
 the most poetical. Then the style of the Scriptures 
 is so richly figurative; and the pattern which has 
 been wrought into the web of inspiration is of the 
 most gorgeous description. Now, from this two 
 inferences appear to be inevitable. First, that im- 
 agination was employed in the composition of the 
 Scriptures; for without their possession of this fac- 
 ulty, and in a high degree, neither Ezekiel into his 
 prophetic, nor John into his apocalyptic visions, 
 could have worked so splendid an imagery; not 
 less then this faculty, than memory or reason, was 
 inspired in these writers. Second, if God availed 
 himself of the imaginative faculty of the writers in 
 the composition of the Scriptures, he certainly must 
 have intended the same faculty to be used in the 
 perusal of them. For just as there are beauties on 
 the pages of a Milton, or a Cowpcr, which the reader 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE LITERATURE. 21 
 
 would not discover, and still less appreciate, unless 
 lie brings imagination's eye to peruse what it needed 
 imagination's finger to pencil ; so is it with the pages 
 of Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. Fully to per- 
 ceive the beauties of these writers, we must bring 
 with us the same imaginative faculty, which in them 
 was inspired, and which in us may be rightly guided 
 by the same Spirit. 
 
 Closely allied with the imagination there belongs 
 to the human mind another faculty, which, by a 
 metaphor borrowed from one of the bodily senses, 
 has been called taste. Though mental philosophers 
 differ as to whether this is an original or a deriva- 
 tive faculty, they are all agreed that it is universal 
 in human nature. Exactly to define this faculty 
 were not easy, for it is indeed, as Edmund Burke 
 says of it, "delicate and aerial," and "seems too 
 volatile to endure even the chains of a definition." 
 Without precisely defining we may describe taste to 
 be that faculty of the mind by which we both per- 
 ceive and enjoy whatever is beautiful or sublime in 
 any works, whether Divine or human. The pleas- 
 ures of taste are of a pure and exalted kind, and 
 though in themselves not strictly virtuous, yet they 
 have this much to do with virtue, that one of the 
 best aids in cultivating a correct taste is goodness 
 of heart, or moral purity ; for when it is allied with 
 this its perceptions are quickened and its pleasures 
 enhanced. 
 
 Can this fine faculty have justice done to it if it 
 
22 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 is interdicted the contemplation of the literary beau- 
 ties of the Bible? We. certainly think not. For 
 believing as we do that the created is, as it were, 
 the vestibule to the revealed — the beautiful and 
 sublime in form as exhibited in the former prepar- 
 ing the mind, so far at least, to appreciate the 
 higher beauty and sublimity of spiritual ideas in 
 the latter — we claim for taste that if it comes with 
 its eye purged as with rue, it shall be admitted 
 through the vestibule into the shrine of the temple. 
 And if it shall be said that all its eye can perceive 
 is the mere embroidery or ornaments on the vest- 
 ments of celestial truth, and all its ear can listen to 
 is the music of her voice, then we may answer that 
 he who can do this is so far prepared for gazing on 
 her form and entering into her thoughts. 
 
 The truths of physical science have often to be 
 searched for over paths that are rugged, and in 
 places where beauty rarely dwells. On the rough 
 steep of the mountain, among the rifted rocks, down 
 in dark mines, the geologist, with toilsome patience, 
 has to gather the materials of his science. But 
 when he comes to some sequestered nook, where the 
 fossil-bed is festooned with flowers, as if a couch 
 prepared by Nature's own hand for beauty's self to 
 lie upon — is he to pass on that only among the 
 rough and stony places he may glean his speci- 
 mens? Is he to have no eye for Nature's living 
 charms in exploring the catacombs of her ancient 
 dead? Must his emotional sensibilities be turned 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE LITERATURE. 23 
 
 to stone — fossilized into something as hard as the 
 flints, which he has to break with his hammer to 
 get at the incased fossils? Will it hinder his geo- 
 logic researches, if he has a keen appreciation of 
 Nature's beauties, whether in her sublime or her 
 softer forms? or, rather, without this will he ever 
 become an enthusiastic geologist ? And why should 
 it be otherwise with sacred science? "We will own 
 that it also has its rough and rugged paths, where, 
 with little of external beauty to woo the patient 
 searcher, its truths must be explored. But if it has 
 likewise its fair and lovely places, which a correct 
 taste can not fail to be delighted with, are these to 
 be passed by, and truth, because of pleasing form, 
 not to be contemplated? If sometimes, a stern 
 eremite of the rocks, she must be sought in her 
 cell, is she to be shunned when she appears, as 
 with the footsteps of Summer, to beautify her 
 bowers ? 
 
 II. Our second argument, in enforcing the study 
 of the literature of the Bible, is drawn from the 
 design of revelation itself; for in whatever form 
 a Divine revelation is made, whether in creative 
 acts or inspired utterances, and to whomsoever 
 made, whether to beings innocent or unfallen, or to 
 beings guilty and apostate, its radical idea, or pri- 
 mary design, is to make known God as the All- 
 beautiful — the First Fair as well as the First Good. 
 Plainly this must lie at the basis of all the uses 
 intended by a revelation, since the only preservative 
 
24 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of innocence, and the only restorative from apostasy, 
 is the knowledge of God as the supremely Fair and 
 Good. Accordingly in nature, viewing it as a man- 
 ifestation of the Creator to his intelligent creatures, 
 we find that the sesthetical has also an ethical use; 
 the sublime and beautiful, in which the visible cre- 
 ation so greatly abounds, when rightly studied, 
 having the effect of increasing our devout admira- 
 tion of the wisdom, power, and goodness of the 
 Creator. But for this one might say that much 
 needless artistic decoration has been lavished on our 
 planet; since why else should the Creator have mir- 
 rored images of such amazing grandeur on the 
 waters of ocean ? or why have dipped the desert flow- 
 ers in hues so exquisitely various? or why have 
 vernaled the crumbling ruin with the green ivy, and 
 taught song-birds to build their nests in its riven 
 crevices? or why have painted those ice-palaces, 
 where arctic Winters sit throned upon eternal snow, 
 with a thousand iridescent aurorse? Why! unless 
 that every-where, by the ascent of the beautiful, his 
 intelligent creatures, susceptible as they are of the 
 emotions of beauty, may rise to juster conceptions 
 of Himself who is the infinitely beautiful? 
 
 Such is the ethical value of the aesthetics in 
 nature; and what other than a similar efi*ect can 
 the sesthetics of revelation have if they are rightly 
 studied? A scheme of restorative mercy had to be 
 made known to our fallen race — fallen, be it noted, 
 by their ceasing to believe in God as the supremely 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE LITERATURE. 25 
 
 Fair and Good — and, therefore, to be restored only 
 if brought back to that belief. Now, whatever 
 sesthetical attractions could be thrown around the 
 form in which this revelation of mercy has been 
 given, would be auxiliary to its main design. It 
 has been conveyed in human language; or, to speak 
 more definitely, has taken the shape of a book-rev- 
 elation. Say, then, that besides a grandeur in the 
 thoughts, there is also a gracefulness in the style. 
 One effect of this will be to quicken the emotion of 
 the beautiful, and thus to serve as a contributing help 
 to realize in us a primary end of revolution ; namely, 
 to raise our minds to juster conceptions of Him 
 who is the infinitely beautiful, and good, and true. 
 Why, then, should it be thought a thing strange 
 that the Divine Spirit has made use of its literary 
 attractions — or, indeed, of any secondary attractions 
 of which it is capable — as a subsidiary means of 
 commending the Gospel to our acceptance? He, 
 who has strung the human heart with its emotional 
 chords, knew that the message of mercy was the 
 more likely to woo the listening ear if couched in 
 a style which is beautiful. Nor is there any such 
 antagonism between inspiration and the niceties of 
 language, as that the one should obscure the other; 
 on the contrary, each shines more conspicuous by 
 blending their reciprocated lights; just as of old in 
 the Temple of Solomon the rich embroidery on the 
 mystic vail, which dropped before the inmost shrine 
 of Deity, was not hid, but all the better seen to be 
 
26 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of cunning workmanship when, on the great day 
 of atonement, the perlucent shekinah forced its way 
 from within through the transparent tapestry ; and 
 the rich tracery, while itself made more visible, 
 did not darken, but rather intensified the lustrous 
 effulgence. 
 
 III. The third argument by which we would en- 
 force the study of the literature of the Bible is 
 suggested by the tactics of infidelity. It has been 
 in fashion with our infidel literati to present the 
 Bible as a tasteless, inelegant, unliterary book, com- 
 posed for the most part in a dull, heavy style, its 
 prose parts entirely wanting in rhetorical finish, 
 while its poetry, if occasionally showing lyric fire, 
 is wild and rhapsodical, and its imagery extrava- 
 gant, even when tried by an Oriental standard. 
 Now, were this the case, then we must have owned 
 that the Bible can not have come from him who is 
 the author of language and sentiment; and it is 
 with no other purpose than to throw discredit on 
 its inspiration as being unworthy of a divine au- 
 thor, that the infidel asserts it to be deficient 
 in literary attractions. Are we, then, to yield up 
 the argument to him? Especially are we to allow 
 him to prejudice ingenuous youth against the Bible, 
 by his unjust representations of its literature, when 
 we have it in our power to invite them to its pages 
 by those very beauties which have a peculiar charm 
 to the young? Are we to hear this celestial gar- 
 den, with its tree of knowledge, hung with the 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE LITERATXJEE. 27 
 
 fruits and flowers of sacred literature — fair to the 
 eye, and pleasant to the taste, and fenced round by- 
 no Divine prohibition — represented as a wilderness 
 to repel the young; and allow the calumny to go 
 forth uncontradicted, when, by our silence, we 
 might be mistaken as consenting to a misrepresent- 
 ation at once so false and so fraught with danger? 
 Surely not so; but the rather because the infidel 
 would dissuade, it is our duty to invite those of lit- 
 erary tastes and culture to frequent this second 
 Paradise, fair as the first and more secure; for 
 where its fountains sparkled and its groves entwined 
 their floral beauties, there lurked a serpent to be- 
 guile; but here no tempter lies in wait — here no 
 death-bearing tree presents its fruit; but life, and 
 truth, and holiness, sanctifying the literature by 
 which they are adorned, are to be found on every 
 branch; while the God of inspiration, whose voice 
 is in its every sound, is always here to meet and 
 converse with his children. 
 
 And here I can not refrain from stating it as my 
 conviction, that if the literature of the Bible, as 
 such, is by no means adequately appreciated in this 
 country, this in great measure is owing to the 
 kind of education which obtains in our higher 
 schools and universities. For what is the course of 
 reading through which our students are conducted ? 
 It is almost entirely of a heathen complexion. 
 Greek and Latin are the classic languages in our col- 
 leges. Homer and Horace, Herodotus and Caesar — 
 
28 LrrERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 not Moses or Isaiah — are the text-books. To excel 
 in profane, not sacred literature, is the ambition of 
 our great scholars; and proficiency in the former, 
 even where there is entire ignorance of the latter, is 
 made the passport to wealth and distinction. This, 
 I make free to say, is not as it ought to be; and 
 those who shall succeed in obtaining for the Bibli- 
 cal writings the attention which is due to their lit- 
 erary merits in the training of youth, besides doing 
 a service to the Bible itself, will, by infusing a 
 purer element, have conferred a benefit on the edu- 
 cational institutions of our country. Not that I 
 would see banished from our seats of learning the 
 classics of ancient Greece and Eome; but that I 
 would have often er to be found along with them the 
 incomparably-higher classic of Palestine. Let Gre- 
 cian eloquence and Eoman song continue to culti- 
 vate the minds of our academies ; but let it cease to 
 oe thought that the orators and poets of Judah are 
 less worthy to be studied. 
 
 And here it occurs to me to add another general 
 observation — that out of the literary excellences of 
 the Scriptures no small argument for their divinity 
 might be made. Admit them to be divine writings, 
 and their incomparable literature can of course be 
 easily accounted for. But on the supposition of 
 their being merely human compositions, it is diffi- 
 cult to conceive how the infidel can give an expla- 
 nation of their literature which will in any way 
 harmonize with the known laws of human thought. 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE LITERATURE. 29 
 
 That the Greeks should have constructed so noble 
 a literature will surprise us less, when we consider 
 now singularly endowed by nature that people 
 were to excel both in literary and artistic pursuits. 
 Their poetry, eloquence, music, and sculpture, won- 
 derful as they are, do not go beyond what we 
 would have expected from their natural genius. 
 As for the Eomans, they had the Grecian models 
 to work upon, and every scholar knows what free use 
 they made of these. The literary monuments, there- 
 fore, which these two nations Tiave erected, while 
 they surprise us by their grandeur, can be account- 
 ed for by what we know of the laws of mental 
 development. Indeed, it could scarcely have been 
 otherwise than that the Greek mind should develop 
 itself in such a literature as it actually created, and 
 the Eoman mind in such a literature as it formed on 
 its models. This was a necessity of cause and effect. 
 But when we turn to the Hebrews, it seems to us 
 impossible to explain, on natural grounds, how a 
 people so vastly inferior to the Greeks in literary 
 genius should have constructed a literature which 
 not only equals but excels that of the latter ; or how 
 a people, not superior to the Eomans in literary tal- 
 ent, should have reared some of the noblest parts of 
 their literature at so early an age, when there were 
 no models to be followed. We venture to affirm that 
 the origin and progress of Hebrew literature is a 
 problem which will not admit of a like solution 
 with the literatures of Greece and Eome, or indeed 
 
80 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of any other nation, whether ancient or modern. 
 For we hold this literature to be a singular effect, 
 for which, except on the admission of a divine in- 
 spiration, no adequate cause can be assigned. 
 
 IV. Our fourth argument in enforcing the study 
 of Biblical literature is that there are plainly to be 
 seen in the Bible innumerable literary beauties. 
 Besides lofty thoughts and noble sentiments, it 
 abounds in felicities of diction, it sparkles with the 
 richest imagery, is replete with picturesque descrip- 
 tion, and redolent with majestic song; while its 
 singularly-diversified style exhibits the amazing 
 compass and flexibility of which language, as at 
 once the organ and ornament of thought, is capable. 
 Nor needs this surprise us. For seeing that our 
 human conceptions of the beautiful admit of being 
 worked out by means of audible as well as of visi- 
 ble signs, or may be embodied in language not less 
 than in form, in harmony as well as in symmetry, 
 we must necessarily infer that the divine concep- 
 tions of the beautiful are also capable of being 
 exhibited in both ways. We see the one in the 
 inimitable statuary and landscape painting in na- 
 ture, which so conspicuously attest the Divine Art- 
 ist. And it is no more than we were prepared to 
 expect, that an inimitable eloquence in the Scrip- 
 tures should attest the Divine Author. 
 
 Seeing, then, there are the beauties of language, 
 and the attractions of literature in the Bible, must 
 we pass them by unnoted and unadmired? May 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE LITEBATURE. 31 
 
 the naturalist, by the use of his microscope, trace 
 the graceful lineations on a shell, or the exquisite 
 venations on the fronds of a fern, so as to reveal to 
 us the infinite art of the great Creator in even these, 
 his lesser works; and must the critic, though he has 
 discovered them by the instrument of his science, 
 refrain from pointing out those charming niceties of 
 expression, those exquisite snatches of poetry, that 
 rare picturesqueness of description, that unrivaled 
 style of imagery, the pathos, sublimity, and beauty 
 which, not to speak of its more adorned parts, lie 
 scattered throughout even the plainest portions of 
 the Bible? Surely this may not be, seeing that 
 creation and revelation, each in its own way a per- 
 fect exposition of the beautiful, the graceful, and 
 the grand, are alike the productions of the same 
 Author, and have both been produced with the like 
 object of manifesting his perfections. 
 
 V. Our fifth and last arp;ument in enforcinc^ the 
 study of Biblical literature is founded upon the 
 desirableness of getting minds of every cast brought 
 into actual contact with the sacred pages. For we 
 should deem it a most beneficial achievement if 
 those of literary tastes and pursuits were got to 
 peruse the Bible, were it even only for the sake of 
 its literature. They would no doubt be doing it an 
 injustice thus to bring it down from its own loftier 
 pedestal; still if they are got to read the Book of 
 God, who shall say that the result might not be that 
 its higher beauties would break in upon them? that, 
 
32 LrrERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 admiring its literature none the lesi, tliey might be 
 awakened to an admiration of its divine excellences. 
 We know that some who approached the Bible with 
 hostile intentions have been disarmed of their hos- 
 tility by a simple perusal of its contents. And, 
 therefore, we can not but be hopeful, that if those 
 who are not inimical to it could only be lured to a 
 daily study of its lesser beauties, they would erelong 
 be brought to feel that they tread holy ground — 
 that the robe whose embroidery they have been 
 admiring clothes celestial truth — when, lifting their 
 eyes higher than the mantle she wears, they might 
 see her face and be smitten with her heavenly love- 
 liness. 
 
 To quote the words of Dr. James Hamilton — 
 "God made the Bible as the guide and oracle of 
 man ; but had he meant it as. a mere lesson-book of 
 duty, a volume less various and less attractive would 
 have answered every end. A few plain paragraphs 
 announcing God's own character, and his disposition 
 toward us sinners here on earth, mentioning the 
 provision he has made for our future happiness, and 
 indicating the different duties which he would have 
 us perform — a few simple sentences would have suf- 
 ficed to tell what God is, and what he would have 
 us do. There was no need for the picturesque nar- 
 rative and the majestic poem — no need for the 
 proverb, the story, and the psalm. A chapter of 
 theology, and another of morals, a short account of 
 the incarnation and the great atonement, and a few 
 
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE LITERATURE. 33 
 
 pages of rules and directions for the Christian life, 
 might have contained the practical essence of Scrip- 
 ture, and have supplied us with a Bible of simplest 
 meaning and smallest size. And in that c£ise the 
 Bible would have been consulted only by those rare 
 and wistful spirits to whom the great hereafter 
 is a subject of anxiety, who are really anxious to 
 know what God is, and how themselves may please 
 him. 
 
 '' But in giving that Bible, its Divine Author had 
 regard to the mind of man. He knew that man 
 has more curiosity than piety, more taste than 
 sanctity, and that more persons are anxious to hear 
 some new, and read some beauteous thing, than to 
 read or hear about God and the great salvation. 
 He knew that few would ever ask. What must I do 
 to be saved? till they came in contact with the 
 Bible itself; and, therefore, he made the Bible not 
 only an instructive book, but an attractive one — 
 not only true but enticing. He filled it with mar- 
 velous incident, and engraving history with sunny 
 pictures from Old- World scenery, and affecting 
 anecdotes from the patriarch times. He replen- 
 ished it with stately argument and thrilling verse, 
 and sprinkled it over with sententious wisdom 
 and proverbial pungency. He made it a book of 
 lofty thoughts and noble images — a book of heav- 
 enly doctrine, but withal of earthly adaptation. In 
 preparing a guide to immortality. Infinite Wisdom 
 gave not a dictionary nor a grammar, but a Bible; 
 
84 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 a book which, in trying to catch the heart of 
 man, should captivate his taste; and which, in 
 transforming his affections, should also expand his 
 in/iellect." 
 
THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 35 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 It is a remark of Addison's, tliat there is as much 
 difference between comprehending a thought clothed 
 m Cicero's language, and that of an ordinary writer, 
 as between seeing an object by the light of the 
 taper and the light of the sun. Every one feels 
 the justice of this remark; yet it would be difficult 
 exactly to specify what it is that distinguishes the 
 style of Cicero from that of an ordinary writer. 
 The truth being that while the broader features of 
 a style are easy enough to be distinguished; as 
 whether it is a loose or a terse style — laconic or 
 flowing — simple or ornate — vigorous or feeble — ^lofty 
 or familiar ; the various minute particulars of which 
 the style is made up are extremely difficult to 
 describe; yet each of which adds something to the 
 aggregate of qualities which belong to them. 
 
 It is with style as with those odors of Nature's 
 own compounding, when having gathered together 
 the aromas of many flowers, she drops them on the 
 breath of winds, which mixes a perfume it is not 
 easy for the chemist's art to analyze. Strictly 
 speaking, style does not include the thoughts; and 
 yet we should err in saying that it is confined to 
 
36 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the mere diction, either in the choice or the arrange- 
 ment of the words; since it comprehends whatever 
 is characteristic or peculiar in the manner in which 
 a writer presents his ideas. We may not, there- 
 fore, separate the language from the thoughts, nor 
 the thoughts from the language, in judging of style. 
 It has indeed been said of words that they are the 
 outward dress or costume of our thoughts; but in 
 accepting this comparison, it ought to be observed, 
 that our words clothe our ideas, not as the loose 
 mantle of cloth drapes the sculptor's model, but 
 rather as the chiseled mantle may be said to clothe 
 the finished statue. The marble bust and its 
 marble cincture can be distinguished the one from 
 the other, but not separated; for the latter ad- 
 heres to and forms a very part of the sculptured 
 figure; and so it is with the ideas and the words in 
 style. 
 
 But while it is thus difiicult to analyze the vari- 
 ous components in style, our critics and grammarians 
 are tolerably agreed as to what are the principal 
 requisites in a good style. These are, purity, per- 
 spicuity, vigor, harmony, dignity, and beauty. Now, 
 ■when tried by this standard, the stylos of the Bib- 
 lical writers will be found to rank very high. As 
 was to be expected, among some forty difi'erent 
 authors, there is considerable diversity and degrees 
 of excellence. For it has pleased the Divine Spirit 
 to employ the natural style of each, so that com- 
 pared among themselves we can perceive that some 
 
THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 37 
 
 of them were greater masters of language than 
 others. Yet is the difference as among the orbs of 
 the firmament, in which "one star differeth from 
 another star in glory." For, taking them as a 
 whole, and comparing them with the writers of 
 other nations, the sacred penmen form a literary 
 galaxy, than which a brighter does not shine in 
 the firmament of letters. 
 
 To justify this high praise which I have chal- 
 lenged for the sacred writers, it does not seem 
 necessary that I should attempt a critical analysis of 
 their respective styles; since this, even were I equal 
 to the task, would only exhibit their merits when 
 compared among themselves. It will be sufficient 
 if I indicate the general excellences which will be 
 found to attach to them all, when we compare them 
 with the writers of other nations. Now there are 
 two conditions which, if an author fulfills, his style 
 merits to be pronounced good. These are: if he 
 fully displays the capabilities and resources of the 
 language in which he writes; and if his style is 
 adapted to the subject of which he treats. The 
 sacred writers have fulfilled both these conditions. 
 For in the first place, no matter what his individual 
 style, each author brings out to a surprising extent 
 the capabilities of the language which he had to 
 employ as the vehicle of his thoughts. Certainly a 
 more favorable exhibition of the Hebrew language 
 could not be desired, than is to be found in the Old 
 Testament. The literati of Palestine must have 
 
38 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 felt that the language of their nation had ample 
 justice done to it in their sacred books; and how 
 rarely is it that the theological works among a 
 people present the most favorable specimen of the 
 language ! Then with regard to the Greek of the 
 New Testament, though it was not the vernacular 
 of the writers — and they had not, with perhaps the 
 exception of Paul, studied its classical models — yet 
 it may with truth be affirmed that no pen, not 
 Grecian, had ever written it better, if so well. 
 Even Demosthenes, had he lived to read the pages 
 of the Apostles, must have confessed, notwithstand- 
 ing the admixture of Hebraisms, and a certain 
 oriental tincture, that the language which he him- 
 self has immortalized was not disgraced by the 
 pens of these foreigners. And supposing no other 
 specimens to have come down to us than what the 
 New Testament furnishes, we should still have no 
 mean idea of the amazing compass, the marvelous 
 flexibility, the discriminating precision, and the 
 euphonious cadence of that wonderful language. 
 
 Then, in the second place, I observe that the 
 sacred writers have shown an admirable adaptation 
 and fitness in their respective styles to the subjects 
 of which they have severally treated. Thus the 
 style of Moses and Luke, who are, par excellence, 
 the sacred historians, is precisely the style we look 
 for in historic composition. The style of David 
 and Isaiah — chief among the sacred poets — is emi- 
 nently poetical. The style of Solomon, the sacred 
 
THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 39 
 
 aphorist, has exactly the point, terseness, and 
 antithesis which that species of writing requires. 
 The style of Paul, who is confessedly the sacred 
 logician, is just the style for argumentative and 
 expository composition; happily relieved at times 
 by the highest efforts of the rhetorician. The style 
 of Peter singularly fitted him for the epistolary, to 
 which he has confined himself. The same happy 
 adaptation of the style to the subject is observable 
 in all the other sacred writers. The instincts of 
 their literary tastes, or say, rather, these directed 
 by the Spirit of Inspiration, guided them to choose 
 those themes which they were best fitted to adorn. 
 So that this rare eulogium may be passed upon a 
 volume which is the joint production of forty differ- 
 ent authors — that there is not a single alteration 
 one could suggest in their division of the literary 
 labor; but one great Presiding Mind — and need I 
 say that it must have been Divine — is seen to have 
 assigned to each exactly that department in the 
 work which he was best fitted to perform. Cer- 
 tainly no other book presents so broad a combina- 
 tion of diverse talents so happily assorted and so 
 harmoniously associated. It is a literary constella- 
 tion, where every star is in its proper place, and 
 shines with its appropriate luster. 
 
 Of what is usually understood by jim writing ^ 
 there is not a great deal to be found in the Bible. 
 But this needs not surprise us; for with men who 
 never wrote for glory or display — who forgot them- 
 
• 
 
 40 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 selves in the majesty of their subject — whose aim was 
 not to dazzle or astonish, but to instruct and inform 
 mankind — whose souls never kindled with the de- 
 sire of posthumous renown, and who had no leisure 
 for literary revision; with such men rhetorical em- 
 bellishment was incidental rather than designed. 
 But when instances of it occur, they surpass all la- 
 bored eloquence, in the same degree, and for the 
 same reasons, that the ease of nature surpasses the 
 efforts of art. 
 
 Some of Isaiah's lyric outbursts; or Job's mag- 
 nificent sketches, dashed off with a master's rapid 
 hand; or David's occasional hymns, written with 
 ''the pen of a ready writer," yet seemingly too 
 slow for his rushing thoughts; or Paul's extempo- 
 raneous orations; or the Savior's own unpremedi- 
 tated discourses; or the closing apocalyptic images 
 of John, so gorgeous and graphic, but which the 
 seer seems to have copied with hurried touches, as 
 if afraid the vision might dissolve before the tran- 
 script was finished — these will serve as examples 
 of the spontaneous eloquence which is to be met 
 with in the Scriptures. It comes upon us like the 
 echoes of the forest, as when a sudden sun-burst in- 
 cites its winged choristers to mingle their notes; or 
 as when the free winds rush through its rustling 
 boughs. It flashes as a meteor; but not like it to 
 gleam and then go out into darkness. 
 
 In calling the eloquence in the Bible spontane- 
 ous, I am reminded what years of labor and patient 
 
THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 41 
 
 revision uninspired genius has bestowed upon its 
 choicest productions; and also how much the desire 
 of fame spurred its efforts, while the hope of 
 posthumous renown sustained them. How Demos- 
 thenes, for example, composed the most splendid 
 oration in order to win the crown of eloquence — 
 how Isocrates devoted fifteen years to his celebrated 
 panegyric — ^how Pindar's lyric fire fed itself in the 
 prospect of the great Olympic gatherings — how the 
 Eoman lyrist predicts for himself immortal celeb- 
 rity, the hope of which doubtless had made his 
 fastidious muse so patient in revising his exquis- 
 itely-finished odes — how the most superb of modern 
 historians confesses the flutter which he felt when 
 the last line of his task was written, and he thought 
 that perhaps his fame was established — or how even 
 the severe Milton has left on record that he was 
 moved to compose his matchless epics by the hope 
 that he might achieve something which posterity 
 would not willingly let die — or how Scotland's 
 plowman bard, as if smitten with a noble jealousy 
 of other lands which had been immortalized in song, 
 kindled his muse with the hope of making his own 
 Caledonia also a land of the classic muse — 
 
 " We '11 gar our streams and burnies shine up wi' the best." 
 
 Thus spurred by the hope of posthumous celebrity, 
 and working with patient labor, the orator and the 
 poet have reared some exquisite literary monu- 
 ments, which we do not hesitate to admire any the 
 
 4 
 
42 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 less because it took so much time and patience to 
 rear them. Let it be remembered, then, that at 
 one instantaneous stroke the sacred authors have 
 supplied eloquence, and poetry, and history with 
 some of their most splendid models. In them you 
 find the eloquent orator without Demosthenes' la- 
 bors — the soul-stirring poet without Pindar's fervor 
 kindled by expected fame — the accurate historian 
 without Gibbon's fastidious "elaboration. Oratory, 
 poetry, history, flowed spontaneous from their 
 pens, as the dew-drops of morning fall glittering on 
 the flowers — neither receiving nor requiring the 
 polish of labor or art. 
 
 I have remarked that there are considerable di- 
 versities of style among the sacred writers, which 
 is owing to the circumstance, also already men- 
 tioned, that the Divine Spirit saw meet, instead of 
 one ideal style, to employ the actual styles of the 
 several writers. Inspiration was no mere mechan- 
 ical process, as when the organist touches the sev- 
 eral keys of his instrument, which whatever the 
 melody to be brought out are ever the same, and 
 have no conscious spontaneity in the variation of 
 the notes. But having to use not a dead but liv- 
 ing instrument, the spirit so touched each key that 
 it gave forth its own spontaneous and individual 
 sounds; and this, so far from being a blemish im- 
 parts one of its most striking beauties to the Bible, 
 and instead of lessening greatly increases its effect- 
 iveness as a revelation of Divine thouc^ht in human 
 
THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 43 
 
 language. For supposing one ideal style of uniform 
 exactness, and equality, and superexcellence to have 
 been selected, then how monotonous, how mechan- 
 ical, and how very stiff — how like to a dead instru- 
 ment and how unlike the living voice — would the 
 sacred writings have been ! Whereas instead of this 
 on examining the styles of its some forty different 
 authors, you do not find any two alike ; but each is 
 diverse from another, every one of them marked by 
 strong individuality, having all the force and fresh- 
 ness of an original. There is the narrative style of 
 Moses, severely simple even when he descants 
 on creation and chaos; and with touches of the 
 homely, the quaint, and the antique befitting his 
 times. There is the lyric style of David, which 
 through all his moods, and these were often vary- 
 ing, is still, ever in joy or sadness, the music-echoes 
 of the same harp which none other could string or 
 touch as he. There is the sententious, aphoristic 
 styie of Solomon ; the fervid, bold, and masculine 
 style of Peter, every way so like the man himself; 
 the brilliant, burning style of Isaiah, as if fire- 
 flashes from a truly-poetic soul; the simple love- 
 breathing style of John in his epistles, but rising, 
 as true simplicity and tenderness can rise, into the 
 sublime in his apocalypse; the argumentative, ellip- 
 tical, parenthetic style of Paul; the truly-dramatic 
 style of Job; the oracular style of Ezekiel; the 
 elegiac style of Jeremiah, whose every word seems 
 to drop tears over a forlorn land. So that, instead 
 
44 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of monotony or mechanicalness, there is all the flex- 
 ibility, variety, and cadence through which the hu- 
 man voice can rise or fall. 
 
 Besides the differences which distinguish the 
 styles of the several writers, there is often great 
 diversity in the style of the same writer, arising 
 from the variety of subjects which he discourses. 
 For, in the same book, we shall sometimes find his- 
 tory, doctrine, prediction, poetry, exhortation, fervid 
 expressions of devotion, gratitude, and holy desire. 
 But with all this diversity in the nature and object 
 of the writings, and in the character and style of 
 the writers, one great and common manner pervades 
 the whole, which may be regarded as the style of 
 the Scriptures, since it is peculiar to them, and not 
 to be paralleled by any other writers. Though per- 
 haps not easy to be described, there is certainly a 
 characteristic mark which enables us at once to dis- 
 tinguish the sacred authors. With great diversity 
 of manner and expression they have all of them the 
 features of one- family, diverse from any other which 
 literature presents. 
 
 There is to be seen, underlying individual differ- 
 ences, the same peculiar stamp, easily perceptible, 
 though perhaps less easy to be described, which 
 marks their productions to be of heavenly origin. 
 This is due, no doubt, in great measure to the 
 unexampled beauty and greatness of the sentiment, 
 which again is to be traced to the grandeur of the 
 themes which in common tliev discourse. But there 
 
THE STYLE OP THE SCRIPTURES. 45 
 
 is, besides, an excellence whicli belongs to the writ- 
 ers themselves, which, though it unites with the 
 sentiment, is yet distinct from it; and it is by this 
 excellence that the writings of the Old and New 
 Testaments are specially characterized. 
 
 This excellence, as I have already remarked, is 
 not easy to be described. It is the result of a com- 
 bination of qualities which a critical analysis can 
 only so far resolve. 
 
 Among the qualities which distinguish the in- 
 spired penmen in common, not the least striking is 
 the entire absence of those selfish passions and 
 weaknesses which almost always appear in the man- 
 ner of ordinary writers. The sacred authors are to 
 themselves as nothing, so completely does their 
 subject absorb them. They betray not the least 
 egotism, either open or concealed, having no thought 
 apparently of themselves at all. In one of the 
 pseudo-inspired books, generally known as the Apoc- 
 rypha, we find the author expressing a hope that if 
 he has written aught amiss the reader will excuse 
 him. Any thing like this, so common with ordi- 
 nary writers, is not to be found in any of the 
 canonical Scriptures. The idea of literary reputa- 
 tion, or of being thought well of as authors, seems 
 never once to have crossed the minds of the inspired 
 penmen. 
 
 Another common quality which distinguishes the 
 sacred writers is their extreme simplicity and art- 
 iessness. We see no artificial painting; no desire or 
 
46 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 effort to produce effect. Beauty, great and varied, 
 is every-where visible; but it is the unstudied 
 beauty of spontaneous ease. There is a total ab- 
 sence of every tendency to exaggeration — never 
 once any attempt to work up a subject; but, instead, 
 a calmness of tone prevails throughout. Not, how- 
 ever, the calmness of indifference, but that which 
 arises from a sense of the innate majesty of the 
 subjects which they handle. In no other writers 
 will w^e find an equal reliance on the self-evidential 
 power of purity and truth. 
 
 Some have expressed a difficulty to admit the 
 Tkeopneustia of the Scriptures, in consequence of 
 their containing some inelegancies of style. But, 
 we apprehend, this difficulty very much arises from 
 their forming a judgment a priori as to what would 
 be the style of an inspired writing, without making 
 due account of the actual circumstances in which it 
 appeared, and the practical uses which it is intended 
 to answer. We are free to own, that, judging a 
 priorij and going upon the simple idea of the divin- 
 ity of the book, we would expect to find its style 
 not only faultless, but altogether superlative. We 
 should not be prepared to find in it occasional inel- 
 egancies of expression ; nor solecisms in the lan- 
 •guage; nor sentences which, in point of syntactical 
 construction, would scarcely bear strict criticism ; 
 nor passages which, in respect of rhetorical finish, 
 might certainly be improved. We say that an a 
 priori judgment would not prepare us to meet with 
 
THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 47 
 
 any thing of this sort in a volume which is inspired. 
 But in the Bible such things are to be met with. 
 Can it, then, be inspired? 
 
 In answering this question I shall grant that it 
 was certainly possible to the Divine Spirit, even 
 while using the human vehicle, to have conveyed 
 his ideas in the most pure and perfect phrase that 
 human diction could afford; and, notwithstanding 
 any deficiencies of education in some of the writers, 
 to have worked up each several book and every 
 single passage to the same high level of perfection. 
 This could have been done; and thereby the style 
 of the Scriptures in every sentence and vocable 
 have been, in a literary point of view, absolutely 
 perfect. But now, suppose this to have been done, 
 what would have been the result? 
 
 In the first place, a primitive Bible, of a date so 
 early as the age of the Hebrew fathers, would have 
 been either impossible or useless. Impossible, if 
 the Divine Spirit was to employ any of the then 
 existent dialects, which were as yet rough, unfixed, 
 and unharmonious. Useless if, anticipating the prog- 
 ress of language, the Divine Spirit had employed 
 a purer and more perfect dialect than any which 
 yet existed, since, in that case it could not have 
 been understood. To furnish a revelation suitable 
 to these early times, it behooved the language to be 
 such as was then in general use. And when one 
 reflects for a moment on the alternative — either no 
 Bible at all till at least the Augustan age of liter- , 
 
48 LrrERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ature, or a Bible partly composed in one of the 
 early vernacular dialects — there is not surely room 
 to hesitate which was to be preferred. 
 
 But now, secondly, will the reader turn aside 
 with us for a moment to examine the sesthetical 
 principles on which another work of God — the nat- 
 ural landscape — has been laid out. Within any 
 given compass — say a forest, or a sea-beach, or a 
 mountain range — individual objects are to be seen 
 which certainly might be more beautiful; but then 
 if these were improved it would be at the expense 
 of the combined effect. In the mountain range, for 
 example, there are jagged inequalities, bare and 
 unshapely masses, contorted excrescences, and riven 
 seams, which viewed alone no one would think of 
 pronouncing beautiful. Yet imagine a polished range 
 of mountains — conceive the Alps or the Andes to 
 be blocked out in exact geometrical curves, with 
 every inequality polished away — tame indeed would 
 be the landscape then; the bald, monotonous pre- 
 ciseness ill compensating for the want of a bold, 
 picturesque irregularity. For though singly not 
 beautiful, at least according to our notions of beauty, 
 yet in combination these contrasted shapes fill up 
 a picture which, taken as an entire piece, is not 
 merely beautiful but sublime. 
 
 Such are the aesthetical principles on which the 
 natural landscape is laid out. Now analogy would 
 lead us to expect, and observation, I think, will 
 .^show, that the Bible, which may be fitly called tho 
 
THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 49 
 
 spiritual landscape, has been laid out on the same 
 principles. As in nature there are single objects 
 which, viewed apart, might certainly be more beau- 
 tiful, so in the Bible there are passages of which 
 the diction might have been more felicitous — sen- 
 tences which, in point of grammatical construction, 
 might be improved — solecisms which could have 
 been avoided, and periods which might have been 
 more euphoniously balanced. But had these been 
 avoided, by every part being worked up to the same 
 high level of such perfectness as might please the 
 grammarian or the rhetorician, there would have 
 been wanting the picturesqueness of contrast; that 
 harmony which occasional discord only high tens, and 
 that higher beauty, which slight blemishes rather 
 enhance, would have been missed, and in their place 
 we should have had a bald exactness, a tame pre- 
 cision, a polished monotony; and who does not see 
 that the Scriptures, laid out after this fashion, 
 would, in a literary point of view, be quite as tire- 
 some, and full as tame, as, in an artistic point of 
 view, would be a landscape whose rivers are all of 
 equal length, breadth, and current; its valleys all 
 of one foliage and verdure; its mountains all of the 
 same altitude, contour, and stratification? 
 
 And how is it that the Great Artist of Nature 
 can thus afford to paint his landscapes so much on 
 the principle of contrast, while the ordinary artist 
 does not risk the same bold treatment? The reason 
 
 is obvious. The ordinary artist paints on a small 
 
 5 
 
50 LITERART CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 scale, having to fill but a few yards of canvas; 
 whereas the Divine Artist works on a grand scale, 
 his pictures being so vast that what would be blem- 
 ishes on the bit of canvas serve to harmonize and 
 to enhance the effect of the more beautiful parts, 
 when the eye ranges over miles of landscape. And 
 just so it is that the Author of the Bible, in com- 
 posing a book so marvelously comprehensive, can 
 admit inequalities, having room and verge enough 
 to harmonize them, which the author of an ordinary 
 book, confined within so much narrower limits, could 
 not with safety introduce; and thus the occasional 
 inelegancies in its style, which to the fastidious 
 critic might seem to be blemishes, and which the 
 mere grammarian might set down as faults, are to 
 us among the proofs of the divinity of the Bible. 
 The author of a lesser book would not have ven- 
 tured, could not, indeed, have afibrded, to admit 
 them; but in God's vast book they high ten the 
 general efiect; just as in God's vast landscapes the 
 jagged corners of the riven rock, while giving pic- 
 turesqueness to its contour, cause the wild flowers 
 which creep up or hang over its uneven spiracles 
 to look still more beautiful. 
 
THE FIGURATIVB IN SCRIPTURE. 51 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 
 
 The term figure, in its ordinary use, signifies the 
 shape or form of any piece of matter which distin- 
 guishes it from other pieces. By dropping the idea 
 of mere shape or form, and retaining that of dis- 
 tinction, various secondary meanings have been 
 attached to the term figure. Those persons whom 
 rank in life or political influence distinguish from 
 the bulk of mankind, are said to be men of figure; 
 and we say of men of eminent learning or shining 
 parts, or of the authors of useful discoveries and 
 inventions in arts and sciences, that they will make 
 a figure in their country's history. Precisely on the 
 same principles has this term been appropriated in 
 its application to language. Certain forms of speech, 
 as possessing more mark or distinction than the or- 
 dinary form of expressing the same thought, have 
 been called figures. Hence figurative language is 
 opposed to plain, ordinary, or literal speech. 
 
 When we say 'Hhe parched ground absorbs the 
 rain" we express a familiar fact in common lan- 
 guage; but when we say "the thirsty ground drinks 
 in the rain" we convey the same fact in the lan- 
 guage of figure. To call youth "the early part of 
 
52 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 life" is to speak literally; to call youth "the morn- 
 ing of life" is to express ourselves figuratively. In 
 both the examples given it will be perceived that 
 certain words are used in a different sense from that 
 which they properly signify; being changed, or as 
 we might say, turned from their own strict proper 
 meaning to another which has been suggested by 
 the association of ideas. Hence a figure of speech 
 is also called a trope — in Greek rpoTtoi;, from rpsTzu)^ 
 to turn — and this change is made for the sake of 
 giving life, beauty, and emphasis to the thought. 
 
 Although it has been the business of the gram- 
 marians to classify and give names to the various 
 figures of speech, as well as to lay down rules for 
 their proper management, it is not to be supposed 
 that it was the work of the grammarians to invent 
 them. Instead of an artifice of rhetoric, they have 
 their origin in human nature itself; and, accord- 
 ingly, were in use long before rhetoric, or grammar, 
 or criticism, had been heard of. 
 
 I have said that it is the business of the gram- 
 marian or critic to classify the figures of speech; 
 but their attempts toward a simple and exact class- 
 ification have been attended only with partial suc- 
 cess; for when tropes are divided into figures of 
 language and figures of thought, a basis of classifi- 
 cation is assumed which is itself shifting; since 
 language and thought often so run into each other, 
 that it were impossible to say by which of them 
 more than the other the efiect is produced. A bet- 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 53 
 
 ter division is into figures of the imagination and 
 figures of the passions; although here, also, the 
 basis of classification will be found to be a variable 
 line; for although in themselves distinct, when are 
 the imagination and the passions in their hightened 
 workings ever entirely separate? 
 
 Fortunately it is not necessary that I should 
 classify the figures of speech, my task merely re- 
 quiring me to show that the principal ones, at least, 
 are to be found in the Bible, and that when any 
 one of these is introduced, this is done with pro- 
 priety, both as respects the treatment of the figure 
 itself, and the elucidation or enrichment of the 
 thought which is figuratively expressed. 
 
 Did I deem it deserving the necessary space on 
 these pages, it would be easy to show that there is 
 not any considerable figure or trope recognized by 
 the grammarians, of which examples may not be 
 selected from the sacred writings. We shall find in 
 them the comparison, the metaphor, the allegory, 
 the hyperbole, the interrogation, the antithesis, the 
 climax, the ellipsis, the prosopopoeia or personifica- 
 tion, the apostrophe; as also pleonasm, exclamation, 
 inversion, metonymy, prolepsis, vision, catachresis, 
 synecdoche, irony, antonomasy. But I do not see 
 that it would serve a material purpose to give a 
 mere string of specimens of this long catalogue of 
 figures. A preferable course seems to be to make a 
 selection, thus leaving sufficient space for some re- 
 marks on the nature of the figures themselves, and 
 
54 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 also on the skill which the sacred writers so notably 
 exhibited in the management of the figures. For 
 this purpose I shall select the comparison — on which, 
 as being the most frequent, I shall somewhat en- 
 large — the metaphor, the allegory, the climax, the 
 hyperbole, the prosopopoeia or personification, and 
 the apostrophe. 
 
 COMPARISON. 
 
 Every object which makes any considerable im- 
 pression on the mind is constantly accompanied by 
 certain circumstances and relations, which strike us 
 at the same time; so that an object seldom, if in- 
 deed ever, presents itself to our view, except as 
 related to other objects — as going before them or 
 following them — as their cause or their effect — as 
 resembling them or opposed to them. By this means 
 any idea which a single object suggests may be said 
 to carry in its train a group of other ideas, drawn 
 after it by the force of association. And it may so 
 happen that these attendant or associated ideas 
 strike the imagination more forcibly than the prin- 
 cipal idea itself. They are perhaps more agreeable ; 
 or they are more familiar ; or they recall to our mem- 
 ory a greater variety of important circumstances. 
 This propension in the human mind to compare and 
 contrast objects arises from an original law in its con- 
 stitution, and is called into constant exercise by the 
 system of nature, which is that of unity in variety; 
 it being rare indeed, if in the midst of numerous re- 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 55 
 
 semblances we do not discover some diversity, and 
 among manifold diversities some resemblance. Thus 
 does nature at once delight and instruct us, by fur- 
 nishing ample materials on which we can exercise our 
 faculty of comparison. And if a writer expects to 
 impart pleasure and instruction to his readers, he 
 must imitate nature — that is, he must make free 
 use of similitudes. 
 
 How agreeably a judicious use of comparisons 
 assists an author, in giving both brilliance and per- 
 spicuity to his pages, is easy to be seen. Suppose 
 he wishes to embellish an object, instead of present- 
 ing it nakedly by itself, he will do better to compare 
 it to some other object which is known to be beau- 
 tiful, when the imagination will at once transfer the 
 impression of beauty from the subsidiary to the pri- 
 mary object. Or suppose his design is to illustrate 
 or throw light upon an object which is more or 
 less obscure; if he compare it with another object 
 which is familiar, the imagination at once transfers 
 the impression of perspicuity from the subsidiary to 
 the principal object. Or suppose his desire is to am- 
 plify an object; in this case, instead of laboring to 
 expand it, he will often accomplish his purpose at a 
 single stroke by comparing it with another object 
 whose magnitude is already known. Or suppose he 
 wishes to rivet an object on the memory; by using 
 a comparison he may succeed in fixing it, so to speak, 
 by two bolts instead of one. Thus it will appear 
 how greatly similes assist to embellish, to illustrate, 
 
56 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 to amplify and fix our ideas; and therefore to im- 
 part beauty, perspicuity, grandeur, and force to the 
 language in which we clothe them. 
 
 Of Biblical comparisons it were almost useless to 
 give examples; for they are so very numerous as to 
 be found almost on every page. Not more thickly 
 are the flowers, and leaves, and grass-blades at early 
 morn beaded with dew-drops, than are the sacred 
 writings adorned with these beauties of figurative 
 language. Nor are the Bible comparisons less va- 
 rious than they are numerous, being drawn from 
 every conceivable source, and ranging from objects 
 the very simplest to the most sublime. In truth, 
 there is no department of universal nature which 
 has not been laid under tribute to enrich the collec- 
 tion. The lofty movements of the heavenly bodies; 
 the stately march of the seasons, and the rapid suc- 
 cession of day and night; the mighty ocean of 
 waters, and the minute dew-drops; the pastoral 
 landscape browsed by peaceful flocks, and the arid 
 wilderness with its roving herds and nomadic hordes; 
 the cloud-capt mountains and the lowly vales; 
 the tempest and the calm; every variety of tho 
 vegetable tribes; the treasures of the mines; the 
 sunshine, the rains, the winds, and the fleecy clouds; 
 the elements and the elemental phenomena; the 
 habits and instincts of animals, both wild and do- 
 mestic; agriculture; the arts and handicraft occupa- 
 tions; the battle-field and the tented camp; the 
 most familiar pictures of domestic life; the palaces 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 57 
 
 of warrior kings, and the tents of shepherd sires; 
 in a word, from the heavens above, and from 
 the earth below, and from the waters under the 
 earth, the sacred penmen have drawn their com- 
 parisons. 
 
 Nor is it only from the objects in nature the in- 
 spired writers have drawn their comparisons. The 
 incidents of sacred history have also enabled them 
 to enrich their imagery with figures of amazing 
 grandeur. For the order of topics which commonly 
 furnish them are of a high caste ; such as the chaos 
 and creation; the deluge; the destruction of Sod- 
 om; the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and 
 their pilgrimage through the desert; the descent of 
 God upon Mount Sinai, at the promulgation of 
 the law. Though from us the distance of time and 
 place has removed these events into the dimness of a 
 remote antiquity, so as of necessity to render them 
 less interesting than they were to the Hebrews, 
 whose epoch all but touched the oldest of them, and 
 with whose own history others of them were actu- 
 ally interwoven; yet we can not fail to perceive the 
 force, the sublimity, and splendor of these histor- 
 ical similitudes. Then also the peculiar ritualism of 
 the Hebrews, in itself so imposing and picturesque, 
 has supplied another rich source of comparison. 
 One example, as being exceedingly fine, may be here 
 cited : " Behold, how good and how pleasant it is 
 for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like 
 the precious ointment on the head, that ran down 
 
58 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down 
 to the skirts of his garments." Ps. cxxxiii. Then 
 also the geographical aspects of Palestine, which are 
 of a kind so peculiar and impressive, suggested 
 manifold local comparisons, which have a strikingly- 
 picturesque effect. There is a liveliness in these 
 topographical similes which does not fail to convey 
 a hightened pleasure, though we who read them 
 may never have seen the localities which are re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 It has been urged as an objection against some 
 of the comparisons in the Scriptures, that they are 
 strained and far-fetched, being founded on slight 
 and distant resemblances. This objection, we ven- 
 ture to say, is without foundation as respects the 
 later sacred books. In those of an earlier date 
 there may occasionally occur a comparison which, 
 to modern taste, will seem to be carried beyond 
 moderation. But in this respect the Scriptures 
 only follow a universal law of mental development; 
 for when a nation emerged out of barbarism begins 
 to think of the fine arts, and of the 93sthetical in 
 nature, the beauties of language can not long lie 
 concealed; and when discovered they are generally, 
 by the force of novelty, carried to excess. The 
 imagination for a time riots, as it were, in a new 
 region of pleasing ideas. Hence in the early poetry 
 of every nation we find metaphors and similes 
 founded on what appear to us slight and distant 
 resemblances; but which, ere they had lost their 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 59 
 
 novelty, would appear to be quite natural and appo- 
 site. 
 
 Perhaps of all the sacred books the Song of Sol- 
 omon is the one against which the objection of 
 extravagant similes might be brought with the 
 most show of reason; but with regard to this 
 remarkable composition, besides the explanation 
 already offered, it ought to be kept in view that 
 without a certain air of extravagance it could not 
 be what it professes — a song of love. I -venture to 
 say that when the effect of this passion on the imag- 
 ination is allowed for, the comparisons employed by 
 Solomon will be acknowledged to be in strictest 
 accordance with human nature. The. reader mayi 
 turn for a specimen to the fourth chapter, verses 
 one to five. Were this a mere description of female 
 beauty from the poet's pen, I know not how I could 
 defend it fi'om the charge of extravagance. But it 
 is not as a poet merely, but likewise as a lover, 
 that Solomon here describes the object of his affec- 
 tion; giving free utterance, as lovers will do, to 
 those fervid images of the imagination, which the 
 passion of the lover never fails to kindle. Making 
 allowance for a certain Oriental tincture in his 
 imagery, the poet will be found throughout this 
 divine song to have exhibited with consummate 
 skill the workings of the universal passion; and 
 thus to have laid a correct foundation in the nat- 
 ural for that spiritual love which it is his object to 
 celebrate. 
 
60 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 It has also been objected to the Bible compari- 
 sons, that many of them are so homely and familiar; 
 but, for our own part, we take this to be one of 
 their chief .merits. For when the object of a writer 
 is not so much elegance as lucidity, when he seeks 
 rather to illustrate and make plain than to aggrand- 
 ize and ornament his subject, the more familiar his 
 similes are the better. Now, the design of the 
 sacred writers being to simplify truth for the masses, 
 they have shown admirable judgment in using plen- 
 tifully this class of illustrations; and yet, though 
 the objects employed by them are thus necessarily 
 of a very homely kind, such as, in less skillful 
 hands, migl^t impart an appearance of lowness and 
 vulgarity to the subjects illustrated, we do not find 
 this to be the case. For even when their compari- 
 sons are taken from the most insignificant objects, 
 the sacred writers still sustain the full dignity of 
 their themes. I shall show this by giving a few 
 examples. One could scarcely seek out a more 
 homely or trivial object than a barn or a thrashing- 
 floor. Yet how forcibly and dignified are the fol- 
 lowing similes: ''Behold, I will make thee a new 
 sharp thrashing instrument having teeth; thou shalt 
 thrash the mountains, and beat them small, and 
 shall make the hills as chaff"; thou shalt fan them, 
 and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirl- 
 wind shall scatter them." Is. xli, 15, 16. "Make 
 their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb; yea, all their 
 princes like Zebah, and as Zalmunna: my God, 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 61 
 
 make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the 
 wind." Ps. Ixxxiii, 11, 13. Again, what could be 
 a less poetical scene, bordering as it does on the 
 ludicrous, than a company of fig gatherers shaking 
 the loaded branches, and as a feat of dexterity 
 catching in their mouths some of the figs as they 
 fall? yet out of this scene the prophet Nahum in 
 predicting the doom of Nineveh works a highly- 
 poetic simile: "All thy strongholds shall be like 
 fig-trees with the first ripe figs; if they be shaken 
 they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater." 
 Nah. iii, 12. Or, again, the common-place idea of 
 a few school-boys gone out a bird-nesting supplies 
 Isaiah with a comparison of great energy, which he 
 puts into the mouth of the Assyrian conqueror 
 boasting his victories: ''And my hand hath found 
 as a nest the riches of the people; and as one 
 gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all 
 the earth; and there was none that moved the 
 wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped." Is. x, 14. 
 Again, how homely an object is the mother-hen 
 shielding her frightened brood under her wings on 
 the approach of danger; yet how pathetic, even 
 sublime a comparison has this furnished to the 
 Savior: ''0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the 
 prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto 
 thee, how 'often would I have gathered thy children 
 together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
 under her wings and ye would not!" Matt, xxiii, 
 37. Or, again, what more homely object could one 
 
62 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 look on than a handful of brushwood set to blaze 
 under a pot? yet how forcibly is this made to 
 represent the vanity and evanescence of boisterous 
 mirth: "As the cracking of thorns under a pot, so 
 is the laughter of the fool!" Eccl. vii, 6. Or, to 
 give one other example, it is even a repulsive object 
 when a sow bemires itself in its own litter, or a 
 dog laps its own vomit; yet how skillfully is the 
 very repulsiveness of those objects made to set 
 forth the sin of the apostate: "It has happened 
 unto him according to the true proverb: the dog 
 is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow 
 that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." 
 2 Pet. ii, 22. 
 
 Nor are the sacred writers singular in their use 
 of homely objects to illustrate subjects of a lofty 
 cast. The same thing has been done by the great 
 epic poets, both ancient and modern. Thus Homer 
 compares the Grecians crowding to the council from 
 their ships and tents to a swarm of bees among 
 the vernal flowers. Virgil employs the same com- 
 parison to set forth the innumerable nations and 
 people which crowded the shores of Lethe. Milton 
 likewise has used the same comparison to represent 
 the gathering of the fallen angels to Pandemonium. 
 Homer has ventured on a still more homely simile, 
 where he compares the numbers of the Grecian army, 
 their ardor and eagerness for battle, to swarms of 
 flies buzzing round a milk-pail. Nor have the critics 
 pretended that, by such comparisons, these great 
 
THE FIGURATrVT: IN SCRIPTURE. 63 
 
 masters of simile have in the least degraded the 
 dignity of the Epic muse. 
 
 Seeing that so many of the Biblical similitudes 
 are taken from natural scenery and familiar life, in 
 order to perceive their point and propriety the 
 reader must have made himself acquainted with 
 the social habits and domestic manners in the East, 
 as also with the physical aspects of Palestine. It 
 does not surprise us that certain infidels have ridi- 
 culed some of the Bible comparisons as obscure, 
 pointless, and out of proportion, when they show 
 themselves to be so insufficiently informed on the 
 subjects mentioned. A little less ignorance would 
 have caused them to spare their ridicule. 
 
 I may not close these brief remarks on the com- 
 parisons of the Bible without observing how keen 
 an insight the sacred writers must have had into 
 those analogues which subsist between the processes 
 in the natural and the spiritual worlds; and how 
 finely they have illustrated the great fact, that the 
 invisible is adumbrated or symbolized in the visible; 
 and that Nature is God's great parable. Doubtless 
 their peculiar religious training practiced them in 
 this rare art of deciphering symbolical resemblances ; 
 for their entire ritual was itself a matchless sym- 
 bolism — their typology was a system of pictorial 
 analogies or parallels addressed to the eye — their 
 history and their chief historical personages were 
 typical. And well did they profit by their train- 
 ing; for there is scarce any natural process of which 
 
64 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 they have not given the spiritual correspondent or 
 analogue. The alternation of day and night — the 
 succession of the seasons and the seasonal phenomena 
 of the year — the action of the elements — the forma- 
 tion of hail and snow, and the deposition of dew — 
 the processes of vegetation — the functions of animal 
 life — the fluxes of the ocean — the aspects of the 
 heaven"^: have all been translated into their spirit- 
 ual forms and significations. One is reminded of 
 Svvedenborg's doctrine of representations and cor- 
 respondences. But on comparing the symbolism of 
 these ''holy men of old" with the symbolism of the 
 modern mystic, how striking is the contrast! In 
 them all is sobriety, decorum, and intelligibility ; the 
 material universe is not sublimed away, nor is the 
 spiritual materialized. But he is ever extravagant, 
 fanciful, and grotesque — darkening truth by the 
 very excess of his symbolic light — professing to 
 have perceived higher meanings, where evidently 
 he had failed to perceive the lower, and covering 
 the face of Nature with his riddle-writing till it 
 looks like some Egyptian obelisk, one mass of hier- 
 oglyphs. 
 
THE FiaURATIVE E^ SCRIPTURE. 65 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE-CONTINUED. 
 METAPHOB. 
 
 The metaphor differs from the comparison simply 
 in this respect: that while, in the latter, certain 
 words or signs are used to denote that a similitude 
 is intended, as when we say the soldiers fought like 
 lions, in the former the sign or formula of compari- 
 son is dropped, and instead of one thing being resem- 
 bled to another, the aid of the imagination is carried 
 a degree further, one thing being figured or feigned 
 to be another, as when we say the soldiers were 
 lions in combat. The metaphor, therefore, is a^ 
 abbreviated and also a bolder form of the compar- 
 ison. 
 
 This figure is frequently used by the Scriptural 
 writers; and while many of the examples are ex- 
 ceedingly bold and imaginative, they are introduced 
 in the most natural manner, and on the most suit- 
 able occasions. The following may sujfice as speci- 
 mens: ''Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful 
 bough by a well." Gen. xlix, 22. " The Lord is a 
 man of war." Exod. xv, 3. '' The Lord is my 
 shepherd, I shall not want." Ps. xxiii, 1. "For 
 the Lord God is a sun and shield." Ps. Ixxxiv, 11. 
 
 ''I am the rose of Sharon, and the lilv of the val- 
 
 6 
 
66 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 leys." Cant, ii, 1. ''And he said unto them, Go 
 ye and tell that fox." Luke xiii, 32. "And he 
 took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and 
 gave it unto them, saying. This is my body which 
 is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 
 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying. This 
 cup is the new testament in my blood, which is 
 shed for you." Luke xxii, 19-20. "I am the true 
 vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every 
 branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away ; 
 and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, 
 that it may bring forth more fruit. I am the vine, 
 ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I 
 in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. John 
 XV, 1, 2, 5. ''And did all drink the same spiritual 
 drink; for they drank of that spiritual Eock that 
 followed them; and that Kock was Christ." 1 Cor. 
 X, 4. 
 
 ALLEGORY. 
 
 By some of the grammarians the allegory has 
 been regarded as a continued metaphor; but others, 
 we think more correctly, consider them to be not 
 only distinct, but different figures. In the meta- 
 phor, as we have seen, there is a fiction of the im- 
 agination, by which one thing is feigned to be 
 another; in the allegory there is not this fiction, 
 but a subject is chosen having properties or circum- 
 stances resembling those of the principal subject, 
 and is described in such a manner as to represent 
 it. There is this other difference in the metaphor. 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 67 
 
 the principal object is first mentioned before tlie 
 subsidiary object is introduced; and tbe transition 
 of thought is thus from the former to the latter. 
 In the allegory the process is reversed; for while 
 the subsidiary or representative object is described 
 in terms suitable to its nature, the subject which it 
 is meant to represent is kept out of view, and we 
 are left to discover it by reflection. In the meta- 
 phor the writer points out the resemblance; in the 
 allegory the reader is left to discover the resem- 
 blance for himself, and by means of it the object 
 intended. 
 
 The allegory affords ample scope to the descrip- 
 tive as well as the imaginative powers of a writer; 
 being, in fact, the most pictorial of all the figures. 
 It has been likened to a hieroglyphic painting, 
 excepting only that words are used instead of colors. 
 Or we might call it a type or emblem, by means of 
 vocal in place of visible symbols. 
 
 Of the allegory a fine example is to be found in 
 the 80th Psalm: ''Thou hast brought a vine out 
 of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and 
 planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and 
 didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the 
 land. The hills were covered with the shadow of 
 it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly 
 cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and 
 her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then 
 broken down her hedges, so that all they which 
 pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of 
 
68 LITERARY CnARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the 
 field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, 
 God of hosts : look down from heaven, and behold, 
 and visit this vine; and the vineyard which thy 
 right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou 
 madest strong for thyself. It is burnt with fire; it 
 is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy 
 countenance !" Ver. 8-16. 
 
 Here God's chosen people are represented by a 
 vineyard; and the figure is sustained throughout 
 with great correctness. There are no mixed meta- 
 phors; not a single circumstance is introduced that 
 does not strictly agree to a vine ; and the subsidiary 
 subject exactly represents the state of the Jewish 
 Church, which is the principal subject. The ampli- 
 fication of the representative object from a single 
 vine into a vineyard is a happy stroke, equally true 
 to the natural history of the plant, and correct as 
 an illustration of the social progress of Israel. 
 
 Another fine example of the allegory occurs in the 
 5th chapter of Isaiah : " Now will I sing to my 
 well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his 
 vineyard. My well-beloved hatli a vineyard in a 
 very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered 
 out the stones thereof, and planted it with the 
 choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, 
 and also made a wine-press therein: and he looked 
 that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought 
 forth wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Je- 
 lusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray yon, 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCEIPTURE. 69 
 
 betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have 
 been done more to my vineyard that I have not 
 done in it; wherefore, when I looked that it should 
 bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 
 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to 
 my vineyard : I will take away the hedge thereof, 
 and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall 
 thereof, and it shall be trodden down: and I will 
 lay it waste : it shall not be pruned nor digged ; but 
 there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also 
 command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 
 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house 
 of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: 
 and he looked for judgment, and behold oppression; 
 for righteousness, and behold a cry." Ver. 1-7. 
 Ae other example, perhaps even finer, occurs in the 
 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes : "Eemember now thy 
 Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil 
 days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou 
 shalt say, I have no pleasure in them: while the 
 sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not 
 darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: in 
 the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, 
 and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the 
 grinders cease, because they are few, and those that 
 look out of the windows be. darkened; and the doors 
 shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the 
 grinding is low; and he shall rise up at the voice 
 of the bird; and all the daughters of music shall 
 be brought low: also when they shall be afraid of 
 
70 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, 
 and the almond- tree shall flourish, and the grass- 
 hopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; be- 
 cause man goeth to his long home, and the mourners 
 go about the streets : or ever the silver cord be 
 loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher 
 be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at 
 the cistern : then shall the dust return to the earth 
 as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who 
 gave it." Ver. 1-7. 
 
 The allegory often assumes the form of a contin- 
 ued narrative, into which may be introduced living 
 beings, in any variety of circumstance, according to 
 the fancy and design of the writer. Of this kind 
 of allegory we have some fine examples in our own 
 language — the Fairy Queen of Spenser, in poetry; 
 Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress, and the Vision of 
 Mirza, by Addison, in prose. Among the poetical 
 books of Scripture the Song of Solomon is a splen- 
 did specimen of this sort of allegorical composition, 
 throughout which, in the form of an epithalamium, 
 or nuptial poem, the love between Christ and his 
 Church is beautifully allegorized. 
 
 As being of a kindred nature, we may fitly con- 
 sider the parable in connection with the allegory. 
 Waving certain subsidiary meanings which the term 
 occasionally has in Scripture, a parable may be de- 
 fined, a narrative, either fictitious or real, under 
 which is vailed some important truth; the object of 
 the writer boing to convey hi? meaning in a less 
 
THE FIGUKATIVE IN SCRIPTUKE. 71 
 
 offensive or more engaging form than that of direct 
 assertion. The parable may be considered as com- 
 posed of two parts — the protasis, which conveys 
 merely the literal sense, and the apodosis, which 
 contains the mystical or figurative sense. It is not 
 necessary, however, that this second part should be 
 always expressed, but may be left to be inferred. 
 In his parables the Savior frequently omits it. 
 
 ''The excellence of a parable depends on the pro- 
 priety and force of the comparison on which it is 
 founded, or the general fitness and harmony of its 
 parts; on the obviousness of its main scope or de- 
 sign; on the beauty and conciseness of the style in 
 which it is expressed; and on its adaptation to the 
 circumstances and capacities of the hearers. If the 
 illustration is drawn from an object obscure, it will 
 throw no light on the point to be illustrated. If 
 the resemblance is forced and inobvious, the mind 
 is perplexed and disappointed in seeking for it." 
 TVe remember having been much struck by an ex- 
 quisite piece of art in sculpture, which was called 
 "the Vailed Vestal." Seen at a distance, the head 
 appeared as if wrapped in a thick mass of folded 
 marble; but, on a nearer inspection, so exquisite 
 was the chiseling, that under the solid marble every 
 lineament of the face could be distinctly traced; 
 and in our memory that virgin countenance dwells 
 more vividly than if we had seen it without its vail 
 of solid stone, which we wondered how the sculp- 
 tor's art could render so entirely transparent. So 
 
72 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 is it with a parable, when properly constructed. 
 Looked at from a distance, so to say, what the 
 reader perceives is merely the outward narrative 
 or story, but on a nearer inspection, beneath this, 
 as through the marble transparency which vailed 
 without concealing the vestal's countenance, he dis- 
 covers the spiritual truth, which is all the more 
 striking, and likely to dwell longer in the memory, 
 because he has had to seek for it under the para- 
 bolic style. 
 
 In the Old Testament there are instances of the 
 parable which are not wanting in any excellence be- 
 longing to this species of composition. What can 
 be more forcible, more apposite, more persuasive, 
 and more beautiful than Jotham's ''Parable of the 
 Trees?" Judges ix, 7-15; or Nathan's ''Parable 
 of the Ewe Lamb?" 2 Sam. xii, 1-14; or Jehoash's 
 "Parable of the Thistle and the Cedar?" 2 Kings 
 xiv, 9-10; or Ezekiel's "Parable of the Lioness 
 and her Whelps?" Ezek. xix, 1-9. 
 
 But the parables uttered by our Savior claim pre- 
 eminence over all others on account of their num- 
 ber, variety, appositeness, simplicity, force, and 
 beauty. Infidelity itself has owned its admiration 
 of them ; nor will the most ardent admirer of clas- 
 sic or Oriental literature, rich as the latter is in 
 parabolic, hesitate to admit that incomparably su- 
 perior to any thing they furnish are the parables 
 of our Lord. Like the nymph of the fountain be- 
 holding her own lovely limbs in their simple attire 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCBIPTURE. 73 
 
 reflected in the liquid mirror, does heavenly truth 
 behold herself reflected in these exquisite parables. 
 
 CLIMAX. 
 
 When a writer becomes full of his subject, it will 
 appear to magnify itself, and increase in interest as 
 he proceeds in his statement and argument. New 
 ideas rapidly present themselves to his excited im- 
 agination, which, unless selected and arranged with 
 judgment, would have the efiect of over- crowding his 
 subject, till, as is the case with a mountain which is 
 partially concealed by the clouds itself has at- 
 tracted, it would be seen shorn of its dimensions. 
 But it is the writer's design to amplify his subject; 
 therefore, instead of promiscuously crowding, he 
 marshals his ideas in line, so as that they shall rise 
 in succession above one another, bearing with accu- 
 mulated force and with a magnifying eff'ect upon the 
 one great object. This sort of arrangement is called 
 climax, and is always considered as a beauty in 
 composition. Its eff'ect is to communicate to his 
 readers a measure of the writer's own ardor, and of 
 his elevation of soul in view of his subject — ex- 
 pectation is raised, hope is stimulated, we are dis- 
 posed to follow him in the ascent, and provided it is 
 by natural gradations he leads us on, instead of any 
 feeling of distrust or weariness, we rather yield to 
 a pleasing impatience to be conducted to the upper- 
 most summit, which, having reached, the successive 
 bights by which the imagination has mounted, pro- 
 
74 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 duce very much the same emotion as when, standing ' 
 on the highest point in some Alpine range, one 
 looks down upon the mountainous steps he had to 
 climb to get to it. 
 
 Examples of the climax, some of which are of 
 great force, are frequent in the Scriptures. I shall 
 cite a few. 
 
 "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is 
 the place of understanding? 
 
 Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it 
 found in the land of the living. 
 
 The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea 
 saith, It is not with me. 
 
 It can not be gotten for gold, neither shall silver 
 be weighed for the price thereof. 
 
 It can not be valued with the gold of Ophir, with 
 the precious onyx, or the sapphire. 
 
 The gold and the crystal can not equal it; and 
 the exchange of it shall not be for jewels or fine 
 gold. 
 
 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls; 
 for the price of wisdom is above rubies. 
 
 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither 
 shall it be valued with pure gold. 
 
 Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the 
 place of understanding? 
 
 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and 
 kept close from the fowls of the air. 
 
 Destruction and death say, We have heard the 
 fame thereof with our ears. 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 75 
 
 God understandeth the way thereof, and he know- 
 eth the place thereof." Job xxviii, 12-23. 
 
 " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or whither 
 shall I flee from thy presence ? 
 
 If I ascend up into heaven thou art there; if I 
 make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 
 
 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell 
 in the uttermost parts of the sea; 
 
 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right 
 hand shall hold me. 
 
 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me ; even 
 the night shall be light about me. 
 
 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the 
 night shineth as the day : the darkness and the light 
 are both alike to thee. 
 
 For thou hast possessed my reins : thou hast 
 covered me in my mother's womb." Ps. cxxxix, 
 7-13. 
 
 " The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried 
 me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down 
 in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. 
 
 And caused me to pass by them round about : 
 and behold, there were very many in the open 
 valley; and lo, they were very dry. 
 
 And he said unto me. Son of man, can these 
 bones live? And I answered, Lord God, thou 
 knowest. 
 
 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these 
 bones, and say unto them, ye dry bones, hear 
 the word of the Lord. 
 
76 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Thus saith.- the Lord God unto these bones, 
 Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and 
 ye shall live : 
 
 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring 
 up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and 
 put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall 
 know that I am the Lord. 
 
 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I 
 prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking 
 and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 
 
 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh 
 came up upon them, and the skin covered them 
 above: but there was no breath in them. 
 
 Then said he unto me. Prophesy unto the wind, 
 prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus 
 saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, 
 breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may 
 live. 
 
 So I prophesied, as he commanded me, and the 
 breath came into them, and they lived, and stood 
 up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." 
 Ezek. xxxvii, 1-10. 
 
 ''That which the palmer- worm hath left hath the 
 locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left 
 hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the 
 canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." 
 Joel i, 4. 
 
 ''And not only so, but we glory in tribulations 
 also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 
 
 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCBIPTURE. 7Y 
 
 And hope maketli not ashamed; because the love 
 of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy- 
 Ghost, which is given unto us." Rom. v, 3-5. 
 
 "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor 
 life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
 things present, nor things to come, 
 
 Nor hight, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
 shall be able to separate us from the love of God, 
 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eom. viii, 
 38-39. 
 
 ''And besides this, giving all diligence, add to 
 your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; 
 
 And to knowledge, temperance; and to temper- 
 ance, patience; and to patience, godliness; 
 
 And to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to 
 brotherly kindness, charity." 2 Pet. i, 5-7. 
 
 HYPERBOLE. 
 
 The hyperbole is a figure of exaggeration. It 
 consists in magnifying or diminishing an object 
 beyond its natural dimensions. The tendency to 
 do this must be natural to man, since in all lan- 
 guages, even in common conversation, hyperbolical 
 expressions very frequently occur. When the im- 
 agination is favorably afi'ected by its present object, 
 and, as it were, is challenged by some other object 
 possessing a similar property in a higher degree, 
 unwilling to confess the former to be inferior, it 
 boldly asserts its equality. Thus, if the fleetness 
 of a racer is the object which has preoccupied the 
 
78 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 imagination, his speed is as swift as the wind; if 
 some object which is white, say a bridal robe, its 
 whiteness equals that of snow; if a lofty mountain, 
 it pierces the heavens; if a numerous host, it is as 
 multitudinous as the stars in the firmament, or the 
 sand upon the sea-shore; if the sheen of buckler 
 and spear, it dazzles us as if the lightning's flash. 
 
 The tendency to hyperbolize is greater in youth 
 than in maturer years, when experience has taught 
 us to take a juster measure of things, and when the 
 imagination has cooled to a lower heat. From the 
 same cause the earlier literatures abound most in 
 hyperbole. So, also, according as the imagination 
 of a people is more or less lively, will their lan- 
 guage be characterized by this figure. Hence the 
 literature of the Orientals, who are ardently imag- 
 inative, is far more hyperbolic than that of the 
 Europeans, who, under a less torrid sky, are more 
 phlegmatic. 
 
 From its nature the hyperbole scarce admits of 
 bounds or limitation. It will not be fenced in by 
 formal rules or prescriptions. Its line of motion, so 
 to speak, is not the circle, but its tangent; but for 
 this very reason it is the more imperative that the 
 subject hyperbolized is such as will sustain the ex- 
 aggeration. What is really great will bear to be 
 represented as still greater ; and what is lofty, as still 
 more lofty; what is long-during, as everlasting; and 
 what is so ancient that the oldest history has failed 
 to trace its beginnings, as eternal. But no conceiv- 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 79 
 
 able circumstances could reconcile us to a trifling 
 object being equaled with one that is great, or a 
 small object with one that is immense. It were 
 mere burlesque or caricature to magnify a mole-hill 
 into a mountain; or an ephemera into an immortal; 
 or a lock of hair into a comet's tail. To be repre- 
 sented as immense, an object must at least be large; 
 or an assemblage to be set forth as innumerable, 
 must be literally a multitude. An attempt to mag- 
 nify minuteness, or to aggrandize meanness, or to 
 elevate what is low, would be resented as an ex- 
 travagance or a deception. 
 
 Though examples of hyperbole are not wanting 
 in the Scriptures, it occurs less frequently than one 
 might expect, considering how partial the Oriental 
 writers are to this figure. The native majesty of 
 their themes, their strong truthfulness, and the 
 sobriety of thought by which a pure devotion never 
 fails to check the imagination and moderate the 
 passions, will account for the comparative infre- 
 quency with which the sacred writers employ a 
 figure which deals in exaggeration. 
 
 The following specimens are worthy to be cited 
 as extremely bold, without, however, being in the 
 least extravagant : 
 
 ''And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and 
 a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let 
 us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad 
 upon the face of the whole earth." Gen. xi, 4. 
 
 "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the 
 
80 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 earth : so that if a man can number the dust of the 
 earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." Gen. 
 xiii, 16. 
 
 ''And he brought him forth abroad, and said, 
 Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou 
 be able to number them. And he said unto him, 
 So shall thy seed be." Gen. xv, 5. 
 
 '* The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, 
 and shall be removed like a cottage; and the trans- 
 gression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall 
 fall, and not rise again." Is. xiv, 20. 
 
 ''I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form 
 and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. 
 
 I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, 
 and all the hills moved lightly. 
 
 I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the 
 birds of the heavens were fled. 
 
 I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilder- 
 ness, and all the cities thereof were broken down, 
 at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger." 
 Jer. iv, 23-26. 
 
 ''And again I say unto you. It is easier for a 
 camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a 
 rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Matt, 
 xix, 24. 
 
 "And there are also many other things which 
 Jesus did, the which, if they should be written 
 every one, I suppose that even the world itself 
 could not contain the books that should be written. 
 Amen." John xxi, 25. 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 81 
 
 PERSONIFICATION. 
 
 The human mind, constitutionally social, must 
 needs desire society; and, along with society, it 
 craves for sympathy. When the plaintive passion 
 becomes excessive, if it can not be gratified in a 
 natural way, it will convert even inanimate objects 
 into sympathizing beings. If I follow the solitary 
 to his hermit haunts I shall find that, although he 
 has fled the society of his fellow-men, he can not do 
 without associates; for, rather than be companion- 
 less, he will tame the fawns of the wood to keep 
 him company, till they have learned to feed out of 
 his hand, and follow him on his lonely paths. He 
 will address them, as the mood happens to be upon 
 him, in bitter invective or doleful lament ; as if they 
 could share in his hate of his human kind, and par- 
 ticipate in his sorrows. Nay, more; could I watch 
 him in his sadder moments, I should probably hear 
 him pouring forth his sorrows to the midnight stars, 
 or making his plaint to the trees of the wood, as 
 they droop their dewy branches in the midnight air. 
 Nor is the solitary altogether singular in this. For, 
 when under any strong emotion, whether it be of a 
 joyous or a sad kind, if no living ear is nigh tc 
 listen to us, we yield to an impulse of our social 
 nature, and address the inanimate objects around 
 us as if endowed with human sympathies. It is in 
 this instinct of our social emotions that the figure 
 we are now considering has its origin. For in per- 
 sonification, or, as it is more technically called, pro- 
 
82 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 sopopceia, we bestow sensibility and voluntary motion 
 on tilings inanimate, and ascribe rational intellect 
 and moral feelings to the lower animals. This un- 
 questionably is a bold figure; yet, such is the effect 
 of the passions to incline us toward it, that, pro- 
 vided it is naturally introduced, we acquit a writer 
 of any charge of extravagance who employs it. 
 
 There is a temperate heat of the passions, which 
 is little more than a glow of the fancy, when what 
 might seem a mild form of personification is used 
 even in ordinary discourse — as when we speak of 
 the thirsty ground, q, furious dart, the angry ocean, 
 the melancholy groves, the listening air. But this 
 will be more properly considered as simple meta- 
 phor; since such epithets do not produce even a 
 momentary conviction that the ground, the dart, 
 the ocean, the groves, the air, are endued with per- 
 sonal attributes. But when the heat of the passions 
 goes beyond a glow of the fancy, the imagination 
 would seem to sympathize with the sincerity and 
 truthfulness of our emotions ; and instead of sporting 
 in fancied conceits, is impressed with the belief — 
 which is of course only temporary — that the inani- 
 mate objects which it addresses are actually endowed 
 with the attributes of sensible beings. 
 
 There would seem to be just two degrees of this 
 figure. The first, or lower degree, when we intro- 
 duce inanimate objects as feeling and acting like 
 those that have life; and the second, or higher 
 degree, when inanimate objects are introduced not 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 83 
 
 only as feeling and acting, but as speaking to us or 
 nearing and listening to us when we address our- 
 selves to them. 
 
 In the sacred Scriptures personification in both its 
 degrees is frequently used; and the equal of some 
 of the instances will not be found in any literature. 
 Indeed, it is this figure which, beyond all others, 
 elevates the style of Scripture; for no personifica- 
 tions employed by any poets are so magnificent and 
 striking as those of the inspired writers. That 
 noted passage in the book of Isaiah, which describes 
 the fall of the king of Assyria, is full of personified 
 objects: 
 
 "That thou shalt take up this proverb against 
 the king of Babylon, and say. How hath the op- 
 pressor ceased ! the golden city ceased ! 
 
 The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, 
 and the scepter of the rulers. 
 
 He who smote the people in wrath with a con- 
 tinual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is 
 persecuted, and none hindereth. 
 
 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they 
 break forth into singing. 
 
 Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars 
 of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no 
 feller is come up against us. 
 
 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee 
 at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, 
 even all the chief ones of the earth: it hath raised 
 up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 
 
84 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art 
 thou also become weak as we? art thou become like 
 unto us? 
 
 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the 
 noise of thy viols : the worm is spread under thee, 
 and the worms cover thee. 
 
 How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son 
 of the morning! how art thou cut down to the 
 ground, which didst weaken the nations !" Is. xiv, 
 4-12. 
 
 What a succession of bold poetic strokes we have 
 here; the fir-trees and cedars of Lebanon breaking 
 forth into exultation over the fall of the tyrant ; as if 
 their bleeding trunks had felt the blow of his bat- 
 tle-ax, when it smote down the warriors of Judah ! 
 Hell from beneath moved up to meet him — and the 
 dead kings introduced as commiserating with mock 
 pity the fall of one whose magnificence and victories 
 had eclipsed their own ! That also is a bold personi- 
 fication in the book of Job, where inquiry being 
 made about the place of wisdom, the deep is intro- 
 duced as answering, " It is not in me," and the sea 
 as replying, ''It is not with me." How animated a 
 picture the Psalmist raises when, not content to 
 strike his harp alone, he summons to the choir, to 
 join with him in his anthem, every thing that lives, 
 or moves, or has a being! "Praise the Lord from 
 the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps : fire and hail ;' 
 snow and vapor; stormy wind fulfilling his word: 
 mountains and all hills; fruitful trees, and all ce- 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 85 
 
 dars: beasts, and all cattle; creeping tilings, and 
 flying fowl : kings of the earth, and all people ; 
 princes and all judges of the earth: both young men 
 and maidens ; old men and children : let them praise 
 the name of the Lord; for his name alone is excel- 
 lent; his glory is above the earth and heaven." 
 When any appearance or operation of the Almighty 
 is concerned, the sacred writers are so filled with 
 animated views of his majesty and power, that they 
 represent all nature as if touched with a like ani- 
 mation — the pulses of life throbbing as if one great 
 heart beat throughout creation. Take the following 
 as an example of this : " Before him went the pesti- 
 lence : the waters saw thee, God, and were afraid ; 
 the mountains saw thee, and trembled. The over- 
 flowing of the water passed by; the deep uttered 
 his voice, and lifted up his hands on high." What 
 a sublime stroke, whose parallel, I venture to say, 
 will not be found in the entire compass of classic 
 poetry, where it is said of Christ that, looking upon 
 the tempestuous sea on rising from sleep, " He re- 
 buked the winds and the sea, and there was a great 
 calm !" To speak to the raging tempest — its rushing 
 winds and its crusted waves — with the word of au- 
 thority, as though Nature in her wildest moods 
 could not fail to recognize the voice of her Lord; 
 could a sublimer personification be conceived ! As 
 an example of this figure, where simplicity is com- 
 bined with great beauty, the following may be cited : 
 "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
 
86 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 firmament shewetli his handiwork. Day unto day 
 uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth 
 knowledge. There is no speech nor language where 
 their voice is not heard." Ps. xix. Addison has 
 paraphrased this thought, with his usual felicity of 
 diction, in his celebrated hymn, which first appeared 
 in No. 465 of the Spectator. Nothing can be con- 
 ceived more beautiful and sublime than the personi- 
 fication of wisdom which Solomon so frequently 
 introduces. As for example, Prov. viii, 27-31 : 
 ''When he prepared the heavens I was present; 
 when he described a circle on the face of the deep : 
 when he disposed the atmosphere above; when he 
 established the fountains of the deep: when he pub- 
 lished his decree to the sea, that the waters should 
 not pass their bounds : when he planned the founda- 
 tions of the earth : then was I by him as his offspring ; 
 and I was daily his delight; I rejoiced continually 
 before him ; I rejoiced in the habitable part of his 
 earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." 
 Not less admirable is the Psalmist's personification 
 of the Divine attributes: '' Mercy and truth are met 
 together; righteousness and peace have kissed each 
 other." Where shall we find a bolder use of this 
 figure, than where the prophet Habakkuk represents 
 the pestilence as marching before Jehovah when he 
 comes to vengeance, iii, 5 ; or where Job introduces 
 death and destruction affirming of wisdom that her 
 fame only had come to their ears, xxviii, 22; or 
 where Isaiah, in his tremendous image of Hades, 
 
THE FIGURATIVE IN SCRIPTURE. 87 
 
 figures her extending her throat and opening her in- 
 satiable and immeasurable jaws, v. 14. 
 
 APOSTROPHE. 
 
 This figure and the former are derived from the 
 same principle. For the like impulse which, to 
 gratify a plaintive passion, leads us to bestow a mo- 
 mentary sensibility upon an inanimate object, does 
 also incline us to bestow a momentary presence upon 
 a sensible being who is absent. The same desire for 
 sympathy which leads us to address our sorrows to 
 the ocean, on whose shores we are standing, also 
 moves to utter them to the absent friend whom that 
 ocean separates from us. The memory of our for- 
 mer companionship, when we exchanged our feel- 
 ings, becomes so very lively as to change for the 
 moment from a mere reminiscence into a conviction 
 that the absent one is at our side. 
 
 This figure is sometimes joined with personifica- 
 tion ; things inanimate, to qualify them for listening 
 to our apostrophic appeal, being not only conceived 
 to be present but personified. 
 
 Examples of the apostrophe are numerous in the 
 sacred writers, and the figure is often managed with 
 great boldness. 
 
 " thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be 
 ere thou art quiet? Put thyself up into the scab- 
 bard, rest, and be still. How can it be quiet, seeing 
 the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, 
 and against the sea-shore ? there he hath appointed 
 
88 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 it." Jer. xlvii, 6-7. '^0 death, I will be tliy 
 plagues! grave, I will be thy destruction!" Hos. 
 xiii, 14. ''0 death, where is thy sting? grave, 
 where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. xv, 55. 
 
 "Descend, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter 
 of Babylon; sit on the bare ground without a 
 throne, daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shalt 
 no longer be called the tender and the delicate." Is. 
 xlvii, 1. ''Awake, awake; put on thy strength, 
 Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, Jerusalem, 
 the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more 
 come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. 
 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, 
 Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy 
 neck, captive daughter of Zion." Isa. Hi, 1-2. 
 
THE SYMBOLIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 89 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SYMBOLIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 The figurative and the symbolic are closely allied, 
 in so far that a common principle underlies both, 
 and the same style often distinguishes both. Hence 
 there is a form of symbolic description, which might 
 be resolved into one or other of the figures of speech ; 
 more especially the allegory and the continued met- 
 aphor. When these present an enlarged picture, or 
 a succession of pictures, by means of visible objects, 
 of a subject which is either invisible, or less obvious 
 to the senses than the figurative objects are, they 
 may be said to be symbolic. In this way several 
 of the prophecies are given in the form of simple 
 allegory. Such were Joseph's dreams; such was 
 the vision, seen by Nebuchadnezzar, of the great 
 image, whose brightness so dazzled, while its form 
 overawed the imperial autocrat; such, also, as 
 figured by the prophet, was the striking vision of 
 the tree which grew and was strong, yet was 
 ordered to be cut down and destroyed. Of the 
 same nature are not a few of the symbolical repre- 
 sentations by action, whether exhibiting past events, 
 or events which are to come. These may be re- 
 garded as so many highly-figured allegories, or 
 metaphors richly painted. 
 
90 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 But there is to be found in the Scriptures a 
 scheme of symbolism, which will not resolve into 
 mere figures of speech. Its use was evidently in- 
 tended to be more profound and far loftier, than 
 merely to give a literary effect to the style. While 
 figurative in its expression, there are undercur- 
 rents deeper than any figures of speech could carry. 
 
 On turning to the prophecies, we shall find that 
 the language in which they are couched goes be- 
 yond the metaphor and allegory; for terms are used 
 in a manner which is altogether unique and pecu- 
 liar to this mode of representation ; and this is done 
 so much on system, or according to a uniform 
 method, that the prophetic style requires a key of 
 its own. Its vocabulary is singular; its language 
 has an alphabet by itself. To decipher the pro- 
 phetic hieroglyphics belongs rather to the exegesis 
 than to the literature of Scripture. Yet it falls 
 within our design to remark how rich is the lit- 
 erary dress in which their symbolism has clothed 
 the prophetic writings. These visions of the future 
 have an amazing scenic effect; are grand, some- 
 times gorgeous beyond conception, in consequence 
 of the substitution of their symbolic images for the 
 literary events themselves. A splendid drapery is 
 thrown around these future histories, which in the 
 ordinary historian would be extravagant ; but which 
 in the prophet is dignified and becoming as the 
 solemn folds of his own prophetic mantle. There is 
 a noble obscurity, as when the clouds, gilded by the 
 
THE SYMBOLIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 91 
 
 twilight from the unrieen sun, seem to pile up 
 palaces upon the mountains' dusky summits. Any- 
 one may convince himself of this by turning to the 
 pages of Ezekiel, Daniel, or John; and if with 
 darkling pen these have written down on tablets of 
 shadow the world's future history, this very ob- 
 scurity hightens the artistic effect. A prediction 
 which should present itself in bare literalities would 
 want those spectral proportions, which only dimness 
 can give to it, as we see it move on the indistinct 
 verges of distant centuries. Whatever the rapt eye 
 of the seer might itself descry, it could fling back 
 for other eyes only mantled glances. And it is the 
 working out of the symbolism necessary for this ob- 
 scuration, which so amazingly exhibits the literary 
 excellence of these prophetic compositions. The 
 artistic effect in the working of light and shade is 
 similar to the finest efforts of Rembrandt. The 
 bare thought of a prediction, however ordinary the 
 event predicted, has in it something sublime; and 
 this sublimity is wonderfully sustained by the sym- 
 bolic style of the prophets. 
 
 To enter on an examination of the prophetic style 
 would lead us into the subject of Biblical interpre- 
 tation, which is aside from our purpose. A single 
 illustration, however, may be given. It is to be 
 found in the chronology of the prophets, in which 
 the term day, instead of the diurnal circle of 
 twenty-four hours, counts the annual circle of the 
 sun's revolution ; in other words, a year. Now 
 
92 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 wliy did these ancient seers reckon by days thus 
 extended into years, rather than by years them- 
 selves? May not one reason have been to impress 
 upon the mind of man, that when he works his 
 little day counts no more than its own brief value — 
 the few hours the earth takes to turn on its axis? 
 whereas when it is God who works, his day swells 
 in dimension and becomes as a year — the period of 
 the far wider revolution, when our planet sweeps its 
 entire orbitual curve. 
 
 The visual range of prophecy was not confined 
 within our terrene horizon ; for to her eye was given 
 to pierce the world unseen. Now it will at once ap- 
 pear, that in his descriptions of the invisible world, 
 the prophet could only describe by means of symbols. 
 His pictures of a condition of existence of which we 
 have no experience, if worked in colors borrowed 
 from the earth, can be no other than symbolic 
 representations. The material parts of his descrip- 
 tions are not to be taken in their literal but in their 
 suggestive sense. Does he represent heaven as a city, 
 whose walls are of precious stones, its streets paved 
 with gold? — this is simply a symbol of its magnif- 
 icence. Are its inhabitants figured in white rai- 
 ment, which glistens in unclouded light? — this is 
 merely a symbol of their purity. The entire scenic 
 representation is but one grand piece of symbolism. 
 For clearly on no other principle could the unseen 
 world and the future state be described; if the de- 
 BcriptionR are to be at all pictorial. But this once 
 
THE SYMBOLIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 93 
 
 admitted, what an ample scope was given to the 
 prophet to work out the magnificent imagery of the 
 heavenly world! All that is beautiful and bright — 
 all that is grand and gorgeous — the magnificence of 
 architecture — the minstrelsies of music — the wealth 
 of Eastern mines — the insignia of Eastern royalty — 
 the rich vestments of Eastern costume — all could be 
 collected into the prophet's representations. He 
 could dip his pen in the glories of the first para- 
 dise — could borrow beauty from the landscapes of 
 Palestine, and magnificence from its palaces — could 
 gather into his pictures the sacred grandeurs which 
 gleamed from the Temple, ajid enrich them with the 
 loveliest hues of Mount Zion, ''the perfection of 
 beauty." Or working out his symbolism by means 
 of contrast, he could figure a paradise where no 
 serpent lurks to deceive — a sun-world where no sea 
 lashes itself into storms — an orb of light where 
 night does not alternate with day. In short, though 
 v/hat the prophet had to describe is that "which 
 eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath 
 entered into the heart of man to conceive," yet 
 working out his descriptions on the principle of 
 symbolism, where, in any language, will we find a 
 grandeur of apocalyptic imagery to compare with 
 that with which the banished seer of Patmos has 
 enriched the sacred literature? 
 
 It is, however, in the typology of Scripture that 
 we shall best see its peculiar symbolism. It be- 
 longs, of course, to the theologian to set forth the 
 
94 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BICLK. 
 
 doctrinal meanings of the types; our business is 
 only with their literary effect. And certainly this 
 was to give a singularly-pictorial vividness to the 
 sacred literature of the Hebrews. The bare de- 
 scription of the types, especially of those which were 
 ritualistic, has made the Pentateuch read like a 
 finely-illustrated work. It is profusely and most 
 graphically pictorial. The pen of the sacred law- 
 giver becomes also the pencil of the sacred artist. 
 The entire ritualism, under which are vailed so 
 many spiritual meanings, is one grand picture-rep- 
 resentation of heavenly truth. 
 
 It is a trite saying that it is a difficult thing to 
 write suitable books for children, particularly on 
 religion, so as to give to abstract truths that con- 
 crete form which will fix them on the infantile 
 mind. Now here for the Church in its infancy or 
 nonage, a body of divinity had to be written — a 
 theological primer which should contain in substance 
 the same profound revelations of the mind of God, 
 which were to be hereafter given in the fullness of 
 the times. How admirably suited for this purpose 
 was the symbolistic manual which Moses prepared! 
 
 It has sometimes been a taunt with the infidel 
 that the ritual of Moses was so sanguinary, and so 
 offensive, even to the sight, that it turned the 
 sanctuary as into a slaughter-house, and filled the 
 holy places with ghastly spectacles; that it ensan- 
 guined the very literature of the Hebrews, for the 
 book of Leviticus seems to drip with blood, and is 
 
THE SYMBOLIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 1)5 
 
 revolting with horrid details of sacrificial butch- 
 eries. "Conceive" — the infidel says — "what a re- 
 pulsive sight it must have been when the tender 
 lamb, just brought from the fold or the pasture-field, 
 had its throat cut, its white breast smeared with its 
 own gore, and its dismembered limbs laid on the 
 altar-faggots to blacken in the flames. Or what a 
 sickening sight it was to see the turtle-dove, which 
 so lately cooed its tender responses to its mate, 
 strangled, plucked of its feathers, and disembow- 
 eled. All this must have been excessively revolting 
 to behold, while it could be scarcely^ less revolting 
 to read a detailed account of it. A literature which 
 describes it could only gratify a taste for the horri- 
 ble, and of this sort was the early sacred history 
 of the Hebrews, where you have the whole details 
 of the disgusting spectacle." Such is the objection 
 of the infidel, who forgets that if these sacrificial 
 rites had been any less revolting, they would have 
 failed in their great symbolic use. An image of sin — 
 that abominable thing which God hateth — ^had to 
 be presented; and it was to be seen in that bleed- 
 ing lamb as it panted in its death-throes, its eyes be- 
 come glazed and lusterless, its limbs rigid, its fleece 
 dappled in its own gore. It was to be seen in that 
 strangled dove, whose plumage is so ruffled, its 
 wings draggled and torn, its very bowels protrud- 
 ing through the garsh which the priest's knife had 
 made. In these, sickening to look upon, what the 
 Israelites saw was the image of sin. Those ghastly 
 
06 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 changes whicli had come over the lamb, which a 
 few hours ago was at its gambols on the green 
 meadow, and over that turtle-dove, which yesterday 
 cooed its note among the sycamore branches, or 
 clove the air a thing of beauty and of life — those 
 ghastly changes which have made creatures, lately 
 so fair to look upon, now sickening to behold, were 
 not exhibited as a mere spectacle, but were symbols 
 of a great truth, which needed to be graven on the 
 memory, even if it should be as with the point of a 
 knife dipped in blood. As the worshiper gazed upon 
 his sacrifice, what he saw was the image of sin — of 
 himself the sinner: what he, polluted, depraved, 
 death-doomed, was in the sight of the Holy One. 
 
 Nor was it sin only which was symbolized, but 
 salvation as well. And how sustaining to hope, 
 while having to look through the dim vista of cen- 
 turies, to have set forth visibly before it the sym- 
 bols of the ''great salvation!" It is impossible for 
 us fully to realize the impression which these pre- 
 figurative types would make on the mind of an 
 ancient Hebrew. The gushing wound in the breast 
 of the animal would lose its ghastliness in his eyes, 
 when faith beheld, as in a mirror, the foreshadowed 
 images of redemption. 
 
 Modern science has discovered a typical system 
 in nature, of which one peculiar element is, that 
 the earlier is a sort of prefiguration of the later. 
 The seed contains what is to become the full-grown 
 plant. The embryo has within it what is to ex- 
 
THE SYMBOLIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 97 
 
 pand into the full-grown animal. In the earlier 
 geological ages we find rudimentary forms, with 
 capacities and even organs, which become developed 
 only in the more finished forms of the later vege- 
 table and animal life. 
 
 A similar typical system is to be seen in the 
 supernatural, as revealed in the Scriptures. A 
 scheme of prefiguration unfolds itself with the prog- 
 ress of the sacred history. As the natural has its 
 epochs of creation, at which the typical form makes 
 a move in advance, approaching somewhat nearer 
 to the archetypal idea; so has the supernatural its 
 epochs of revelation, at which we discover a corre- 
 sponding advancement in its typical representations. 
 
 There is thus unfolded a twofold aspect in which 
 we may view the Scriptural typology. First, follow- 
 ing out the analogy between the natural and the 
 supernatural, each presenting a typical system, the 
 Scripture types may be regarded as forming a part 
 of the scheme of universal providence, which in- 
 cludes, in one great method, both departments, 
 creation and redemption, the natural and the super- 
 natural. This opens up a study at once philosoph- 
 ically profound, and of the highest picturesque 
 beauty. In his late work on the ''Supernatural in 
 Relation to the Natural," Dr. M'Cosh has indicated 
 some interesting tracts of thought, which one wishes 
 the same able pen would more largely follow out. 
 
 But, secondly, keeping within the sphere of reve- 
 lation, the types in Scripture have a value of their 
 
 9 
 
98 LITEKARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 own, as prefigurations of the grand archetypal ideas 
 in the economy of redemption, which they were in- 
 tended to adumbrate* We can not conceive a more 
 pleasing or healthier exercise for the analogical 
 faculty, than the study of the Old Testament types, 
 when rightly pursued. The subject has at length 
 been reduced to a scientific method by one of our 
 most accomplished Scottish divines. Principal Fair- 
 bairn, in his very able work on typology. 
 
 The loose treatment of the types, which rejoiced 
 in running out mere w^ire-drawn coincidences, with- 
 out having got hold of any main or central idea, 
 was ill fitted to give dignity and unity to these 
 Divine symbolisms. A like style of interpretation 
 used to be indulged when treating of the parables, 
 which could not fail greatly to mar their beauty, 
 whether in a theological or a literary point of view. 
 It is the central idea which gives symmetry and 
 coherence either to type or parable; even as the 
 midrib to the veins in a leaf, or as a stem-branch to 
 the ofF-shooting twigs. There is besides in the type 
 the prophetic element, or the foreshadowing, on a 
 lower platform, of an identical truth which is here- 
 after to be exhibited on a higher. And we take 
 only that to be typical, in any theological sense, 
 which is truly prefigurative. Had our commenta- 
 tors kept this more in their view, it must have 
 served to check the too free license they have al- 
 lowed to fancy in running out the types into all man- 
 ner of minute parallelisms. It is in our opinion to 
 
THE SYMBOLIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 99 
 
 degrade tKe majesty of the Divine teachings by sym- 
 bol, if we regard a type as other than a great 
 thought, which, waiting its higher manifestations, 
 was worthy to be anticipated in symbolic exhibi- 
 tion. To say, for instance, that Moses was a type 
 of Christ, in respect that danger threatened the 
 infancy of both, is to confound a mere historical 
 coincidence with typical identity. Here was no 
 root-principle, no essential law, nor any funda- 
 mental idea, in the method of Divine Providence 
 toward our race, to be brought out. In like man- 
 ner we dismiss some twenty other particulars in the 
 life of Moses, as not meriting to be esteemed 
 strictly typical. Viewed as coincidences they are 
 interesting, some of them remarkable; as historical 
 parallels they are instructive, shedding broad, re- 
 volving lights on Providence, when it is seen re- 
 peating itself, yet still progressive; but they do not 
 rise into the region of that class of facts, which 
 alone were worthy to be typified. This much only 
 would we say of them, that they fall in with a 
 natural expectation, that where two persons have 
 a typical relation, the circumstances of their his- 
 tory will run more parallel, than where there is 
 no such relation. 
 
 The great Hebrew prophet has himself seized upon 
 and expressed the root-idea in the typical relation 
 in which he stood to Christ. For if the reader 
 carefully examines his words — Deut. xviii, 15-19 — 
 he can scarcely fail to perceive that the type is 
 
100 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 founded upon, and gives sensible form to, the one 
 idea of mediation. Here we have an essential prin- 
 ciple in the method of Providence toward man. It 
 was to have its archetypal consummation in the 
 person and work of Christ; in Moses, a lesser per- 
 sonage, and on a lower platform, it had its typal 
 adumbration. And, so far from this narrowing the 
 type, we have but to start from this ground-idea, 
 carrying it along with us, to find ourselves drawn 
 into a multifold parallelism — a system of co-related 
 ideas which circle round the main one, as satellites 
 round their primary; and receiving from it, as 
 these receive from their solar orb, a portion of its 
 own light. 
 
 There is often a poetical beauty in the types — 
 some fine thought fitly draped in the infolding sym- 
 bolism. So have we thought of the tabernacle in 
 the wilderness, with its holy of holies screened off 
 by its woven portal, a type of heaven. What a 
 poetic grandeur was thus made to encircle that 
 fane of curtains ! and how sublime by very contrast 
 were these textile walls, when viewed as typical of 
 the house not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens! So have we thought, also, of the brazen 
 serpent in the desert. There is real poetry in this 
 type, when one considers that image of death — the 
 twined serpent so lifelike, yet lifeless — with healing 
 power to the wounded. Could a more afiecting pre- 
 figuration have been chosen of the great fact in 
 redemption, that it was by death — the death of Him 
 
THE SYMBOLIC IX THE SCRIPTURES. 101 
 
 who is very life — death was to be destroyed? So 
 have we thought of the Temple at Jerusalem. A 
 glory far exceeding its architectural splendors envi- 
 roned that sacred edifice which crowned Mount Zion. 
 As we think of it, the only Temple on the face of 
 the whole earth which, so long as it stood, had been 
 built to the worship of the true God; hoW strik- 
 ingly it foreshadows the cardinal truth in tlie Gos- 
 pel — that there is but one way of access to God for 
 fallen man — only one living temple, which is filled 
 with the archetypal shekinah, and consecrated by 
 the archetypal mercy-seat! So have we thought of 
 that incident in the life of Jonah which was typical 
 of the burial and resurrection of "the Son of Man." 
 There has always appeared to us to be something 
 of highest poetry about Jonah's typical entombment 
 in his sepulcher of waters. The Savior himself was 
 buried on the land; and since his resurrection was 
 to be a pledge of the opening of the graves, it was 
 fitting he should be buried where he was; seeing 
 that on the land by far the greater numbers have 
 their sepulchers. But now with this connect the 
 type — the rising again of Jonah from his ocean- 
 tomD — and the pledge of the resurrection becomes 
 as it were complete; the waters are included as well 
 as the solid land; the wave-shrouded corpses shall 
 also rise; "the sea shall give up its dead." 
 
102 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 It will readily be confessed that, to excel in these 
 three — the sublime, the pathetic, and the pictur- 
 esque — is the highest achievement of literary gen- 
 ius. By the sublime, to fill the soul; by the 
 pathetic, to touch the heart; by the picturesque, to 
 fascinate the eye. An author who succeeds in doing 
 this proves himself a very master in literature. 
 Swaying at his will the imagination, the emotions, 
 and the taste, who will deny his power to be pre- 
 eminent? Now, the sacred authors evidently pos- 
 sess this power — since they excel alike in the sub- 
 lime, the pathetic, and the picturesque. In the 
 present chapter I design to treat of the sublime in 
 the Scriptures, 
 
 In order to sublimity in writing three things are 
 requisite. First, the objects described must be such 
 as are fitted to raise those ideas or emotions which 
 we call sublime; for, if an author chooses mean or 
 commonplace objects, then, however grand or lofty 
 his descriptions of them, he does not merit to be 
 called a sublime writer. His gorgeous language 
 may produce a momentary sensation approaching to 
 sublimity, just as a haze of mingled cloud and sun- 
 
THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. 103 
 
 shine sometimes causes us to mistake a very ordi- 
 nary hill for a lofty mountain; but unless the object 
 itself is really sublime, the illusion will speedily 
 pass away. Secondly, the writer himself must have 
 a lively impression of the object which he exhibits; 
 for if his own feelings are languid, he can never 
 inspire his readers with any strong emotion, who 
 have to take their impressions from his at second 
 hand. Only when a writer has himself caught a 
 heat and elevation of soul in the presence of the 
 sublime, will his descriptions of it bear transmission 
 through the medium of language, which in no case 
 can equal open vision. Thirdly, not only must the 
 object in itself be sublime, and the writer have a 
 lively impression of its sublimity, but it must be 
 set before us in such a light, so described in appro- 
 priate language, that a full and clear impression of 
 it shall at once strike upon the mind of the reader ; 
 for unless the images of sublimity which the orator 
 or poet conjures up impress us at once as sublime, 
 the effect of his description is entirely lost. The 
 sight of a cataract or a lofty mountain instantane- 
 ously produces a sublime impression, and so must it 
 be with the description of them. We may not have 
 to linger over the language for the impression to 
 come by degrees, for in that case it will rarely come 
 at all. 
 
 Now, the sacred writers possess in a very eminent 
 degree these three requisites to the sublime in writ- 
 ing. For, in the first place, their chosen themes 
 
104 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 and objects are wonderfully sublime. Among things 
 spiritual what can be more grand or lofty than the 
 being and perfections of the Infinite, Divine Provi- 
 dence, the origin of evil and its removal; or among 
 things historical, what can equal for sublimity the 
 creation of worlds, the incarnation of Deity, the 
 redemption of a fallen race; or among things which 
 are prospective, what is more sublime than the 
 closing up of time when its "last day" shall have 
 been numbered, the universal judgment of the quick 
 and the dead, heaven with its consummated felici- 
 ties, hell with its unutterable torments, and eternity 
 with its countless ages; or among things material, 
 what can be more sublime for vastness than the 
 starry firmament and the mighty ocean; or for 
 energy and force, than a thunder-storm, a tempest 
 of wind, and the overflowing of waters; or for so- 
 lemnity and awe, than the darkness of night, the 
 solitude of the desert, and the silence of a vast for- 
 est; or for scenic grandeur, than the rising of the 
 dead, and the great conflagration which is to reduce 
 a world to ashes? Now, it is among such subjects 
 as these that the sacred writers delight to expatiate. 
 Nor shall we do them full justice if the impression 
 is conveyed that they produce these lofty objects aa 
 if incidentally, or as a poet might intersperse his 
 cantos with an occasional sublime episode. There 
 is throughout an epical unity, these subjects form- 
 ing, so to say, the warp and woof in the gorgeous 
 web. Not more naturall}' do we look for stars in a 
 
THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. 105 
 
 constellation, or for great planets in the system of 
 wticli a magnificent sun is the central primary, 
 than we expect to find objects which are sublime 
 where the whole reach and sweep of thought is 
 sublimity itself. 
 
 But in a cosmical system every part is not a star 
 nor a planet. Each blade of grass which goes to 
 mantle the hill-slopes on the latter ; the very lichens 
 which thinly clothe its escarped rocks; the ephem- 
 erae which live their hour upon it and die — these 
 also form parts of the system. Insignificant in 
 themselves, they borrow a grandeur from the cos- 
 mical unity which they help to make up. And in 
 this way also many an object, in itself trivial and 
 little, acquires a dignity on the sacred pages by 
 having a place assigned it in the grand totality of 
 truth and providence. 
 
 The inspired writers by no means disdain to be 
 conversant with familiar objects; but, on the con- 
 trary, wherever a moral lesson can be gathered, or 
 an elucidation of truth be found, be it among the 
 veriest commonplaces of man's daily observation, 
 the sacred writers with an easy pen copy it on their 
 lofty pages. And if in its familiar form it suits 
 best to be written down, they make no attempt to 
 invest it with meretricious grandeur. Yet, so much 
 is it in their way to deal with sublime objects, that 
 when they take occasion io notice any of a meaner 
 cast, it is rare if they do not elevate them into the 
 region of sublimity by the simple power of associa- 
 
106 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 tion. The drifting clouds, though picturesque, are 
 scarcely a sublime object; but to a devout mind 
 they appear wonderfully sublime when represented 
 as the chariot of God. The fall of a sparrow from 
 the house-top has nothing of sublimity in it; but 
 when this casual event is connected with the special 
 providence of God — his eye watching alike the 
 flight and the fall of the despised fledgling — it be- 
 comes morally sublime. 
 
 Then, secondly, the sacred penmen possess the 
 emotion of sublimity in a very high degree. For 
 their feelings in presence of the sublime are never 
 languid, nor their impressions of it ever feeble. 
 How the poetic rapture must have kindled and 
 burned in the breasts of the ancient prophets! 
 "What holy frenzies must have seized on the min- 
 strel spirit of David ! What pulses of strong emo- 
 tion beat quick in the heart-veins of Job! What 
 sublime musings filled the soul of the lonely sage, 
 who pondered the mysteries of Providence amid the 
 mountain solitudes of Media ! How Ezekiel seems 
 to have gazed awe-struck on his own prophetic 
 images ! How tremblingly did Daniel look into 
 those future ages, which rolled their distant centu- 
 ries like sea-mists from an invisible horizon ! What 
 ecstatic fervors fired that gentle breast which sighed 
 its sorrows and saw its visions on the prison isle 
 of Patmos ! What deep amazement was his to 
 whom in mystic trance the third heavens revealed 
 their secrets and poured forth their unutterable 
 
THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. 107 
 
 symplionies ! Sublimity ! is it only to souls sublime, 
 which can understand it and appreciate it, that it 
 reveals itself — its silences and its solemnities; its 
 hights and its depths; its grandeurs and its glory? 
 Then were these men worthy to look upon it, for 
 not on them were lost even the passing shadows of 
 its mysterious forms; but when these had passed 
 there remained on their souls images like to itself, 
 vast, solemn, majestic, and sublime. 
 
 Thirdly, the sacred authors are complete masters 
 of the proper style in which to describe a sublime 
 object, and so to convey their own impressions of its 
 sublimity. For they write with clearness, vigor, 
 conciseness and simplicity; are ever natural; do 
 not labor to be grandiloquent; seek not to accumu- 
 late turgid epithets and swelling phrases; but in 
 words of simple grandeur, so well befitting their 
 themes, they depict the sublime alike in nature or 
 in grace. Indeed, except with those who have a true 
 eye for the sublime, the great simplicity, one might 
 say almost the nakedness of many of the Bible de- 
 scriptions, will take from their impressiveness. But 
 the same might be said of the works of nature. 
 These, when grandest, are generally least elaborate. 
 A treeless desert of sand — a heaving expanse of 
 waters — a huge mountain, rudely blocked, capping 
 its rugged brow with storm-clouds — these in form 
 are as simple as may be conceived ; yet in effect 
 they are sublime beyond conception. The rush of 
 cataracts — the booming of sea-billows — the crash of 
 
108 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the riven thunder-cloud — in these there are no dia- 
 pason music-notes, nor choral symphonies ; they are 
 simple sounds — the untuned voice of Nature when 
 she cries aloud: yet how sublime, without being 
 musical, is that awful voice ! To such, therefore, as 
 have the true perception, the Bible of all books is 
 most comparable with the great works of God — it 
 is so sublime in its simplicity, and so simple in its 
 sublimity. 
 
 It were easy to multiply examples of the admira- 
 ble plainness and brevity of the sacred writers, 
 when descanting on subjects of the greatest sublim- 
 ity; but two may suffice. Suppose, then, an unin- 
 spired writer to attempt a description of the 
 primeval chaos, when darkness and tempest held 
 divided sovereignty of the ocean-earth ; how labored 
 his language would be, we may gather from reading 
 the description which that most graphic of pens has 
 essayed in the Testimony of the Rocks. But how 
 brief, how simple — sublimely brief, majestically sim- 
 ple — is the description by Moses. In a single verse, 
 containing not over thirty words, he raises an image 
 of the chaos, which haunts the imagination as a 
 terror-dream of the night: ''And the earth was 
 without form, and void; and darkness was upon the 
 face of the deep. And the Spirit-breath of the 
 Lord moved upon the face of the waters." Gen. i, 2. 
 Or take his account of the creation of light; in 
 some six words he strikes off, quick as the motion 
 of that ethereal substance whose creation he de- 
 
THE SUBLBIE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 109 
 
 scribes, an image which by its sublimity evoked an 
 encomium from even a heathen writer — '^God said, 
 Light be ! and light was." 
 
 Even our greatest writers, when treating of sub- 
 lime subjects, are apt to overload them with de- 
 scription, and to use language so very gorgeous 
 that the words dazzle the eye from seeing what 
 they ought rather to reveal. But this is never the 
 case with the sacred writers. Thus, to compare 
 Milton and Job, in the English bard, the ear is 
 often so filled with the rhythmical roll of his ample 
 verse, and the eye all but so oppressed with the 
 gorgeousness of his diction, till what we think of is 
 rather the poet's own marvelous power of descrip- 
 tion, than the object which he describes. Doubtless 
 a great triumph this of poetic genius; but there is 
 still a greater, which belongs to the Hebrew bard, 
 who so fills our minds with the object described 
 that we have no time to think of him who describes 
 it. In matchless poetry is the war-horse described; 
 but it is not the rhythm of the poet's numbers that 
 rings in the ear — it is the clang of the war-steed's 
 own hoofs as they strike fire on the battle-plain. 
 In poetry equally matchless is the behemoth de- 
 scribed; but it is not the beauty or the grandeur 
 of the poet's language, great as these are, that fills 
 the eye — the terrible creature itself seems to rise 
 from its ocean depths, to measure its gigantic 
 strength with the waves of the storm. 
 
 Among writers who have treated of the sublime, 
 
110 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 I am not aware that there is one who has not 
 gone for examples of it to the sacred writings. 
 Nor is this to be wondered at, seeing that of all 
 writings, ancient or modern, the Bible affords us 
 the highest instances of the sublime. Without 
 needlessly multiplying examples, some few may be 
 cited by way of specimens. In his narrative of 
 the creation, Moses has several strokes of the true 
 sublime, one especially, which drew commendation 
 from a heathen critic — ''Grod said, Light be! and 
 light was." Of this passage Lord Karnes justly 
 remarks, " It is scarce possible, in fewer words, to 
 convey so clear an image of the infinite power of 
 the Deity." David is more distinguished by ten- 
 derness and sweetness than by grandeur or sub- 
 limity; yet in his Psalms there are many grand 
 and sublime passages. When he touches his lyre 
 to describe the appearances of Jehovah to the 
 ancient fathers, the swelling strings rise above 
 their ordinary soft and tender sounds into a strain 
 of the grandest majesty. " What an assemblage," 
 says Dr. Blair, ''of awful and sublime ideas is 
 presented to us in that passage in the 18th Psalm, 
 where an appearance of the Almighty is described: 
 'In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried 
 unto my God : he heard my voice out of his temple, 
 and my cry came before him, even into his ears. 
 The earth shook and trembled; the foundations also 
 of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was 
 wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, 
 
THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. Ill 
 
 and fire out of his mouth devoured : coals were 
 kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and 
 came down, and darkness was under his feet. 
 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he 
 did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made 
 darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about 
 him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. 
 At the brightness that was before him his thick 
 clouds passed; hailstones and coals of fire. The 
 Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the High- 
 est gave his voice; hailstones and coals of fire. 
 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; 
 and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. 
 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the 
 foundations of the world were discovered at thy re- 
 buke, Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy 
 nostrils.' Verses 6-15. Equally sublime is that 
 other description in the 77th Psalm: "The waters 
 saw thee, God, the waters saw thee; they were 
 afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds 
 poured out waters ; the skies sent out a sound : thine 
 arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thun- 
 der was in the heaven : the lightnings lightened the 
 world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is 
 in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy 
 footsteps are not known." Verses 16-19. "Worthy 
 to be classed with these is that noble passage in the 
 prophet Habakkuk : '' God came from Teman, and 
 the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His 
 glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full 
 
112 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of his praise. And his brightness was as the light: 
 he had horns coming out of his hand: and there 
 was the hiding of his power. Before him went the 
 pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. 
 He stood, and measured the earth : he beheld and 
 drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting 
 mountains were scattered, and the perpetual hills 
 did bow; his ways are everlasting. I saw the tents 
 of Cushan in affliction : and the curtains of the land 
 of Midian did tremble. Was the Lord displeased 
 against the rivers? was thine anger against the 
 rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou 
 didst ride upon thy horses and thy chariots of sal- 
 vation ? Thy bow was made quite naked, according 
 to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. 
 Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The mount- 
 ains saw thee, and they trembled : the overflowing 
 of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, 
 and lifted up his hands on high. The sun and 
 moon stood still in their habitation : at the light of 
 thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy 
 glittering spear. Thou didst march through the 
 land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen 
 in anger. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of 
 thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; 
 thou woundedst the head out of the house of the 
 wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the 
 neck. Selah." Chap, iii, 3-13. 
 
 When the imagination is conducted, in a succes- 
 sion of flights, over wide intervals of space — set off, 
 
THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. 113 
 
 as it were, by an actual line or measure — the effect, 
 in the first instance, is rather to lessen the idea of 
 infinity; but when the measuring line has been ap- 
 plied to the last of these distances, and the imagina- 
 tion is still carried onward, the sense of bounds and 
 limits is suddenly displaced by the idea of a bound- 
 less immensity. There is not now any thing definite 
 by which the wind can take its bearings — not any 
 thing substantial on which it can rest; but, having 
 wandered through every part, and compassed the 
 boundaries of creation, it finds itself imperceptibly 
 gliding into the void of infinity, whose vast and 
 formless extent impresses it with the sublimest and 
 most awful sensations; and this so much the more, 
 that till now it could measure its progress. There 
 are many examples of this sort in the sacred writ- 
 ings, from which it will suffice to give the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 '• Canst thou explore the deep counsels of God ? 
 canst thou fathom the immensity of the Almighty? 
 It is higher than heaven; what canst thou do? it 
 is deeper than the abyss; what canst thou know? 
 The measure thereof is longer than the earth, 
 and broader than the expanse of the sea." Job 
 xi, 7-9. 
 
 " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? and whither 
 
 shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend the 
 
 heavens, thou art there; if I make my bed in the 
 
 abyss, behold thou art there ! If I take the wings 
 
 of the morning, and dwell in the extreme part of 
 
 10 
 
114 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the ocean; there also thy hand shall lead me, and 
 thy right hand shall hold me." Ps. cxxxix, 7-10. 
 It is well known that obscurity hightens our im- 
 pressions of the sublime; for the imagination,^ lost 
 as in a darkling maze, becomes not only exhausted, 
 but awe-struck by its own efforts to define the 
 shadowy vastness, which seems about to sink, ere 
 it can be seized, into abysmal night. Our own 
 Milton has some fine strokes of this sort; that one 
 especially where he so dimly delineates the huge 
 bulk of the fallen archangel: 
 
 " Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate 
 With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes 
 That sparkling blazed, his other parts beside, 
 Prone on the flood, extended long and large. 
 Lay floating many a rood." 
 
 "We have a still finer example in the following pas- 
 sage in the book of Job: ''In thoughts from the 
 visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon 
 men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which 
 made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit stood 
 before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up; it 
 stood still, but I could not discern the form there- 
 of." Chap, iv, 13-16. This writer not only abounds 
 in sublime passages, but by the strength and dig- 
 nity of his conceptions, and the current of high 
 ideas that runs through his whole composition, pre- 
 serves the reader's mind always in a tone nearly 
 allied to the sublime. 
 
 The prophet Isaiah is another writer who is nota- 
 
THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. 115 
 
 bly sublime. With wonderful elevation, and sud- 
 den as the sunward sweep of an eagle's wings, this 
 Homer of Palestine begins his vision which contin- 
 ues through the reigns of four successive kings; 
 yet never once does his muse flag or droop in her 
 majestic flight. Nothing can be conceived more 
 sublime; nothing within the whole compass of liter- 
 ature, ancient or modern, is to be found so sublime^ 
 The book is throughout as a mighty Alpine range, 
 with occasionally a Mont Blanc towering its loftier 
 summit, where all is lofty. Such is the following 
 passage: "Who hath measured the waters in the 
 hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the 
 span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a 
 measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and 
 the hills in a balance ? Who hath directed the Spirit 
 of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught 
 him? With whom took he counsel, and who in- 
 structed him, and taught him in the path of judg- 
 ment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to 
 him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations 
 are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the 
 small dust of the balance; behold, he taketh up the 
 isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not 
 sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient 
 for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as 
 nothing; and they are counted to him less than 
 nothing, and vanity." Chap, xl, 12-17. ''Every 
 one," says Dr. J. Brown, in his Horce Suhsecivcs — 
 "every one must have trembled when reading that 
 
116 LrrERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 passage in Isaiah, in which hell is described as 
 moved to meet Lucifer at his coming; there is not 
 in human language any thing more sublime in con- 
 ception, more exquisite in expression; it has on it 
 the" light of the terrible crystal." As additional ex- 
 amples of the sublime, I would instance the mysteri- 
 ous vision which passed before the awe-struck eyes 
 of the prophet Elijah at the cave in Horeb, 1 Kings 
 xix, 11-13 ; the amazing description of a thunder- 
 storm in the 29th Psalm, compared with which 
 those of Lucretius, Virgil, or Byron, great poets as 
 they were, are prosaically tame; that marvelous 
 meditation upon the majesty, power, and providence 
 of God in the lO-lth Psalm; the gorgeous vision of 
 the four cherubim, overarched by the bow of glory, 
 which drew the wondering eye of the son of Buzi 
 in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, 
 Ezek. i; Daniel's dream with its mystic vision of 
 the Ancient of Days — throne-seated on the ruins of 
 empires, a fiery river rolling flame before him, 
 while ten thousand times ten thousand ministers of 
 vengeance wait but his signal to sweep the earth 
 with their havoc wings, Dan. vii, 9-14; Joel's terri- 
 ble picture of invading armies, innumerable as 
 locust-bands, wasteful and devouring, Joel ii; the 
 successive visions of Ezekiel which, like a magnifi- 
 cent panorama, moved as by a wizard's hand, cause 
 the spectator to feel as if he were in a dream 
 of amazement; the equally-gorgeous visions in the 
 apocalypse; and that marvelously-sublime descrip- 
 
THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. 117 
 
 tion of the resurrection wliicli Paul gives in the 
 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, closing with that 
 lyric outburst, so fit to be the closing stanza in the 
 psalm of life, which is to break from the lips of im- 
 mortality over the bier on which death itself shall 
 be carried to its grave, wrapped in a winding-sheet 
 of flame. 
 
 Then the Bible itself, in any view we can take of 
 it, is one of the most striking instances of true sub- 
 limity. It is sublime in its very name — the Scrip- 
 tures, Jehovah's writings, God's book, in which the 
 Invisible One breaks the silence of the eternal ages, 
 divulging their awful mysteries and his own divinest 
 thoughts to the sons of men in their human lan- 
 guage. 
 
 It is sublime in its antiquity; sole monument of 
 primeval literature; of primeval history; of prime- 
 val laws; the ancient of books, yet still the newest; 
 for as fresh and fair as the rainbow of yesterday, 
 or as the youngest primrose of early Spring, its 
 pictures are as vivid, its beauties as shining, its 
 lessons as appropriate, as when Moses the proto- 
 prophet wrote the first sentence on its mystic scroll 
 beneath the shadows of ancient Sinai. 
 
 It is sublime in its unity; for though commenced 
 before the birth of profane letters and not finished 
 till the Augustan age of literature — though the 
 work of forty difierent authors, who, separated by 
 centuries, could not possibly have collusion, and 
 ranging in social position from princes and lettered 
 
118 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 scribes to herdsmen and unlettered fishers, might 
 be supposed to differ widely in their views and im- 
 pressions; yet this wondrous volume, which thus 
 grew to what it now is, part by part, slowly, at 
 long intervals, under different hands, in strangely- 
 varied circumstances, during one entire millennium 
 and half another, is to be seen like an unbroken 
 bow stretching across the divided ages; the com- 
 pact and completed arch of truth, with one limb 
 resting on creation's prime, the other on the end 
 of time; as evidently an emanation from one Mas- 
 ter-Mind, though reared by forty different authors, 
 as the iris, though reflected by millions of rain- 
 drops, is the workmanship of one Master-Hand. 
 
 It is sublime in its literary achievements ; for 
 though composed by writers dwelling secluded on 
 a narrow selvedge of Eastern land, remote from the 
 seats of classic literature, it has nevertheless gone 
 out through all the earth to become the world's 
 book; though written in two ancient languages 
 which are no longer living tongues, it has notwith- 
 standing made its voice to be heard in the ver- 
 nacular dialects of the scattered family of Adam ; 
 though markedly Jewivsh in its cast of thought, it 
 is now incorporated with the literature and the phi- 
 losophy of every civilized country in both hemi- 
 spheres. 
 
 It is sublime in its sufferings and in its triumphs; 
 for it has endured the martyr's death by fire, and 
 its blackened leaves have been strewn like the mar- 
 
THE SUBLIME IN THE SCRIPTURES. 119 
 
 tyr's calcined ashes, on the winds of heaven and the 
 waters of the earth; it has been immured in dun- 
 geons; has been interdicted by mailed princes and 
 mitered priests; has been denounced as a dangerous 
 and laughed at as a silly book; has been a butt for 
 the shafts of ridicule, and a mark for the arrows of 
 persecution; the skeptics of modern times had done 
 to it what the ancient skeptics did to its Divine 
 Master — buried it in the grave; and the priests of 
 Rome, after the manner of the priests of Jerusalem, 
 had rolled a stone on its grave's mouth, and sealed 
 it with a seal. But this immortal book has come 
 forth from its sepulcher, and by many wonders and 
 signs has showed itself alive to the people; it has 
 flung back from its invulnerable breast the shafts 
 of the scoffer and the arrows of the skeptic; has 
 shaken from its eagle wings the calumnies of slan- 
 der; and as the phenix, not of mythologic fable, 
 but of heavenly truth, it has risen from its ashes 
 to light the world, when the stormy bale-fires of 
 superstition shall blaze no more. 
 
 It is sublime in the destiny which it marks out 
 for itself. What is to be the future history of this 
 book? It is, say some, by the progress of science 
 and philosophy to be exploded as an imposture, a 
 myth, a dream of the human mind while it slept 
 in the lap of superstition; it is, say others, to con- 
 tinue what it is, a mysterious child of antiquity, 
 mantled in its age by the same mists which lay 
 around the cradle of its infancy; it is, say others, 
 
120 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 to come out of the crucible of the critics, not alto- 
 gether consumed, but with much of the alloy which 
 mixes with its virgin gold burned away; it is, say 
 others, to be supplemented, and in a great measure 
 superseded, by a new and fuller revelation. Idle 
 prophets all! The book itself has a sublimer vatic- 
 ination of its destiny: "The grass withereth, and 
 the flower thereof falleth away" — philosophy may 
 perish, and science may cease, and literature may 
 fail — "but the word of the Lord endureth forever." 
 Verily the Bible itself — its very existence — the 
 bare idea of it, not to speak of its contents, is an 
 example unparalleled in the history of letters, oi the 
 truly sublime. 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 121 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 It belongs to the pathetic to touch and set in mo- 
 tion the softer feelings of the breast. Less powerful 
 perhaps than the sublime, its voice is more plaintive 
 and persuasive. It seeks not to overawe and amaze, 
 but to merit and subdue the soul to all tender emo- 
 tions — sympathy with the sorrowing, pity for the 
 distressed, charity toward all. Sighs are its natural 
 utterance; tears its natural signs. Sublimity is as 
 the rush of storm winds which wake up the grand 
 music of the mighty forest; pathos as the breath 
 of zephyrs when they stir the gentle music of the 
 Aonian harp. If it needs less genius, it requires 
 more knowledge of human nature, and a soul more 
 finely set to human sensibilities, to be a master of 
 the pathetic. 
 
 Of true pathos, as it vents itself in articulate 
 utterance, there are many touches exquisitely affect- 
 ing to be found in the Scriptures. David's lament 
 over Saul and Jonathan is no less remarkable for its 
 pathetic tenderness, than for its lyric passion. For 
 what burning words of desolate grief are these, 
 which would cover with a desolation equal to its 
 own, the place where the mighty had falh 
 
122 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let 
 there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings; for 
 there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, 
 the shield of Saul, as though he had not been 
 anointed with oil." And then how softly sinks the 
 voice of sorrow after this outburst, into a subdued 
 plaintiveness, like a sad, sweet murmuring round 
 the heart: ''I am distressed for thee, my brother 
 Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been unto me; thy 
 love to me is wonderful, passing the love of women." 
 David's apostrophe to his dead son is a still more 
 striking instance of the pathetic : '' my son Absa- 
 lom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had 
 died for thee, Absalom, my son, my son!" Nor 
 reckon this a passionate outburst of extravagant 
 sorrow, or the raving of maddened grief which 
 knows not what wild words it is uttering; but think 
 of the father who had suffered such cruel wrongs at 
 the hand of this unnatural son, and then you will 
 admire the pathos of paternal love which forgets all, 
 except that the dead one was his son. Think, too, 
 not merely of the untimely fate, but also of the 
 character of the wretched youth who, without a 
 moment to cry to Heaven for pardon, had been hur- 
 ried into the eternal world with his unrepented sins 
 on his head; and, ah, no wonder that the sainted 
 father, who was himself ready to meet death, should 
 in the anguish of his pity and his fears cry out, 
 "Would God /had died for thee !" Take as another 
 example of the truly pathetic, that incomparable 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTUKES. 128 
 
 monody, the 137th Psalm. Here at first each word 
 comes slowly as a labored breathing, but gradually 
 the current swells, till at last the surcharged bosoms 
 of the exiles overflow into a torrent of grief. How 
 pathetic also are many of the penitential Psalms, 
 where godly sorrow melts into a strain of the most 
 tender repentance ! Though one can not admire the 
 man, yet is there something inexpressibly touching 
 in Esau's sorrow, on finding that his brother had 
 received the parental blessing: ''And when Esau 
 heard the words of his father, he cried with a great 
 and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, 
 Bless me, even me also, my father!" As pictures 
 of natural tenderness, what could be more simply 
 touching, or more artlessly told, than the sacrifice 
 of Isaac, especially at that part where the unsus- 
 pecting victim says to his father, " Beh6ld the fire 
 and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt 
 ofiering?" Or the story of Jacob and P\;achel; or 
 of Joseph and his brethren ; or of Ruth and Naomi. 
 We challenge the whole circle of literature to pro- 
 duce any thing more truly pathetic than this: 
 "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or 
 to return from following after thee; for whither 
 thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will 
 lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God 
 my God ; where thou diest will I die, and there will 
 I be buried." Poets in all ages have attempted to 
 describe the love and constancy of woman — who in 
 the first mutteriugs of the approaching storm trem- 
 
124 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 bles as the aspen leaf; but when the tempest breaks 
 will cling like the ivy to the gray wall, either to 
 shield it or to share its fall; but where was ever 
 that constant love so touchingly, so truthfully, yet 
 briefly described, as in these few simple words of 
 Euth to Naomi? 
 
 I have given examples of the pathetic when its 
 affecting sounds fall upon the ear, and there lingers 
 the tremulous echo of its plaintiveness to move the 
 memory with tender recollections. But the pathetic 
 may reach us through the eye as well as by the ear. 
 For there are sights, not less than sounds, which 
 awaken pathos. Now in this form also of the 
 pathetic the Scriptures abound; for they present 
 us with many most affecting incidents; and here 
 one thing is especially noticeable, as showing how 
 perfect masters the sacred writers are of the pathetic 
 in narrative; namely, that they never try to move 
 our passions by working up a scene ; but with brev- 
 ity and without art — unless we shall say that art- 
 lessness is the perfection of art — they merely give 
 the simple narrative, and leave it to produce its 
 natural effect. How touching, for example, is the 
 scene of the little children in the arms of Jesus ! 
 as if innocence, like a frightened dove, had nestled 
 in the bosom of the Sinless One; or the scene 
 near the grave of Lazarus, while that single verse, 
 "Jesus wept," is in itself a very master-stroke of 
 pathos; or the scene outside the gates of Nain, 
 where one may scarcely say which afiects him most, 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 125 
 
 the stricken sorrow of the widow- mother who is 
 following the bier of her only son, or the sympa- 
 thetic sorrow of the Savior, who gets out the 
 touching salutation, ""Weep not," and then, as if 
 emotion had choked his utterance, could only touch 
 the bier as a sign to bearers to stop. The scene on 
 Mount Olivet is also very affecting — when Jesus, 
 beholding the beautiful city lying at his feet in all 
 the pride of its magnificence, unconscious as a sleep- 
 ing child of its impending fate, wept over it. And, 
 most affecting of all, is the farewell scene on the 
 cross ; while amid the agonies of a cruel death, the 
 Savior, forgetting his own sore sufferings in his pity 
 for a weeping mother, but unable to point to her — 
 for they had nailed both of his hands — directed by 
 an ineffable look of tenderness the eye of his beloved 
 disciple toward her saying, ''Behold thy mother;" 
 and then, turning that same ineffable look on John 
 to draw that mother's eye toward him, said, ''Be- 
 hold thy son." pathetic tenderness, and pity 
 most touching ! He would not weep for himself, 
 though they had crowned his brow with thorns, 
 and pierced his hands and feet with nails, and given 
 him vinegar and gall to drink when suffering his 
 death-thirst; he had not a tear to shed till the 
 sight of others' sorrow opened the founts of sympa- 
 thy, and then its tears of pity, mingling with his 
 blood of sufferincr. flowed freelv forth. 
 
126 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 degree pathetic; altliough we confess it was not till 
 having looked upon Turner's rendering of it in his 
 lAher Studiorum, that we felt how a true touch of 
 pathos will thrill the nerves, as if a spirituous elec- 
 tricity were suddenly discharged along their threads. 
 The painter's sketch exhibits a foreground of gloom, 
 with one bit of purest radiance, " a light shining in 
 a dark place," going out into the illimitable sky; 
 while a few grim trees deepen their heavy um- 
 brage between the dark and light; in the center of 
 the foreground sits a woman as if own sister to 
 melancholy, her face hidden, and in her hand a 
 flaming torch; around her lie stretched out seven 
 bodies as of dead men, half-naked, already indica- 
 ting that foul decay had claimed the share which 
 falls to it. There is a lion seen slinking off, with a 
 sulky, disappointed look ; and a bittern, as if scared, 
 has just sprung up in the corner from a reedy pool. 
 The waning moon sends down a sickly paleness on 
 the barley sheaves, just sufficient to let us see that 
 it is in the beginning of harvest. But who are these 
 dead? They are the two sons and five grandsons 
 of Saul, who ''fell all seven together, and were put 
 to death in the days of harvest, in the beginning of 
 barley harvest." And who is she, the living one, 
 who sits there keeping her unfailing, forlorn vigils? 
 She is "Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, who took 
 sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from 
 the beginning of harvest, until water dropped upon 
 them out of heaven, and suffered neither birds of 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 127 
 
 the air to rest upon them, nor the beasts of the 
 field by night." The wonderful genius of the painter 
 brought the entire scene before us, and held our 
 eye as if spell-fixed on that desolate mother, who 
 for five months — still at her ceaseless work, morn, 
 noon, and night — kept watch by the bodies of her 
 sons. 
 
 There is still a third form of the pathetic, when, 
 rather by the force of association than by what we 
 actually see or hear, our feelings are tenderly af- 
 fected. And in this form, also, there abounds true 
 pathos in the Scriptures. For example, there is 
 something profoundly touching in the magnanimous 
 pity which noble minds feel for objects which minds 
 less noble would deem beneath their notice. Hence 
 the pleasing emotion with which one reads these 
 lines of the poet Cowper: 
 
 ** I would not enter on my list of friends 
 The man who, needlessly, sets foots upon a worm." 
 
 Or these lines by a still greater poet — 
 
 " The sense of death is most in apprehension j 
 And the poor beetle that we tread upon, 
 In corporal sufferance finds a pang 
 As great as when a giant dies." 
 
 But how exquisitely more touching are some 
 similar passages in Scripture ! As this, for example, 
 where it is the Infinite One who speaks: ''And 
 should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein 
 are more than six score thousand persons that can 
 not discern their riprht hand and their left hand. 
 
128 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 and also much cattle?" Or this other, where it is 
 the Divine Son who speaks, and of his Divine Father 
 he says it : " Are not five sparrows sold for two 
 farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before 
 
 God Consider the ravens, for they 
 
 neither sow nor reap, which neither have store-house 
 nor barn, and God feedeth them." 
 
 Again, through the power of association, few 
 things more sadly affect us than the sight of fallen 
 greatness. As we look on a ruinous castle, its old 
 walls, scarred by the pitiless storms, or blackened 
 by the fiery brand of war, seem plaintively to echo 
 with the memories of other days, when the sound of 
 revelry rang through these now deserted halls, and 
 chivalry mustered its mailed knights and men-at- 
 arms on those ramparts, where now the melancholy 
 owl has built her secluded nest; and where it is a 
 moral ruin — some noble nature that has fallen, or 
 some mighty kingdom that has wasted away, or 
 some profligate city which has been overtaken with 
 a sudden destruction — our feelings are still more 
 profoundly melancholy. Now, where will you find 
 so aff'ecting instances either of the material or the 
 moral ruin, as are furnished in the Scriptures? 
 There, with pathetic sadness, you gaze on the phys- 
 ical desolation which has fallen upon the earth, smit- 
 ing its soil with barrenness, and glooming its sky 
 with storm-clouds, till its fairest parts are now but 
 as the wreck of Paradise. There, also, with sadness 
 still more pathetic, you look upon the fall of prime- 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 129 
 
 val man, the parent of our race; and upon the fall 
 of beings loftier even than man — the apostate angels. 
 And as one reads the ancient prophets, when their 
 predictions are messages of doom, there often seems 
 to mingle with the words of vengeance a plaintive 
 wail, as if the avenging seer, touched with pity, but 
 not permitted to revoke the denunciations, closes 
 them with a death-dirge for the fallen. Thus, with 
 a touch of the deepest pathos, does Isaiah describe 
 the downfall of a once mighty monarch : 
 
 *' How art thou fallen from heaven, 
 Lucifer, son of the morning ! 
 How thou art felled to the ground 
 That didst weaken the nations !" 
 
 So, also, does the prophet Nahum, with an imagery 
 not less splendid than it is pathetic, mourn the 
 departed glory of the capital of Assyria: "Thou 
 hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of 
 heaven; the canker-worm spoileth, and fleeth away. 
 Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains 
 as the great grasshoppers which camp in the hedges 
 on a cold day; but when the sun riseth they flee 
 away, and the place is not known where they are." 
 And then how sublimely pensive the requiem sound- 
 ed over the graves of her slain: "Thy shepherds 
 slumber, king of Assyria; thy nobles shall dwell 
 in the dust ; thy people is scattered upon the mount- 
 ains, and no man gathereth." 
 
 When the pathos is of the kind we have been 
 describing — that is, implied rather than expressed, 
 
130 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 sometimes tlie turn of a phrase, or a single word, 
 will start a whole train of the most tender emo- 
 tions. Many notable instances of this are to be 
 found in the Scriptures. At the Last Supper, the 
 Savior, in giving the broken bread to his disciples, 
 said unto them: ''Do this in remembrance of me." 
 When one reads these few and simple words, in view 
 of the memorial institution, what a flood of tender- 
 ness they pour round the heart ! Do this in remem- 
 brance of thee! — this to show forth what thou, my 
 Savior, didst endure for me ! Yes, since thou hast 
 so commanded, I will do this. But 0, it tells not 
 the thousandth part of thy willing sufferings for me ! 
 That bread which I see broken, it feels no pain; but 
 when thy body was broken for me, it was pierced 
 with bleeding pangs. That wine which I see poured 
 forth, it felt no pain when it was pressed from the 
 grape; but when thou wast in the wine-press of thy 
 Father's wrath, thy soul was exceedingly sorrowful, 
 even unto death. Another touching instance of 
 suggested pathos is to be found in the words which 
 the angel addressed to the women at the sepulcher: 
 *'Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth who 
 was crucified; he is risen, he is not here; behold 
 the place where they laid him. But go your way, 
 tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you 
 into Galilee; there shall ye see him, as he said unto 
 you." Mark xvi, 6, 7. There is something inex- 
 pressibly touching in the individual mention of Pe- 
 ter by name, seeing that, while the others were 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 131 
 
 plunged in grief, his sorrow was far more poignant; 
 for he had denied that Lord whose living voice he 
 now feared he would hear no more. How touching, 
 in this view, is the sympathy which this angelic be- 
 ing shows for the sorrowing Peter! It is as if he 
 had said, ''Tell the glad news to all; but be sure 
 especially that ye tell it to him whose heart is op- 
 pressed with a double sorrow." We have another 
 instance of suggested pathos in what might be called 
 the masked reproof which Jesus gave to Peter after 
 his resurrection. Three times he said unto him, 
 "Lovest thou me?" How keen, yet how tender 
 the reproof conveyed in the thrice-repeated ques- 
 tion, for thrice-repeated had been Peter's denial of 
 his Lord! 
 
 Such examples of the pathetic as I have instanced 
 or alluded to may, perhaps, have their parallels in 
 other writings; for the masters of literature have, 
 in all ages, striven to show their powers of pathos. 
 But in the Scriptures there are instances of a pa- 
 thos which can be found in no other book; because 
 in no other book is Jehovah heard pleading with his 
 sinful creatures, or the Son of God with his Divine 
 Father. Here we find ourselves on ground which is 
 solemnly sacred, and feel that we are listening to 
 accents which are mysteriously pathetic. For hear 
 in what moving appeals the Holy Infinite addresses 
 the sin-defiled potsherds of the earth: ''As I live, 
 saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in him that 
 dieth." "Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye 
 
132 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ends of the earth." "Turn ye, turn ye, why will 
 ye die?" "All day long have I stretched out my 
 hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people." 
 Surely this is pathos — the Jehovah pleading, striv- 
 ing, entreating with sinners; the voice of the Al- 
 mighty tremulous with emotion; the great heart 
 of the Infinite heaving with the earnestness of its 
 compassions; the hands that created the universe 
 stretched out as a supplicant's, to draw the wan- 
 derers back to an injured Father's love — this is pa- 
 thos to which we vainly search for a parallel in any 
 other writings, either ancient or modern. 
 
 Again listen: The Son of God had consented, for 
 the sons of men, to drink the cup of human agonies 
 and of Divine wrath; and while within the shad- 
 ows of this mysterious suffering, hear how that 
 Son, agonizing unto tears, pleads with his Father — 
 that same Father in whose bosom, in Divinest com- 
 panionship, he had lain from the unbeginning ages: 
 "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from 
 me." "Now is my soul troubled and what shall I 
 say? Father, save me from this hour." "My God, 
 my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Mysterious 
 pathos ! My pen has copied its weeping words, but 
 what pen could write its bleeding thoughts? When 
 man pleads with his fellow-man, or when human son 
 appeals to human father, there is a chord in my 
 breast responsive to each pathetic word. But when 
 it is the Son of God I hear, in agony, in tears, in 
 blood, in desertion, at the dark hour of death, 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 133 
 
 pleading with his Father, all the chords of my 
 breast tremble with an undefinable emotion, and 
 my whole soul is awe-struck with the conscious 
 feeling that here is a pathos infinitely beyond what 
 I can ever feel, far less express. 
 
 If under the head of the pathetic we include what 
 in oratory is called persuasion^ when a speaker, in 
 order to carry with him the sympathy of his audi- 
 ence, addresses their passions, we shall find exam- 
 ples of this description of pathos in the Scriptures 
 which neither ancient nor modern eloquence excels. 
 The writings of Paul are preeminently pathetic, in 
 this sense. They furnish, indeed, a model to the 
 orator by their just combination of the argumenta- 
 tive and the hortatory. For this great logician 
 invariably prepares the way for any persuasive ap- 
 peal by first addressing the understanding of his 
 readers, so as to produce conviction; and when, by 
 argument and reasoning, he has succeeded in doing 
 this, then he shows himself an equal master of rhet- 
 oric in the appeals by which he seeks to touch the 
 heart. The entire epistle to the Eomans is an un- 
 rivaled example of this happy union of the argu- 
 mentative and persuasive, in which it were difficult 
 to say which is the more to be admired, the rigor- 
 ous exactness in the former or the passionate fervor 
 in the latter. Certainly the maxim ars est celare 
 artem never was more finely illustrated than in 
 some of those sudden outbursts in which this writer. 
 
134 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 with apparent abruptness, yet in no instance till 
 after due preparation, gives vent to his own impas- 
 sioned feelings. There is a seeming impetuosity in 
 these sudden appeals which takes the heart, as it 
 were, by storm; yet, when you analyze the effect, 
 you find it due, in no small part, also to the pre- 
 paratory argument. And the great art of the sa- 
 cred orator is to be seen in this, that, having firmly 
 riveted the subject on the understanding of his read- 
 ers, he seizes the critical moment that is favorable 
 to emotion, and kindles their passions before they 
 are aware. 
 
 This truly-great master of the persuasive will be 
 found to exhibit every species of excellence in this 
 department of eloquence. You will find, for exam- 
 ple, that when he is pathetic the subject is uni- 
 formly such as to admit of pathos. He never at- 
 tempts to excite the passions in the wrong place. 
 When he warms and kindles with his theme, his 
 readers can not fixil to be convinced that there is 
 good and sufficient reason for his warmth; and, on 
 their catching his ardor, they remain satisfied that 
 they have not been carried away by a mere delu- 
 sion. Again, you never find him sounding a note 
 of warning that he is about to be pathetic; or call- 
 ing upon his readers to prepare themselves to be 
 moved. This expedient, sometimes resorted to by 
 less skilled orators, seldom fails to have the opposite 
 effect; for, instead of disposing them to be moved, 
 it rather disposes them to criticise. Then, also, you 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 135 
 
 can see that it is the internal emotions of the writer 
 himself which gives their pathos to his words; and 
 thus he fulfills one of the prime conditions of being 
 pathetic — namely^ that when we would move others 
 we must ourselves be moved. Then, besides, Paul's 
 style in these persuasive appeals exhibits the proper 
 language of the passions. It is precisely such as a 
 person under the power of a strong emotion would 
 employ — bold, ardent, simple. In his argumentative 
 parts the style is often involved and parenthetical; 
 but in those parts where he has become heated with 
 his subjects, and aims at persuasive appeal, we per- 
 ceive a marked difference in the style. Instead of 
 involved periods, the sentences are short, rapid, 
 terse; the parentheses are fewer; there is a force, 
 almost a vehemence in the language; and if there 
 occurs occasionally a bold figure, yet is there an 
 entire absence of any thing like art or labor. In 
 short, it is the very style of the orator when he 
 wishes to be persuasive. 
 
 I have treated separately on the pathetic and the 
 sublime, but when pathos is carried to its highest 
 pitch, it may in truth be said to have become sub- 
 limity. This is specially the case in the language 
 of the passions, such as love, admiration, joy, shame, 
 remorse, and hatred. Then the pathetic and sublime 
 might be compared to two tremulous drops on the 
 same string, which touch, tremble, and unite. Now 
 we know no book which contains more striking 
 
136 LITERARY CUARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 examples of the sublime of passion tlian are to be 
 found in the Hebrew Scriptures. There we shall 
 find admiration breaking forth into bold and ele- 
 vated utterances; joy exulting in its still more bold 
 and elevated strains; resentment flinging forth its 
 withering, scornful words; grief, not only in its 
 stricken sorrow when it sits with bowed head speech- 
 less in the dust, but also when it rises in the frenzy 
 of its anguish, and becomes heated almost to fury 
 and madness; remorse, when it smites the breast as 
 in self-revenge, and stings itself with the bitterness 
 of its own wild regrets. 
 
 Admiration, if the object which has excited it is 
 of a lofty cast, fills the mind with great and mag- 
 nificent conceptions and sentiments, which it ex- 
 presses in language which is bold, elevated, and 
 glowing — in sentences abrupt, energetic, concise, and 
 rapid. Take the following examples: 
 
 "Jehovah reigneth; let the people tremble: he 
 sitteth upon the cherubim; let the earth be moved." 
 Ps. xcix, 1. 
 
 ''Who is like unto thee among the gods, Jeho- 
 vah? who is like unto thee, adorable in holiness, 
 fearful in praises, who workest wonders? Thou 
 extendest thy right hand, the earth swalloweth 
 them." Exod. xv, 11, 12. 
 
 ''0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom 
 and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his 
 judgments, and his ways past finding out." Kom. 
 xi, 33. 
 
THE PATHETIC IN. THE SCRIPTURES. 137 
 
 "Behold what manner of love the Father hath 
 bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons 
 of God!" 1 Johniii, 1. 
 
 Joy is still more elevated, exults in a bolder strain, 
 and comes with a rush from a deeper fountain of 
 the breast. This passion kindles on the holy page 
 with its most sacred ardors, those which a sense of 
 the Divine favor and benignity inflames. It seizes 
 upon the most splendid imagery, which it adorns 
 with the most animated language; it revels, as it 
 were, in the luxury of its high delights, nor does it 
 hesitate to risk the most daring and unusual figures. 
 The Song of Moses, of Deborah and Barak, exhibit 
 the loftiest sublimity of exultant joy, both in the 
 sentiment and the language. In the 96th Psalm 
 what noble exultation, what lofty tone of triumph, 
 where the whole animate and inanimate creation 
 unite in one grand lyric of praise to their Maker! 
 And even in that higher state of unalloyed fruition, 
 where no sigh mingles with the voice of happiness, 
 and where all tears are wiped from every eye, does 
 not the following realize our fullest conception of 
 what would be the language of beatific joy? ''And 
 they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to 
 take the book and to open the seals thereof; for 
 thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by 
 thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
 people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God 
 kings and priests ; and we shall reign on the earth." 
 
 In the representation of anger and indignation. 
 
138 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 particularly when the Divine wrath is displayed, 
 nothing can be greater or more magnificent than 
 what of this sort is to be met with in the Scrip- 
 tures. The words burn. Every utterance is as a 
 flashing stroke. The language withers as the fierce 
 wind of the desert. 
 
 *' For the day of vengeance was in my heart, 
 And the year of my redeemed was come. 
 And I looked, and there was no one to help ; 
 And I was astonished that there was no one to uphold; 
 Therefore my own arm wrought salvation for me. 
 And mine indignation itself sustained me. 
 And I trod down the people in mine anger; 
 And I crushed them in mine indignation ; 
 And I spilled their life-blood on the ground." 
 
 Is. Ixiii, 4-6. 
 
 Grief, in its more impassioned attitude, when its 
 fury sustains it, and its voice has in it a tone of 
 frenzy, vehement, fervid, acute, requires a hand at 
 once bold and delicate rightly to depict it. But we 
 shall find this done with great success by the sacred 
 penmen. Take the following from Job as translated 
 by Mr. Scott. Job vi, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9. 
 
 " for a balance poised with equal hand I 
 Lay all my sorrows there 'gainst ocean's sand : 
 Light is the sand whereon the billows roll, 
 When weighed with all the sorrows of my soul. 
 Ah I therefore, therefore, does my boiling wo© 
 In such a torrent of wild words o'erflow ; 
 Rankling I feel th' Almighty's venomed dart. 
 His arrows fire my veins and rend my heart; 
 His terrors 'gainst me throng in dire array. 
 War urging war, his boundless wrath display. 
 0. that relenting at my earnest cry, 
 
THE PATHETIC IN THE SCRIPTURES. 139 
 
 God would extend his thund'ring arm on high ; 
 
 Ruthless at once his smold'ring trident throw, 
 And, forcing through his mark the vengeful blow, 
 At once destroy me." 
 
 Both in the excitation and expression of terror, 
 the sacred writers show themselves to be masters in 
 the sublime of passion. What a terrific representa- 
 tion, at which dismay might well stand aghast, is 
 the following by Isaiah : 
 
 " Howl ye for the day of Jehovah is at hand : 
 As a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 
 Therefore shall all hands be slackened; 
 And the heart of every mortal shall melt; 
 And they shall be terrified ; 
 Torments and pangs shall seize them ; 
 As a woman in travail they shall be pained : 
 They shall look upon one another with astonishment; 
 Their countenances shall be like flames of fire. 
 Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh inexorable ; 
 Even indignation and burning wrath ; 
 To make the land a desolation ; 
 And her sinners shall he destroy from out of her. 
 Yea, the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, 
 Shall not send forth their light : 
 The sun is darkened at his going forth, 
 And the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 
 And I will visit the world for its evil. 
 And the wicked for their iniquity ; 
 And I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud ; 
 And I will bring down the haughtiness of the terrible. 
 I will make a mortal more precious than fine gold ; 
 Yea, a man than the rich gold of Ophir. 
 Wherefore I will make the heavens tremble ; 
 And the earth shall be shaken out of her place. 
 In the indignation of Jehovah, God of hosts." 
 
 Is. xiii, 6-13. 
 
 As an example of vehement grief, hightened by 
 terror, I would cite the remarkable vision, in which 
 
140 LITERARY CnARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Jeremiah exhibits the impending slaughter and de- 
 struction of Judea: 
 
 ** My bowels, my bowels are pained, the walls of my heart ; 
 My heart is troubled within me ; I can not be silent; 
 Because I have heard the sound of the trumpet, 
 My soul the alarm of war. 
 
 Destruction has come upon the heels of destruction ; 
 Surely the whole land is spoiled ; 
 On a sudden have my tents been spoiled ; 
 My curtains in an instant. 
 How long shall I see the standard ? 
 Shall I hear the sound of the trumpet? 
 I beheld the earth, and lo 1 disorder and confusion ; 
 The heavens also, and there was no light." 
 
 Jer. iv, 19-23. 
 
 To this I would add that brief passage in the 
 Revelation, which by a single stroke raises such an 
 image of anguish mingled with terror: "Behold, he 
 Cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see 
 him, and they also who pierced him: and all kin- 
 dreds of the earth shall wail because of him.'' 
 
'IllE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 141 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 The picturesque in writing is the art of repre- 
 senting objects of vision, and presenting to the im- 
 agination any circumstance or event as clearly as if 
 they were delineated ia a picture ; or, more briefly, 
 it may be defined word-painting. 
 
 The picturesque in the sacred writings has not, 
 we think, received that consideration from our crit- 
 ics which the subject merits; and, in consequence, 
 full justice has not been done to amazing pictorial 
 powers of the sacred writers. Our limits, however, 
 will permit us to do little more than draw attention 
 to this interesting branch of Biblical literature. 
 
 If we take first the Bible descriptions of domestic 
 and familiar life, we shall find that they have all 
 the efi'ects of a picture. One might compare them 
 to a painting by Rembrandt, or perhaps rather by 
 Sir David Wilkie, who knew so well, by a few soft 
 touches, how to mellow the quaint picturesqueness 
 of homely life into the poetry of sentiment. How 
 very graphic, for example, are the delineations 
 which the author of Genesis has given us of the 
 simple manners of the patriarchs ! The entire book 
 may be regarded as one continued picture-gallery. 
 
142 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE J7ITJLE. 
 
 or, we might say rather, a series of tableaux vi- 
 vants, which, with wonderful animation and dis- 
 tinctness, restore to us the men and the manners 
 of a long by-gone age. Abraham sitting in his tent 
 door; Isaac going forth to the fields at even-tide to 
 meditate; old Jacob weeping on the neck of his 
 long-lost son — these, and many similar, are as viv- 
 idly before our eyes as if we were looking on so 
 many pictures hung round our household walls. 
 
 In order to picturesqueness, especially in the 
 delineation of homely incidents, there needs to be 
 an air of verisimilitude, which only some natural 
 touches, without the appearance of design, can im- 
 part. As has been said: 
 
 " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin ;'* 
 
 •and when the poet, painter, or historian, has turned 
 this maxim to account, no matter how remote the 
 age or alien the manners which he describes, his 
 description will at once come home with all the 
 force and freshness of reality. We find this often 
 verified in the Scriptures. How true to nature, by 
 one single touch, has Moses described an incident in 
 the deluge ! With spent strength and drooping wing 
 the dove has barely been able to reach the ark — a 
 moment's delay, and the weary bird might fall into 
 the surging flood; but "Noah put forth his hand 
 and took her and pulled her in unto him into the 
 ark." The scene before Abraham's tent door in the 
 plains of Mamri), \\hen he entertained the three 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 143 
 
 augels, is picturesquely described throughout; but 
 one part especially is rendered true to the life by a 
 single natural touch. It is where Sarah's incredu- 
 lousness that she would become a mother in her old 
 age is described. The thing appeared to her utterly 
 ludicrous, but open laughter would have been dia 
 courteous to the strangers; nor would it have con- 
 sisted with the modesty of her sex, on such a sub- 
 ject to have betrayed outward emotion. A smile 
 rose to her lips, but courtesy and modesty repressed 
 the laugh — "Sarah laughed within her self. '' Tho 
 first interview between Isaac and Eebekah has its 
 picturesqueness greatly hightened by some natural 
 touches. When we read that Isaac has chosen the 
 shades of even-tide and its pensive hour to go into 
 the fields to meditate, it seems so natural in the ex- 
 pectant lover, to whom doubtless hope had begun 
 to whisper that the looked-for one must now be on 
 the way. And then Eebekah, the betrothed bride, 
 lets out with charming naivete of whom she was 
 thinking by her question, "What man is this who 
 walketh in the field to meet ics?" On hearing, as 
 no doubt she expected, that it was Isaac, a fond 
 impatience caused her to alight from her camel, for 
 she had been too simply brought up to act a pru- 
 dish part; yet true to her sex's modesty she drops 
 her vail to conceal from him, at their first meeting, 
 her blushing charms. David's Hymn of the Cap- 
 tives has always struck us by one exquisite touch 
 of nature which is in it. The philosophy of laugh- 
 
144 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ter is perhaps deeper than even that of tears. We 
 laugh when merry, and we laugh when sad. Our 
 tears and our laughter sometimes strangely blend. 
 It was, therefore, a most natural stroke in the poet 
 to make the manumitted captives say, in the sud- 
 denness of an unexpected joy: "Then was our 
 mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with 
 singing." Ps. cxxvi. In giving one other example 
 how these touches of nature highten the picturesque, 
 I shall turn to the New Testament, where I select 
 the account which is given of the miracle which 
 followed close upon the day of Pentecost — Acts iii, 
 1-11. The entire incident is very graphically de- 
 scribed, and the grouping of the picture is quite 
 picturesque — the Temple in the background; the 
 lame man, laid at one of its gates — it is that which 
 is called Beautiful — to ask alms; the two apostles 
 about to pass through it, conspicuous among the 
 crowd who are thronging in, for it is the hour of 
 prayer. Here was a fit subject for Eaphael's pencil, 
 who, selecting the moment when the miracle was 
 being wrought, has succeeded in catching the nat- 
 ural expression of the cripple — astonishment blended 
 with delight, and hope with fear, lest all might turn 
 out to be a dream; and also his natural attitude, 
 combining agility with awkwardness, since now for 
 the first time these forty years has he used his limbs. 
 But the historian has a succession of natural touches, 
 which the painter's more circumscribed art would 
 not permit ^^im to introduce. First there is that 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 145 
 
 stroke so true to nature — "he leaping up stood;" 
 for the moment the cripple felt strength coming 
 into his ankles, he was like a captive whose chains 
 are unlocked, and he did just what that captive 
 would do — sprang up as with irrepressible ecstacy 
 at finding himself free. Then we read that on his 
 way into the Temple he walked and leaped by 
 turns; it was the same impulsive joy, breaking out 
 into rapid motion, but anon curbed into a more 
 measured pace, when smitten as it were with a 
 sense of the unseemliness of its antic haste. Then, 
 also, we are told, that "the lame man who was 
 healed held Peter and John " — it was gratitude 
 loth to part with its benefactors till it has poured 
 forth its thanks anew. These might be thought 
 minute particulars for an inspired pen to have 
 recorded; but they give life and character to the 
 picture. 
 
 If we now turn to the more strictly-historical 
 parts of Scripture, we shall find in them also a 
 marvelous picturesqueness. Nor is this the result 
 of elaborate description, for the style is uniformly 
 simple, while for the most part the narrative is 
 brief and condensed. In this respect there is a 
 vast contrast between the sacred and the more pop- 
 ular of our profane historians; for we do not find 
 on their pages any thing approaching the gorgeous 
 elaboration of a Gibbon, or the sparkling antitheses 
 
 of a Macaulay, or the quaint minuteness of a Frois- 
 
 13 
 
146 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 sart. Yet as the hand of a true artist may be 
 seen in an etching, as well as in a highly-finished 
 engraving, so in the historic sketches in the Scrip- 
 tures — for they are seldom more than sketches — we 
 find, notwithstanding the brief narrative and the 
 simple style, a wonderful picturesqueness. 
 
 There are two artifices by which a historian, even 
 when his descriptions are meager, can greatly en- 
 liven his narrative. The one is, when sensible that 
 the eye is the best avenue to the heart, he repre- 
 sents every thing as passing in our sight — when 
 from readers we are transformed, as it were, into 
 spectators. By this contrivance a writer of genius 
 can impart even to a brief narrative a wonderful 
 picturesqueness, when each incident makes its im- 
 pression not as rf heard at second hand, but when 
 seen by an eye-witness. The other artifice which 
 exceedingly helps to enliven a narrative is to throw 
 it as much as possible into the dramatic form, when 
 the writer conceals himself and presents his per- 
 sonages to tell their own story. 
 
 Of this latter expedient the sacred historians have 
 made abundant use. It is not merely a historic 
 panorama they hold up to our view; but there is a 
 living pageant — the actors in the scene, the dram- 
 atis personce, are there; to whom we listen while, 
 as interlocutors in a dialogue, they relate their ad- 
 ventures in our hearing. And thus it happens that 
 the oldest history in the world has a freshness which 
 many a modern history fails to possess. 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 147 
 
 With regard to the former expedient — namely, the 
 representation of past and future events in the pres- 
 ent tense, by which means whatever is described or 
 expressed is in a manner brought immediately be- 
 fore our eyes — the sacred writers were debarred 
 from using it by a somewhat strange peculiarity in 
 the Hebrew language. For the Hebrew verbs have 
 no form for expressing the indefinite of the present 
 tense, or an action which is now performing; this 
 being usually effected by a participle only, or by a 
 verb substantive understood. It was probably this 
 defect in their language which led the sacred writ- 
 ers when expressing future events not unfrequently 
 to make use of the past tense; and when expressing 
 past events, the future tense. From this arose a 
 much more frequent change or variation of the tenses 
 in the same continuous narrative than occurs in or- 
 dinary writers; and the effect of this is often like 
 that of shifting lights upon a picture or landscape. 
 
 Of the first of these forms of construction — name- 
 ly, the expressing of the future by the past tense — 
 we have a striking example in Isaiah's prediction of 
 the inroad of Sennacherib. Though the event was 
 still future, with great exactness and perspicuity the 
 prophet has traced the route of the invader toward 
 Jerusalem, and the different stages of the army, inso- 
 much that the prediction has all the lively verisimili- 
 tude of a historical narration: 
 
 " He is come to Aiath ; he hath passed to Migron : 
 At Michmas he will deposit his baggage. 
 
148 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 They have passed the Strait; Geba is their lodging for the night; 
 Ramah is frightened ; Gibeah of Saul fleeth. 
 Cry aloud with thy voice, daughter of Gallim ; 
 Hearken unto her, Laish ; answer her, Anathoth. 
 Madmena is gone away ; the inhabitants of Gebim flee amain. 
 Yet this day shall he abide in Nob ; 
 
 He shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of 
 Sion." Is. X, 28-32. 
 
 After the same style is Joel's prediction of the 
 plague of locusts : 
 
 " For a nation hath gone up on my land, 
 Who are strong and without number; 
 They have destroyed my vine, and have made my fig-tree a broken 
 
 branch. 
 They have made it quite bare, and cast it away; the branches 
 
 thereof are made white. 
 The field is laid waste ; the ground, the ground mourneth." 
 
 Joel i, 6, 7, 10. 
 
 Both these are examples of what the grammarians 
 call vision, in which animated narrative, for the 
 sake of picturesque eflPect, is not unfrequently ex- 
 pressed. Those future actions and events an En- 
 glish writer, according to the idiom of the language, 
 might have expressed in the present tense; the He- 
 brew writers do in eiffect the same thing, when, in 
 accordance with the idiom of the Hebrew verb, they 
 employ the past tense. 
 
 In the other form of construction — namely, the 
 expressing of past events by the future tense — the 
 sacred writers impart a variety to their narrative 
 style, which is altogether peculiar. "We have an ex- 
 ample of this in the Song of Moses, where, after 
 mentioning the Divine dispensation by which the 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 149 
 
 Israelites were distinguished as the chosen people of 
 God, he proceeds to set forth with what love and 
 tenderness the Almighty had cherished them from 
 the time when he brought them from Egypt; how he 
 had led them by the hand through the wilderness, 
 and, as it were, carried them in his bosom. These 
 were past events, and accordingly the portion of the 
 song which records them, in our English version, 
 has been rendered in the past tense; but in the 
 Hebrew they are expressed in the future tense : 
 
 " He will find him in a desert land, 
 In a vast and howling wilderness : 
 He will lead him about ; he will instruct him ; 
 He will keep him as the pupil of his eye." 
 
 Deut. xxxii, 10. 
 
 The observation of Bishop Lowth on this passage 
 appears to me to be the true explanation of the pe- 
 culiar construction : "You will readily judge whether 
 this passage can admit of any other explication than 
 that of Moses supposing himself present at the time 
 when the Almighty selected the people of Israel for 
 himself, and thence, as from an eminence, contem- 
 plating the consequences of that dispensation." By 
 the power of sympathy, the reader is, in a like 
 manner, made to suppose himself carried back, to 
 become, along with the writer, an eye-witness of 
 the scenes described; and thus the picturesque ef- 
 fect is amazingly hightened. 
 
 This matter of the Hebrew tenses — the substitu- 
 tion of the past for the future, of the future for the 
 
150 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 past, and the rapid transition from the one to the 
 other, has caused no small perplexity to the gram- 
 marians and the commentators. But one thing is 
 very manifest; namely, that greater picturesque- 
 ness is imparted to the narrative; for, as I have 
 already remarked, the effect of the sudden changes 
 of the tenses may be compared to that of shifting 
 lights upon a landscape or a painting. 
 
 But if we would see to full advantage the pic- 
 turesque in the Scriptures, we must turn to their 
 physical delineations of nature. In this department 
 they incomparably surpass all the other writings of 
 antiquity. The features of the country in which he 
 lives exert a strong influence on the mind of a 
 writer, and unless he is destitute of the graphic art, 
 if its scenery is strongly marked, he can scarcely 
 fail to be picturesque when describing it. Now the 
 sacred writers dwelt in a region which was pecu- 
 liarly favorable to topographical delineations; for 
 theirs was a land of the mountain and the flood — 
 of hills and valleys — of brooks and streams — of spots 
 of exuberant vegetation alternating with iron-ribbed 
 rocks and arid desert — a land which, as it has been 
 justly remarked, ''united the phenomena of Sum- 
 mer and Winter, the pasturage of the North with 
 the palms of the South; so that, in a few hours, an 
 Israelite might pass from the soft luxuriance of a 
 sunny vale to the rocks and groves of Antilibanus, 
 irom a garden like the bowers of the first pair in 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 151 
 
 Eden, to tlie savage sterility of tlie deserts of En- 
 gedi." Yet, neither this striking natural scenery, 
 nor the skyey influences of an Eastern climate would 
 have imparted their rare picturesqueness to the sa- 
 cred writers unless they had possessed that poetic 
 susceptibility which has showed itself in their in- 
 tense sympathy with nature. The poets and ora- 
 tors of ancient Greece lived in a land which, for the 
 transparency of its skies and the grandeur of its 
 scenery, was second only to Palestine ; yet, compared 
 with the delineations of nature which we meet with 
 in the Hebrew poets, how cold and unimpassioned 
 are those which we find in the Grecian! "If we 
 bear in mind," says Schiller, " the beautiful scenery 
 by which the Greeks were surrounded, and remem- 
 ber the opportunities possessed by a people living in 
 so genial a climate of entering into the free enjoy- 
 ment of the contemplation of nature, and observe 
 how conformable were their mode of thoiio-ht, the 
 bent of their imagination, and the habits of their 
 lives to the simplicity of nature, which was so faith- 
 fully reflected in their poetic works, we can not fail 
 to remark with surprise how few traces are to be 
 met among them of the sentimental interest with 
 which we, in modern times, attach ourselves to the 
 individual characteristics of natural scenery. The 
 Greek poet is certainly, in the highest degree, cor- 
 rect, faithful, and circumstantial in his descriptions 
 of nature; but his heart has no more share in his 
 words than if he were treating of a garment, a 
 
152 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 shield, or suit of armor. Nature seems to interest 
 his understanding more than his moral perceptions." 
 The same thing, and more strongly, might be said 
 of the Roman poets. But when we turn to the He- 
 brew poets, we find their landscape-pictures suffused 
 with life, warmth, and animation. Their own minds 
 pervaded by a profound feeling of nature, they have 
 breathed a sympathetic glow into all their descrip- 
 tions of it. They cling to its charms with the fervor 
 and the plaintive passion of the poet of modern times. 
 They exhibit, in a very rare degree, that form of 
 poetic susceptibility which Foster has felicitously 
 called jphysiopathy — "the faculty of pervading all 
 nature with one's own being, so as to have a per- 
 ception, a life, an agency in all things." For even 
 into their cosmical delineations the sacred writers 
 have transfused their own life, as if they inherited 
 the distant stars, and felt a personal interest in each 
 shining sphere. Yet we never find pictorial exact- 
 ness sacrificed to poetic emotion, for their physical 
 descriptions are uniformly characterized by their 
 truthfulness to nature. On this point I prefer giv- 
 ing the words of Humboldt: ''As descriptions of 
 nature, the writings of the Old Testament are a 
 faithful reflection of the character of the country in 
 which they were composed, of the alternations of 
 barrenness and fruitfulness, and of the Alpine for- 
 ests by which Palestine was characterized. They 
 describe, in their regular succession, the relations 
 of the climate, the manners of this people of herds- 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 153 
 
 men, and their hereditary aversion to agricultural 
 pursuits. The epic or historical parts are marked 
 by a graceful simplicity, almost more unadorned 
 than those of Herodotus, and most true to nature; 
 a point on which the unanimous testimony of 
 modern travelers may be received as conclusive, 
 owing to the inconsiderable changes effected, in the 
 course of ages, in the manners and habits of a 
 nomadic people." 
 
 The Hebrew Psalmist, who is so preeminently 
 the poet of devotion, has proved himself to be no 
 less the poet of nature. Many of his descriptions, 
 both of the celestial phenomena and of terrestrial 
 scenery, are amazingly picturesque, and over many 
 of these it sheds a flood of new significance, when 
 the reader understands the mechanism of the Psalms 
 in which they occur. In the 29th Psalm, for exam- 
 ple, we have a description of a thunder-storm, which 
 is exceedingly enhanced when one attends to the 
 geographical structure of this majestic ode. We are 
 to conceive the Psalmist standing with the awe- 
 struck multitude in the Temple porch, watching the 
 march of the thunder-storm as it advances from the 
 Mediterranean, or "great sea," and at last bursts 
 in a water-flood around themselves. 
 
 There is sometimes a singularly-pleasing euphony 
 in what we might call the merely- topographical pas- 
 sages of the Old Testament, arising from a cadence 
 and resonance in the sound of the names. ''Any 
 one," says Dr. Brown, ''who has a tolerable ear and 
 
154 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 any sensibility, must remember the sensation of de- 
 light in the mere sound — like the color of a butter- 
 fly's wings, or the shapeless glories of evening 
 clouds, to the eye — in reading aloud such passages 
 as these: 'Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh; their 
 voice shall be heard to Jahaz; for by the way of 
 Luhith with weeping shall they go it up ; for in the 
 way of Horonaim they shall raise a cry. God came 
 from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Is 
 not Calno as Carchemish ? is not Hamath as Arpad ? 
 is not Samaria as Damascus ? He is gone to Aiath ; 
 he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid 
 up his chariots; Kamath is afraid; Gibeah of Saul 
 is fled; lift up thy voice, daughter of Gallim; 
 cause it to be heard unto Laish; poor Anathoth. 
 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim 
 gather themselves to flee. The fields of Heshbon 
 languish; the vine of Sibmah; I will water thee 
 with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh.' Any one 
 may prove to himself that much of the effect and 
 beauty of these passages depends on these names; 
 put others in their room and try them." 
 
 We have discovered two of the causes which go 
 to account for the pleasing picturcsqueness of the 
 Bible descriptions of the physical universe; namely, 
 their truthfulness to nature and the strong sympa- 
 thy which the writers felt with nature. The first 
 gives to them a pictorial exactness, which makes 
 them j)leasing as faithful reflections of objective 
 nature; while the second, by interfusing the sub- 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 155 
 
 jective life of the writer, imparts a poetic warmth 
 to his pictures which renders them something 
 higher than mere copies. And the result of the 
 two combined is what the reader will not find, 
 at least in any other ancient writing, that union of 
 reality with idealism, which alone can enable a 
 writer truthfully to delineate the face of Nature — 
 that is, while presenting her great permanent feat- 
 ures, also to catch that ethereal, ever-shifting ex- 
 pression which gives individuality or its idiosyncrasy, 
 so to speak, to each several piece of the landscape. 
 
 There is yet another cause which has largely con- 
 tributed to the picturesqueness of the Biblical deline- 
 ations of nature; namely, the true perception which 
 the writers had of what nature really is. The an- 
 cient polytheist managed to throw a certain poetic 
 coloring over his landscape which he borrowed from 
 the fictions of his mythology. Dryads peopled 
 the woodlands; Oreads flitted over the mountains; 
 Naiads gave mirth to the waters and music to the 
 streams. But without the aid of these fabulous 
 divinities the sacred writers have bathed their land- 
 scapes in still warmer hues. The modern pantheist 
 also is able to infuse into his pictures of nature an 
 amazing warmth and richness. But this he accom- 
 plishes not by simply describing the universe, for 
 he must first deify it, and thus, confounding God 
 with nature or nature with God, and so interfusing 
 each into the other as one substance, it is a God- 
 world of his own creation, which he throws in so 
 
156 LrrERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 gleaming images across men's eyes to dazzle and 
 astound. But the Hebrew writers, without deify- 
 ing nature, have described it as glowingly and 
 clothed it in as great a sublimity as the panthe- 
 ist. "With them creation is distinct from the Cre- 
 ator, and nature not consubstantial with God; 
 yet bright to their eyes with his penetrating, all- 
 pervasive glory, they have exhibited the universe 
 as a picturesque adumbration in visible symbols 
 of his invisible Godhead. Though not confound- 
 ing the Maker with the things which he has made, 
 they do not on this account shut cut the Cre- 
 ator from his works, or represent him as a sol- 
 itary potentate seated on an inaccessible throne 
 amid the eternal silences, and casting only impas- 
 sive glances on the empire he had reared. On the 
 contrary, they represent him as every-where pres- 
 ent, vivifying by his ubiquitous activity even the 
 solitudes of remotest space — to us remote but to him 
 near. And how animated is all nature when thus 
 viewed, as luminous with his light, as vocal with 
 his voice, as moved by his motive energy, and as 
 sustained by his providence! Every sunbeam and 
 star-ray, though not himself, is his shekinah. His 
 voice rolls in the thunder and whispers in the 
 breath of winds. The lightning is the flash of his 
 ire. The rain-drops and the dew are sprinkled from 
 out his bounteous hand. He rides on the chariot- 
 clouds, and plants his footsteps on the sea. His 
 children on the earth approach his footstool; while 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 157 
 
 a sparrow can not fall from tlie housetop, nor a 
 sere leaf in Autumn drop from its withering bough, 
 without his notice. 
 
 Nor is it only in their delineations of physical 
 nature that the Scriptures exhibit a picturesqueness. 
 Even abstract truth, taught as they teach it, by act- 
 ual cases, rather than in naked formulae, is vivified 
 into pictorial reality; while in the views which the 
 sacred writers give of Providence, there is a singu- 
 larly-picturesque vividness. There are not wanting 
 generalized statements, such as befit the lips of di- 
 vine philosophy, when its oracle has to proclaim a 
 theme so large. Aphorisms abound which might be 
 inscribed on the choicest tablets to be set up in the 
 highest niches of Wisdom's temple. Yet, along with 
 these, we have picturesque touches, which to the 
 eye of the simple ones exhibit a striking picture of 
 a particular Providence. We are permitted almost 
 to see with our bodily eyes the hand of the great 
 Food- Giver opened to feed the fowls of the air and 
 the young lions in the forest. We can all but per- 
 ceive the eye of the Universal Protector," as it 
 watches the fledgling sparrow, which is trying its 
 young wings in its first flight. As we gaze on the 
 lilies of the field, the words of the Savior do all but 
 make visible to us the Divine pencil, which, dipped 
 in dew-drops and sunshine, paints them so exquis- 
 itely beautiful. Also in its higher sphere the pro- 
 cesses of Providence are set forth in a way which ' 
 has all the eff'ect of a magnificent picture. The 
 
158 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 very elements, as if conscious of their Sovereign's 
 will, are represented as waiting liis summons to co- 
 operate with him in his great works. The fitful 
 waves, and the still more fitful winds; the heaving 
 earthquake; the blazing meteor; the electric fire, as 
 it flashes from the riven cloud; and even the very- 
 dreams, which shape their wild visions of the night, 
 all are made to pass in the grand pageant which 
 moves in Jehovah's train when he is accomplishing 
 redemption work. Verily, one may scarcely call 
 any thing common when thus the passing winds are 
 represented as if uttering the name of Jesus; and 
 the lightning's flash as if writing it in lines of fire 
 on the sky; .and the waves of ocean as if rolling it 
 from pole to pole. Every sound, whether it be the 
 zephyr's whisper or the tempest's roar; and every 
 scene, whether in the smiling valley or on the 
 cloud-covered mountain's brow; and every event, 
 from the dropping of a leaf to the downfall of a 
 kingdom, is sacred and solemn, when we think that 
 by means of it the Kedeemer may be carrying out 
 his glorious work. And, as the pious reader kin- 
 dles over these animating views of Providence, he 
 can not repress the exclamation : " My Father, which 
 art in heaven, do all thy works praise thee? do the 
 stars in , the firmament choir for thee their silent 
 hymns? and for thee the thunder utter its voice? 
 and for thee the lightning strike its fiery bolts? and 
 for thee the winds blow, and the waters roll ? is it 
 even bo, Father ? and shall not I, the creature of 
 
THE PICTURESQUE IN THE SCRIPTURES. 159 
 
 thy bounty, the nursling of thy care, thy very child, 
 be one among these ministers of thy pleasure, and 
 one among these minstrels of thy praise?" 
 
 It may reasonably be asked why so large a por- 
 tion of the Bible, which is professedly a book for 
 all nations, has been taken up with topographical 
 descriptions of Palestine? One purpose of this, we 
 doubt not, was to render the Bible a picturesque 
 and thus a pleasing volume to the lovers of natural 
 scenery. But was this the sole purpose, or is there 
 not a divine philosophy here? We apprehend there 
 is. For we persuade ourselves that we can discover 
 in the geographical picturesqueness of the Bible no 
 small proof of its Divine origin. In the first place, 
 its Author has thus shown himself to be acquainted 
 with human nature in one of its universal instincts 
 or sentiments. By the law of local associations, we 
 can not help feeling a deep interest and curiosity to 
 know about the land which was the theater of our 
 redemption. We feel a desire to have set before us 
 a vivid picture of its physical aspects — its streams, 
 its mountains, its valleys, its cities; to have photo- 
 graphed, so to speak, to our mind's eye the exact 
 spots in the wilderness where its patriarchs pitched 
 their tents; the precise haunts of its ancient seers; 
 the Temple where its congregations worshiped; and, 
 above all, " the holy places " which were frequented 
 by the Savior. The Author of the Bible, knowing 
 this law in our nature, has made provision for it 
 
160 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Dy the Scriptures being so eminently topographical. 
 For more than by Grecian poets the isles of the 
 -^gean, by the Hebrew bards has Palestine, in its 
 geographical features and remarkable localities, be- 
 come a land familiar to the stranger. 
 
 But, further, may we not trace a beautiful har- 
 mony between the scenic picturesqueness of the 
 Bible and its prophetic character? For, when the 
 period of the expatriation shall have been completed, 
 and the children of the exiles are restored to their 
 fatherland, is the country of their sires to be to 
 them as a strange country? When they are to be 
 restored to their ancestral home shall it be to them 
 as an alien land? Must the returned exiles sit down 
 to weep, saying, We know not this place? Not so; 
 for, though they have never visited it, with the 
 Bible in their hands as their guide-book, they will 
 recognize each sacred locality, and be able to trace 
 the footsteps of their ancient sires. These local 
 recognitions, linking at once into the chain of their 
 historic memories, will make the returned exiles 
 feel at home; with joy they will say. This is the 
 land of our fathers. 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 161 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HEBREW POETRY. 
 
 Among the questiones vexatce in literature, few 
 have been more keenly debated than, what is poetry? 
 and what the function of the poet? Much of this 
 disputation could have been avoided had our critics, 
 instead of aiming at a single generalization, been 
 content to specify particulars; since that which in 
 its own nature is composite will not be described 
 except by a composite definition; nor will any re- 
 finement of criticism succeed in reducing to a sin- 
 gle conception that which combines several. Thus, 
 when Aristotle defines poetry to be the mimetic or 
 imitative art, he gives a definition which is neither 
 distinctive nor exhaustive. It is not distinctive, 
 seeing that painting and sculpture are as truly imi- 
 tative arts as is poetry; nor is it exhaustive, since 
 while imitation is one it is not the only property of 
 poetry. So likewise those critics are at fault who 
 define the province of poetry to be fiction; for 
 while imagination and even pure fancy have much 
 to do with the conceptions of the poet, many subjects 
 proper to his art and which he is accustomed to 
 discourse, so far from being fictitious, are of all 
 
 realities the most real. Such are the works of God, 
 
 14 
 
162 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the sentiments of piety, and the passions of the 
 human heart. Then with regard to the function of 
 the poet; high authorities have pronounced it to be 
 to please, while that of the historian and philoso- 
 pher is to instruct. Now, unquestionably, poetry 
 affords pleasure, both by the richer hues in which 
 it dips its pen, by its peculiar phraseology, its ryth- 
 mical construction, and its abundant figures; but 
 while the vehicle in which the poet conveys his 
 thoughts is peculiarly fitted to please, his aim, fully 
 as much as that of the philosopher and historian, 
 may be, and often is, to instruct and reform man- 
 kind. 
 
 What then is poetry? or, as we would prefer to 
 put it — for who may define the ethereal art itself? — 
 what are the attributes of the true poet? There 
 is first that peculiar quickness of perception which 
 we call the poetic eye, which ''in a fine frenzy 
 rolling" can detect not merely the ostensible, but 
 also the occult forms and fashions of the beautiful 
 and the sublime; then there is the poetic suscep- 
 tiveness, or that undefinable excitability, by which 
 objects, whether real or only present to the fancy, 
 impress themselves or their images more vividly, 
 more thrillingly, and more endurably, than the less 
 delicate tissues of unpoetic minds will receive, at 
 least at first sight and on a single glance; then 
 there is the nervous system, both physical and 
 mental, so finely threaded as to move in sympathy 
 with every heart-throb of every living thing, and 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 163 
 
 to vibrate at every tender touch and every breath- 
 ing sound of sadness or of joy, come whence these 
 may, from far or near, from great things or small; 
 there is also in a high state of activity the illustra- 
 tive faculty, the true poet, having a keen insight 
 into those analogies, which by links often too fine 
 to be visible to ordinary observers, unite the vari- 
 ous departments of nature, and so harmonize the 
 processes in the material with those in the spiritual 
 world, that to his eye not only is the invisible ad- 
 umbrated or symbolized in the visible, but all nature 
 appears one great parable; there is also in its high- 
 est degree of development the faculty of recombin- 
 ing the materials of perception, of memory, and 
 meditative thought, till what rises to view is nothing 
 short of a new creation ; and finally there is a com- 
 mand of poetic language, or of words which have 
 kindled with the poet's fervors, and which gleam 
 with his fancies, and which he pours forth in streams 
 of song, musical because his thoughts themselves 
 are music. 
 
 Such we take to be the poetic talent; and the 
 function of the true poet is to consecrate this talent 
 to the elucidation and enforcement of truth, in those 
 impressive and pleasing forms in which his lofty art 
 enables him to clothe it. 
 
 Now, in the bards of the Bible, we find the poetic 
 talent in the very highest degree; and in the poetry 
 of the Bible we have the consecration of that talent 
 to the noblest of all uses. 
 
164 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 The first point which would naturally fall to be 
 considered, is the structure or prosodial mechanism 
 of Hebrew poetry. But on this subject I do not 
 intend to dwell at length, and for two reasons. 
 First, because, owing to the prosody — even the pro- 
 nunciation of the Hebrew language being in a great 
 measure lost — it is little else than a conjectural 
 solution of the question which can now be reached; 
 and, secondly, the critics have nevertheless so keenly 
 maintained opposite opinions, that more space than 
 our limits will allow would be required to give even 
 a summary of the controversy. 
 
 Among the Greeks and the Eomans the regular 
 measure of poems was formed according to a law of 
 syllabic quantity, or the time of pronouncing every 
 line. Thus a hexameter verse, whatever the num- 
 ber of the syllables, was formed of six feet or 
 measures, each containing two notes; and the words 
 were so arranged that the same quantity of time 
 should be regularly observed. This metrical con- 
 struction, of course, required that the long or short 
 syllables in every word in the language should be 
 fixed; and the standard of notation was, that two 
 short syllables were equivalent in time to one long 
 syllable. But among the modern nations of Europe 
 the meters are formed according to a law of accent- 
 uation — by accent being understood a particular 
 stress or force of voice upon certain syllables of 
 words, which distinguish them from the others. 
 Thus an English hexameter consists of twelve syl- 
 
HEBREW POETEY. 165 
 
 lables, half of which are accented and the other 
 unaccented. Another diJBference between the ancient 
 and the modern poetry of Europe is, that in the 
 latter — except in blank verse — the lines are rhymed, 
 whereas in the former rhyme was unknown. Now, 
 with respect to Hebrew poetry, it has been debated 
 by the grammarians whether its versification fol- 
 lowed the law of quantity, as among the ancients, 
 or the law of accent, as among the moderns; or 
 whether it had a law of rhythm differing from both 
 of these, peculiar to itself. 
 
 Were the matter to be determined by the weight 
 of names we might cite the highest authorities in 
 support of the opinion that Hebrew versification 
 had its fixed measures of time and quantity, as 
 among the Greeks and Bomans. Josephus, in the 
 second book of his antiquities, expressly states that 
 the Song of Moses, which celebrates the passage 
 through the Bed Sea, was composed in hexameters. 
 In his fourth book of Antiquities he makes a similar 
 statement concerning the sacred song in the 32d 
 chapter of Deuteronomy; and in the seventh of the 
 same work he expressly says: "And now David, 
 being freed from wars and dangers, composed songs 
 and hymns to God of several sorts of meter; some 
 of those which he made were trimeters, and some 
 were pentameters." Philo Judseus also states that 
 Hebrew poetry had meters. Such also is the state- 
 ment of Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, and Isidore. Sir 
 William Jones, in a curious dissertation on Asiatic 
 
166 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 meters, has shown that the lines of Arabic verses 
 may be scanned, like those of the Greek. He then 
 proceeds to show the probability that similar meas- 
 ures would be adopted by the Hebrews, whose lan- 
 guage was a branch of the same Semitic family; 
 and forms a theory of long and short syllables for 
 Hebrew words, similar to those of the Arabic. He 
 applies his theory, apparently with success, to the 
 28th chapter of Job, the Song of Solomon, some of 
 the Psalms, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the Song 
 of Moses, the Song of Deborah, and the Elegy of 
 David on the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. Besides 
 the authority of names, we might plead the natural 
 inclination to express the sentiments of poetry in 
 measure; an inclination which a people so highly 
 poetical, and so much addicted to the cultivation of 
 poetry as were the Hebrews, can scarcely be sup- 
 posed not to have indulged. We might further 
 plead that music disposes to measures of different 
 kinds. Now, it is well known that many of the 
 Hebrew hymns were set to music; and few nations 
 have reached a higher excellence in the art of min- 
 strelsy than did the Hebrews, especially from the 
 times of David and Solomon. 
 
 Still, what may be true of a few compositions 
 may not be true of the general compositions of a 
 people; and when we consider how little adapted, 
 by its forms and construction, the Hebrew language 
 is for those transpositions which verses of measured 
 time require, we can not avoid the conclusion, that 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 167 
 
 for Hebrew poetry to have been confined to such 
 modes of versification, would have been felt by the 
 poets to have been irksome and unnatural. Besides, 
 we meet with many specimens of poetic composition 
 at a period so early as almost to preclude the sup- 
 position that the length or shortness of the syllables 
 in the language could have then been so fixed as to 
 admit of syllabic meters being very general. 
 
 While, therefore, it will scarcely deny, on the one 
 hand, that specimens of verbal versification are not 
 uncommon in Hebrew poetry ; yet, on the other 
 hand, it is just a& obvious that this was not the 
 proper or peculiar characteristic of its rhythm. 
 "What then was this characteristic? 
 
 To Bishop Lowth we owe the discovery of the true 
 nature of the rhythm in Hebrew poetry. Its dis- 
 tinctive characteristic he has shown to consist in a 
 correspondence of the lines, not, as in more modern 
 languages, in sound, but in sense — in the recurrence 
 of a regular measure dependent not on the quan- 
 tity or length of syllables, but on the agreement 
 of ideas. This correspondence he has denominated 
 parallelism, which he defines to be ''a certain 
 equality, resemblance, or relationship between the 
 members of each period; so that in one or more 
 lines or members of the same period things shall 
 answer to things, and words to words, as if fitted to 
 each other by a kind of rule or measure." TMs new 
 tract, which Lowth claims the honor to have opened, 
 has been successfully pursued by subsequent investi- 
 
168 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 gators. In our own country by Bishop Jebb, in 
 his "Sacred Literature," and the Kev. T. Boys, in 
 his "Tactica Sacra," and subsequently in his "Key 
 to the Book of Psalms;" and in Germany by the 
 learned Hebrew scholar Ewald. The latter, in place 
 of "parallelism," adopted by Lowth, prefers the 
 term "thought-rhythm." 
 
 Not attempting any thing beyond a short and 
 simple account, which will best suit these pages, I 
 would state the leading principle to be, that a sim- 
 ple verse or distich consists, both in regard to form 
 and substance, of two corresponding members; and 
 of this parallelismics viembrorum, as it has been 
 called, three kinds may be specified. First, there is 
 the synonT/mous parallelism where the two members 
 express the same thought in such manner that the 
 second is an echo to the first, not in sense merely, 
 but also in sound; for example: 
 
 "What is man that thou art mindful of him, 
 And the Son of man that thou carest for him ?" 
 
 Ps. viii, 4. 
 
 Sometimes the second member repeats only a part 
 of the first : 
 
 *' Wo© to them that join house to house, 
 That field to field unite." 
 
 Is. V, 8. 
 
 And sometimes the second member contains an ex- 
 pansion of the first : 
 
 " Give to Jehovah, ye sons of God, 
 Give to Jehovah glory and praise." 
 Ps. xxix, 1, 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 169 
 
 The second kind is the antithetic parallelism, in 
 which the first member is illustrated by some oppo- 
 sition of thought contained in the second : 
 
 " The full man treadeth the honeycomb under foot. 
 To the hungry every bitter thing is sweet." 
 
 Prov. xxii, 7. 
 
 " Day to day uttereth instruction, 
 And night to night sheweth knowledge." 
 
 Pa. xix, 2. 
 
 " They have bowed down and fallen, 
 But we have risen and stand upright." 
 
 Ps. XX, 8. 
 
 These two forms of parallelism are dependent 
 on the two great laws of the association of ideas, 
 resemblance and contrast. The third, which has 
 been called the synthetic, by some the constructive, 
 is founded simply upon a resemblance in the form 
 of construction and progression of the thoughts; 
 the second member not being a mere echo, or redu- 
 plication of the first, subjoins something new to it, 
 while the same structure of the verse is preserved — 
 thus : 
 
 " He appointeth the moon for seasons, 
 The sun knoweth his going down." 
 
 Ps. civ, 19. 
 
 " The law of Jehovah is perfect, reviving the soul ; 
 The precepts of Jehovah are pure, instructing the simple." 
 
 Ps. xix, 7. 
 
 There is a fourth kind of parallelism which 
 Bishop Jebb has styled the introverted : " There are 
 stanzas so constructed that whatever be the num- 
 ber of lines, the first line shall be parallel with the 
 
 15 
 
170 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 last, the second with the penultimate, and so 
 throughout, in an order which looks inward, or, to 
 borrow a military phrase, from flanks to center. 
 This may be called the introverted parallelism. 
 
 " The idols of the heathen are silver and gold. 
 The work of men's hands : 
 They have mouths but they speak not; 
 They have eyes but they see not ; 
 They have ears but they hear not ; 
 Neither is there any breath in their mouths : 
 They who make them are like unto them : 
 So are all they who put their trust in them." 
 
 Ps. cxxxv, 15-18. 
 
 Here the first line introverts with the eighth — in the 
 one we have the idols of the heathen, in the other 
 those who put their trust in idols. The second line 
 introverts with the seventh — in the one is the fab- 
 rication, in the other the fabricators. The third 
 line introverts with the sixth — in the one there are 
 mouths without articulation, in the other mouths 
 without breath. The fourth line introverts with 
 the fifth, where the introverted parallelism may be 
 said to unite its two halves in a parallelism of syn- 
 thesis — eyes without vision, ears without the sense 
 of hearing. 
 
 The simple, two-membered rhythm is the more 
 common; but not unfrequently verses occur with 
 three, four, or yet more members, and in these the 
 parallelisms exhibit considerable variety. In the 
 tristich, for example, the members are sometimes 
 all three parallel; sometimes two of the members 
 
HEBREW POETRY. VJ% 
 
 stand opposed to the third. In the quartette we 
 find at one time two simple parallels, at another 
 time a kind of semi-introverted parallel, the first 
 and third answering to each other, also, the second 
 and fourth. By a combination of the various sorts, 
 several being found together in one composition, 
 great freedom, ease, and capability is given to the 
 style. 
 
 Before proceeding to enumerate some of the char- 
 acteristics which prove the superior excellence of 
 Hebrew poetry, it is right that the reader be ap- 
 prized of two special disadvantages under which, 
 owing to the accidents of time and language, that 
 poetry labors. 
 
 First, then, while the melody and rhythmical flow 
 of numbers is not essential to poetry; yet these 
 greatly help its full efiect. But from such aids 
 Hebrew poetry can now derive very little, if, in- 
 deed, any aid at all. "What may have been its 
 prosodial structure is, as we have seen, a point 
 upon which the learned are still divided. But 
 whether its cadence was owing to the arrangement 
 of the syllables according to their quantity or their 
 accent, or was the effect of a certain parallelism, 
 or the iteration of the thought in balanced or par- 
 allel members, it is obvious that — since not only the 
 prosody, but even the pronunciation of the Hebrew 
 language is in a great measure lost — in reading its 
 poetry even our most skilled Hebraists can do but 
 
172 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 scant justice to the harmonic arrangement of the 
 words. We are able to scan and correctly intone 
 the odes of Horace; but the lyrics of Isaiah we can 
 neither scsPn nor intone so as to give them the 
 proper metrical effect. Whatever, therefore, may 
 have been the prosodial structure of Hebrew po- 
 etry, one thing is certain, that very different from 
 what they are, as read by us, must have been the 
 Psalms of Moses, Asaph, and David, when, set to 
 music, they were sung or chanted in the choral 
 services of the Temple. 
 
 The other great disadvantage under which Hebrew 
 poetry labors is, that by the ordinary reader it can 
 be judged of only from translations. Now even in 
 prose — in poetry of course still more so — the finer 
 shades of thought, in being transfused into another 
 language, lose much of their force and beauty; just 
 as of volatile odors much of the aroma evaporates 
 when they are poured into a new vessel. And, 
 moreover, while the great poets of Greece and 
 Eome have had the good fortune to be translated 
 by great poets, the bards of Palestine have not yet 
 been so fortunate. Dryden and Pope, the transla- 
 tors of Virgil and Homer, were unquestionably 
 poets; but one would hesitate to say as much of 
 Sternhold and Hopkins, or of Tate and Brady, or 
 of Francis Rous. 
 
 Those who, by their talents and scholarship, were 
 qualified to be judges, have not hesitated to award 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 173 
 
 the superiority to Hebrew over Greek and Latin 
 poetry. Sir Daniel Sandford, whose classic taste 
 none will dispute, has pronounced his opinion in the 
 following terms: "That any one who has studied 
 the poetry, history, and philosophy of the Hebrews, 
 even merely as specimens of composition, should 
 lightly esteem them, is impossible. In lyric flow 
 and fire, in crushing force, in majesty that seems 
 still to echo the awful sounds once heard beneath 
 the thunder- clouds of Mount Sinai, the poetry of 
 the ancient Scriptures is the most superb that ever 
 burned within the breast of man." Even Milton, 
 who, of all our poets, will be least suspected of 
 underrating the ancient classics, leaves no doubt of 
 the comparative estimate he had formed between 
 them and the bards of the Bible; as witness the 
 following passage which he has put into the mouth 
 of Christ himself: 
 
 " Or, if I would delight my private hours 
 With music or with poem, where, so soon 
 As in our native language, can I find 
 That solace ? All our law and story strewed 
 With hymns, our psalms with artful terms inscribed, 
 Our Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon, 
 That pleased so well our victor's ear, declare 
 That rather Greece from us their art derived ; 
 111 imitated, while they loudest sing 
 The vices of their deities, and their own, 
 In fable, hymn, or song, so personating 
 Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame. 
 Remove their swelling epithets, thick laid 
 As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest 
 Thin sown with aught of profit or delight, 
 Will far be found unworthy to compare 
 
4, 
 174 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 With Zion's songs, to all time tastes exalting 
 
 Where God is praised aright, and God-like men 
 
 The Holiest of Holies, and his saints — 
 
 Such are from God inspired, not such from thee — 
 
 Unless where moral virtue is expressed 
 
 By light of nature, not in all quite lost." 
 
 Were then the Hebrew bards possessed of higher 
 poetical talent, or had they attained to greater 
 metrical skill than the Grecian and Koman poets? 
 We scarcely presume to say so; but will rather own 
 that in point of natural genius and acquired culture 
 they were inferior. It must also be admitted that 
 in form and variety the ancient classic poetry sur- 
 passes the Hebrew. Yet in substance — in the 
 thoughts and the themes — the latter is incompa- 
 rably superior. It draws its inspiration from a 
 source which was inaccessible to other ancient liter- 
 atures; and dwells in a region, pure, serene, truth- 
 ful, and religious, to which they could not attain. 
 Could Homer, for example, have chosen a divine 
 theme, and had he been divinely inspired, then 
 Homer would probably have been the first among 
 sacred, as he is confessedly the first among profane 
 poets. But wanting both these, the mere force of 
 genius, high as it carried his muse, could not bear 
 her up to those supernal bights where the Hebrew 
 muse had planted her footsteps on celestial light. 
 The poets of Greece might be compared to one of 
 its own eagles soaring from its mist-capped eyrie on 
 Mount Parnassus toward the sun — its dank wings 
 half reflecting, half absorbing the incident rays ; 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 175 
 
 while the poets of Palestine are as an eagle darting 
 downward from the sun, its wings so steeped in 
 light direct from the solar font, that they continue 
 to illumine the rock of Horeb or Sinai, on which it 
 perches with a halo of supernatural glory. 
 
 And yet, though divine, how instinct with human 
 sentiments is the Hebrew poetry. It throbs with 
 all natural sympathies, pulsates with the joys and 
 the sorrows, the hopes and the fears, which are 
 universal to humanity. Celestial born, it neverthe- 
 less owns the sisterhood of the muses; is passionate 
 or plaintive; wreathed in smiles or bathed with 
 tears; crowns itself with the laurel, the olive, or 
 the cypress; lifts its voice to the lively tones of the 
 timbrel and dulcimer, or sinks it to the dirge-notes 
 of the solemn harp — according as it yields itself to 
 the varying moods and emotions of our human 
 nature. The glorious hymn of victory which Moses 
 sang, and Miriam echoed back, on the shores of the 
 Red Sea, utters in every line the natural senti- 
 ments of gratitude. The elegiac strains of Jere- 
 miah, tear-steeped in the prophet's own sorrow, 
 touch a responsive sadness wherever a true patriot 
 beholds his country forlorn and desolate. The 
 heart-bursts of penitence which came from the 
 trembling strings of David's lyre are felt by every 
 Christian who mourns his backslidings, as if the 
 strings of that lyre were those of his own breast. 
 
 No poetry could be more truly human than this 
 same poetry, which is truly divine. And this com- 
 
176 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 posite character — its literal humanity and its literal 
 divinity — we give as the first distinctive feature of 
 Hebrew poetry, because to it alone it belongs. 
 
 Another composite character of Hebrew poetry 
 which I would instance is, that while intensely 
 national, it is yet of no nation — while strictly local 
 it nevertheless belongs to no locality. On taking 
 up the Psalms of David, composed as they were 
 in the first instance to furnish a Psalter for Pales- 
 tine, you find them in their structure, their senti- 
 ments, their imagery, their entire cast of thought, 
 and historic allusions, unmistakably Jewish. For 
 whether in martial ode the nation celebrates its vic- 
 tories, or in sacred hymn the poet pours forth his 
 own individual emotions, you feel that you are 
 listening to Jews. Indeed no poetry could bear a 
 deeper or broader mark of nationality. The coun- 
 try, the climate, the customs, the peculiar religious 
 institutions, rites, and ceremonies, and the unique 
 history of the Israelites, are all so faithfully and 
 vividly reflected in the Hebrew poetry, that there 
 is no mistaking any one song for a poem of any 
 other people. And yet these songs have touched a 
 chord which at this day continues to vibrate through 
 the bosom of the universal brotherhood. The hym- 
 nologist of the East has been confessed to be the 
 sacred poet of the West. The Psalter of the Jewish 
 Temple has been adopted as the Psalter of the Chris- 
 tian Church. The Hebrew lyre has been tuned by 
 Gentile nations to the same olden themes; to the 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 177 
 
 self-same olden words wliicli breathed from its 
 strings in the days of David. 
 
 But how happens it that a poetry which is so 
 national has been adopted by all nations — that 
 hymns which are so epochal possess such perennial 
 interest? I reply, this can only be because the 
 Hebrew poetry has been drawn, as all true poetry 
 ever is, from the deep well of those imperishable 
 feelings which belong to no one country, or people, 
 or age ; but to all ages, and all peoples, and all coun- 
 tries, because to mankind. 
 
 Thus has the Hebrew muse accomplished what no 
 other muse has ever been able to do — it has in its 
 primitive hymns given articulate expression to the 
 religious feelings and experiences of universal pos- 
 terity. 
 
 Another characteristic feature of Hebrew poetry, 
 closely associated with the former, is, that while it 
 is of the East yet it essentially differs from the 
 general type of Eastern poetry. A gorgeous im- 
 agery, inflated epithets, and extravagant figures, 
 characterize the poetry of the East. In these chil- 
 dren of the sun, imagination, like the gardens of 
 their tropical clime, would seem to put forth flowers 
 of excessive luxuriance. But the poetry of the 
 Bible, though steeped in Eastern warmth, is distin- 
 guished by great simplicity, artlessness, and genuine 
 feeling. Instead of the pomp of Oriental grandeur, 
 its images are generally taken from Nature in her 
 simplest forms; and those figures which are derived 
 
178 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 from local objects are usually of a kind with whicli 
 men of every age and country can easily sympar 
 thize. As was to be expected in a poetry so gen- 
 uine, you perceive a reflex copy of objective nature; 
 the deep, rich coloring, along with the ample ornate 
 foliation of Eastern flora, being transferred to the 
 pages of the Hebrew bards. Yet not like other 
 Oriental poetry does theirs copy what is merely 
 topical, or paint in colors which exceed those of 
 nature. It is a faithful transcript; but a tran- 
 script which is softened and subdu'ed; breathing 
 rather the spirit than affecting to copy the forms of 
 Nature in her luxuriant climes. And the reason of 
 this is not difficult to perceive. The sacred poets 
 could not be natives of the East and not exhibit 
 an Oriental cast of thought and expression; but 
 from their possessing a truer appreciation of Nature, 
 they have penetrated beneath local and climatal 
 varieties to her deeper characteristics; and by trans- 
 ferring these to their poetry, have made it of uni- 
 versal significance. Then, besides this, the great- 
 ness and sacredness of their themes have toned down 
 the Oriental hues of their poetry ; while a wider 
 breadth has been imparted to it by the conscious- 
 ness which they must have felt that their mission 
 was to universalize the poetry of their nation, as 
 God's chosen vehicle by which to convey sacred 
 truth to the latest generations of our scattered 
 race. 
 
 Another characteristic of Hebrew poetry is its 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 179 
 
 originality. This is owing to two causes — its ex- 
 treme antiquity and the uniqueness of its themes. 
 It is the most archaic of all poetries. Standing 
 nearer than any other to the first days of creation, 
 it fell to it to be the first to sing creation's hymn. 
 And how greatly sublimer every way is the muse 
 which has sung of the origin of worlds, and of the 
 race, than those which, by the aid of fable and in- 
 vention, have attempted to trace the rise of a nation 
 or the birth of a single people. The hero of ancient 
 Hebrew poetry was no ^Eneas — the founder of a 
 particular dynasty ; but the first man — the primal 
 father of the race. It has justly been asked, ''Ho- 
 mer had his teachers, but who taught Moses?" 
 Hebrew song had indeed no pattern to copy from — 
 no older muse than itself to imitate. It is essen- 
 tially and entirely original — self-educed, self-devel- 
 oped. It is no exotic transplanted from some sunnier 
 clime. No warp crossed into a foreign woof. No 
 echo of an older minstrelsy. Other poesies have 
 sprung from that of Palestine; but it sprang from 
 none. The first of vocal streams, it issued direct 
 from its fountains in the depths of nature, when 
 these were filled by the inspiration of God. Other 
 bards may borrow and imitate — the bards of the 
 Bible lend and create. 
 
 Another marked characteristic of Hebrew poetry 
 is its profound religiousness. All true poetry in its 
 higher forms is religious; for it is the impassioned 
 utterances of the soul when it is seeking after, or 
 
180 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 when having found, it stands confronted with the 
 highest perfection, either actual or ideal. If only 
 ideal, then poetry is simply the apotheosis in song 
 of the amplified conceptions of the soul itself. But 
 when the poet stands in the presence of the actual di- 
 vinity — the all-good, the all- beautiful, the all-true — 
 then his song becomes instinct with ideas which are 
 above and beyond his own; and is animated with a 
 fire which has descended from an altar which is 
 higher than that of his muse. Now in the Hebrew 
 poetry it is the actual, not the ideal, divine which 
 is celebrated. The bards of Palestine stood in the 
 immediate presence of the Jehovah — they heard his 
 voice — they listened to the echoes of his footsteps — 
 they looked upon his awful symbols — beheld the 
 miracles of his power — and received his inspiration. 
 Hence a divine and imperishable power is in all their 
 songs; and their poetry, more than that of all other 
 nations, is characterized by its pure, and rich, and 
 living religious element. 
 
 It rings and rolls through the ages as one contin- 
 uous hymn of praise to the Creator and the Re- 
 deemer, God. It is the one grand psalm of piety, 
 many- voiced, yet ever the same choral symphony. 
 At first you listen to it, faintly breaking on the ear, 
 as if it were the caught- up echoes of those music- 
 notes which the sons of the morning had raised in cre- 
 ation's hymn; till, deeponiug and widening, like the 
 river in its flow, you hear it pour a fuller minstrelsy 
 as it seems to mingle with the heavenly choirs. 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 181 
 
 In what mood or frame can devotion be when it 
 shall not find articulate expression to its thoughts 
 and its feelings in the sacred hymns of Israel? 
 What emotions, joyous or mournful, would it pour 
 forth in vocal utterance, for which it shall not find 
 the appropriate words in the Psalms of David? Is 
 there an inmost chord which he has not touched ? — 
 a condition of the religious consciousness which he 
 has not anticipated? — a single pent-up feeling of 
 devotion, which with him as its interpreter needs 
 now to be voiceless? The lofty aspiration, the 
 winged hope, the weeping contrition, the grateful 
 thanksgiving, the wishful supplication, the broad 
 human sympathy, the devout sentiment, have all 
 been articulated by him in the language of sacred 
 poetry. 
 
 Another distinctive feature of Hebrew poetry is 
 its spontaneousness. Open the Psalter at any part, 
 you find streams of song pouring forth as the brooks 
 and water-falls which gush down the mountains of 
 Palestine after the latter rain. Not more free was 
 the murmur of the winds through the cedar forests 
 of Lebanon, than is the music of David's song. As 
 the trees of Eden, so does this tree of sacred song 
 seem to bourgeon and to blossom, while there was 
 not a man to till the ground. All is ease, freedom, 
 naturalness. There is no constraint, no efi'ort, no 
 afiectation, seemingly no art. The heart was full, 
 and being full overflowed in spontaneous song. 
 
 The last distinctive feature of Hebrew poetry 
 
182 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 which I shall mention is its great range and variety 
 of subject. With imperial eye the sacred muse 
 looked out on flood and fi3d — on land and ocean — 
 on earth and sky — on the starry night and the sunlit 
 day — on the quiet pastures and the battle-field — on 
 the bowers of love and the bier of death — on the 
 solitary haunts of the crowded city — on the king's 
 palace and the shepherd's tent: she beheld infancy, 
 manhood, old age; grief, joy, hope, despair; time 
 and eternity — death and immortality — heaven and 
 hell: all forms she saw, all passions, all beings, 
 all things visible and invisible; all periods past, 
 present, and to come : these all her eye beheld and 
 scanned, and weaving her visions into song, she has 
 left to remotest generations the gathered treasures 
 of her universal poesy. 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 183 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HEBREW POETRY— CONTINUED. 
 
 With regard to the forms of poetry, it must be 
 confessed that there is not the same variety among 
 the Hebrews as is to be found among the Greeks, 
 the Eomans, and even the nations of India. For 
 while the epic and the drama, the two highest 
 styles so far as mere art is concerned, were culti- 
 vated successfully by these, among the Israelites we 
 find only their germs or first rudiments. But as 
 we shall see, this might arise from other causes 
 than the want of the requisite literary cultivation. 
 Indeed, we can not look upon the attempts which 
 have been made to find the regular epic and drama 
 in the Hebrew poetry otherwise than as betraying 
 the want of a just appreciation of its true character. 
 
 An epic poem requires an heroic age sufficiently 
 remote to enable the poet to found upon its tradi- 
 tions, which by his time have fallen into that degree 
 of obscurity which leaves him at full liberty to mix 
 poetic fable with historical facts. While it thus 
 allows the poet to adorn his subject by means of 
 fiction, antiquity is also favorable to those high and 
 august ideas which epic poetry is designed to raise, 
 since it tends to aggrandize, in our imagination, 
 
184 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 both persons and events. If the epoist chooses his 
 subject within any period of history with which we 
 are intimately acquainted, he will either be wanting 
 in grandeur, or appear extravagant. We have an 
 instance of this in [Lucan] and Voltaire, who have 
 both unwisely attempted to bring the epic muse 
 within the verge of real and authenticated history. 
 The former, in his Pharsalia, by confining himself 
 to strict historical truth, has rendered his story 
 jejune; while the latter, in his Henriade, asserting 
 more liberty, has mingled the true and the fictitious 
 in a manner which is utterly incongruous and gro- 
 tesque. Homer, it is true, selected a subject which 
 was not so very remote from his own times, for he 
 lived, as is generally believed, only two or three 
 centuries after the Trojan war. But at that early 
 age, through the want of written records, tradition 
 would more rapidly fall into the degree of obscurity 
 most proper for epic poetry. 
 
 Let us now advert to the Hebrew history, from 
 which, of course, whatever is historical in Hebrew 
 poetry had to be taken. We shall not find that 
 history wanting in an heroic age; for such unques- 
 tionably was the patriarchal age; such also was that 
 of the judges; and such, in its earlier period, that 
 of the monarchy. Not in these epochs of Hebrew 
 history were wanting the elements for epic song. 
 Heroic deeds worthy to be immortalized — wonderful 
 events rising into the miraculous — a pilgrim march 
 of forty years through the sterile wilderness — the 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 185 
 
 tread, the toils, the havoc of war, when a single 
 people, aided by Heaven, overthrew the multitudin- 
 ous hosts of Philistia, Moab, Bashan, Media, and 
 Canaan — the foundations of a great nation laid 
 amid marvels of human prowess and portents from 
 heaven — the establishment of a worship which to a 
 gorgeous ritual united a pure faith, and which, ere 
 it could yet boast the most magnificent Temple ever 
 reared to religion, was imposing in its simple taber- 
 nacle of curtains — a chivalry which raised herdsmen 
 into heroes, made tender youths vie with long- 
 trained veterans, and taught gentle maidens, laying 
 aside the timbrel, to seize the sword, forgetful of 
 their weakness in avenging their country's wrongs. 
 If the epic muse essays to sing of heroism, here 
 were heroes — if to recite some illustrious enterprise, 
 here were many such — if with high sentiments to 
 warm our hearts, here were the very highest — if by 
 crowning virtuous characters with her immortal 
 verse, to excite our admiration and provoke us to 
 imitate them, here were characters worthy to be 
 thus crowned — if beside the altar to consecrate song 
 by the solemnities of devotion, here was the purest 
 altar and here the noblest fane. 
 
 How then, with her history so full of the heroic 
 element, has Palestine no epic? Is the reason why 
 she can boast no Iliad that she gave birth to no 
 Homer? If this was the case, then we shall have 
 to admit that her bards were unequal to the highest 
 
 form of poetry. But we take the reason to have 
 ^ ^ 16 
 
186 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 been, not any weakness in their poetic genius, but 
 rather that, guided by its correct intuitions, they 
 perceived that their national history was not suit- 
 able for the epos. There was too much of truth 
 and reality in its heroic age to admit of poetic fic- 
 tion. Moses, the historian and also poet, might 
 justly claim to have written a prose epic; but it 
 must be by the poet of another land that the rich 
 materials which the Pentateuch supplies were to be 
 woven into poetic fictions. The son of Amram lived 
 too near the realities, was too much an actor in the 
 most remarkable of them, for himself to have chron- 
 icled them in epic song. The same thing might be 
 said of David, Israel's second great poet, with refer- 
 ence to its third heroic age — the early period of the 
 monarchy. Nor might Palestine's epic be written 
 by any of its later poets; for the wonderful events 
 which made up its earlier history being preserved 
 in written records, did not, like the early histories 
 of other nations, assume the legendary form; nor 
 did it degenerate into mythology, or pass from the 
 truthfulness which was its essenc^e; but retained 
 through all periods its character of earnest, lofty, 
 and impressive reality. Instead, therefore, of the 
 circumstance of Hebrew poetry containing no epic 
 being taken as an indication that the Hebrew poets 
 were unequal to this highest form of poetry, it 
 ought rather to be received as evidence that they 
 had the just appreciation of the conditions under 
 which it is proper for the poet to attempt this de- 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 187 
 
 partment of his art. They found no earlier history 
 of other lands worthy of epic commemoration; and 
 the history of their own land was too grand a 
 reality to be mixed with fiction. Yet must they 
 have been conscious, that though not in form, yet 
 in spirit, their poetry and often their prose was 
 highly epical; and mayhap at times in one of those 
 visions which genius, with its forecasting glances, 
 has of distant futurities, they would surmise that 
 some great poet, born in another clime, might yet 
 turn to their pages to seek for the materials out of 
 which to form the foundation, and in no small 
 measure the fabric of his sacred epic. Such, at all 
 events, has proved to be the case. And so long as 
 the Paradise Lost survives, besides being a monu- 
 ment of our Milton's genias, it will equally be a 
 proof that though Moses wrote no epic poem, his 
 Pentateuch presents the richest materials for one. 
 
 In the New Testament, also, Milton found mate- 
 rials for the epic; and the subject which he has 
 selected for his "Paradise Regained" might be 
 taken as a confirmation of our statement that, by 
 the peculiarities of their national history, the sacred 
 poets felt themselves shut out from epic song. The 
 question which Milton had to decide was, which 
 part of the Savior's life was it best to select as that 
 in which paradise was regained. Some have been 
 of opinion that he should have taken the crucifix- 
 ion, which was the crowning and decisive event in 
 our Lord's history, and where the poet would have 
 
188 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 had a much wider field than in the temptation. 
 But Milton had a truer perception of the conditions 
 of the epos. The crucifixion is narrated in full de- 
 tail by the four Evangelists; if Milton had modi- 
 fied, or in any way altered their narrative, he would 
 have shocked the religious sense of all Christians; 
 yet the structure of an epic poem would often re- 
 quire that he should so modify them. With a fine 
 sense of this difiiculty, he chose the narrow basis 
 of the temptation in the wilderness, because the 
 whole had been wrapped up by Scripture in* a few 
 obscure abstractions, which the poet could expand 
 into epical pictures without ofi'ense to the nicest 
 religious scruple. 
 
 None of the Hebrew poets can be said to be 
 dramatists in the sense in which we would apply 
 that term to Euripides or Shakspeare. There is no 
 comedy, of course, in the sacred volume; but neither 
 is there formal tragedy. This absence of the drama, 
 we apprehend, was not owing to a want of the 
 requisite literary cultivation, but is rather to be 
 accounted for by the religious earnestness of the 
 Hebrews; the solemnity of the subjects with which 
 they had to do in their literary productions, and 
 the vivid reality with which even the most primi- 
 tive events in their national history continued to 
 abide in the memory of the people. Like the epic, 
 though not i 1 eqval degree, the drama affects an- 
 tiquity; at least it prefers to retire behind the 
 fresh footprints of more recent history, because 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 189 
 
 there it can lead us along the dimmer and more 
 winding by-paths of tradition, which, as the foster- 
 mother of fiction, prepares materials for the poet's 
 hand, and will not witness against him, when he 
 gives them a still more fictitious form. A legend- 
 ary history, with its outline of facts which the poet's 
 fancy can fill up, is essential to the drama. But 
 a legendary history was wanting to the Hebrews. 
 Their sacred books so preserved the national chron- 
 icles, that, after the lapse of centuries, any incidents 
 which their poets could have dramatized had all 
 the fresh vividness of cotemporaneous events. And 
 this we take to be the true cause of the absence of 
 the formal drama in Hebrew poetry. Yet there are 
 not wanting abundant elements for the drama; nor 
 can we fail to trace its rudimentary outlines. In 
 the Song of Solomon several draviatis personce can 
 be discovered speaking and acting. In the book of 
 Job the dramatic element of the Hebrew muse is 
 developed in a still more marked form, and a more 
 decided degree. And we know not which to ad- 
 mire most in this admirable production, the great 
 boldness with which the poet has introduced the 
 machinery — the contrivances and even the plot of 
 the drama — or his strong self-restraint in confining 
 these within those limits which the imagination, 
 warming with its theme, might have overstepped, 
 unless chastened by deep religious feeling. 
 
 But if Hebrew poetry is wanting in the epical 
 and the dramatic, it is peculiarly rich in the lyrical. 
 
190 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 In its stricter acceptation lyric poetry is such as 
 is sung to the harp or lyre. It was greatly culti- 
 vated by the ancients, among whom Anacreon, Al- 
 cseus, Sappho, and Horace are distinguished as lyric 
 poets. In modern times the epithet has been trans- 
 ferred to all kinds of verse partaking in any degree 
 of the same nature as that to which it was first 
 applied. The predominance of feeling is what chiefly 
 distinguishes a lyric composition, the poet being 
 supposed either directly to express his own emo- 
 tions, or to clothe the emotions of others in appro- 
 priate expression. 
 
 The lyric poetry of the Hebrews embraced a 
 great variety of topics; from the shortest and most 
 fleeting effusion, to the loftiest subjects, treated in a 
 full and detailed manner. It was also composed for 
 a variety of occasions, as when some great national 
 event was to be commemorated; likewise for set 
 holiday seasons, when it formed a part of the 
 national worship. Not unfrequently it was used 
 by individual worshipers on presenting their thank- 
 offerings; nor alone within the precincts of the 
 Temple, but in the palace and the shepherd's tent, 
 on the battle-field, among the palm-groves and the 
 pasture-fields, was heard the Hebrew lyre; for 
 whatever the occasion, the Hebrews were a people 
 whose emotions seemed to find spontaneous utter- 
 ance in song. The lyric music of Palestine ran 
 equally through all the moods of the human soul, 
 nothing being too lowly, too deep, or too high for 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 191 
 
 it. Softly and sweetly it could sing of tlie benigu 
 effects of brotherly love; with burning raptures, yet 
 less vehement than Sappho's, it has given expres- 
 sion to the lover's passion. It uttered its wail over 
 the bier of death, and threw its graceful imagery 
 over the nuptial couch. It lisped in numbers for 
 the children, and poured forth its divine philosophy 
 for the sage. It told how the horse and the Egyp- 
 tian rider were sunk in the depth of the sea; and 
 with plaintive penitence confessed the frequent back- 
 slidings of God's favored people. It lingered round 
 the roses of Sharon, with their fragrance to perfume 
 the breath of music; and it soared, as on eagle 
 wing, into the bights of the sky, to borrow luster 
 from its orbs. 
 
 Of the several species of the lyric, the most com- 
 mon were the ''Hymn," or ''Psalm of Praise," and 
 the "Dirge," or "Song of Sorrow." 
 
 Of the hymn, or ode, it is needless to give exam- 
 ples; the reader has only to turn up the Hebrew 
 Psalter, where he will find abundance of both kinds 
 of this composition — that which is sometimes called 
 the less ode, which is characterized by sweetness 
 and ease; and that also which is known as the 
 greater ode, whose characteristics are sublimity, 
 rapture, and quickness of transition. The ode, or 
 hymn of praise, had its origin in victory, deliver- 
 ance, the reception of bounties, and generally those 
 happy events and auspicious occasions which excited 
 the soul to joy and gladness, and were celebrated 
 
192 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 with music, often accompanied with dancing, in the 
 public assemblies of the people, or after a more 
 solemn manner in the sacred courts of the Temple. 
 The very peculiar history of the Hebrew nation — 
 their notable deliverances, as in their exodus from 
 Egypt ; their frequent victories ; the manifold divine 
 favors bestowed upon their land; their rare social 
 and ecclesiastical privileges; the brilliance of their 
 iearly monarchy; their illustrious roll of heroes, of 
 prophets, and princes, furnished abundant materials 
 for the lyric hymn, which broke out so frequently 
 in pseans of victory and thanksgiving, both in the 
 tents of Israel and in her Temple and her palaces. 
 Of elegiac poetry many very beautiful specimens 
 occur in the Scriptures. David's lament over Saul 
 and Jonathan is so perfect an example of the elegy 
 that I can not refrain from quoting it in full: 
 
 " The gazelle, Israel, has been cut down on thy hights ; 
 How are thy mighty fallen 1 
 
 Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, 
 Lest the daughters of. the Philistines rejoice, 
 Lest the daughters of the uncircumciscd exult. 
 
 Hills of Gilboa, no dew nor rain come upon your devoted fields I 
 For there is stained the heroes' bow, 
 Saul's bow never anointed with oil. 
 
 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, 
 The bow of Jonathan turned not back. 
 And the sword of Saul came not idly home. 
 
 Saul and Jonathan ! lovely and pleasant in life 1 
 And in death ye are not divided ; 
 Swifter than eagles, 8tron;;er than lions » 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 193 
 
 Ye daughters of Israel ! weep for Saul ; 
 
 He clothed you delicately in purple, 
 
 He put ornaments of gold on your apparel. 
 
 How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the hattle 1 
 Jonathan, slain in thy high places 1 
 
 I am distressed for thee, brother Jonathan ! 
 Very pleasant wast thou to me ; 
 Wonderful was thy love, more than the love of woman. 
 
 How are the mighty fallen. 
 
 And the weapons of war perished !" 
 
 Pope's elegy on an unfortunate lady has been 
 justly admired, and a still higher praise has been 
 bestowed on Gray's elegy ; but we venture to claim 
 for David's lament an incomparable superiority over 
 either of these, excellent as they confessedly are. 
 They will not once compare with it in natural meta- 
 phor, in vehemence of emotion, in tenderness of 
 sorrow, or in simple beauty of expression. They 
 want that occasional ruggedness which marks the 
 language of deep grief; they run on too smoothly 
 for its choked utterances; do not alternate suffi- 
 ciently between rapidity and repose, with its vary- 
 ing moods; and are without the freshness of a 
 sorrow newly steeped in tears. The flowers which 
 Pope strews upon the bier of unfortunate beauty, 
 instead of being dropped as from a trembling hand, 
 are artistically disposed after the manner of a deco- 
 rator. The polished stanzas of Gray, in place of 
 drenching tears, are spangled with metaphors which 
 look too much like gems set by a lapidary. With 
 the English poets there is an excess of fancy, and a 
 
194 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 great deal too mucli of art; whereas the Hebrew 
 bard, as befits the elegiac muse, is all feeling and 
 nature. Several of the Psalms, composed on occa- 
 sions of distress and mourning, are in the elegiac 
 style. The forty-second Psalm, in particular, is in 
 the highest degree tender and plaintive, presenting 
 us with what may be termed a spiritual elegy, when, 
 in dirge-like strain, a forlorn soul laments its being 
 denied access to God in his sanctuary. 
 
 But chief among the Hebrew elegists is Jeremiah. 
 His Lamentations present the most regular and per- 
 fect elegiac composition. As the prophet mourns 
 over the destruction of the Temple and the holy 
 city, and the overthrow of the whole State, nothing 
 could exceed for dirge-like grandeur, his melan- 
 choly strains; and the images which he assembles 
 are of the most affecting description. Put together 
 and united in one book, executed with consummate 
 skill, yet natural, and unrestrained as is the voice 
 of sorrow, these Lamentations present an altogether 
 unique specimen of writing, which indeed could have 
 had its birth no where but in a Hebrew soul; and 
 could have been poured forth over no other land than 
 that of Israel. Only on the fall and ruin of Jerusa- 
 lem could sorrow have raised these so sad wailings, 
 or patriotism have shed these so melancholy tears. 
 The great grief of the prophet is justified by its 
 cause. The mind of Jeremiah was of a soft and 
 delicate texture; by nature he was mild and retir- 
 ing, highly susceptible and sensitive, especially to 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 195 
 
 sorrowful emotions. Such a one, under the influence 
 of divine energy, was peculiarly fitted to wake the 
 solemn harp to the dirges of sorrow and lament- 
 ation. The strength of his anguish makes it sub- 
 lime. His poetry has all the majesty of a sorrow 
 which will not be comforted, yet it withdraws not 
 into austere seclusion, but moved by an irrepressible 
 sympathy with the miserable, it finds utterance in 
 the most touching descriptions of their condition. 
 His is not a selfish grief, which weeps merely to fill 
 its own bitterness with tears; but moved by pity, 
 he exhibits the objects of his song as objects of sym- 
 pathy, and founds his expostulations on the miseries 
 which he exhibits. His book of Lamentations is an 
 astonishing exhibition of his power to accumulate 
 images of sorrow. Through this series of elegies 
 one object only is present to his muse — the expres- 
 sion of grief for the forlorn condition of his country ; 
 and yet he so shifts the lights and shadows, has 
 such a diversity of figures, that not only are his 
 mournful strains not felt to be tedious reiterations, 
 but the reader is captivated by the plaintive melan- 
 choly which pervades the whole. 
 
 Others of the Hebrew poets have left us speci- 
 mens of the elegy, which though briefer than Jere- 
 miah's, are admirable of their kind. With what 
 dirge-like grandeur David has sorrowed over the 
 misfortunes of Israel, as' in Ps. xliv, Ix, Ixxiii ! So also 
 have Ezek., xxvii, xxxii, and Is. i, xxi, mourned over 
 the deser^ration or the destruction of the holy city. 
 
19G LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Of didactic poetry we have a splendid specimen 
 in the Book of Proverbs, where the poet tears away 
 the tinsel mask, and brands the uncovered brow of 
 Vice as with a searing iron, while he adorns Virtue 
 with her own pure loveliness, and strings upon her 
 virgin robes the Oriental pearls of Eastern poetry; 
 with a satire two-edged and keen are mingled the 
 grave sagacity of the sage, the elegance of the 
 finished scholar, the profound maxims of the phi- 
 losopher, and reflections on human life and charac- 
 ters, which show the accurate observer and astutious 
 moralist. The Book of Ecclesiastes, by the same 
 author, is another example of the didactic species 
 of poetry. In this remarkable piece, the satire of 
 the poet seems for a time to indulge itself in burn- 
 ing scorn and biting sarcasm: flinging withered 
 leaves on the footsteps of Summer, strewing the 
 path of memory with ashes, and closing the vista of 
 hope with gloom; but ere long the satirist is for- 
 gotten in the sage, whose more genial utterances 
 fall like reviving showers on the experiences which 
 satire with its hot breath had scorched and blight- 
 ed, when all is not left to seem a wilderness, but 
 one spot at least is spared, where, as in a bower of 
 beauty and peace and pleasure. Virtue can dwell with 
 Hope, serene and secure. Hence the effect which 
 the first portion of this poem might produce on 
 some minds, by fostering a miserable or mocking 
 cynicism, is admirably counteracted in the closing 
 portions; and the entire piece, by the poet's felici- 
 
HEBREW POETRY. 19T 
 
 tous use of contrast, forms one of the noblest speci- 
 mens of a didactic poem. 
 
 Pastoral poetry, as miglit be expected from the 
 pastoral habits of the Israelites, is very plentiful in 
 their poetical books; and their sweet singer, having 
 himself, in his youth, tended the flocks, did not 
 when he had reached his regal estate forget to 
 touch his harp to pastoral strains, as witness espe- 
 cially the 23d Psalm. The Book of Euth is an ex- 
 quisite bit of rural description — a charming Idyllian 
 picture throughout. 
 
 I could willingly linger with the sacred poets, in 
 an attempt to give a critical analysis of their sev- 
 eral styles and methods, and to institute a compari- 
 son between them and the poets of other lands. 
 But besides my conscious inability to do justice to 
 such a task, another consideration restrains me. 
 This is a branch of sacred literature which has been 
 largely treated by abler pens ; I shall therefore con- 
 tent myself with referring the reader who wishes 
 for full information to such writers as Lowth, 
 Ewald, Herder, Noyes, and Jebb; while those who 
 have not leisure to peruse these erudite works will 
 find the subject treated in a more popular form, yet 
 with great acumen and eloquence, in Gilfillan's 
 "Bards of the Bible." 
 
198 LITERAKY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL IN THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 After what has been said under the head of the 
 ''Picturesque," I do not know that I have any- 
 thing more to add respecting the style and outward 
 structure of the sacred histories. In their method 
 and design there are certain peculiarities which 
 merit a few observations. 
 
 The question, What is history? like the question, 
 What is poetry? has given rise to a good deal of 
 discussion, which repeated attempts at definition can 
 hardly be said to have settled. That history has a 
 higher function than simply to furnish a bare regis- 
 ter of events, or a book of annals, or a chrono- 
 logical table, is now universally admitted. On facts 
 every veracious history of course is founded; but if 
 there be only these, then you have merely the 
 bones, or at best the bones and the flesh, while the 
 spirit is wanting. What then is that vital principle 
 by which the historian shall animate the materials 
 of past ages? Some have sought for it in the vivac- 
 ity which can be imparted to a narrative by pictur- 
 esque description and artistic grouping. Others 
 have sought in philosophy the principle which 
 should impart life to their labors, with their narra- 
 
THE HISTORICAL IN THE SCRIPTURES. 199 
 
 live of events having interwoven instructive lessons, 
 political and philosophical truths, and enlarged views 
 of human nature and social progress. That the em- 
 bellishments of literature and the expositions of phi- 
 losophy communicate a measure of life to history we 
 readily admit, but we can not think that its real life 
 has to be infused into it from extraneous sources, 
 or by mechanical aids. We believe it to have 
 life in itself — an inborn vitality — a spirit of its own 
 which, if the historian shall seize it, will impart to 
 his pages the warm breath which it breathes. A 
 history which is only vivified by the aids of litera- 
 ture and philosophy does not appear to us to resemble 
 a dead body while under the action of the galvanic 
 current: there is the movement of the limbs, but it 
 is after all the spasms of death; the mouth opens, 
 but there is no living voice; the eyelids lift, but 
 vision is not there. 
 
 What, then, if not literature or philosophy, is the 
 spirit, the intelligence, the life of past ages? We 
 reply, ''It is religion." The life of history is God; 
 and only in so far as he is acknowledged and pro- 
 claimed in the events which are narrated shall these 
 events be living history. 
 
 "Do not those revolutions," asks D'Aubigne, 
 *' which hurl kings from their thrones, and precipi- 
 tate whole nations to the dust — do not those wide- 
 spread ruins which the traveler meets with among 
 the sands of the desert — do not those majestic relics 
 which the field of humanity presents to our view — 
 
200 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 do they not all proclaim aloud a God in history? 
 Gibbon, seated among the ruins of the capitol, and 
 contemplating its august remains, owned the inter- 
 vention of a superior destiny. He saw it, he felt it; 
 in vain would he avert his eyes. That shadow of a 
 mysterious power started from behind every broken 
 pillar; and he conceived the design of describing its 
 influence in the history of the disorganization, de- 
 cline, and corruption of that Eoman dominion 
 which had enslaved the world. Shall not we dis- 
 cern amid the great ruins of humanity that Al- 
 mighty Hand, which a man of noble genius — one 
 who had never bent the knee to Christ — perceived 
 amid the scattered fragments of the monuments of 
 Eomulus, the sculptured marbles of Aurelius, the 
 busts of Cicero and Virgil, the statues of Csesar 
 and Augustus, Pompey's horses, and the trophies 
 of Trajan, and shall we not confess it to be the 
 hand of God?" 
 
 If, then, God is the life of history, of all histories 
 that which we find in the sacred Scriptures has the 
 most life. Every page is vitalized; for on every 
 page the historian constantly keeps in view a per- 
 sonal God, and a special Providence. A high au- 
 thority has said, "History is philosophy teaching 
 by example." The Scripture histories suggest a 
 loftier aphorism — history is Providence teaching by 
 example. 
 
 But the sacred historians present God in history 
 not merely to a greater extent than profane histori- 
 
THE HISTORICAL IN THE SCRIPTURES. 201 
 
 ans are wont to do, but in a sense altogether pecu- 
 liar to themselves. Every true historian, while 
 reciting the actions of men and of nations; while 
 tracing the vicissitudes of empires; while memor- 
 izing the conflicts and collisions out of which, as 
 with violent throes, peace and progress have been 
 born; and while following the footsteps of those 
 great men who, springing from society at their 
 appointed epochs, have communicated a fresh im- 
 pulse to their generation, which, passing down the 
 channel ' of centuries, exerts an influence on the 
 destiny of the race; while doing this, the true his- 
 torian will strive to keep before his own mind, and 
 the minds of his readers, that in all these God is 
 ever present; that, whether it be nations or indi- 
 viduals, the conflicts of war or the arts of peace, 
 the rise or the fall of kingdoms, a single generation 
 or many successive generations of men, God's foot- 
 prints may be traced, and the working of his hand 
 be seen, on the vast theater where all, though few 
 of them may wot of it, are the instruments by 
 which his great designs are being accomplished. 
 Every true historian, I say, will do this. But the 
 sacred historians do more than this. For it has 
 fallen to them not merely to proclaim a Divine 
 Providence in history, when God acts through sub- 
 ordinate agents, each, as used by him, performing 
 their several acts in the grand drama, but also to 
 record the immediate operations of God, when, dis- 
 pensing with subordinate instrumentalities, he has 
 
202 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 made bare his arm in the sight of all the nations. 
 In ordinary history, though present, God is unseen. 
 In the Bible history he is not only present, but his 
 very voice is heard; his footprints are traceable, 
 even as when a man walketh on the sand; the 
 mantle of second causes folded back, his hand is 
 visible in its naked majesty and power; across tho 
 historic stage he is seen to move, himself the actor 
 in the marvelous scene. In a word, the sacred his- 
 tory is a record of miracles; and in this respect it 
 stands alone. Only to it has been permitted to 
 enter the region of the supernatural, and so to un- 
 cover the Divine phenomena that the reader is more 
 than made to feel, for he doth in truth see, that 
 this is the finger of God. That an awful grandeur 
 should surround such a history is only what was to 
 be expected. But how should we have been pre- 
 pared, till the history itself presented it, to find so 
 great a simplicity in the record of the miraculous? 
 Compare a battle-scene, as described by Thucydides 
 in his account of the war of the Peloponnesians and 
 Athenians, where it was only host that encountered 
 host, with a battle-scene in the wars of Israel, when 
 it w^as the artillery of heaven — the hailstones hurled, 
 and the bolted lightning flashed directly from Jeho- 
 vah's hand — that routed the foe; how elaborate and 
 highly worked the former, how simply and artlessly 
 narrated is the latter! 
 
 Another characteristic of the sacred histories is 
 the unity of direction in which the several portions 
 
THE HISTORICAL IN THE SCRIPTURES. 203 
 
 or fragments point. Here are separate historical 
 pieces, written by different hands, at wide intervals, 
 and under very diverse circumstances; yet are they 
 like so many converging lines of light making for 
 their focal point. No matter what may be the 
 historian's own epoch, or the local circumstances 
 which determine his stand-point; he writes with his 
 eye ever upon one object — the manifestation of God 
 in the redemption of the race. Hence it happens, 
 what we shall find in no other literature, that some 
 thirty historical pieces, each but fragmentary, and 
 covering many centuries, when put together, instead 
 of a mere fasciculus, form a continuous volume, 
 whose several parts fit in and harmonize as thor- 
 oughly as if one pen had written the whole. Or 
 let us say, rather, that so great a unity in diversity 
 can only be accounted for on the admission that it 
 is the work of one superintending mind — even his 
 who is the Father of the ages, and who seeth the 
 end from the beginning. 
 
 A feature in the Biblical histories, which can not 
 fail to strike one, is that events which the profane 
 historian, if noticing them at all, would have barely 
 recorded, are given with much minuteness; while 
 other events, which the profane historian would 
 have minutely chronicled, are dispatched in the 
 briefest notice. The explanation of this will be 
 found in the design of the Biblical history, which 
 was to develop God's special providence in the evo- 
 lution of a scheme of remedial grace. This the in- 
 
204 LITERAET CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 spired historian has constantly in his view, so that 
 he dwells on whatsoever event, be it great or small, 
 which at the time reflected most directly upon it. 
 And how marvelously, by this means, have the sa- 
 cred historians illustrated their great theme, while, 
 in a literary point of view, their method gives a 
 singularly-pleasing variety to their pages. For in 
 the progress of the narrative, which, opening with 
 an account of the creation, unfolds itself in the 
 grand vicissitudes of nations, and going forth from 
 Palestine as a center, embraces the entire ancient 
 world, we are ever meeting, interspersed with great 
 historical events, charming episodes of domestic life 
 and snatches of biography. While there is being 
 exhibited to us, on the vast theater of the world, 
 where kingdoms are seen to rise and fall, a special 
 providence, suddenly we are introduced to some 
 quiet nook of home-life, that there, as well, we may 
 behold the finger of God; so that never, in any 
 other history, has it been so vividly illustrated, that 
 the Great Ruler of the universe worketh out his 
 plans alike in the great and the small. 
 
 The Hebrew nation, with whose history so large 
 a portion of the historical Scripture is taken up, 
 has been represented by Voltaire as an obscure 
 Syrian tribe; yet that tribe has exercised an amaz- 
 ing influence over the destinies of mankind — over 
 all the feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and deeds of 
 men, even to the most remote corners of the earth. 
 What about that people was there so peculiar as to 
 
THE HISTORICAL IN THE SCRIPTURES. 205 
 
 account for this fact? Wherein did it differ from 
 the other nations of antiquity, that while their 
 thoughts, feelings, beliefs, have become extinct, hav- 
 ing left, as the fossil races on the rocks, merely 
 their dead remains, the thoughts, feelings, and be- 
 liefs of the ancient Hebrews have an existence, a 
 life, and a potential influence to this present time? 
 The peculiarity of the Jewish nation was this — that 
 they alone were a people educated by a revelation. 
 Not the least interesting and instructive aspect of 
 their history comes out when we view it in this 
 light, since it exhibits by what means, and after 
 what method, God himself educated and disciplined 
 a nation, so that it might fulfill the part which he. 
 intended it to do, in the education of the race at 
 large. 
 
 To unfold this phase of the Hebrew history would 
 lead us into a question which our limits will not 
 allow us to present with the details necessary to its 
 right elucidation. It is a question, however, which 
 well merits the consideration alike of the philoso- 
 pher and the theologian. The reader who has the 
 wish to prosecute it will find it treated with singu- 
 lar ability in the dissertation on " Moral and Meta- 
 physical Philosophy" in the Encydopcedia Metro- 
 politana. 
 
 That the Bible history is the most ancient of alL 
 histories, is a fact universally known. But in what 
 sense is it the most ancient? Herodotus, the earli- 
 
206 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 est profane historian extant, completed his history 
 in the year B. C. 444 ; Moses had completed the Pen- 
 tateuch in the year B. C. 1451, so that he preceded 
 Herodotus by upward of a thousand years. In this 
 sense then the Bible history is the most ancient, 
 that it was the first written. But it is also the 
 most ancient as to its contents. Herodotus carries 
 his history back to somewhat over 700 years before 
 the Christian era; Moses carries his back 4000 
 years before that era, for he commences with an 
 account of the creation of the earth; gives us the 
 name, and the names of the children, of the first 
 created man; traces down to his own times, in the 
 direct line of genealogical descent, the birth, the 
 life, and the death of the gray fathers of the world. 
 On his pages we have the sole monument of pri- 
 meval history; for where tradition had lost its 
 way, finding no footprints on the sands of ancient 
 time, Moses has laid bare the footsteps of living 
 men — even of that man who first opened his eyes 
 upon the infant earth. 
 
 In striking contrast with the fact that it is the 
 most ancient, place the fact that the Scripture his- 
 tory is also the most modern of histories. For 
 events which have yet to be written by the histo- 
 rian, and which coul<l not have a place on his pages, 
 seeing they have not yet happened, will be found 
 already narrated by the sacred historians. If to 
 them it was given to restore the past, it was also 
 permitted unto them to anticipate the future. They 
 
THE HISTORICAL IN THE SCRIPTURES. 207 
 
 have described the full round circle of history. On 
 the one side it touches the beginning, on the other 
 the end of time. 
 
 Let us for a moment ponder the value of the pro- 
 phetic element in the Biblical history. 
 
 And first, it is a voucher for the divinity of that 
 book which contains the history. With regard to 
 miracles as an evidence of Christianity, it must be 
 confessed that so far they have a diminishing value. 
 For, removed by centuries from the date of their 
 performance, we can scarcely be said to be in so 
 favorable a position to feel their full force, as those 
 were who saw them wrought, or who received an 
 account of them from eye-witnesses. No doubt test- 
 imony may be a sufficient voucher, however distant 
 the event which it has transmitted, still testimony 
 can not be said to increase in evidential value as 
 the channel lengthens through which it has to flow. 
 The evidence from miracles, therefore, though still 
 sufficient, may be said to be diminished; but, as if 
 to compensate for this, the evidence from prophecy 
 has an increasing force; for the older a prediction 
 is, just in proportion is it a more valuable testimony 
 when it has been fulfilled. 
 
 The infidel meets us with the taunt that the 
 Bible is so very old a book; but does he not per- 
 ceive how the taunt recoils upon himself? It is an 
 old book, the oldest extant by very many centuries; 
 and stamped with its own antiquity are many of the 
 predictions which it contains. They lie far back 
 
208 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 behind the longest conceivable range of human fore- 
 sight or conjecture. They separate, by the breadth 
 of centuries, the event from its first announcement. 
 Across that wide interval no human eye could have 
 caught the forecast shadows of the rise and fall of 
 empires yet to be founded; the building and ruin 
 of cities of which not one stone had yet been laid. 
 The Bible is ancient, and so are its prophecies. 
 Will then the infidel read the pages of the mod- 
 ern traveler who describes the present condition of 
 Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira; 
 and having read these then turn to the pages of 
 this so old book? 
 
 A Gibbon or a Volney, friends to Christianity 
 neither of them, have nevertheless become witnesses 
 to its truth. They could not describe what they 
 saw among the ruined cities of the East, without 
 repeating almost the identical words of the ancient 
 seers. In copying what the iron hand of time had 
 written on broken pillars and shattered friezes, on 
 tumbled masses of fallen masonry, and on sand- 
 mounds drifted from the desert, which had buried 
 beneath them the once magnificent stadium, the 
 gorgeous palace, and the stupendous temple, the 
 traveler has unwittingly transcribed the fulfillment 
 of many an ancient prediction. 
 
 Now let us view the two facts in combination. 
 The Scripture history is at once the most ancient 
 and the most modern of histories; and if we do not 
 mistake, we shall find here a very striking proof 
 
THE HISTORICAL IN THE SCRIPTURES. 209 
 
 of its authenticity. This history as to the remote 
 past has no cotemporary witness to vouch for its 
 credibility. It moves in its solitary track through 
 ancient centuries quite alone. If I ask for corrobo- 
 rative testimony, there is no voice so ancient to 
 bear witness unto its credibility; no other record so 
 archaic with which I may compare it. There are 
 no coeval echoes even, not a single cotemporary 
 tradition, to which this history can refer me for 
 testimony of its authenticity. Shall I be safe in 
 following it, in taking it as my guide? The reply 
 is this: A history which has been and is still being 
 proved authentic with reference to the future, where 
 it has shot ahead of all other histories, is entitled to 
 be credited as to the past, where it has ventured 
 farther back than any other history has gone. If 
 its chronicles of the future have been found correct, 
 then we say this is a voucher that its chronicles of 
 the past are also correct; and thus, in the absence 
 of other witnesses, it has become its own witness. 
 
 But here we must qualify our statement that the 
 Bible history as to the past is without cotempo- 
 rary corroboration. It has had long to wait for 
 the witnesses, but at length they have appeared. 
 Nineveh and Babylon were not without their 
 chroniclers — the Herodotuses and the Froissarts of 
 their day — who recorded the pageants of the palace, 
 the victories on the field of battle, and the triumph- 
 ant processions of the victors. But strange enough, 
 
 though these chronicles were wiitten on marble tab- 
 
 18 
 
210 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 lets and alabaster slabs, yet they were lost to tlie 
 world; while the Scripture histories, written on the 
 fragile papyrus or the perishable parchment, were 
 preserved. Had these former histories also been pre- 
 served, the friends of truth were ready to exclaim. 
 How striking the corroboration they might have 
 furnished of the truth of the Scripture history! 
 But the wish seemed vain. Three thousand years 
 had passed away since eye looked on the native 
 annals of Babylon or Nineveh; but the grave has 
 given up its dead. These buried cities have re- 
 turned from their tombs, and their rock-written 
 histories, which were hidden so long, and which 
 were believed to be lost forever, are disclosed. By 
 the labors of Botta and Layard, as explorers, the 
 long-hidden book of Nineveh's history has been ex- 
 humed; while by the learning of Professor Grote- 
 fend. Professor Lassen, and Sir Henry Kawlinson, 
 as interpreters, the characters with which the stone 
 leaves of that book are inscribed have been deci- 
 phered; and now we may be said to have the annals 
 of the Assyrian empire in our hands, and have only 
 to wait a more familiar knowledge of the cuneiform 
 writing, to possess a more detailed history of that 
 early people than we have of the Greeks and 
 Eomans, or even of the first aboriginals of our own 
 island. 
 
 And what is the bearing of the discovery and 
 deciphering of these long covered, but now un- 
 covered, antique tablets? It is to furnish, during 
 
THE HISTORICAL IN THE SCRIPTURES. 211 
 
 about a thousand years, a history which runs co- 
 temporaneously with the Scripture narrative; and 
 at whatever points these two histories come in 
 contact, the coincidence between the Ninevite mon- 
 uments and the Scripture records is such as incon- 
 testably to prove the genuineness and authenticity 
 of the latter. 
 
212 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE BIOGRAPHIES OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 With his usual profound sagacity, Dr. Chalmers 
 makes one of his incidental weighty sayings, which 
 shows how strongly he was impressed with the im- 
 portance of the study of the Scripture biographies 
 in their literary aspects: ''I have never entered 
 much on the study of Scripture characters, though 
 I doubt not much might be gathered this way, 
 both for the purpose of a moral influence on one's 
 own mind, and also so as to make out a dramatic 
 consistency in the statements given and the traits 
 exhibited of certain individuals, which would fur- 
 nish an internal evidence for the Bible." 
 
 The first thing which probably strikes a reader in 
 the Bible biographies is their exceeding life-likeness. 
 These portraits, so to call them, of the world's 
 ** gray fathers " are the merest outlines ; yet so bold 
 is the etching, that one is reminded of those studies 
 of heads by the old masters. So forcibly has the 
 individual expression been caught, that, if I might 
 say so, we recognize the features across the breadth 
 of thirty centuries. The reader may possibly have 
 seen hung on some household wall a portrait of an 
 anc stor in the family whom he had never seen; 
 
THE BIOGRAPHIES OF SCteTURB. 213 
 
 and yet, if it is a work of high art, there is about it 
 an individuality of expression, which somehow pro- 
 duces the conviction that it must be a correct like- 
 ness. Precisely do we thus feel in reading the brief 
 biographies of the Old Testament worthies. We 
 never saw the men — can not therefore compare their 
 portraitures with the originals; but so great is the 
 individuality in the former, that we are at once im- 
 pressed with the notion that they are correct repre- 
 sentations. And then so familiar and home-like are 
 the groupings, that one forgets for the time that 
 they are so far removed from our own times. Abra- 
 ham sitting at his tent door; Isaac going forth to 
 the fields at even- tide to meditate; old Jacob weep- 
 ing on the neck of his long-lost son; these might 
 be hung upon our walls as household pictures. "We 
 forget that they were the ancients of olden times, 
 the pilgrim citizens of a foreign land. In so fresh 
 an interest have their memories been preserved, 
 that they seem to be living still — not strangers, 
 but our own familiars. Now, this is surely the 
 highest achievement of the biographic art; and 
 unquestionably the sacred biographers have accom- 
 plished it. 
 
 It will perhaps be said that the pencil of the 
 painter has assisted us in figuring to our mind's 
 eye the features of a Moses, a David, an Elijah, or 
 a Samson. But would the painter's own conception 
 of the individualities of these ancient Hebrews have 
 been so vivid, or so impressively transferred to the 
 
214 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 canvas, if their biographies had been written by 
 less graphic pens? 
 
 Another striking feature in the Scripture biogra- 
 phies is their variety, or the great range of charac- 
 ter and condition which they present. You have the 
 hero, the patriot, the poet, the prophet, the priest, 
 the recluse, the politician, the prince, the plebeian, 
 the simple patriarch and the polished courtier — all 
 exhibited with the exactest individualization, but at 
 the same time with a comprehension which entirely 
 takes away the contractedness which so generally 
 disfigures what may be called class-biography. The 
 prophet is represented not merely as a prophet; nor 
 the poet merely as a poet ; nor the politician merely 
 as a politician; but each is delineated also in the 
 wider humanity which unites them with the uni- 
 versal brotherhood. 
 
 Another characteristic of the Scripture biogra- 
 phies is the solemn, we might say awful, grandeur 
 which surrounds these "holy men of old" as actors 
 in a divine drama. The great scheme of Provi- 
 dence, as it revolves its majestic cycles, brings them 
 into view, each at his appointed time, as men raised 
 up, specially chosen and endowed, to act their parts 
 in a history which evolves itself in miracles and 
 epic adventure. The Grecian or Roman mythology 
 would have apotheosized such men, and on the pages 
 of the poets they would have figured as demigods. 
 But though there shone around them a certain God- 
 ^ like glory, from their near access to him who alone 
 
THE BIOGRAPHIES OF SCRIPTURE. 215 
 
 is God, there is nothing approaching divine honor 
 paid to them in the Scriptures; but they are uni- 
 formly spoken of as men of like passions with our- 
 selves. ''I have said ye are gods, and all of you 
 are children of the Most High; but ye shall die 
 like men, and fall like one of the princes." The 
 moderation with which men of so heroic a stamp 
 are spoken of is in most striking contrast with the 
 mythic extravagance of ancient profane biography, 
 to which we might apply the language of the poet: 
 
 " I have no spur 
 To prick the sides of my intent, but only 
 Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, 
 And falls on th' other side." 
 
 If any where is to be found the true heroic in its 
 highest epic forms, we venture to say it is in the 
 Hebrew Scriptures, which, with so rare a modesty, 
 have memorized the most brilliant epochs and most 
 illustrious men that ever adorned the history of a 
 nation. Fallen, alas ! is that people now, who were 
 once the favored of Heaven; fallen from being a 
 nation of princes, to be wandering tribes of misers 
 and usurers; but the ancient history of the people 
 of God is brilliant with ''names which ascend far 
 back to those high times when the Divine Presence 
 shook the mercy-seat between the cherubim, and 
 which derive their splendor from no earthly prince, 
 but from the awful voice which bad"e their fathers 
 be nearest of the congregation to the vision. Such 
 were the princes of the house of Judah." 
 
216 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Another feature of the Bible biographies is their 
 extreme fidelity. Without exaggeration, either of 
 praise or of censure, an impartial pen has recorded 
 alike the virtues and the vices, what is to be imi- 
 tated and what avoided, in the lives of these men 
 of old. In this respect, among the ancients, the 
 sacred biographers are altogether singular. Nor is 
 the contrast much less if we compare them with 
 those modern memoirs, which so often betray either 
 the partiality of friendship or the bitterness of 
 hatred. How often do we find the memory of some 
 favorite hero garnished with fulsome panegyric, his 
 faults, even his vices, being palliated or apologized 
 for under soft names; while, if it is a memory 
 which the biographer wishes to blacken, no epithet 
 is thought too severe by which to proclaim some 
 trifling misdeed, and none too equivocal in which 
 to whisper the most shining action. When will 
 those who employ the biographic pen learn to take 
 for their exemplars the biographies in Scripture! 
 
 One other feature in these biographies which I 
 would notice, is what may be called their self- 
 evolved individualization of character. There is no 
 mistaking any one individual, for you see him as he 
 is. His qualities, for good or evil, stand out as if 
 chiseled on the living rock. You could detect his 
 exact idiosyncrasy among a thousand. Asked to 
 give an analysis of the character of Moses, or 
 David, or Peter, or Paul, you could have no man- 
 ner of difficulty in doing so. Now turn up one of 
 
THE BIOGRAPHIES OF SCRIPTURE. 217 
 
 the pages of our historians when some notable person- 
 age has died — the very same, be it noted, who has 
 figured in the historian's preceding chapters — and 
 you will generally find an attempt to summarize his 
 intellectual and moral characteristics; which sum- 
 mary not unfrequently ascribes to him qualities 
 which the historian's narrative of his actions had 
 utterly failed to suggest to your own mind. The 
 truth is, that, but for this analytic list of qualities 
 appended to their lives, you might close the book 
 without even a conjecture what the historian him- 
 self thought of his personages; and all you get from 
 the catalogue of virtues or vices is his estimate of 
 their character. How different from this is the 
 method of the sacred biographers! They never 
 treat you to a summing up of the character of their 
 personages; they do not need to do so; for they 
 have given so exact a characterization of each of 
 them in their narrative of his actions, that you 
 already perfectly know him. With them character- 
 ization is a form of self-portraiture. The individual 
 is made to act his own character. 
 
 The New Testament, if less rich in biographies 
 than the Old, contains one life — that of Christ — 
 which more than compensates the lack. The ques- 
 tion has often been asked, but never yet satisfac- 
 torily answered by the infidel or any one else, how 
 the life of Christ, so incomparably superior to the 
 finest creations of our greatest poets or romancists, 
 
 if a fiction, could have been conceived and executed 
 
 19 
 
218 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 by a few illiterate Jews? If ever a life was, this 
 assuredly is an original. It stands out unique in 
 the gallery of universal biography. And yet we 
 are asked to believe not merely that it is a historic 
 fiction, but that so rare an imagination as was 
 requisite to produce such a fiction was possessed by 
 a few Galilean fishers. Verily, next to the life 
 itself, this were the most marvelous of miracles. 
 
 I have already remarked on the moderation, 
 amounting even to modesty, with which the sacred 
 biographers speak of the renowned personages whose 
 lives they record. In no case is this more signally 
 exhibited than by the apostles, the biographers of 
 Jesus. Seldom do you meet with a panegyric from 
 themselves concerning him whom they loved so 
 affectionately, and so profoundly admired. It is 
 otherwise with the prophets, for the Savior not yet 
 having appeared, when his life would speak for 
 itself, they kindle expectation by anticipative eu- 
 logy. He is the rose of Sharon and the lily of the 
 valley, the chief among ten thousand and altogether 
 lovely. But when the Perfect One had come, what 
 need for this ? His life would be its own panegyric. 
 You read his eulogy while you read his biography. 
 
 The infidel points to the seeming contradictions 
 in the life of Christ as if they invalidated its truth- 
 fulness. But has it never occurred to him that 
 without these it could not possibly be true? for 
 how otherwise, we would ask, could the life of the 
 God-man have been written? It behooved both 
 
THE BIOGRAPHIES OF SCRIPTURE. 219 
 
 natures, the Divine and the human, to preserve their 
 proper attributes; each, as occasion called for it, 
 was to speak and act in its appropriate character; 
 and how could this be without apparent contradic- 
 tions? When the Divinity speaks, its fitting lan- 
 guage is, "I and my Father are one;" but what is 
 the humanity to say other than "My Father is 
 greater than I?" At Cana's bridal banquet the Son 
 of the Highest sits a guest, and at his creative 
 word the water reddens into wine; but when faint 
 and foot-sore with travel Mary's son arrives at 
 Jacob's well, he is fain to ask a cup of water from 
 a stranger woman. In yonder ship, tossed on the 
 storm-waves of Genesareth's lake, lies one asleep — 
 doubtless overcome by fatigue, for many were his 
 journey ings and frequent his night vigils; it is 
 Jesus the man, who sleeps so deep a slumber in his 
 weariness that even the bowlings of the tempest 
 fail to awake him; but now awoke by the cry of 
 his disciples, where is he whom slumber lately held 
 fast bound in its drowsy chain? The God looks - 
 out upon the storm, and at his imperial glance the 
 hurricane-winds hold their breath, and the wild 
 waves droop their surgy crests. These are seeming 
 contradictions, and we pray the reader specially to 
 mark that the sacred biographers never attempt to 
 reconcile or even to explain them. Now we venture 
 to assert that no impostor ever possessed the moral 
 qualities necessary for such a task. We much ques- 
 tion whether he would have ventured to pen such 
 
220 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 apparent contradictions, or if he had, certain we are 
 he would have attempted to reconcile them. No, 
 not to the fabulist belongs that bold reliance in the 
 majesty of truth, which sustained the Evangelists 
 in their task while writing the life of the God-man. 
 In the Davidic Psalms we have one of the most 
 remarkable pieces of autobiography ever penned. 
 The whole man is there, not only his outer, but also 
 his inner life. As the eye glances over these auto- 
 biographic hymns, a series of self-pictures, struck 
 off as it were by a process of mental photography, 
 seems to pass before us. Or shall we rather call 
 them a series of dissected views, for the painter or 
 the photographer give only the outward forms, but 
 David, like the anatomist, has laid bare what lies 
 beneath. On reading the autobiography of a great 
 modern poet, we felt very much as if we had been 
 standing at the threshold of some large temple, 
 whose dim lamps reflected phantasms along the 
 walls, the shadows but scarce the shapes of objects. 
 The reason of this we took to be that Goethe did 
 not know himself. We found ourselves admitted 
 only to so many of the poet's inner musings, while 
 a curtain seemed ever and anon to drop, concealing 
 from our eye, as mayhap it had done from his own, 
 the inmost secrets of the man. But with David 
 there is no disguise; his whole soul is laid open; 
 so that his hymns furnish what we venture to say 
 is not to be found in any other literature — a speci- 
 men of perfect autobiography. 
 
THE TWO STANDARDS OF LITERARY MERIT. 221 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE TWO STANDARDS OF LITERARY MERIT. 
 
 There are two tribunals at whicli every work of 
 literature or art must abide judgment; the one the 
 erudite criticism of the few, the other the opinion 
 of the many. With regard to the former, we shall 
 admit it to be the severer ordeal; but we have our 
 doubts whether the latter is not the more decisive. 
 Those who best understand the philosophy of criti- 
 cism are the readiest to confess that the verdict of 
 the ''communis sensics" does, in the long run, rule 
 the question of merit. It is not that the many 
 have studied the principles of taste, or the theory 
 of beauty, or the rules of criticism. And hence it 
 often happens that they can give no other reason 
 why a great picture, or a great poem, or a great 
 oration, pleases them, than simply that it does so. 
 Yet, in the end, their judgment is generally found 
 to be correct. Nor do we think the reason of this 
 is far to seek. Nature, the same which guided the 
 painter's pencil, filled the poet's eye, and touched 
 the lips of the orator, is also the instructress of the 
 multitude; so that it is her own responsive voice 
 which, through them, acknowledges the merits of 
 her own works. True art is a copyist of Nature, 
 
222 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OP THE BIBLB. 
 
 and the closer the imitation the more likely the 
 artist shall achieve two triumphs; on the one hand, 
 his fidelity to Nature will impart a measure of her 
 elevation and grandeur to his works; while, on the 
 other hand, they will reach downward among the 
 root-feelings, which are very much the same in all. 
 Hence, we believe, the reason why it happens that 
 in the main the verdict of the multitude on works of 
 real genius is correct. Nor may any author expect 
 his fame to be lasting who can not make his appeal 
 to this tribunal — that is, to the judgment of unso- 
 phisticated Nature. 
 
 We shall probably hear it said that the attention 
 of the multitude is apt to be seduced by tinsel and 
 glitter, and that their understandings may be con- 
 founded by indefinite and mysterious terms, while a 
 show of learning, of which they themselves are 
 consciously deficient, may impose upon their igno- 
 rance. But, notwithstanding, I am inclined to be- 
 lieve that in all countries the people are the best 
 judges of genuine eloquence. A frothy bombast 
 may please them more than one would wish; but 
 let a true orator in plain and simple language ad- 
 dress them, and they will be moved to the depths 
 of their nature. When he has so studied art as to 
 appear artless, and what may have cost him much 
 labor is poured forth with seeming spontaneousness, 
 the common people will hear him gladly, will sway 
 to his eloquence as the branches of the forest to the 
 rush of winds, and be infinitely more pleased with 
 
THE TWO STANDARDS OF LITERARY MERIT. 223 
 
 his natural ornaments than with any amount of 
 vitiated decoration. 
 
 It must surely have been in a fit of spleen the 
 great Koman lyrist allowed himself to pen the line: 
 
 " Odi profanum vulgus, et arceo." 
 
 A better insight into human nature was shown by 
 the celebrated French comedian, of whom it is re- 
 corded that he was accustomed to read his comedies 
 before performance to a favorite servant or house- 
 keeper, and when he perceived that the passages 
 which he intended to be humorous and laughable 
 had no effect upon her he altered them. The same 
 kind of principle may be observed in another re- 
 corded habit of his, that of requesting the actors to 
 bring their children to the rehearsal of a new piece, 
 that he might judge of the effect of particular pas- 
 sages by the natural emotions they raised in their 
 minds. In this Moliere showed a profound knowl- 
 edge of human nature, and of the philosophy of 
 criticism. 
 
 Now, what we have to say of the Bible, in view 
 of the two tribunals of opinion, is, that it has stood 
 before both with approbation. 
 
 It has abidden the ordeal of erudite criticism. 
 Our greatest scholars, who have given the grounds 
 of their judgment, which they have justified by 
 proof-specimens, have pronounced the very highest 
 eulogiums on the literary merits of the Bible. To 
 give even a tithe of the encomiums which our men 
 
224 LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of erudition have pronounced on this sacred classic, 
 would swell out our pages beyond what we can 
 afford. Perhaps we can not better summarize their 
 verdict than by quoting the language of Sir William 
 Jones, whose refined taste equaled his erudition, vast 
 as it was: "I have regularly and attentively read 
 these Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion that this 
 volume, independent of its Divine origin, contains 
 more sublimity and beauty, more pure morality, 
 more important history, and finer strains of poetry 
 and eloquence, than can be collected from all other 
 books, in whatever age or language they may have 
 been composed." To this I might add the testi- 
 mony of a very different witness, whose taste for 
 fine writing would seem to have overcome, for the 
 time at least, his prejudice against Christianity; 
 this other witness is Eousseau: '*I will confess to 
 you, further, that the majesty of the Scripture 
 strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the 
 Gospel hath its influence on my heart. Peruse the 
 works of our philosophers; with all their pomp of 
 diction, how mean, how contemptible, are they com- 
 pared with the Scripture ! Is it possible that a book 
 at once so simple and sublime should be merely the 
 work of man?" 
 
 But the Bible has also stood at the tribunal of 
 unlearned criticism. As was said of its Divine 
 Author, so of itself with equal truth may it be 
 affirmed, that the common people hear it gladly. 
 Posterity echoes antiquity in its praise; the voices 
 
THE TWO STANDARDS OF LITERARY MERIT. 225 
 
 of centuries have attested its popularity; childhood 
 has felt the spell of its matchless picturesqueness ; 
 and unlettered age has warmed at the touch of its 
 kindling poetry. 
 
 And yet how much has been done to shake the 
 confidence of the people in the literary merits of 
 the Bible! It has been criticised as by an ordeal 
 of fire. The shafts of ridicule, the arrows of scorn, 
 have been shot at it from a thousand quivers. It 
 has been branded as a dangerous book, laughed at 
 as a silly book, and despised as a weak book. The 
 wit has made it the butt of his jests, the cynic of 
 his snarls, the humorist of his bufibonery. If book 
 could be damaged in the eyes of the people by every 
 possible combination of hostile criticism, the Bible 
 is that book. But it has not proved so. It still 
 holds its place unshaken in the reverence and the 
 admiration of the multitude. The instinctive taste 
 of the common people has recognized its literary 
 beauties; their instinctive susceptibility has felt its 
 literary power; and their instinctive sense of jus- 
 tice has pronounced a just verdict upon its literary 
 merits. 
 
 Allusion has been made to the efibrts of the ene- 
 mies of truth to disparage the Bible in the opinion 
 of the common people. It is surely to be regretted 
 that the friends of truth have not been equally in- 
 dustrious to commend the literary merits of the 
 Bible by those means which would reach the 
 masses. Has any thing like justice been done to 
 
226 LrrERARY characteristics of the bible. 
 
 Biblical literature either in our elementary or 
 higher schools? Some of us can remember how, 
 in the former, we got long tasks from it, and had 
 to spell our way through ''polysyllabic chapters 
 and joyless genealogies." Had our teachers singled 
 out such passages as, by their simple beauties, are 
 calculated to impress even a youthful reader, and 
 made some attempt to point out those which might 
 be less obvious, we have a strong impression that 
 our school-boy associations and recollections of the 
 Bible would be less irksome and insipid. And with 
 reference to our higher schools, we can not help 
 being of opinion that, if occasionally the same pains 
 were taken to point out the literary beauties of a 
 chapter in Isaiah or Job, as is done to exhibit the 
 beauties of some passage from Addison or Milton, 
 the result would be in the highest degree beneficial 
 to the interests both of literature and religion. 
 
PART SECOND, 
 
 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Among the multifarious causes whicli have helped 
 to advance the progress of modern civilization, that 
 will be admitted to be one of the greatest of which 
 the three following facts may be affirmed: First, 
 that it has pioneered the arts and letters by as- 
 sisting their introduction into barbarous nations. 
 Second, that it has promoted the arts and letters by 
 assisting their advancement among civilized nations, 
 where they had already gained a footing. Third, 
 that it restored the arts and letters to Europe when 
 it had fallen back into martial barbarism, and re- 
 stored to Europe its intellectual vigor when it had 
 lapsed into an effeminating superstition. 
 
 What then has been at once the pioneer, the pro- 
 moter, and the restorer of literature and the arts? 
 It will be our object to show that the history of 
 modern civilization gives an explicit answer to this 
 question; and that its answer is — the Bible. 
 
 The mention of modern civilization in this connec- 
 tion suggests the instructive fact, how very few of 
 the nations of antiquity which emerged from a state 
 of barbarism have left any monuments of their 
 
 literature or their arts. The little which time has 
 
 229 
 
230 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 spared of the history of the bulk of ancient nations 
 is such as to occasion but small regret that oblivion 
 has blotted out the rest; for while the annals of 
 war and the calendar of crime are curtailed of some 
 of their chapters, the history of literature or of 
 philosophy has probably not lost a page. 
 
 We take it to be with nations as with individuals, 
 that to make a figure in the world and leave a 
 reputation for eminence, requires a certain innate 
 force of character combined with natural talent. 
 Hence we would conclude, that as from the want of 
 these the great mass of mankind pass away almost 
 unnoticed by their cotemporaries, and altogether 
 unknown to posterity; so from the lack of the social 
 capacity, or the aggregate natural talents, the great 
 bulk of ancient nations have failed to perpetuate a 
 reputation, except for their barbarities and their 
 crimes, a species of posthumous fame which it does 
 not require much genius to secure. 
 
 And if we might carry out the parallel somewhat 
 farther, we would observe, that as in the case of in- 
 dividuals whom Nature may have endowed with 
 superior parts, some have failed to reach distinction 
 from not being placed in circumstances favorable to 
 the cultivation of their peculiar gifts; so many 
 nations, which had in them the germs of greatness, 
 have missed becoming great, owing to adverse influ- 
 ences which nipped these germs in the bud. Though 
 true genius is known to have surmounted the great- 
 est difficulties by its own indomitable energy, yet 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 231 
 
 owing to poverty, to constitutional baslifulness, to 
 the want of patronage, or still more of sympathy 
 and appreciation, it doubtless will have happened 
 that "some mute, inglorious Milton," with the fires 
 of poetry in his soul, has sunk into the cold grave, 
 where the lamp which under happier conditions 
 might nob much longer have been flameless, is 
 quenched forever; and so we believe many an an- 
 cient nation might have been heard of with renown, 
 had not the disasters of its fate prematurely over- 
 taken it. 
 
 We would venture to carry out the parallel yet 
 another step. There are few difficulties in the pur- 
 suit of knowledge which the poor scholar finds 
 greater than the want of books. So with nations, 
 this wai\t may be reckoned among the causes which 
 have prevented many of them from attaining to 
 literary eminence; when deficient in the mental 
 vigor and originality which are requisite to produce 
 a native literature, they were also without the aid 
 which an imported literature would have afi'orded. 
 The Greeks seem to have been endowed by nature 
 with that rare force of natural genius, which enabled 
 them to strike out an original literature that was to 
 become a model to succeeding ages. The Eomans, 
 less richly endowed with inventive genius, would 
 probably never have ranked among classic nations, 
 if they had not profited by the literature of Greece. 
 
 If we take those nations which have been without 
 the Bible, we may classify them into three groups. 
 
232 LITERARY ACniEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 The first, represented by Greece, were those very 
 few which by the force of their native genius reared 
 for themselves a native literature. The second, rep- 
 resented by Borne, includes those nations, also few, 
 which, stimulated and assisted by a foreign litera- ' 
 ture, attained to literary distinction. The third, 
 including the great mass of ancient nations, presents 
 them as barely emerged from the darkness of bar- 
 barism, when they passed away without leaving a 
 trace of polite learning or the fine arts behind them. 
 How differently it might have fared with these had 
 they possessed the Bible, will perhaps appear when 
 we come to indicate the happier fate of modern 
 nations, once as barbarous, which enjoy this best of 
 all auxiliaries to civilization. 
 
 Before proceeding to illustrate the three great 
 facts into which I have summarized the literary 
 achievements of the Bible, it will be proper to take 
 a glance at the literature and the arts of those 
 nations which, though destitute of the sacred vol- 
 ume, have merited to be esteemed both literary and 
 artistic. 
 
 As representing classic antiquity I shall select 
 its most polished nation — Greece. No one will hesi- 
 tate to own, that the land "where burning Sappho 
 loved and sung;" where Demosthenes won his ever 
 immortal and still increasing fame as the prince 
 of orators; where were born Praxiteles, an acknowl- 
 edged master of the beautiful, and Phidias, of the 
 grand in sculpture; where arose a bright succes- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 233 
 
 sion of poets, painters, sculptors, orators, and histo- 
 rians ; who not only shone as a galaxy in the 
 firmament when the literary stars of other lands 
 were few, but who still continued to shine with as 
 conspicuous a luster now when innumerable constel- 
 lations, each composed of stars of the first magni- 
 tude, have appeared elsewhere; no one, I say, will 
 hesitate to own that this land has earned for itself 
 the proud distinction of being the most classical of 
 antiquity, or be surprised that it has left to suc- 
 ceeding lands models in oratory, in sculpture, in 
 poetry, and in architecture; and yet Greece was 
 without the Bible. It was therefore an exaggera- 
 tion to affirm that the fostering influences of Revela- 
 tion are indispensable to the growth of polite letters 
 or high art; since in the isles of the ^gean both 
 these had attained very near to perfection before 
 Christianity crossed its waters. Still, we venture to 
 affirm that if the land of Homer, of Demosthenes, 
 and of Phidias, had enjoyed that volume which is 
 the sole divine interpreter of nature and of God, 
 the truest expositor of truth, and the most beautiful 
 embodiment of spiritual beauty, its arts and its lit- 
 erature might have been blameless of those faults, 
 which its most ardent admirers must admit detract 
 so materially from their singular merit. 
 
 Of Grecian poetry, who will deny the originality 
 and wonderful invention, its rich fancy and creative 
 imagination, its pathos, its descriptive power, its 
 
 affluence of imagery, its varied numbers and its 
 
 20 
 
234 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 mellifluous diction? Yet was the poetry of Greece 
 only a splendid meteor — by the poetry of Italy 
 faintly reflected — which failed to illustrate Provi- 
 dence, or illumine the tomb, or reveal to mankind 
 the divinely beautiful and good. It was not given 
 even to a Homer to draw down from Parnassus the 
 beam which was to irradiate the face of celestial 
 truth, and light the path to immortality. How 
 difierent it might have been had Homer known to 
 invoke Isaiah's muse! 
 
 As to the general literature of Greece, we shall 
 not here inquire whether it made the people chaste, 
 honest, temperate, and truthful; since the same 
 question might be retorted on Christian literature. 
 But we shall rather ask, did it even inculcate these 
 virtues, or assist to foster them? It certainly did 
 not; for seeing it is a necessity of his moral nature 
 that man must reflect the deity whom he worships, 
 what was to be expected of the ancient Greek, when 
 the gods whom he saw in his country's literature 
 were liars, thieves, bacchanals, and voluptuaries? 
 ''Where," asks an eloquent writer, speaking of the 
 Roman deities, and with equal truth he might have 
 used the same language respecting those of Greece, 
 ''shall we find one among all the objects of their 
 worship, whose attributes indicate, on the fancy that 
 has imagined it, the operation of any thing like 
 a principle either of holiness or of love? Where 
 shall we find one whom its worshipers have invested 
 with the qualities either of purity or of mercy? 
 
INTRODUCTORT. 235 
 
 All their duties appear to be the product of a 
 Btrange and affecting combination of depraved pas- 
 sions and guilty fears. The principal gods of the 
 Pantheon are raised above men, solely by the supe- 
 rior enormity of their crimes; their greater power 
 only enabling them to be the greater adepts and 
 the greater monsters in vice. They are the patrons 
 and patterns of all that is cruel — of intemperance, 
 and lust, and knavery, and jealousy, and revenge. 
 Thus men love to sin; and they make their gods 
 sinners, because they are desirous to sin under their 
 patronage; yet are they at the same time conscious 
 of guilt, and while they commit sin, and even 
 laugh at sin, they tremble with superstitious appre- 
 hension." 
 
 The Greeks were preeminently an imaginative 
 people, and their poetic feeling is expressed in all 
 their works. The idealization of the to xaXov, or the 
 beautiful, went beyond what any other people has 
 ever reached; and judging from the specimens which 
 have been preserved, their sculpture has success- 
 fully translated their ideal of the beautiful into 
 form. Viewed merely as pieces of art their higher 
 statuary is faultless. Yet we can not help being of 
 the opinion that there is in it a radical blemish, 
 which a knowledge of the Bible Avould have taught 
 their sculptors to avoid. Art to be fully successful 
 must attempt only what is possible — that is, what 
 is true. It is not enough that there be beauty of 
 form and expression, but the higher idea also which 
 
236 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 that form is intended to enshrine must be such that 
 the imagination and the heart, when doing obeisance 
 to truth, can accept it as true. For then only is 
 idealism a real power, when the ideas which it 
 embodies in objective forms have their subjective 
 counterparts in our emotions and sentiments. Now 
 what we venture to affirm is, that while the sacred 
 statuary of the Greeks exhibits the true and the 
 beautiful in form, it has not embodied the true in 
 idea. We mean not to say that the Grecian idea 
 of beauty in itself was not a true idea; or that 
 their idea of strength, of majesty, of intellect, and 
 power were not in themselves true; and so far as 
 the Greek sculptors strove to personify these their 
 art was the handmaiden of truth. But when they 
 aspired to chisel in marble, or to mold in brass, 
 divine beauty, divine strength, divine majesty, and 
 divine intellect, the attempt was a revolt against 
 truth. The statue of a Jupiter or an Apollo, as it 
 came from a Greek studio, would be exactly true to 
 the rules of art; but to the idea of art it could not 
 be true, if our interpretation of that idea is cor- 
 rect. For what does that statue actually represent? 
 Certainly not the divine; since not in marble, or 
 brass, or ivory, can even a Phidias succeed in per- 
 sonating Godhead. And if that statue does not 
 truly exhibit the divine, so neither does it exhibit 
 the human; for exceeding nature, by its attempt 
 to rise to the supernatural, it is too imaginatively 
 grand to be the image of a man. The idea itself 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 237 
 
 of tlie divine personated in the human is a true 
 one and as we know was realized in the person of 
 incarnate God; but the idea is falsified in the mar- 
 ble or the brass of the Grecian sculptors. 
 
 Hence with our profound admiration of the lit- 
 erature and the arts of Greece there mingles a 
 strong conviction that had this land possessed the 
 Bible, these in their tendency would have been 
 more elevating; in their applications more benefi- 
 cial; in their conception more pure; and even in 
 their forms still more perfect. 
 
 Having drawn an illustration from confessedly 
 the most polished nation of classic antiquity, I shall 
 now select China, as out of sight the best specimen 
 of civilized paganism in these modern times. Here 
 are a people without the Bible, who yet can boast 
 a literature rich in works of every description, both 
 in prose and verse; and among whom, if not the 
 fine arts, at least art, manufactures, have been car- 
 ried to a high j)itch; and to whom priority of dis- 
 covery seems of right to belong with regard to 
 more than one of the great modern inventions 
 which were at first reputed European. Again, 
 therefore, we are reminded that it would be histor- 
 ically untrue to assert that the fostering influences 
 of revelation are essential to the growth of litera- 
 ture and the arts; for as before we found these a 
 well-foliaged and fruitful tree in the West, so now 
 in "the far East we also find them bourgeoned and 
 blossoming ere yet a ray of Christianity has pene- 
 
238 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 trated the superstitions of paganism. But do we 
 find no blemishing characteristic in Chinese civiliza- 
 tion, which a knowledge of the Scriptures might 
 have prevented? Ov-er against the singular invent- 
 iveness of the Chinese set this fact — that they 
 rarely, if ever, improve upon their inventions; but 
 soon as a discovery is made by them thus it re- 
 mains stereotyped. And the reason of this is doubt- 
 less to be found in their isolation; for, lying her- 
 metically sealed up within their own walls, they 
 own to no filiation with the brotherhood of nations; 
 but dwell alone, a people proudly, selfishly, unso- 
 cially separate from their human kin. Hence they 
 have become filled with the conceit of national per- 
 fectibility, which could not fail to put an arrest on 
 their national progress. Now we need scarcely add 
 that had China been a Bible land, this notion of 
 perfectibility could never have gained ground, nor 
 this position of isolation have been persisted in. 
 Hence, if instead of the books of Confucius, the 
 Chinese had received the books of Moses and the 
 prophets, what a noble civilization would theirs by 
 this time have been ! 
 
 Here I can imagine the infidel to say: "You 
 have glanced at nations which were without the 
 Bible; I now turn to a nation which alone possessed 
 it for centuries. And what do I find ? A wretched 
 people, of a low civilization, ever ignorant and 
 vulgar, strangers alike tp letters and the arts." To 
 this scornful satire of the brilliant skeptic— for I 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 239 
 
 have given in substance the words of Voltaire — an 
 eloquent writer has replied: ''Does it become you, 
 a writer of the eighteenth century, to charge the 
 ancient Hebrews with ignorance? A people who, 
 while your barbarian ancestors, while even the 
 Greeks and Latins, wandering in the woods, could 
 scarcely procure for themselves clothing and a set- 
 tled subsistence, already possessed all arts of neces- 
 sity, and some of mere pleasure ; who not only knew 
 how to feed and rear cattle, till the earth, work 
 upon wood, stone, and metals, weave cloth, dye 
 wool, embroider stuffs, polish and engrave on pre- 
 cious stones; but even then adding to manual arts 
 those of taste and refinement, surveyed land^ ap- 
 pointed their festivals according to the motions of 
 the heavenly bodies, and ennobled their solemnities 
 by the pomp of ceremonies, by the sound of instru- 
 ments, music, and dancing; who even then commit- 
 ted to writing the history of the origin of the world, 
 that of their own nation, and their ancestors; who 
 had poetry and writers skilled in all the sciences 
 then known, great and brave commanders, a pure 
 worship, just laws, a wise form of government; in 
 short, this was the only one of all ancient nations 
 that has left us authentic monuments of genius and 
 of literature. Can this nation be justly charged 
 with ignorance and inurbanity?" To the same 
 eficct, I might quote from Dr. Edersheim's "His- 
 tory of the Jewish Nation." His chapters in which 
 he describes the social condition, customs, and cul- 
 
240 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ture of the Jews, give one a very high idea of 
 Hebrew civilization. As has justly been remarked, 
 there is no surer sign of a high civilization than a 
 great division of labor and a complication of trades. 
 Take then the following passage: ''Among the 
 craftsmen we find artificers in wood and all kinds 
 of metal, the precious metals being fused with lead 
 or some of the alkalies; tent-makers, masons, tan- 
 ners, tailors, shoemakers, jewelers, coach-builders, 
 etc., who busily and successfully plied their trades, 
 although with tools much inferior to those now in 
 use. The potters and glass-workers produced flat 
 and deep plates, cups, looking-glasses, spoons, tum- 
 blers — holes in which were covered with pitch or 
 tin — bottles, and smelling-bottles which were filled 
 with scented oil. Some, as tailors and copy-writers, 
 would go about to procure work, or do it in the 
 houses of their customers. Hats, caps, shirts, nap- 
 kins, towels, pocket-handkerchiefs, vails, and many 
 other articles which we could scarcely have ex- 
 pected to find in Palestine, seem to have been in 
 common use. The washers were properly fullers, 
 who first cleaned the clothes with water and then 
 took out the stains by various chemical agents, such 
 as alum, chalk, potash, etc. Dyeing and orna- 
 mental work of various kinds, whether with the 
 brush, the needle, or in wood, ivory, stucco, and 
 metal, were also known and practiced." 
 
THE PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION. 241 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BIBLE HAS BEEN THE PIONEER OF LITERATURE 
 AND THE ARTS. 
 
 The failure of modern missions was confidently 
 predicted by a class of utilitarian philanthropists, 
 who maintained that the natural order was first 
 to civilize, and then to Christianize the heathen. 
 These reasoned thus: Since it is art and science, 
 not religion, which teach men to weave cloth, to 
 cultivate the fields, and build houses; therefore, 
 first get the naked savage, who feeds on roots and 
 shell-fish, and burrows in wretched cave-huts, to 
 clothe himself, to raise crops, and erect decent hab- 
 itations; and when you have thus lifted him out of 
 the physical slough of savagism up to near the level 
 of a human being, he will be more disposed, as well 
 as better fitted, to listen to the lessons of theology. 
 Now, in theory this project looked excellently well; 
 but when tried — for the utilitarians did give it a 
 trial — it turned out a failure. The savage could 
 not be got to learn the arts first and Christianity 
 afterward. But when the experiment was re- 
 versed — Christianity being allowed to forerun, in- 
 stead of being made to follow the arts, or perhaps, 
 rather, the two being introduced simultaneously — 
 
 the labors of our missionaries were crowned with 
 
 21 
 
242 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 success. And now a large induction of instances, 
 spread over an immense geographical area, and 
 including almost every known diversity of the 
 species, warrants us to proclaim it as a fact exper- 
 imentally proved that the Bible, and it alone, can 
 prepare the savage for being civilized; that, more 
 than all sciences, all arts, or all literatures, it has a 
 dynamical moral power to raise the human mind 
 from the abysmal depths of barbarism; that, while 
 in its rear, acting as a reserve force, these accom- 
 plish not a little, it only can lead the van in the 
 march of the world's civilization. 
 
 When a piece of stratified rock is subjected to the 
 wheel of the lapidary, the fossil configurations are 
 brought out on its polished surface as if they were 
 so many fine natural etchings; but it is a piece of 
 rock still, and these exquisite lineations are but the 
 epitaphs pf dead animals, lettered with their own 
 remains. Even so art, with its civilization, might 
 perhaps polish the hard surface of heathendom, and 
 bring out some hidden traces of our better human- 
 ity in these human fossils ; but what was to breathe 
 life into them? not art, not science, not civilization, 
 but Christianity alone could do this. Its only is tho 
 vivifying breath, which, when it falls warm on thosd 
 hearts which had been fossilized into stone, pene- 
 trates, softens, resuscitates them, makes them hearta 
 of flesh — hearts which beat now with a true natural 
 life — which may yet beat with a life which is spir- 
 itual and divine. 
 
THE PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION. 243 
 
 Already has Christianity achieved many benig- 
 nant triumphs on the stubborn fields of heathen- 
 dom. It has confronted the cannibal when, at his 
 horrid feasts, he was quaffing human blood, and has 
 made him loathe the ensanguined cup; it has fol- 
 lowed the hunter of the woods — then as untamed, 
 apparently as untamable, as the wild beasts he 
 chased — and has led him back, gentle as a child, to 
 sit at the feet of his spiritual teachers ; it found the 
 temple-fires of paganism smoking with detestable 
 sacrifices, its altars smeared with the mingled blood 
 of animals and human beings, its idol- gods images 
 hideous to look on, and often symbolic of notions 
 still more hideous to think of: these fires it has ex- 
 tinguished, these altars overturned, and these idols 
 broken in pieces; it has abolished infanticide, it has 
 snatched the aged imbecile from a watery grave, 
 and rescued the living widow from the funeral pj^re 
 on which she was about to be consumed with the 
 dead body of her husband; it has converted the 
 tomahawk into the woodman's ax, and the weapons 
 of barbaric warfare into the implements of hus- 
 bandry; smiling villages have sprung up on the 
 sites of miserable encampments; the cornucopia of 
 industry has poured out its bounteous stores, where 
 before indolence had pined with its empty horn ; the 
 sentiments of civilized have been ingrafted on the 
 instincts of nomadic life, thus forming a character 
 at once robust and refined; alien races have been 
 affiliated, hostile tribes united in amity; the girdle 
 
244 LITERARY ACUIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of love is being stretched round the world, a cinct- 
 ure which shall bind together its scattered sons and 
 daughters into one universal brotherhood. Such 
 have been the early fruits, the first beginnings of 
 Christianity. But the end is not yet. Time must 
 be allowed it to complete its triumphs; for while it 
 has done marvels, we do not pretend to say that it 
 will work miracles; or that its operations can coun- 
 tervail the great law of social progress. And it is 
 well known what that law is — that civilization in 
 any, but more especially in barbarous lands, is of 
 slow growth, being the aggregate of small incre- 
 ments, like the annual wood-circles of our exogen- 
 ous trees. 
 
 We, the cultured sons of Britain, whose own 
 forefathers once wandered, half-naked savages, in 
 the woods, and where, but for Christianity, we, 
 their children, might be wandering now, can point 
 to our mighty engines of manufacture — to our im- 
 mense magazines of trade — to our spreading sails, 
 which carry the produce of these engines and the 
 stores of these magazines to the ends of the earth; 
 we can also point to our venerable colleges of aca- 
 demic learning — to our schools of modern science — 
 to our magnificent galleries of art; we can also 
 point to our cathedrals and necropolises, where the 
 ashes of the illustrious dead repose, and to the 
 brilliant names of the illustrious living — yet let us 
 not think to sneer at the rude architecture, the 
 infant sciences, or the simple arts of the sable 
 
THE PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION. 245 
 
 islanders of the Pacific; for on these coral strands 
 Christianity has already laid the foundation of 
 future nations, which may rise but slowly, as our 
 own great nation rose, or even as slowly as the 
 reefs they now inhabit were reared by the tiny 
 masons of the deep, but which some future century 
 shall yet see taking rank with those colonial worlds 
 which our own emigrant countrymen are founding 
 on the wide plains of Polynesia. 
 
 The Bible is already a far-traveled book ; and let 
 this fact be specially noted, that, wherever it goes, 
 it soon learns to speak the language of the people. 
 The miracle of Pentecost in apostolic history, which 
 it records, might be said to be repeated in its own. 
 For, as these Parthians and Medes, Elamites and 
 the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and 
 Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pam- 
 phylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia about 
 Gyrene, and strangers of Eome, Jews and prose- 
 lytes, Cretes and Arabians, were amazed to hear 
 the apostles speak their diverse vernaculars; so 
 might the scattered tribes of more distant regions 
 be amazed to hear the Hebrew Scriptures read in 
 their multiform dialects. Of it, as of the apostles, 
 literally might it be said, that it is filled with the 
 Holy Ghost, and begins to speak with other tongues 
 as the Spirit giveth it utterance. Already it has 
 been translated into upward of one hundred and 
 fifty languages; so that it may be said to have 
 nearly mastered all the dialects of the earth. And 
 
246 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 is not this of itself a splendid contribution to uni- 
 versal literature, that the greatest classic of an- 
 tiquity — for such we hold the Bible to be — instead 
 of being locked up in the dead languages, is now 
 thrown open, in its living vernaculars, to the wide 
 world? We have remarked of nations which had 
 not the inventive genius to originate a purely-native 
 literature, how rapidly they advanced when aided 
 by an imported literature. And if one may augur 
 from historic parallels, it omens happily for the 
 future literature of pagan lands, that already they 
 possess the rich literature of Palestine. Nor ought 
 it to be overlooked here the immense contribution 
 which the translation of the Bible has been the 
 means of making to comparative philology; since 
 it has procured for so many languages that, of 
 which so long as a language is destitute, it never 
 can have a literature — a grammar and vocabulary. 
 And here, again, the parallels in history present 
 a happy augury. For, since the first book ever 
 printed was the Bible, and the art of printing thus 
 inaugurated has had such a splendid success, we 
 can not anticipate otherwise than hopefully for the 
 incipient literature of recently-Christianized lands, 
 seeing the first book translated into and printed in 
 their language is the Bible. 
 
 Civilization might be said to be a problem in the 
 resolution of moral forces; and will prove sound 
 and lasting according as these are rightly balanced. 
 The two chief forces which have to be worked in 
 
THE PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION. 247 
 
 combination are the social and the individual; in 
 other words, the powers and prerogatives of society 
 in the aggregate and the liberty of its several 
 members. When the former is in excess, you have 
 tyranny; when the latter, anarchy. But when the 
 two are in their just proportions, you have legisla- 
 tion without oppression in the State, and liberty 
 without lawlessness in the citizen. It is from hav- 
 ing failed to work out these opposite forces into a 
 stable resultant that so many of the ancient civil- 
 izations proved unstable and unlasting. But let us 
 see how admirably these are balanced in the Scrip- 
 tures ! 
 
 First, we have the social quantity in the equation 
 of civilization given in its full value. For in no 
 book is sociology laid on so deep and broad a foun- 
 dation. The idea of the unity of the race, and the 
 correlated ideas of universal brotherhood and the 
 filiation of the nations, are now familiar to us. 
 But how little were they realized, or rather were 
 not thought of at all, till the Bible proclaimed 
 them! And it is not as a theory or a poetic senti- 
 ment, but as a historical fact, the Bible proclaims 
 "the whole world kin." It establishes the universal 
 brotherhood by tracing it back to a common an- 
 cestry. ''God has made of one blood all nations of 
 men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." The 
 very names of the primal parents, and of the first- 
 born brothers of the race are given. We are intro- 
 duced to the original household, from which, by 
 
248 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 unbroken lineage, the great human family has de- 
 scended. Thus the problem of civilization is at 
 once pointed toward its true solution; the great 
 truth to be practically wrought out being the rec- 
 ognition of a community of interest and of rights, 
 seeing there is a community of blood and lineage 
 among all the nations of the earth. The question 
 of human progress is thus built upon a foundation 
 which lies deep as the origin of the race. It be- 
 comes as it were a household question, and is 
 enshrined in all the sacredness we associate with 
 the family circle. And, doubtless, though it will 
 take time, the great problem shall ultimately be 
 solved in the way which the Bible indicates; and 
 which, more than all other books, it has helped to 
 accelerate. 
 
 Then, secondly, the other main quantity in the 
 equation, namely, the individual, is also fully given. 
 Nowhere else is the liberty of personal conscience so 
 fenced round with lofty sanctions, or the doctrine 
 of personal responsibility so conspicuously enforced. 
 Individual man is never represented as a stray waif 
 upon the waters, to be tossed hither and thither 
 without voluntaiy motion, the sport of circum- 
 stance. He is never spoken of as a drop in the 
 ocean, which loses all individuality, absorbed and 
 lost sight of, and carried, without its own choice, 
 whithersoever the tide makes for any shore. But 
 individual man is recognized in the distinct and in- 
 destructible prerogatives of his personal being. He 
 
THE PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION. 249 
 
 is made to stand forth as having rights which are 
 inalienable, and owing duties which can not be 
 transferred. He is to be recognized by his fellow- 
 men, and to God is directly responsible. The prob- 
 lem of civilization, therefore, as set forth in the 
 Scriptures, is not a vague generalization; for if to 
 be worked out upon the masses, it operates also 
 upon the individual man. It deals not merely with 
 the sum total, but it has equal regard to each sepa- 
 rate unit which goes to swell it. 
 
 Here then we have the two forces — the social and 
 the individual — in their just combination; and as 
 men shall learn thus to combine them in their 
 efforts to civilize the race, so shall the civilization 
 they effect prove permanent and true. 
 
 It needs not that we declare how emphatically 
 Christianity denounces slavery — setting the brand 
 of its utmost reprobation on that unnatural traffic 
 which buys and sells human beings as so many 
 cattle in the market-place; or how, with equal 
 emphasis, the Gospel denounces aggressive war — its 
 benign spirit shuddering at the spectacle of brother 
 shedding brother's blood in wholesale slaughter, 
 that ambition may clutch a crown, or avarice in- 
 crease its robberies, or revenge gloat its sanguinary 
 ire. Had Christianity its full sway, the shackles 
 would rust unworn, and the sword would be beat 
 into the plowshare. 
 
 There is one feature in the problem of sociology, 
 as presented in the Bible, which deserves a separate 
 
250 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 notice — I mean the place which it asserts for 
 woman. Created to be the companion of man, how 
 often she has been made his slave, the instrument 
 of his passions, the plaything of his idle hours! 
 This every-where among savage tribes has been lit- 
 erally the case, and even among nations which were 
 civilized, if pagan, woman rarely had assigned to 
 her her due place. This was but another phase of 
 that ferocity which has cursed the earth by its 
 cruelties in war — the stronger trampling on the 
 weaker. But there was this mighty difference — 
 that whereas a feeble tribe might by conquest be 
 made harmless, the influence of woman could not be 
 destroyed. There belongs to her, in each several 
 relation, as sister, wife, mother, a vast social power 
 for good or evil, of which she can not be deprived. 
 If crushed, downtrodden, and despised by an un- 
 christian civilization, woman, alas! had her too 
 ample revenge in the baneful influences, which, 
 from man's fault and her own sad misfortune, went^ 
 forth from her as by a law of retribution to avenge 
 her on her tyrants. Her womanly nature, which 
 would have shed its sweet and softening influences 
 on society, could not be dried up, but did, without 
 her meaning it, give forth the soured and bitter in- 
 fluences which oppression, to its own just punish- 
 ment, wrung out from her. Never therefore could 
 there be a true civilization where woman was not 
 assigned her proper place. But when this justice is 
 done to her, what a rich reward she bestows on 
 
THE PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION. 251 
 
 man! It is hers tlieii to humanize him by the gen- 
 tler charities; to ingraft, with her delicate female 
 touch, the softer graces upon the undergrowths of 
 his nature; to distill round the deep roots of his 
 being a secret subtile balm of all purest passions, 
 which, when she has roused into their strength, 
 she then softens without enervating them. It is 
 woman's mission in the quiet privacies of home to 
 feed the center-founts of society with those human- 
 izing influences which distill as naturally from her 
 as its balm from the tree or their odor from the 
 flowers. But why crush the exuding branch, or 
 why tread down the exhaling flower? The more 
 tenderly they are nurtured the richer a balm, the 
 more fragrant an aroma will they yield. And so 
 woman, if herself the nursling of tenderness, will 
 the more tenderly minister. 
 
 Now, in the Scriptures woman has assigned to 
 her her proper place; the amenities of her sex are 
 vindicated, her mission is defined, her ministrations 
 are allowed and acknowledged. She is placed at 
 man's side, his companion, his friend, his equal, and 
 helpmeet for him. Weaker in physical frame, she 
 is admonished to cling to him for support; of intel- 
 lectual energies less vigorous than his, she is taught 
 to make him her counselor; but superior to man in 
 the finer and more delicate sentiments of their com- 
 mon nature, he must seek toward her, unless he 
 would become stern in his strength, and his virile 
 hardihood degenerate into harshness. 
 
252 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 We know nothing finer in the whole range of 
 literature than are some of the exhibitions of female 
 character which are to be met with in the Scripture 
 histories. As loving wife and devoted mother, she 
 is seen shedding a hallowed loveliness around the 
 household. The sires and sons of Israel, so noble 
 patriots, heroes of dauntless bravery, men of action 
 and of metal, in Israel's best days, went forth from 
 homes where woman's worth was known, and 
 woman's power admitted. It was she, as wife or 
 mother, who made these sires and sons of Israel the 
 men they proved themselves to be. But not only 
 in the privacy of home is the Hebrew woman to be 
 seen. She could step forth without forgetting her 
 womanly modesty, in these stirring times, equal to 
 deeds of valor which the veterans of the nation 
 might have envied. She too was poetess, priestess, 
 prophetess. 
 
 But above and beyond all, Christianity has enno- 
 bled woman as the mother of the Savior of man- 
 kind. If paradise has its melancholy shadows, in 
 the gloom of which woman stands as the first trans- 
 gressor, how gloriously are these shadows dispelled 
 at Bethlehem. The nativity shines with a double 
 luster for woman; the birth-hour of hope to her 
 children, it was also the birth- hour of her own true 
 dignity, henceforth to be acknowledged, wherever 
 the Gospel should proclaim her, to be the mother 
 of the Savior; and now is her benign influence 
 being felt, as in pagan lands it never was, or indeed 
 
TUE PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION. 253 
 
 could be, in the great work of universal civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 In estimating the contributions which Christianity 
 has made toward a solution of the social problem, it 
 deserves to be specially noted, that for it was re- 
 served the inaugural act of public charity in the 
 spirit of charity. With the poor, as such, heathen- 
 ism did not trouble itself. The public largesses of 
 corn which were made to the humbler citizens of 
 Eome might seem to contradict this statement; but 
 in point of fact they do not, for there was no ves- 
 tige of charity in the Roman distributions of grain. 
 ''These distributions," says De Quincey, "moved 
 upon the same impulse as the sportulce of the great 
 oligarchic houses, and the donatives of princely offi- 
 cers to their victorious soldiery upon great anni- 
 versaries, or upon accessions to the throne, or upon 
 adoptions of successors, etc. All were political, 
 oftentimes rolling through the narrowest grooves of 
 intrigue, and so far from contemplating any col- 
 lateral or secondary purpose of charity, that the 
 most earnest inquiry on such occasions was to find 
 pretexts for excluding men from the benefit of the 
 bounty. The primary thought was, who should not 
 be admitted to participate in the dole; and at any 
 rate, none were admitted but citizens in the most 
 rigorous and the narrowest sense." Public charity, 
 the charity that grows out of tender and apprehen- 
 sive sj^mpathy with human sufferings, the charity 
 that makes eleemosynary contributions to the poor 
 
254 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 a solemn institution as their absolute right under 
 the Christian law, the charity that proclaims it a 
 paramount duty for all who have any available 
 power, whether these be a community or individual 
 members thereof, to listen to poverty pleading its 
 pangs day and night before God and man — this 
 public charity paganism knew nothing of; Chris- 
 tianity was the first to proclaim it, and a Christian 
 emperor, Constantine, was the first to give to it 
 practical effect. It was he, the first Christian 
 Csesar, who in testimony of that obligation which 
 Christianity had laid on princes and their peoples, 
 founded the first system of relief for pauperism. 
 ^'The poor ye will always have with you." These 
 words of the Divine Founder of Christianity were 
 now accepted as at once a true prediction and an 
 authoritative appeal. 
 
 "What Christianity, since the times of Constan- 
 tine, has done for the poor, and how much it has 
 contributed if not to remove poverty out of the 
 land — which is only to be thought of in the dreams 
 of the visionary — at any rate to mitigate its suffer- 
 ings, is patent to any one who will read the annals 
 of philanthropy. 
 
 There is still one other observation I would add, 
 in speaking of Christianity in connection with civil- 
 ization, or the true solution of the great social prob- 
 lem. It alone, of all religious systems, has shown 
 itself to possess the power to work in cooperation 
 with time and progress, and to adapt itself to the 
 
THE PIONEER OP CRTLIZATION. 255 
 
 endless variations of epochs and locality. Systems 
 there have been which could grapple with one con- 
 dition of society, with one set of feelings, and one 
 system of ideas, but when there came a change, and 
 new elements had to be dealt with, these systems, 
 having no power of plastic self-accommodation, be- 
 came as a bed on which a man can not stretch 
 himself; there was in them neither the length nor 
 the breadth required by these new aspects of soci- 
 ety, and of these new necessities of man. But 
 Christianity has in it an infinite flexibility; it 
 transfers itself, without needing to be stretched 
 as a garment which has shrunk, from climate to 
 climate, from land to land, from century to century, 
 infolding within its endless adaptations the social 
 problem, no matter where, when, or under what 
 conditions, it is being solved. 
 
256 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BIBLE THE PROMOTER OF LITERATURE AND THE 
 ARTS— MODERN POETRY. 
 
 There are influences with power in them suffi- 
 cient to initiate a movement, but which are not 
 capable of consummating it. They give the first 
 impulse, and then are left behind by that which 
 themselves set in motion. This is abundantly illus- 
 trated in the history of science, philosophy, and 
 literature. For many a book which exerted no 
 small motive influence on the age when it first 
 appeared, and perhaps on the age which succeeded, 
 became at length antiquated, having fallen quite 
 behind the very progress which in large measure 
 might be traced to itself. Indeed the number of 
 the books is exceedingly few, of which it could be 
 said that they both commenced and consummated 
 any great movement. Extremely few, at the most 
 not over two or three, which, having served as a 
 primer to the infancy of human thought, are still 
 a sufficient "principia" for its manhood. Among 
 these very few books the Bible stands out preemi- 
 nent. Any other on the short but shining list is 
 "secundus magno intervallo." The date of centu- 
 ries, but not the decay of age is upon it. The first 
 
MODERN POETRY. 267 
 
 to lead forth the human mind in the long quest 
 after truth, it still keeps in the vanguard. Its 
 vocation to man, as the child of immortali^, is to 
 press onward. Its own motto, woven as with lines 
 of light on its every page, is meliora. Striking 
 back to the eldest antiquity of our planet's history, 
 it has stretched forward to its still uncircled peri- 
 ods; and as it moved on the past, so will it move on 
 the future; for what it pioneers it promotes, what 
 it commences it consummates. In sweeping the de- 
 scending segment of its arc of motion, the ball of a 
 pendulum acquires a momentum which carries it up 
 an almost isometrical ascending segment; and so 
 might we say it is likely to be the case with the 
 Bible. It has been gathering a momentum or mo- 
 tive power in sweeping down the curve of the past, 
 which will carry it forward through an equal curve 
 in the future, if the earth last so long. 
 
 I am now to indicate some of the services which 
 the Bible has rendered toward the advancement of 
 the higher arts and literature. But how may I 
 hope adequately to discourse my theme? For were 
 modern poetry to indite a thanksgiving hymn; and 
 modern painting to hang up a commemorative pic- 
 ture; and modern sculpture to erect a memorial 
 pillar; and modern music to compose an oratorio; 
 and modern literature to write a eulogy, in ac- 
 knowledgment of the services which the Bible has 
 rendered to each of them ; it would require the muse 
 of a Milton to indite the hymn, the pencil of an 
 
258 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Angelo to paint the picture, the chisel of a Canova 
 to sculpture the pillar, the symphonies of a Handel 
 to swell the oratorio, and the pen of an Addison to 
 write the eulogy. 
 
 Still, however inadequately, my subject requires 
 of me that I shall essay the task of pointing out 
 what services, not merely now as their pioneer, but 
 as their promoter, the Bible has rendered to letters 
 and the arts in the civilized nations of modern 
 Europe. There will have to pass in review before 
 us, poetry, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, 
 and general literature ; for by each of these has this 
 marvelous book made its influence to be felt. We 
 shall find that it has breathed into them a new life 
 from its own undying vitality ; that it has supplied 
 them with materials out of its own exhaustless 
 stores; that mixing as it were its own nurturing 
 influences at their very roots, to it mainly is owing, 
 even when the connection has ceased to be percep- 
 tible, that their branches have so widely burgeoned, 
 blossomed, and borne fruit. 
 
 To the Bible modern poetry is under many obli- 
 gations. 
 
 (1.) It has supplied it with subjects of song. 
 
 For if it is asked, in the first instance, Where 
 have the great masters of the lyre, the high-priests 
 of poesy's temple, her bards of the epic song, turned 
 for subjects befitting their lofty muse? we reply, to 
 the Bible. There at least, did he, most gifted of 
 them all, find a theme equal to the immensity of 
 
MODERN POETRY. 259 
 
 his imagination and the wide sweep of his poetic 
 vision. For long years must the lofty genius which 
 produced the Allegro and Penseroso, have been re- 
 volving some still nobler monument to its poetic 
 fame. And when it at length essayed to build the 
 grandest epic the world has ever seen, the subject 
 it selected is emphatically a Biblical one. Had 
 Moses not penned the Pentateuch, Milton could 
 never have written "Paradise Lost." And on his, 
 a second time, essaying the epic, he wrote ''Para- 
 dise Regained," thereby confessing that his themes 
 could be found only in the Bible. There is a 
 grand unity of idea in these two epics; and it was 
 a fine tribute which the poet paid to the Scrip- 
 tures, when, having found what we might call the 
 first half of his great thought in the Old Testa- 
 ment, he turned to the New Testament, as if only 
 there he could find the other half. The Bible com- 
 pletes itself — so reckoned Milton; and therefore to 
 the Bible he turned for the completion of his epical 
 idea. Nor could this great master of tho divine 
 art attempt the drama but he must betake himself 
 to the Scriptures for a subject; and thus appeared 
 his "Samson Agonistes." Or if we turn to the 
 poets of Italy, and it is asked. What has given its 
 so solemn tone to the muse of Dante, and kindled 
 his poetry with so prophetic a fervor? the answer 
 plainly is, that it could only "^e his high apprecia- 
 tion of the writers of the Old Testament. This 
 poet's ardent admiration of the learning of the 
 
260 LITERARY ACniEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ancients lias too often betrayed him into blending 
 the ancient mythologies with the sacred writings; 
 but at the same time the profounder impression 
 which the latter had made on his imagination 
 may be traced on every page of his "Inferno." 
 Although Tasso's great epic is not a Biblical sub- 
 ject, yet does it owe its peculiar interest to its 
 scene being laid in a land which the Bible has 
 rendered sacred ground. Jerusalem ! rich above all 
 other cities in hallowed recollections — brilliant be- 
 yond comparison from its association with all our 
 religious feelings — near it lying the cradle of the 
 human race — its environs, the haunts of inspired 
 bards — itself the city which God chose for his resi- 
 dence during his incarnate life on earth — how could 
 Tasso's muse sing of its deliverance, and not be 
 kindled with somewhat of the solemn fervor, and 
 sustained by a measure of the awful grandeur of 
 its own ancient bards? Tasso paid a still more 
 direct tribute to the Bible — though his muse failed 
 to sustain her former wing — by composing a Chris- 
 tian epic on the Creation. The epoist of Germany 
 could not indeed soar in the eye of the sun, like our 
 English Milton; yet as reverently as he, Klopstock 
 has done homage to the Bible by selecting from it 
 the subject of his ''Messiah." And whether the 
 "Course of Time," by Pollok, shall be admitted to 
 be an epic, yet must it be confessed to be a won- 
 derful poem as the production of one so young in 
 years; nor can yet the reader fail to perceive that 
 
MODERN POETRY. 261 
 
 the altar-flame which might be said, alas! too liter- 
 ally to have wasted this martyr of the muses, was 
 kindled at the Scriptures. And we may here add 
 that one, who, if he is not, might have been, a 
 great poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among his 
 other unachieved projects, contemplated writing an 
 epic poem; and the subject which he would have 
 selected, as in his opinion the only one worthy to 
 be sung after Paradise Lost, was the Destruction of 
 Jerusalem — ^also a Biblical subject. 
 
 Here then we find the Epic muse, with the world 
 of fiction all open to her range, and the pages of 
 profane history spread out before her meditative 
 eye; but not in that world of fiction, nor on those 
 pages of profane history, could she find her fitting 
 subjects. For she must sing of themes more fair 
 than this unfolds, and of events more grand than 
 these record. But where, then, shall she find such? 
 where but in the book of God? 
 
 Among our poets who have touched the loftier 
 strings of the lyre, though they scarcely ventured 
 into the region of the epic, not a few have chosen 
 Biblical subjects, or subjects which the Bible sug- 
 gested. These, too, in the measure of their genius, 
 have thus done homage to the Book Divine. So 
 Spenser wrote his Faery Queen, whose allegory is 
 traced all through, thick as cloth of gold, with 
 figures borrowed from the robes of the Hebrew 
 muse. So also Herbert, the poet-pastor, wrote his 
 Temple, which, though bright with quaint conceits 
 
262 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 and fantastic imagery, after the fashion of his time. 
 has, withal, a holy beauty and magnificence which 
 are quite Scriptural. So also Giles Fletcher wrote 
 his Christ's Victory and Triumph, a poem which 
 evidently gave hints to Milton when composing his 
 second epic. So also from the Scriptures were 
 drawn some of the happiest inspirations of the 
 poetry of Donne, rugged, yet fancy-rich; of Philip 
 Quarles, so quaintly emblematic; of Richard Cra- 
 shaw, over much tinctured with superstition's mel- 
 ancholy, yet often rising into "lyric raptures;" of 
 Cowley, too, by turns easy, gay, witty, subtile, 
 splendid, albeit somewhat fantastic and extrava- 
 gant; and of Parnell, picturesquely solemn as its 
 own hermit's haunts, yet melodious in the rhythm 
 of its numbers as the wood-notes in the anchorite's 
 grove. So also, among our later poets, Cowper has 
 sung of Hope, Truth, Charity; Graham of the 
 Sabbath; Blair of the Grave; Heber of Palestine; 
 Montgomery of the World before the Flood; 
 Michael Bruce of the Last Day. 
 
 Nor could our poets who touched more seldom 
 the sacred lyre refrain from at times waking up 
 its strings to Biblical subjects. Thus the eagle- 
 eyed but vulture-breasted muse of Byron has sung 
 the Hebrew Melodies; the romantic muse of Scott 
 has kindled into more than its wonted passion in 
 the Hymn of the Hebrew Maid; the all but volup- 
 tuous muse of Moore has warbled with a spiritual 
 
MODERN POETRY* 263 
 
 note in the Song of Miriam; the polished muse of 
 Pope has caught the fire of the olden prophets in 
 the Messiah; and the wayward muse of Burns, 
 random-roving as a very child of Nature, has struck 
 its Doric note, the sweetest to our taste it ever 
 sung, in the Cotter s Saturday Night. And how 
 can we refrain from adding the remark, that if 
 these favorite sons of our national muse, more espe- 
 cially Byron and Burns, had often er tuned the lyre 
 to similar strains, and less often to those they have 
 preferred, then might modesty have sometimes been 
 spared a blush, passion sometimes a pang, and 
 youthful desire sometimes a temptation; while the 
 laurels on their own gifted brows would have 
 sparkled with the dew-drops of immortality, un- 
 mingled with the tears shed by those who have had 
 to lament the hours worse than wasted over some 
 of their, alas, too fascinating pages ! 
 
 Then there is our hymnology, which has been 
 charged as wanting in the fervid lyric strain, and 
 the nervous sinew of the true hymn. And so, may- 
 hap, it is, yet who will not own it to be redolent of 
 all gentlest and softest emotions; harping out the 
 soul's sweet love to Him who is the friend of sin- 
 ners; breathing a chastened rapture, a subdued 
 passion, a quiet devoutness. Yes, with all their 
 defects, we could ill afibrd to want these sacred 
 lays. The young and the poor in the land, at least, 
 would miss them. And whence have these streams 
 
264 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of holy song been drawn? They have been drawn 
 from the Bible; for had not its inspired song first 
 flowed forth from Sion's hill and Siloa's brook, our 
 sacred literature would never have been enriched 
 with the hymns of an Addison, a Cowper, a New- 
 ton, a Toplady, a Watts, a Montgomery, a Heber, a 
 Bernard Barton, or a Henry Kirke White; nor 
 would the literature of Germany have felt the be- 
 nign influence of the hymns of Luther. 
 
 Here it merits to be noticed, that the earliest 
 attempts of Anglo-Saxon poetry were upon Scrip- 
 tural subjects. Caedmon, who was a poet of Nature's 
 making, without the aids of education, so astonished 
 his cotemporaries by his verse, that they all were 
 of opinion that he had received the gift of song 
 from heaven. Nor is it to be wondered at, if the 
 learned scholastics of that age, who thought the 
 vernacular tongue unfit even for prose, were smitten 
 with marvel to hear it poured forth in not unmel- 
 lifluous numbers, and on subjects so lofty as the 
 Creation, by the unlettered monk of Whitby. It 
 has been remarked — and I draw attention to the 
 circumstance as showing the efl'ect of a Biblical 
 theme to refine and elevate the rustic muse, for 
 Caedmon at one time had been a cow-herd — that his 
 account of the Fall of Man is somewhat like that 
 given in "Paradise Lost;" and that one passage ii: 
 it might almost be supposed to have been the 
 foundation of a corresponding one in Milton's sub- 
 lime epic. It is that in whicli Satan is described 
 
MODERN POETRY. 265 
 
 as reviving from the consternation of his over- 
 throw. 
 
 (2.) But the Bible has done more than suggest 
 subjects to our poets, it has also supplied them with 
 materials for their art — with ideas, images, meta- 
 phors, references, and forms of expression. From 
 Spenser downward, the Bible has been regarded as 
 a sort of free common by the British muse, from 
 which to borrow at will, and this has been done not 
 by our minor poets only, but also by our great 
 poets; perhaps oftenest of all by our three greatest, 
 Spenser, Milton, and Shakspeare. Of the first of 
 these it has been justly remarked by Dr. Maculloch, 
 in his excellent little work on "The Literary Char- 
 acteristics of the Bible," that "for his thoughts and 
 imagery he is indebted, next to his own enchanting 
 genius, to the treasures of Scripture. Some, indeed, 
 of his most exquisite passages are but expansions — 
 though most graceful and melodious expansions — of 
 ideas borrowed from the sacred page." With regard 
 to Milton, his "Paradise Lost" literally abounds in 
 Biblical imitations, similitudes, references, and quo- 
 tations. How freely he has drawn upon his vast 
 stores of classical erudition to adorn his sacred epic 
 must be known to every reader. But even to a 
 still larger extent he has drawn upon the Hebrew 
 classics. It is an observation by one of his com- 
 mentators that "throughout the whole of 'Paradise 
 Lost,' the author appears to have been a most crit- 
 ical reader and passionate admirer of Holy Scrip- 
 
 Zo 
 
2G6 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ture. He is indebted to Scripture infinitely more 
 than to Homer and Virgil, and all other books 
 whatever. Not only the principal fable, but all his 
 episodes, are founded on Scripture. The Scripture 
 has not only furnished him with the noblest hints, 
 raised his thoughts, and fired his imagination, but 
 has also very much enriched his language, given a 
 certain solemnity and majesty to his diction, and 
 supplied him with many of his choicest, happiest 
 expressions." In his admirable critique on this 
 great poem, Addison, while showing a fine apprecia- 
 tion of his author, has confessed that for many of 
 his sublimest strokes he is indebted to the Scrip- 
 tures. And when, moreover, one considers how 
 much of the spirit of the Hebrew bards is inter- 
 fused throughout this entire epic; how that the 
 poet's own mind seems to have been steeped as it 
 were in theirs; it might seem as if these were 
 the Elijahs of ancient song, and he the Elisha 
 of modern song, on whom their mantle had fallen. 
 Our great dramatist, who is confessed the most orig- 
 inal of the poets, has not seldom availed himself 
 of the sacred Scriptures. I have lying before 
 me a goodly volume of some two hundred pages 
 octavo, published by a member of the Shakspeare 
 Society, entitled, ''Eeligious and Moral Sentences 
 Culled from the Works of Shakspeare, compared 
 with Sacred Passages drawn from Holy Writ." 
 Some of the passages which this author quotes as 
 references and imitations are somewhat far-fetched; 
 
MODERN POETRY. 267 
 
 but after deducting sucli, there remains a full hund- 
 red of what appear to me to be unquestionable in- 
 stances of Biblical imitation. It may gratify the 
 reader if I give a few instances. 
 
 " Sluiced out his innocent soul, through streams of blood j 
 Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries 
 for justice." 
 
 " The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom." 
 
 " I tell thee, churlish priest, 
 A minist'ring angel shall my sister be. 
 When thou liest howling." 
 
 " If ever I were traitor, 
 My name be blotted from the Book of Life." 
 
 " It is as hard to come, as for a camel 
 To thread the postern of a needle's eye." 
 
 ** The worm of conscience shall be-gnaw thy soul." 
 
 " What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee. 
 To make a second fall of cursed man ?" 
 
 " God saw him when he was hid in the garden." 
 
 "And this land be called 
 The field of Golgotha, and dead men's skulls." 
 
 **Did they not sometime cry. All hail I to me? 
 So Judas did to Christ." 
 
 " Whiles the mad mothers, with their howls confused, 
 Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry 
 At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen." 
 
 " Thou that judgest all things ! stay my thoughts, 
 If my suspect be false, forgive me, God, 
 For judgment only doth belong to thee." 
 
 " You drop manna in the way of starved people." 
 
 *' You found his mote, the king your mote did see j 
 But I a beam do find in each of three." 
 
268 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 " 1 my offense is rank, it smells to heaven j 
 It hath the primal^ eldest curse upon *t — 
 A brother's murder." 
 
 ''Blessed are the peace-makers on earth." 
 
 " How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands 
 Of this most grievous, guilty murder done I" 
 
 " All the souls that were were forfeit once ; 
 And he that might the vantage best have took, 
 Found out the remedy." 
 
 " Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it." 
 
 Dr. Spring, of New York, in his excellent lectures 
 on "The Obligations of the World to the Bible," 
 remarks: ''There is not a finer character, nor a 
 finer description in all the works of Walter Scott 
 than that of Eebekah in Ivanhoe. And who does 
 not see that it owes its excellence to the Bible? 
 Shakspeare, Byron, and Southey, are not a little 
 indebted for some of their best scenes and inspira- 
 tions to the same source. At the suggestion of a 
 valued friend, I have turned my thoughts to the 
 parallel between Macbeth and Ahab — between Lady 
 Macbeth and Jezebel — between the announcement 
 to MacduiF of the murder of his family, and that 
 to David of the death of Absalom by Joab — to the 
 parallel between the opening of the Lamentations 
 of Jeremiah and Byron's apostrophe to Eome as 
 the Niobe of nations — to the parallel between his 
 Ode to Napoleon and Isaiah's ode on the fall of 
 Sennacherib — and also to the resemblance between 
 Southey's chariot of Carmala in the 'Curse of Ke- 
 
MODEKJT POETKY. 269 
 
 hama' and Ezekiel's vision of the wheels; and have 
 been forcibly impressed with the obligations of this 
 class of writers to the sacred Scriptures." To this 
 I would add, that one might imagine that Fletcher, 
 in his " Purple Island," and Gawin Douglas, in his 
 " King Heart," had in their eye Solomon's allegory 
 in the closing chapter of Ecclesiastes. 
 
 Had our poets thus freely borrowed from any 
 other book, without doubt the critics would have 
 called it plagiarism, and have censured it accord- 
 ingly as literary theft. But seeing it is only from 
 the Bible, the critics have no fault to find; nor 
 have we with them for their leniency. For whether 
 the critics intended it or not, they could scarcely 
 have paid a higher tribute to the literary affluence 
 of the Bible. Other authors need to have their 
 intellectual property protected, since they can ill 
 afford to have their thoughts appropriated by oth- 
 ers. But here is an amplitude of subject so large, 
 a diversity of thought so various, a richness of 
 illustration so exhaustless, and an originality so un- 
 questionable, that this book, which borrows from 
 none, can well afford to lend to all. And what 
 imagination so lofty, but it finds here something 
 grander than its own; or what fancy so fine, but 
 here are images fairer than itself could draw; or 
 what information so copious, but here it may find 
 something new! 
 
 I have alluded to how much the poet's muse has 
 been sustained by his choice of Scriptural subjects, 
 
270 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 but if he shall not have proved true to the Scrip- 
 tural treatment of the theme, it may be found that 
 he has failed to reach the full altitude of his power. 
 As illustrative of this, though the passage is of 
 considerable length, I can not refrain from quoting 
 at full the following from Landrith's ''Studies and 
 Sketches in Modern Literature:" 
 
 "The 'Last Man' is a theme foreign to Camp- 
 bell's range, yet is treated with a grandeur and 
 condensed energy of inspiration which, if not above 
 his former capacity, had at least been latent hith- 
 erto. The scenery, the solitude, and the sentiments 
 of the piece are impressively solemn, and in keeping 
 with the peculiar situation of the 'last of Adam's 
 race.' The poet, however, by disregarding Scrip- 
 ture hints about the last day, and by following out 
 inferior and less suggestive ideas of his own, has 
 failed to develop the proper sublimities of his sub- 
 ject. We shall briefly point out his deviations and 
 their injurious effect. Why should he represent 
 the last day of time as drawing upon only one 
 man — the sole survivor of his race? It is not 
 unlikely, indeed, that the population of the earth 
 may then have been greatly reduced by the vice 
 and crime which are to prevail between the millen- 
 nium and the last day, still there will be left many 
 'peoples, races, and tongues' to furnish, as in the 
 days preceding the flood, hosts of revelers, groups 
 eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in mar- 
 riage,' and jesting openly under the shadow of the 
 
MODERN POETRY. 271 
 
 descending throne of the Judge. There is, doubt- 
 less, a certain impressiveness in the isolation of one 
 man — the single remnant of humanity — in a world 
 erewhile crowded, over all its surface of sea and 
 land, wdth vast populations and their manifold act- 
 ivities; and striking is the picture of 'ships drift- 
 ing with the dead to shores where all was dumb.' 
 Still, the truth contained in divine prophecy has 
 ever a richer and nobler poetry than belongs to 
 any human fancy; and Campbell, in his deviation 
 from that truth, left behind him greater treasures 
 of sublimity than those which he could gather in 
 his own path. Without sacrificing the sublimity 
 wrapped up in the isolation of one man, he might 
 also have availed himself of that which is naturally 
 inspired by the presence of a whole generation in 
 earth's most awful crisis; for might he not have put 
 forth some grand embodiment of piety — a saintly 
 man, separated from, protesting against, persecuted 
 by, yet interceding for, his godless cotemporaries ? 
 
 ''Secondly, Why has Campbell reserved his 'last 
 man ' for the old and common doom of death, when 
 according to Scripture, all who shall be living down 
 to the day of judgment will be 'changed?' This 
 transformation and its process would have furnished 
 a new and grand scope for imagination. 
 
 "Again, Campbell represents the earth as in the 
 last stage of decay, with every unequivocal symp- 
 tom of immediate dissolution; whereas Scripture 
 Beems to intimate that the last day will dawn upon 
 
272 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 a world that has lost none of its meridian vigor 
 and splendor. ScoiFers are to look to land, sea, and 
 sky, and 'ask for the sign of His coming.' There 
 will be no passing portents, much less such a per- 
 petual warning as physical deterioration to corre- 
 spond with moral degeneration. Now, had the poet 
 adhered to the information of Scripture about such 
 points, the sublimity of the piece would have been 
 greatly enhanced." 
 
 (3.) But beside suggesting subjects and furnish- 
 ing materials, the Bible has had an immense indi- 
 rect influence in molding and coloring our poetic 
 literature. 
 
 The function of every true poet is twofold — that 
 of an interpreter and a prophet. As an interpreter, 
 the poet has to articulate and expound the ideas of 
 his own and of preceding ages. As a prophet, or — 
 to use the Latin appellative — the vates, the poet has 
 to utter his own ideas, which ought to be in ad- 
 vance of his age. The ideas which he has to inter- 
 pret or give articulation to are certain impressions, 
 wide-spread it may be, possibly deep-seated, yet 
 voiceless till he gives them articulate utterance, 
 when every one hears as if the echo of his own 
 thoughts, and wonders why he could not have thus 
 expressed them. The ideas which the poet has to 
 contribute are those views of nature and of truth 
 which his age may be groping toward, but sees 
 them only as dim shadows till he gives them form, 
 *'a local habitation and a name." Now this being 
 
MODERN POETRY. 273 
 
 the twofold function of the poet, it is easy to see 
 how great an indirect influence the Bible must have 
 exerted on our poetical literature; for in the first 
 place it pervaded and imbued the popular mind, 
 and the poet, catching by reflection the ideas of his 
 age — ideas which the Bible had sent afloat — would 
 set himself to shape them into verse, unconscious, it 
 might be, whence they had come. Then, secondly, 
 if the poet himself came into personal contact with 
 the Bible — and who can conceive of a true poet not 
 reading the pages of Isaiah and David? — then, 
 owing to its assimilating power, and the poet's own 
 susceptible temperament, there would be transferred 
 to his soul its higher forms of thought and deeper 
 moods of feeling, which, when he afterward shaped 
 them into his own verse, would be but reflections 
 from its pages, though he might not remember so. 
 In this way the indirect influence which the Bible 
 has exerted on our national poetry has been im- 
 mense. Indeed it may be safely averred that there 
 is not a single great English poet who has not 
 given manifest proofs of the ascendency of the 
 Hebrew genius over his own; how his thoughts, 
 often his diction have assumed an Oriental cast; 
 how the seeds of the great thoughts which have 
 germinated in his mind had been wafted from the 
 sacred gardens of Eastern poetry, and the pent fire 
 which burned within him till it found vent in vocal 
 flame, had been greatly fed by his perusal of the 
 poet-prophets of Palestine. See, for example, how 
 
274 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 conspicuously this is the case with Young, Thomson, 
 Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. The 
 fire-flashes of that torch which, when waved in the 
 hand of genius, could so light up the Night 
 Thoughts, was kindled at the New Testament; the 
 easy magnificence and lavish ornament in the 
 Seasons betrays the ardent admirer of the Eastern 
 pastorals; the daring imagination which penned 
 Cain, a Mystery, must have gazed — would it had 
 .been with a holier eye — upon the awful mysteries 
 of the inspired muse; the calm, contemplative soul 
 of Wordsworth looked out on Nature and read her 
 hidden hieroglyphs with an eye which evidently had 
 been trained by the perusal of the poetic symbolism 
 in the Bible; the solemn, seer-like, though unstable 
 genius of Coleridge, which could pour itself in such 
 a glorious hymn before sunrise in the Valley of 
 Chamouni, was steeped till, like a saturated sponge, 
 it dripped again with the poetry of ancient seers; 
 and while Southey's Thalaha has somewhat too 
 much "the arabesque ornament of an Arabian tale," 
 and his Curse of Kehama overabounds in Hindoo 
 mythology, yet one can not fail to perceive that the 
 poet's eye, which ranged Araby and Ind, had also 
 gazed on Palestine, whose bards, ages before he 
 essayed his epics, had with Eastern imagery woven 
 their own nobler specimens of Eastern song. 
 
 With a pardonable pride we boast our national 
 poetry — that England has produced the greatest 
 epoist and the greatest dramatist of any age, and 
 
MODERN POETRY. 275 
 
 Scotland the finest lyrist and the finest song-writer 
 of modern times. But why not at the same time 
 confess, that if it is not to the Bible but to the 
 accident of birth that England is indebted for her 
 Milton and her Shakspeare, and Scotland for her 
 Campbell and her Burns, it is to the Bible we owe 
 it that among much which is of the earth earthy, 
 there are in these, our nation's greatest poets, senti- 
 ments more refined, thoughts more lofty, subjects of 
 a higher range, scintillations of a purer spark, 
 strains of a truer human sympathy, images of a 
 sublimer illustration, and the gold of genius assayed 
 in a more searching crucible, than are to be found 
 in the poets of pagan antiquity — the bards of those 
 classic lands which were without the Bible? 
 
276 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE BIBLE THE PROMOTER OF LITERATURE AND THE 
 ARTS— MODERN PAINTING. 
 
 The Bible might, indeed, be called the painter's 
 book; for the picture galleries of Europe are hung 
 with innumerable proofs that beyond all others it 
 has furnished subjects for the pencil of the artist. 
 The chef-d'ceuvres of Raphael, of Angelo, of Titian, 
 Correggio, Murillo, Leonardi, Rubens, Rembrandt, 
 Poussin, indeed of all the great masters, are Bibli- 
 cal subjects. Though of diverse schools, and in 
 different countries, with singular unanimity, as if 
 drawn by one common impulse, our great painters 
 have turned to the Scriptures for those subjects 
 which were most to immortalize their own fames 
 and ennoble their art. 
 
 Under the hand of genius the canvas has been 
 made to express tenderness the most melting, and 
 passion of the fiercest flame; sublimity in its grand- 
 est forms; the fortitude of martyrs; the love and 
 constancy of woman; the heroic deeds of the most 
 renowned in arms; the sweetest pictures of domes- 
 tic life; the most appalling images of desolation 
 and woe. But where did the great painters go for 
 those incidents, those characters, and those groups, 
 
MODERN PAINTING. 277 
 
 •which were to enable them to represent these by 
 their imitative art? Did they go for them to Greek 
 or Eoman story, full as this is with the chivalry of 
 war, with the fortitude of patriotism, with the tri- 
 umphs of eloquence, the passion of love, the romance 
 of adventure, and the grand vicissitudes of nations? 
 No; not so often to these great histories, though 
 the classic pens of a Herodotus and a Thucydides, 
 of a Livy and a Tacitus, had memorialized them ; 
 but to the Hebrew historians did the painters go 
 for their subjects. Only there could they find their 
 high ideal of the sublime, the pathetic, the tender, 
 or the terrible. Only there was realized their full 
 conception of the warrior, the patriot, the prophet, 
 and the saint. Rapt into the past of Jewish his- 
 tory, the Genius of Painting confessed herself sup- 
 plied with themes worthy of her immortal labors. 
 
 As I shall have occasion to remark, ere the close 
 of this chapter, the younger masters go less fre- 
 quently to the Bible for their subjects than the 
 elder masters were wont to do. Yet we find the 
 former occasionally drawn to the Scriptures, as if 
 the Genius of Painting in no age could altogether 
 abstain from this great repertory of loftiest subjects. 
 Among our English artists we have several fine 
 specimens of sacred painting. I would instance 
 *' Christ Lamenting over Jerusalem," by Sir Charles 
 Eastlake. In this charming work the touching 
 sensibilities of the theme are brought out with a 
 matchless power, pathos, and poetry. I would also 
 
278 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 instance "Job and his Friends," by Poole. Here 
 we have a specimen of religious art which is strik- 
 ingly original, affording proof how impressive a 
 Biblical subject can be made, when, as this artist 
 does, it is treated diflferently from the current tone 
 of conventionality. I would also instance the Scrip- 
 ture landscapes of Martin, which may be said to 
 form a class by themselves, and to realize the most 
 terrible of the Old Testament scenes. A competent 
 critic has pronounced that "the supernatural splen- 
 dor of the 'Handwriting on the Wall,' and 'Joshua 
 Commanding the Sun to stand Still,' can never pass 
 from the mind of any one with either imagination 
 or feeling." 
 
 There is a living painter, not the least bright 
 luminary of the Northern Academy, who has given 
 us the results of his pencil in a walk of art, which, 
 if not strictly Biblical, yet is of that religious cast 
 which is clearly traceable to the Bible. Mr. Harvey 
 has illustrated, with the power of a master, the 
 theological history of Scotland. Throwing his sym- 
 pathies backward into the struggles for conscience' 
 sake which were maintained by his countrymen in 
 by-gone times, he has reared a pictorial monument 
 to men who had received the still higher fame of 
 martyrdom as the heroes of the Covenant. Drawn 
 by a like sympathy to the corresponding struggles 
 in England, he has memorialized the heroic deeds 
 and martyr endurances of the Puritans. Such noble 
 pictures as "Covenanters Preaching," " Covenanter^' 
 
MODERN PAINTING. 279 
 
 Baptism," "Covenanters' Communion," "First Bead- 
 ing of the Bible in the Crypt of St. Paul's," "Bun- 
 yan in Bedford Jail," and "Sabbath in the Glen," 
 strike an inmost chord in the breast of every lover 
 of art and of the Bible. 
 
 What we take to be perhaps a still higher tribute 
 was paid by the great painters to the Bible, when 
 seeking not only for subjects which were worthy of 
 their art, but also for subjects which would enable 
 them to display their own peculiar powers, they 
 still went to it in preference to other sources. Let 
 me illustrate this in the case of four great masters, 
 who stand perhaps unrivaled, each in his own pe- 
 culiar style — Leonardi da Vinci, Michael Angelo, 
 Eaphael, and Eembrandt. Though the first of these 
 great painters could excel also in depicting rapid 
 motion and impetuous action — as witness the whirl- 
 wind charge of his horsemen in the celebrated car- 
 toon for Florence — yet his greater strength lay in 
 depicting tranquil sublimity, solemn grandeur, and 
 pathetic grace. Conscious of his peculiar power, 
 Leonardi sought for a subject on which he could 
 fully display it; and, as if guided by the instinct 
 of his genius, he turned to the New Testament, 
 and selecting therefrom the Last Supper, has pro- 
 duced at once his greatest and most characteristic 
 work. The very boldest conception, grandeur of 
 form, and breadth of manner, are the elements of 
 Michael Angelo's ' style. The imagination of this 
 mighty genius, who has been called the inventor 
 
280 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE, 
 
 of epic painting, delighted in the union of magnifi- 
 cence of plan with endless variety of subordinate 
 parts, and of the utmost simplicity with the great- 
 est breadth. He too sought for a subject which 
 would exercise his peculiar powers; and guided by 
 the instinct of his genius to the New Testament, 
 he selected therefrom the Last Judgment, and pro- 
 duced that marvelous painting, in which, as Fuseli 
 observes, "he has personified every attribute that 
 varies the human body, and traced the master trait 
 of every passion that sways the human heart." The 
 genius of Kaphael, who has been designated the 
 father of dramatic painting, though not less lofty, 
 was milder than that of Angelo. He too might 
 have painted a Last Judgment; but to represent 
 some milder glory on the earth better suited hia 
 style. Seeking for a subject in the full maturity 
 of his powers, the instinct of his genius led him 
 also to the New Testament, from which he selected 
 the Transfiguration. And though death smote the 
 hand of the mighty master ere yet it had given 
 the finishing touches to this noble work, it remains 
 the most perfect masterpiece that modern art has 
 produced. The head of Christ, which is said to 
 have been the painter's last labor, is his mightiest 
 triumph. None but Raphael's pencil could have 
 painted, and nowhere but from Scripture could 
 Raphael's genius have got the conception of such 
 a head. Infinitely beneath those three in all that 
 pertains to form, Rembrandt excels them, as indeed 
 
MODERN PAINTING. 281 
 
 all others, in this profound knowledge of harmony 
 in coloring, and in his management of the lights 
 and darks, technically called chiaroscuro. And he 
 too, guided by the instinct of his genius, went to 
 the Bible for those subjects which afforded a field 
 for the display of his peculiar power. Thus he 
 frequently handled the Nativity; and if the reader 
 has happened to see his picture in the National 
 Gallery, he will have perceived how such a subject 
 gave full scope to this master of coloring. The 
 glory emanating from the Divine infant, and the 
 lantern in the hand of the shepherd, together with 
 the light in the background having some source 
 not comprised within the limits of the picture, 
 have enabled the painter to distinguish between 
 the supernatural and natural light, and the various 
 gradations of both, with that exquisite effect which 
 he alone could produce. 
 
 The reader will probably have heard of the 
 Bowyer Bible. I transcribe the following descrip- 
 tion of it from one of our periodicals, because it will 
 serve to show to how very great an extent our 
 artists had selected Biblical subjects: "William 
 Bowyer is now chiefly remembered in connection 
 with one particular copy of the Bible. Macklin 
 ventured on the most costly edition of the Bible 
 ever issued from the press; and Bowyer, possessing 
 one copy of this work, devoted the leisure of nearly 
 thirty years to illustrating it. He procured from 
 
 every part of Europe engravings, etchings, and 
 
 24 
 
282 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 original drawings relating to Biblical subjects ; and 
 these, to the number of seven thousand, he inter- 
 leaved with his Bible. From Michael Angelo and 
 EafFaelle to Eeynolds and West, every artist whose 
 Scripture subjects had been engraved was brought 
 into requisition. Bowyer, having only his own 
 taste to please, gave a very wide scope to the 
 words 'Scriptural' and 'Biblical,' insomuch that he 
 included plates of natural history that might pos- 
 sibly illustrate the cosmogony of the Bible. The 
 collection included the best Scripture atlases. Its 
 most original features were two hundred drawings 
 by Lautherbourg. Thus he went on, step by step, 
 till his Bible extended to forty-five folio volumes, 
 including examples from nearly six hundred differ- 
 ent ens^ravers." 
 
 The history of modern painting abundantly illus- 
 trates this important fact, that as the spirit of 
 Christianity spread and interfused European civili- 
 zation, the fine arts expanded with it, and for the 
 first time since the decline of ancient art, began to 
 feel an inspiration which lifted them into the region 
 of poetry and sentiment. Without introducing sub- 
 ject of polemical discussion, which needs have no 
 place on these pages, it is but simple justice to 
 own that the Church of Home proved herself the 
 liberal patroness of painting; and that to the de- 
 votion with which she inspired the early masters 
 is in chief measure owing the amazing progress 
 which it made; for with them painting was not 
 
MODERN PAINTING. 283 
 
 merely an art, but the consecration of genius to 
 the service of religion. Having said this much in 
 praise, truth constrains us to add, that if the Church 
 of Rome greatly helped the art, she also greatly 
 hampered the artist. For there is no denying that 
 a false ecclesiastical taste, with the rage for bizarre 
 coloring which was caused by a sensuous creed and 
 a showy ritual, too much tied down the early mas- 
 ters to the conventionalism of Church-art. These 
 were fetters, however, which could not always bind 
 the spirit or cramp the hand of genius. 
 
 The great event of modern times is the Reforma- 
 tion; and as this was connected with the dissemina- 
 tion of the Scriptures, and with the right claimed 
 for every man to read them and judge for himself, 
 it falls within our subject to inquire what effect the 
 Reformation had upon the progress of art, more 
 especially painting. Your dilettante, or mere lover 
 of art, whom a fine painting would please more than 
 a pure faith, is loud in his lament, that from the 
 rise of the reformed religion we must date the 
 downfall of art, more especially that painting, 
 whose sun shone in its zenith, was then eclipsed; 
 and he has no terms strong enough in which to 
 denounce what he considers the vandalism of the 
 Reformers. Now let us see what truth there is in 
 this accusation, or what ground for this lament. 
 
 If the leaders of the Reformation were slow to 
 patronize and commend the fine arts, it ought to be 
 
284 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 remembered how greatly these arts had been abused. 
 They were not the men to object to fine pictures, as 
 such. Luther, we should take it, possessed more 
 love for music than to be destitute of all relish for 
 painting. He was too deeply imbued with a passion 
 for classic learning to be a Goth in his tastes. 
 Even although the works of the great masters had 
 been produced under the fostering care of Popery, 
 and savored not a little of her errors; still, had 
 these adorned the walls of the palaces, the senate 
 halls, the public buildings, and private mansions, 
 the Reformers were not the men who would have 
 wished them destroyed. But when these were 
 hung upon the walls of the sanctuaries, and round 
 the altars, not merely for decoration, but to be 
 helps to worship, it is not surprising if the regen- 
 erators of the Church cared less to preserve these 
 monuments of art, than to make^sure that the tem- 
 ple was purged. Considering the use • to which 
 these paintings were put, and the idolatrous tenden- 
 cies which that use fostered, if even with their own 
 hands the Reformers had destroyed them, we should 
 not have charged them with being Goths and 
 Vandals, but would have called them Iconoclasts — 
 no great term of reproach if literally rendered — 
 -icZoZ-breakers. It is, however, simply a gratuitous 
 accusation to say that the Reformers wantonly de- 
 stroyed the works of art; for we know that when 
 the enthusiasm — or if any reader wills, the fanati- 
 cism — of the multitude carried them the length of 
 
MODERN PAINTma. 
 
 demolishing the cathedrals in Scotland, Knox inter- 
 posed to save more than one of these noble monu- 
 ments of architecture. Then, further, men who 
 awoke as from the sleep of ages — awoke to find that 
 the work to which they were called was nothing 
 less than to emancipate the human mind from spir- 
 itual thrall and intellectual serfdom — such men, 
 with such a work on their hands, had little time, 
 and we shall even suppose no great inclination for 
 the cultivation or patronage of the fine arts. These 
 had been made to twine voluptuous fetters around 
 more than merely the taste and the imagination. 
 Reason and faith had been fastened in their attract- 
 ive chains. No wonder, then, if for a time the 
 stern eye of Truth looked suspiciously upon them; 
 and Liberty, with her hardy hand, was not over 
 gentle when snatching them away. 
 
 As to the lament that at the Reformation paint- 
 ing suffered an eclipse, we are free to own that to a 
 certain extent this was the case. We have already 
 hinted at causes which could not fail to produce 
 this effect. But then the eclipse was neither total 
 nor permanent. It has been seen how the Bible, 
 when comparatively an unknown book, had contrib- 
 uted to raise painting to what it was in the 
 fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries; 
 and withoxrt surprise the reader will hear that the 
 Bible had not lost its power to benefit art by its 
 being disseminated among the people. There are 
 certain influences which lose in depth and mo- 
 
286 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 men turn of current, in proportion as they gain of 
 surface by diffusion. But the Bible is not among 
 these. In proof of this may fairly be adduced the 
 service which, since the Eeformation, it has ren- 
 dered to painting. For it is not saying too much, 
 that the restoration of this art is in no small 
 measure to be attributed to the Bible. 
 
 We venture to avow the opinion, that under 
 Protestantism a healthier school of painting has 
 risen than that which arose under Catholicism. 
 The pictorial art, if less than formerly the illus- 
 trator of religion, has become more the interpreter 
 of Nature, which we take to be its more appropriate 
 function. Now that love of Nature, which is one of 
 the first attributes in a true painter, is greatly en- 
 couraged by the Scriptures, as we had occasion to 
 show when treating of the picturesque. Then, fur- 
 ther, the opportunity of contemplating Nature under 
 her various aspects, and in her difierent climes, is 
 unquestionably a result of that individual freedom 
 which we owe to the Eeformation. If cloistered 
 seclusion was favorable to one branch of the art — 
 that in which the elder masters excelled — there was 
 another branch not less deserving cultivation, which 
 can be studied only where the more modern masters 
 are studying it — in the open fields, by the river's 
 banks, in sight of the forest and mountain ranges, 
 on the ocean shore, in the thoroughfares of every- 
 day busy life ; and if it be so that our later painters 
 go less frequently to the Bible for their subjects 
 
MODERN PAINTING. 287 
 
 than did the earlier, there seems small reason to 
 regret this; rather we incline to think that there 
 had been about enough of the Scriptures transferred 
 to canvas. We deem it to be a higher function of 
 sacred art, at any rate one which is greatly more 
 useful, to produce works which shall breathe the 
 spirit, rather than be copies of the letter of the 
 Bible. This function of sacred art modern painting 
 is beginning to fulfill; and then, moreover, there 
 are those simpler tastes, that more refined senti- 
 ment, in which the Bible, since it came to be more 
 widely circulated, has so greatly helped to educate 
 the general mind; and thus does it lend its stimu- 
 lating aid to the painter, who has to strive to pro- 
 duce such works as will meet this improved state 
 of things. We can not therefore join the dilettante 
 in his extravagant regrets about the eclipse of 
 painting at the Beformation. For no more than 
 is the sun quenched by the transit shadow, was 
 the glory of art permanently dimmed when the 
 passing obscuration had gone by. 
 
 It is no doubt true that the Protestant Church 
 has not been, and never can be, the same liberal 
 patron of high art which the Catholic Church had 
 proved herself to be. But is this really to be re- 
 gretted? Is the Church the safest patron of art? 
 Does her patronage leave it altogether free? For 
 while true genius will not bribe, it may from an 
 over devotedness cease to be independent. The 
 painter must work like other men for his daily 
 
288 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 bread; and if he has lost his most liberal paymas- 
 ter in losing the Church, we are not sure but that, 
 after a season of struggle, he will find as liberal 
 purchasers, who will cramp him less in his choice 
 of subjects than did the priesthood; while his devo- 
 tion to his art, as such, if the talent is in him, will 
 in the long end make him more purely a painter. 
 To be thrown upon his own resources, to win for 
 his art-works the appreciation of art-education, must 
 have the the efiect of testing what is in him. So 
 that in course of time there will be little cause to 
 regret the loss of Church patronage. The public 
 will be safer patrons in the end than the priests. 
 
 The question will naturally be asked : To what 
 extent has sacred painting contributed to illustrate 
 the meaning of Scripture? Has it had any great 
 exegetical value? To this question we feel some 
 measure of perplexity what answer to give. The 
 point is one on which there will be differences of 
 opinion. For our own parts, we rather incline 
 to be of opinion that sacred painting has not to 
 any great extent elucidated the text of Scripture. 
 Doubtless there are certain of the Bible scenes and 
 characters, of which one can not fail to have a more 
 vivid and larger impression after having looked on 
 the pictorial delineations which some of the great 
 masters have given of them. We confess to have 
 felt this ourselves, with regard to the Deluge, the 
 Nativity, and the Descent from the Cross, when 
 helped by the representations of Poussin, Rem- 
 
MODERN PAINTING. 289 
 
 brandt, and Kubens. Still, in any sucb picture, 
 all we can have is the individual conception of the 
 artist; simply his rendering or interpretation of the 
 Scriptural idea, which may be wide enough of the 
 original facts. A more solemn and subduing repre- 
 sentation of a deluge we could not well conceive 
 than Poussin has painted. But, then, is it a repre- 
 sentation of the Noachian Deluge? Was there that 
 solitary serpent trailing up the rock from the edge 
 of the rising flood? Or was there that infant child, 
 which seems to press its naked foot against the face 
 of that other rock, as if to assist its exhausted 
 mother, who, erect in the rocking boat, is endeav- 
 oring to hand up this weakling to its father, who 
 has gained an upper ledge ? We gazed, awe-struck, 
 as upon a deluge; still the question came, was such 
 the deluge which the Scriptures record? Nor will 
 it deny that many even of the greatest masters 
 have given a wider license to their fancy than the 
 sobriety of the subject justified. We are not sure, 
 therefore, if to any very great extent the Scrip- 
 tures have been indebted to sacred painting. It is 
 not the less true, however, on this account, that 
 painting has been under unspeakable obligation to 
 the Scriptures. If to small extent they have been 
 its debtor, to a very large extent they have been 
 its benefactor. For have we not seen that it has 
 supplied the artist with a class of subjects, which, 
 though he might not be able to treat them with 
 
 literal correctness to the original, did call forth his 
 25 
 
290 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 highest powers, and stimulate his genius, as subjects 
 of another class or style would not have done? 
 Nor have our great masters been slow to own this. 
 They have shown what a deep hold the Bible had 
 taken on their imaginations, and how, more than 
 any other book, they found it replete with sug- 
 gestive themes. 
 
MODERN SCULPTURE AND MUSIC. 291 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE BIBLE THE PROMOTER OF LITERATURE AND THE 
 ARTS— MODERN SCULPTURE AND MUSIC. 
 
 Less perhaps than her sister arts, Poetry and 
 Painting, has Sculpture borrowed her subjects from 
 the Bible. One reason of this may be found in 
 the nature of the art itself, which does not admit 
 of an equal range of subject with poetry or even 
 painting. Another reason may have been, that nu- 
 merous specimens of ancient statuary, while scarcely 
 any ancient pictures, have been handed down to us; 
 the canvas having decayed while the marble has 
 endured. Hence it has happened that whereas the 
 moderns had to strike out a new path for them- 
 selves in painting, in sculpture they made it their 
 ambition rather to copy the classic models. 
 
 This last remark, however, does not apply to the 
 earliest sculptures of British growth which time has 
 spared us. For these were not imitations of the 
 classic models, but are essentially Grothic, with noth- 
 ing of the Grecian in their form, their grouping, or 
 their character. As works of art these betray man- 
 ifold defects in drawing, anatomy, and composition. 
 Yet though they were finished before the birth of 
 Cimabue — the Chaucer of art — they exhibit a bold- 
 
292 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ness of conception and an irresistible sentiment, 
 whicli are not always to be found in more modern 
 productions. And how are we to account for this? 
 whence such high attributes in works so early? It 
 is doubtless owing to the subjects which the artists 
 made choice of. And after saying this, the reader 
 will not be surprised to hear that these subjects 
 were selected from the Scriptures. It was the 
 themes of inspiration which, by their own sublim- 
 ity and lofty sentiment, sustained the unskilled 
 chisel of infant art; so that if it carved but rudely, 
 yet were its compositions bold, impressive, and ex- 
 alted. Speaking of the Cathedral of "Wells, which 
 was built by Bishop Joceline in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, Flaxman, confessedly a competent judge, says, 
 ''The west front of this church equally testifies the 
 piety and comprehension of the Bishop's mind. The 
 sculpture presents the noblest, most useful, and in- 
 teresting subjects possible to be chosen. On the 
 south side, above the west door, are alto-relievos of 
 the creation, in its different parts, together with 
 the deluge, and important acts of the patriarchs. 
 Companions to these, on the north side, are alto- 
 relievos of the principal circumstances in the life 
 of our Savior. Above these are two rows of stat- 
 ues, larger than nature, in niches, of kings, queens, 
 and nobles, patrons of the Church, saints, bishops, 
 and other religious persons, from its first founda- 
 tion to the reign of Henry the Third. Near the 
 pediment is our Savior come to judgment, attended 
 
MODERN SCULPTURE AND MUSIC. 293 
 
 by angelS; and the twelve apostles. The upper 
 arches on each side, along the whole of the west 
 front, and continued in the north and south ends, 
 are occupied by figures rising from their graves, 
 strongly expressing the hope, fear, astonishment, 
 stupefaction, or despair, inspired by the presence of 
 the Lord and Judge of the world in that awful mo- 
 ment." With regard therefore to medieval sculpture 
 we are entitled to pronounce that whatever of ide- 
 alistic merit it possesses is owing to the Scriptures. 
 
 I have said that it was too much the ambition of 
 modern sculptors to emulate the works of the an- 
 cient; when emulation would often degenerate into 
 mere imitation — in this case an imitation of the 
 Greeks' dead mythology and untranslatable ideal. 
 But it was not possible that true genius should not 
 at times aspire to originality. And the remarkable 
 fact is, that when the great masters turned aside 
 from the classic models, to strike into a path of 
 their own, they went to the Scriptures for their 
 subjects. How replete with the spirit and mate- 
 rials of high art must that book be, of which it is 
 not exaggeration to say that it contributed to raise 
 modern sculpture to an original art. 
 
 It were tedious to enumerate all the eminent 
 sculptors who, while doing homage to the Bible, 
 have immortalized their own fame. Suffice to men- 
 tion the names of Ghiberti, Donatello, Angelo, 
 Canova, Thorwaldsen, and Flaxman. So long as an 
 admiring posterity shall repeat the praises of these 
 
294 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 great ornaments of modern art, to Christianity will 
 belong no small measure of the applause; for it was 
 it which fired them with the noble ambition to per- 
 petuate, in the productions of their chisel, those 
 images of grandeur and of beauty with which it 
 had filled their enraptured vision. The during 
 marble is at once a monument of their genius and 
 a tribute to its sublimer inspiration. And it is in- 
 deed a marvelous thing in the history of art that 
 a book, great part of which was written long before 
 sculpture was known even in Greece, should, cen- 
 turies after Greece had ceased to exist as a nation, 
 begin to make its influence be felt on the genius 
 and the taste of reviving art. 
 
 Michael Angelo, striving to excel all his other 
 efforts — not excepting among these his Pieta — did 
 well to consecrate his chisel to a Scripture theme; 
 for his Moses stands forth a monument of statuary 
 isolated and inimitable by the peculiar nature of its 
 own especial sublimity. And Canova, aspiring to 
 excel in the pathetic of his art, did also well to go 
 to the Bible for his subject; for in his Repentant 
 Magdalene he has succeeded in carrying the expres- 
 sion of the melting and the soft to the highest 
 degree: the very marble seems to relax under the 
 effect of penitence, till you could imagine it to be 
 no cold statue, but the very Mary whose gushing 
 tears bathed the feet of Him who had forgiven her. 
 And Thorwaldsen, when commissioned to execute a 
 work worthy to be set up in his native city, did 
 
MODERN SCULPTURE AND MUSIC. 295 
 
 also well to select a Christian theme; for so long as 
 the colossal group of Christ and the Apostles adorns 
 Copenhagen it may boast the possession of the 
 masterpiece of its illustrious son. And Flaxman, 
 who of all our Biblical sculptors is admitted to 
 have had the loftiest genius, did also well to conse- 
 crate his chisel to designs from Scripture, for by 
 none other of his works has this artist so immor- 
 talized his name. What was it led these great 
 masters of statuary to the Bible for the subjects of 
 their highest efforts? We reply it was the same 
 which had led the great masters of painting also 
 to the Bible for their loftier subjects — the instinct 
 of their genius. To the volume of inspiration they 
 were drawn by that instinctive homage which true 
 greatness is ever inclined to pay to greatness. In 
 them was the power to embody in visible forms 
 the grand ideal of beauty and sublimity. And 
 where were they to find that ideal? Their genius, 
 laboring in vain to find it elsewhere, sought it and 
 found it in the Bible. I^or is this strange. The 
 Bible is not a book on art; but its author is that 
 Divine artist who has chiseled with his own infinite, 
 matchless skill the statuary of nature — the grand, 
 the beautiful, the sublime ornaments which adorn 
 the temple of the universe. 
 
 We hear a great deal of the immense superiority 
 of ancient over modern sculpture, and in one respect 
 it was immensely superior; for in the delineation 
 of form the Greek sculptors have been but remotely 
 
296 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 approached by the moderns. They had acquired 
 the seemingly-lost art of chiseling in marble the 
 perfect idealization of beauty; but then it was for 
 the most part merely physical beauty. And wnen 
 they essayed the representation of the passions, they 
 generally confined themselves to those which we are 
 apt to consider among the lowest of our nature. 
 Pure sentiment they rarely thought of sculpturing. 
 You meet with the statue of a dying gladiator or 
 the group of a Laocoon, but never with a statue of 
 Philanthrophy, or Patience, or Mercy. Their Graces 
 were not Faith, Hope, Charity, but merely three 
 beautiful females who attended the voluptuous god- 
 dess of love. Now mere form, however poetical its 
 idealization, addresses itself only to the lower or 
 sensuous faculties of our nature, whereas sentiment 
 appeals to the higher emotions of the soul, and stirs 
 the better feelings of the heart. The sculptors of 
 the Renaissance followed the example of the Greeks 
 and Romans to a considerable extent, combining 
 with it, however, in some of their works, a more 
 elevated and a purer moral feeling. Those of our 
 own time have advanced still further the latter 
 qualities; while bearing in mind that beauty of 
 form constitutes the highest charm of sculpture, so 
 far as the eye is addressed, they rightly assume 
 that it is also capable, by the representation of 
 sentiment, of eliciting the best sympathies of the 
 heart. And in this, the nobler function of high art, 
 we venture to be of opinion that the modern sculp- 
 
MODERN SCULPTURE AND MUSIC. 297 
 
 tors excel the ancient. It may not be theirs to 
 chisel the marble into forms so exquisitely beauti- 
 ful, yet do they breathe into it, cold stone as it is, 
 more of pure sentiment and warm feeling. Their 
 statuary may not so please the eye, but it more 
 directly touches the heart. If one is less enchanted 
 as he gazes, the fault is in his own heart if he is not 
 more softened and subdued. 
 
 In proof of this assertion, I venture to instance 
 the "Suppliant," by Weekes. The sentiment of 
 this group is a direct appeal to the holiest of moral 
 virtues, charity. The mother, pleading less for her- 
 self than her young child which hangs so helpless 
 on her arm, goes at once to the heart. Not equal 
 to this, perhaps, as a piece of sculpture, I would 
 instance "Innocence — the Dove," by Spence. "We 
 very much question whether the idea of represent- 
 ing innocence would even have entered the mind of 
 a Greek sculptor; and we more than question if he 
 would have represented it with so simple and touch- 
 ing sentiment. 
 
 It does not need, however, that we draw a com- 
 parison between the moderns and the ancients in our 
 attempt to illustrate the services which the Bible 
 has rendered to art; for the question we have to 
 do with is not whether Phidias was a greater sculp- 
 tor than Angelo, or Praxiteles than Canova; but 
 the question is this, Whether Angelo and Canova 
 would have been the great sculptors they are, ex- 
 cept for the elevating effect of Christianity on their 
 
298 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 genius? and whether Phidias and Praxiteles would 
 not have been still greater sculptors than they 
 were, had their genius been sanctified by that book 
 which alone reveals the truly fair and truly good? 
 Nature made the Greeks great sculptors without 
 the Bible, but with its aid would they not have 
 been still greater? Nature has not made the mod- 
 erns their equals; but would they have come so 
 near to an equality if, along with Nature, they had 
 not had the aid of the Bible? 
 
 MODERN MUSIC HAS BEEN GREATLY INDEBTED TO THE BIBLE. 
 
 How far, or whether to any extent, the New 
 Testament sanctions the use of instrumental music 
 in public worship, is a question upon which opinion 
 is divided; but there can be no difference of opin- 
 ion that it enjoins vocal psalmody. Accordingly it 
 has been the immemorial practice of the Christian 
 Church to make " the voice of praise" a part of its 
 religious service; and to such practice is doubtless 
 owing the high advancement to which the art of 
 music has reached, as well as the spread of a taste 
 for it among the common people. In many parts 
 of Scotland the very peasantry may be heard pour- 
 ing forth the natural eloquence of music in some of 
 our national psalm-tunes: 
 
 " They chant their artless notes in simple guise ; 
 
 They tune their hearts — by far the noblest aim : 
 Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise, 
 
 Or plaintive Martyrs — worthy of the name — 
 Or noble Elgin beats the heavenward flame, 
 
 The sweetest far of Scotio's holy lays." 
 
MODERN SCULPTURE AND MUSIC. 299 
 
 Sacred to our hearths, and still more sacred in the 
 history of our persecuted forefathers, when on moor- 
 land or mountain-side these plaintive melodies would 
 mingle with the winds of heaven and the curlew's 
 note in the sky-arched temple, to which lyart war- 
 riors and delicate maidens were driven forth to 
 worship God — how dear to Scotland are her old 
 national psalm-tunes, which, human compositions 
 though they be, are worthy to have been wedded 
 to the words of inspired song! 
 
 In its higher forms, music, not less than poetry, 
 and in the same way, has been indebted to the 
 Bible, since from it have been borrowed the sub- 
 jects of the magnificent oratorios of our greatest 
 composers. These masters of symphony could find 
 nowhere, except in the Bible, adequate themes in 
 which to discourse their matchless melodies. The 
 soul of music seemed to be straitened, its voice but 
 as a broken utterance, till at length, finding expres- 
 sion in Scriptural themes, and almost in the very 
 words of Scripture, it broke forth from the lips of a 
 Handel, a Mozart, a Haydn, and a Beethoven, into 
 those immortal oratorios — Creation, Samson, Elijah, 
 The Messiah, The Mount of Olives. 
 
 Now at length had the genius of music found 
 her voice, and as she pours forth her solemn sym- 
 phonies, they seem to repeat the echoes of those 
 lyric strains which mingled with the sound of the 
 returning waves of Egypt's divided sea; or the 
 echoes of those sublime choral melodies which woke 
 
300 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the arches of Zion's temple. And while we would 
 not be thought to approve of the sacred oratorio 
 being employed as a means of mere amusement, 
 yet, were fitting occasions sought — such as seasons 
 of national thanksgiving, when the people in these 
 lands might listen to its soul-subduing peals — few 
 things, in our opinion, would contribute more to 
 elevate their tastes and enliven their devotion. 
 
 There is still another branch of the arts, namely, 
 Architecture, regarding which, in its connection 
 with the Bible, a few words may be said. We do 
 not assign to it a section by itself, because it can 
 scarcely be said of it that it has borrowed its de- 
 signs, as painting and sculpture have their subjects, 
 from the Bible. There is, no doubt, to be found in 
 the sacred writings, a description of perhaps the 
 most stupendous and gorgeous Temple that was ever 
 reared by the hands of man — at any rate, the most 
 stupendous and gorgeous ever erected for the wor- 
 ship of the true God. Yet it can scarcely with 
 truth be said that this Temple has served as a 
 model, at least we are not aware of any ecclesias- 
 tical edifice having been built after its pattern. 
 Shall we not rather suppose that, having been the 
 only ancient temple consecrated to the worship of 
 the true God, it was intended to be unique; and 
 that having belonged to an economy which was to 
 pass away, it was decreed by Providence to destruc- 
 tion, that no copies might be taken of it for the 
 
MODERN SCULPTURE AND MUSIC. 301 
 
 temples of Christianity? Still we make no doubt 
 that the Temple of Solomon must have given an 
 impulse to architecture. 
 
 It would seem that the Emperor Justinian was 
 fired with an ambition that Constantinople in its 
 temple should rival Jerusalem; for it is recorded 
 of him, that in his admiration of the magnificent 
 temple of Santa Sophia, which at immense expense 
 he had rebuilt, he exclaimed, ''I have vanquished 
 thee, Solomon!" The boast was, no doubt, a vain- 
 glorious one, yet it shows on what the thoughts of 
 the imperial architect had been dwelling. 
 
302 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE BIBLE THE PROMOTER OF LITERATURE AND THE 
 ARTS— MODERN GENERAL LITERATURE. 
 
 This is a wide, and also a somewhat intricate 
 field, for the effect which the Bible has exerted on 
 our general literature is the resultant of many com- 
 plex influences which it would not be easy to specify 
 separately, and likewise of secret influences which 
 it were often difficult to make apparent. You can 
 tell that the dew-drops, which moisten the breath 
 of morning, assist to tinge the rose-bud with its 
 blushing hues; but then these drops fell on each 
 leaf so silently, and were so speedily absorbed by it, 
 that they may be said to hide themselves beneath 
 the very colors which they had helped to dye. 
 And so it has been with the Bible in its effects on 
 our general literature. Not with herald-sound, but 
 silent as the dewy drops, it has insinuated itself 
 into many pages, whose writers were scarcely aware 
 of its presence. They breathed its spirit without 
 knowing it, for it had folded them round as the 
 atmospheric air, which one inhales without think- 
 ing of it. 
 
 I shall not, therefore, attempt any thing like a 
 full enumeration of the services which the Bible 
 
MODERN GENERAL LITERATURE. 303 
 
 has rendered to modern literature, but will content 
 myself with offering a few general indications. 
 
 (1.) There is the effect which the Bible has had 
 in molding and enriching our language. 
 
 In one of his exquisite papers, Addison makes the 
 following observation: "There is a certain coldness 
 and indifference in the phrases of our European lan- 
 guages, when they are compared with the Oriental 
 forms of speech; and it happens very luckily that 
 the Hebrew idioms run into the English tongue 
 with a particular grace and beauty. Our language 
 has received innumerable elegancies and improve- 
 ments from that infusion of Hebraisms which are 
 derived to it out of the poetical passages of Holy 
 Writ. They give a force and energy to our expres- 
 sion, warm and animate our language, and convey 
 our thoughts in more ardent and intense phrases, 
 than any that are to be met with in our own 
 tongue." Since Addison's time, the number of 
 these Hebraisms imported into our language has 
 been greatly increased, while many similar forms 
 of expression have been imitated from them. And 
 it is amazing how much they have helped to warm 
 our colder northern dialect with somewhat of Ori- 
 ental ardor; and without taking from its native 
 robustness, have entwined the Saxon oak of our 
 language with the more graceful foliation of East- 
 ern exotics. There are current in our literature 
 innumerable phrases of great felicity, which were 
 
304 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 at first peculiar to the poets, but have now found 
 their way into our prose, all of which have dis- 
 tinctly a Hebrew origin. The following may serve 
 as specimens: The wings of the wind — hence, 
 winged words, etc.; the chambers of the East; the 
 chariot clouds; a voice of thunder; the hosts of 
 heaven; a fiery eye; tongues of flame — hence, burn- 
 ing words; thick darkness; the face of the deep — 
 hence, the face of the sky, etc. ; the breath of morn ; 
 the break of day ; the fountain of life ; living waters ; 
 to drink of immortality; the sting of death; hearts 
 of stone. 
 
 But it is the vernacular translation of the Bible 
 which has told most on the English language. And 
 we take it to be a singular phenomenon in the his- 
 tory of literature, that a book written in a foreign 
 tongue, and at a remote age, should have exerted a 
 mighty influence in molding and fixing one of the 
 languages into which it has been translated. Per- 
 haps it is not too much to say that the authorized 
 version of the Scriptures has contributed more than 
 the writings of any native author, prior at least to 
 the close of the sixteenth century, to improve the 
 English language. As a specimen of Anglo-Saxon, 
 it is the purest in the world. An American writer 
 has justly observed, '' Our translators have not only 
 made a standard translation, but they have made 
 their translation the standard of our language. The 
 English tongue in their day was not equal to such 
 a work. But God enabled them to stand as upon 
 
MODERN GENERAL LITERATURE. 305 
 
 Mount Sinai, and crane up their country's language 
 to the dignity of the originals; so that after the 
 lapse of two hundred years, the English Bible, with 
 very few exceptions, is the standard of the purity 
 and excellence of the English tongue." 
 
 Now let it be remembered that this book, more 
 than any other, has been in the hands of the peo- 
 ple; which is to say, the best specimen of the lan- 
 guage has been the most extensively read. The 
 effect which this must have had in improving the 
 popular style, can not easily be overestimated. We 
 can not help being of the opinion that many a peas- 
 ant in our rural districts, and many an artisan in 
 our cities, who without much school instruction 
 have been able to write a letter in passable En- 
 glish, owed it very much to their perusal of the 
 Bible. And to the same cause we should be dis- 
 posed very much to attribute the singularly-terse, 
 idiomatic, and clear style of the more popular of 
 our self-taught authors; such men, for example, as 
 John Bunyan, Robert Burns, and Hugh Miller. 
 Take the Pilgrims Progress— jo\x have here a 
 work which lettered criticism for long would not 
 deign to notice, which even the gentle and generous 
 Cowper might not venture to name, when awarding 
 to it a meed of stealthy praise, and this because it 
 haippened not to be the production of an academic; 
 but which now our most fastidious critics, a Southey 
 and a Macaulay, have openly pronounced to be the 
 
 finest allegory in our own, or any language. You 
 
 26 
 
306 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 can not read many pages of the book without dis- 
 covering where its unlettered author had learned his 
 style; that it was at that ''pure well of English 
 undefiled" — the authorized version of the Bible. 
 On its model certainly he formed his style — Saxon 
 to the backbone, clear as any running brook, and 
 terse as a proverb. 
 
 (2.) The influence which the Scriptures have had 
 on the national mind, and hence refiexively, which 
 they have exerted on the national literature. 
 
 The art of printing might be said to have given 
 wings to the human mind. For the great thoughts 
 which lay immured on musty parchments, in crypt 
 and cloister, or in the libraries of the rich, flew 
 over the land, when these manuscripts were multi- 
 plied into thousands of printed volumes. Now it 
 is a singular fact that, so far as is known, the first 
 book which issued from the printing-press was the 
 Bible. It came like a rush of wind on a stagnant 
 age; sounded as a night cry in the ear of a sleep- 
 ing nation; or we might say rather, like an arch- 
 angel's trump at the opening graves of a buried 
 world. Liberty started to its feet at the sound. 
 Intellect shook off its slumber. Personal conscience 
 asserted its right to question, and private judgment 
 its right to inquire. And henceforth the national 
 literature, if it was to gain acceptance with the 
 public mind, must partake of the new life which 
 had begun to pulse in the veins of the nations. 
 
MODERN GENERAL LITERATURE. 307 
 
 There are two facts noticeable about this time, 
 which are surely significant: the first, that the rise 
 of English poetry, the second, that the birth in 
 England of the Baconian philosophy, were nearly 
 cotemporaneous with the restoration of the Scrip- 
 tures to the people in their native tongue. The 
 genius of science and the genius of song slept in 
 our land till the influence of a difi*used Bible awoke 
 them. And if the successors of Bacon, first prophet 
 of English philosophy, and of Spenser, first high- 
 priest of English poetry — if these, whether they 
 too are also prophets and priests, or only Levites 
 of the temple, must take care to feed its lamps with 
 beaten oil; or with a science and a literature such 
 as is worthy the acceptance of a free, an educated, 
 a reading, a thinking people — it is not too much to 
 say that this is owing to the English Bible. 
 
 (3.) The contributions w^hich the Bible has made 
 to the general stock of ideas, which our authors 
 have worked up along with their own. 
 
 It is in the nature of literature to absorb into 
 itself and, in new forms, to reproduce whatever, at 
 its several epochs, it finds of existent beauty, truth, 
 and goodness. To it especially applies the language 
 of our great poet : 
 
 " Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 
 
 Now here is a volume which, more than all trees, 
 than all running brooks, than all stones, than every 
 
308 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 thing beside, contains in it materials for the alche- 
 my of literature to transform into its own pro- 
 ductions. For there are in it the seeds of great 
 thoughts, the outlines of high imaginings, the fore- 
 shadows of a mighty progress, the elements of per- 
 ennial meditations. And what has our higher lit- 
 erature been doing during these three centuries 
 but reproducing one or other of these? For wnat 
 spring was left to it to drink at with which the 
 Bible had not mingled? "What seeding thoughts 
 were left for it to sow which the Bible had not 
 impregnated? What images of truth, or beauty, or 
 sublimity remained to be portrayed which the Bible 
 Lad not adumbrated ? What mine of wisdom could 
 it work where the Bible had not sunk th# shaft? 
 What line of progression has it pursued where the 
 Bible had not marked the starting point and indi- 
 cated the goal? So much is this the case, that if 
 there is turned up to us, on some page of any of 
 our greatest writers, a finer passage in which the 
 thoughts breathe and the words burn, we shall un- 
 dertake to show that the breath which first vivified 
 these thoughts, and the fire which kindled these 
 words, came from the Bible. 
 
 (4.) The authorship of which the Scriptures them- 
 selves have been the subject. 
 
 A book about which a thousandfold more has 
 be^n written than all other books put together — 
 
MODERN GENERAL LITERATURE. 309 
 
 whicli has called forth the pens of friends and 
 foes — which has supplied the pulpit with its weekly- 
 themes for now these eighteen centuries — which has 
 been the subject of professorial prelections and the 
 theme of many poems and an innumerable number 
 of prose compositions, such a book could not fail 
 to have enriched our literature with some of its 
 choicest performances. What scholarship, for in- 
 stance, is more masculine than that which has been 
 devoted to a defense of the Divine origin and in- 
 spiration of the sacred volume, when the subtilties 
 of a Hume, the coarse vituperations of a Paine, the 
 flippant satire of a Voltaire, the polished insinua- 
 tions of a Gibbon, the sonorous levity and assump- 
 tions disparagement of a Shaftesbury, the rambling 
 yet lively declamations of a Bolingbroke, the cow- 
 ardly sneers of a Collins, the low ridicule and vul- 
 gar contempt of a "VVoolston, the more temperate 
 plausibilities of a Tindal, and the mathematics of a 
 La Place, called forth the pens of a Clarke, a Wat- 
 son, a West, a Leland, a Leslie, a Campbell, a Hall, 
 and a Chalmers? Or what erudition is more ripe 
 and multifarious than that which has been conse- 
 crated to the exegesis of the text and the elucida- 
 tion of the doctrines of the Bible? Or what speci- 
 mens of eloquence will surpass some of those which 
 have been written to enforce its sublime and pure 
 morality? Take from our literature those portions 
 of which the Bible itself has been the subject, and 
 what a gap would be made ! We should miss some 
 
810 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of the finest productions of the ablest and most ac- 
 complished writers of which our country can boast. 
 Nor have we any right to assume that their rare 
 and peculiar talents would have been drawn out so 
 shiningly by any other subject. 
 
 (5.) The direct influence of the Scriptures on our 
 religious, and their indirect influence on our profane 
 literature. 
 
 With regard to our religious literature, it is al- 
 most superfluous to say that to the Bible it owes, 
 not merely its fullness, its strength, its beauty, and 
 impressiveness, but also its very existence. But 
 for this perennial fountain, which seems only to in- 
 crease the oftener it is drawn from, the streams of 
 our sacred literature could not have so copiously 
 flowed. But now how rich and varied are these 
 streams to instruct the ignorant, to cheer the dis- 
 consolate, to gladden the solitary, to comfort the sick 
 and the dying. Surely they have earned a claim 
 to our warmest gratitude, those gifted authors who, 
 by the consecration of their talents to such purposes 
 as these, have proved themselves the true benefac- 
 tors of their kind. If not theirs to shine the 
 brightest in the temple of f;\me, yet doth not phi- 
 losophy nor science weave a chaplet of so hallowed 
 a renown for the brows of their most illustrious. 
 To have produced works which have been a light 
 in the dwelling, and as wells of water in the desert 
 
MODERN GENERAL LITERATURE. 311 
 
 to a thirsty soul — whicti have shortened life's road 
 to the wayworn pilgrim, and smoothed the pillows 
 of the dying — this is a praise which the greatest 
 philosopher might covet. But how much higher 
 praise, then, is due to that book whose light these 
 authors have borrowed and but faintly reflect ! As 
 planets in the spiritual firmament we hail their 
 beams, and are grateful. Yet are they not its pole- 
 star, much less its sun. Bound it, yet at how 
 great a distance, they shine, the satellites only of 
 the central orb — that Book of books which is the 
 fontal source of all wisdom, the quenchless altar 
 of devoutest thoughts, the fullest, fairest, divinest 
 image of truth, purity, and goodness. 
 
 With regard to our profane literature, I will not 
 deny that a large portion of it is trifling and im- 
 moral; but the Bible is not answerable for this. 
 Even if the authors of these vile productions have 
 borrowed from it beauties which give a seductive- 
 ness to their writings and render them more dan- 
 gerous, it is not to be blamed, but only they who 
 have had the audacity to profane its purity to their 
 own impure purposes. The hemlock distils the sun- 
 beams into a virulent poison; but there is no poison 
 in the sun. 
 
 But even in the case of immoral literature, the 
 restraining influence of the Bible, though, of course, 
 not confessed, is plainly to be seen. For writers 
 who, had they lived in pagan lands, would have 
 been undisguisedly obscene, are fain to drop a 
 
312 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 vail — though often it may be too thin — over their 
 obscenities; for in these lands the Bible is a house- 
 hold book, and vice dares not appear entirely nude 
 in the presence of celestial virtue. 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 313 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE BIBLE THE RESTORER OF LETTERS AND THE 
 
 ARTS— WHEN EUROPE HAD FALLEN BACK 
 
 INTO MILITARY BARBARISM. 
 
 The decline and fall of Roman literature and art 
 forms a curious chapter in the history of the human 
 mind. For while the Romans were diffusing a taste 
 for letters and the arts of civilized life over the dis- 
 tant provinces, those letters and those arts were 
 rapidly verging to decline within the confines of 
 Italy, and even within the walls of the capital. Of 
 the causes which led to this decline our subject 
 would not have required us to speak, were it not 
 that certain historians have included among them 
 the introduction into Italy of the new religion, or 
 Christianity. 
 
 "We are free to confess that, on its first entrance 
 into the seats of classic literature and art, Chris- 
 tianity did not assist to foster them. Nor, in the 
 nature of things, could it have been expected to do 
 so. For if we compare, or rather contrast the two 
 religions, we find the old, with its gods many, its 
 innumerable idols, its fabulous mythologies, its gor- 
 geous temples, its sacerdotal hierarchy; while, on 
 
 the contrary, the new religion taught the existence 
 
 27 
 
314 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of but one God, had no idols, was witliout a priest- 
 hood, affected none of the pomp of circumstance, 
 but studied simplicity, almost to bareness, in its 
 ritual. Now, as the literature and the arts of a 
 people uniformly reflect the spirit, and to a great 
 extent the very forms of their religion, it must at 
 once be seen that not more diverse were the two 
 literatures, that of Italy and Palestine, than were 
 the two religions, paganism and Christianity. Nei- 
 ther could meet, the literatures nor the religions, 
 without in the first instance conflicting. Then it is 
 well known that to adorn and uphold paganism, 
 pagan literature and art had very greatly contrib- 
 uted. These had popularized it. For the initiated, 
 the priest and philosophers expounded its esoteric 
 mysteries; for the multitude, the poet, the painter, 
 and the sculptor embodied its exoteric dogmas. The 
 sculptor chiseled its idols. The painter delineated 
 its mythology, which the poet had invented. Arch- 
 itecture adorned its shrines, while music gave vocal 
 effect to its ceremonial. And while thus the arts 
 served to popularize paganism, they also clothed it 
 in those sesthetical forms which are calculated to 
 fascinate men of ardent sensibilities and refined 
 taste. It is not, then, to be wondered at if the 
 abuse of letters and the arts by the pagans filled 
 the early Christians with a distaste for letters and 
 the arts themselves. For men do not always dis- 
 criminate between the lawful utility and the unlaw- 
 ful abuse of a thing. In condemning the latter, 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 315 
 
 there is a risk tliat in the first instance they over- 
 look the former. 
 
 But even if the early Christians had shown them- 
 selves more hostile to pagan literature than they 
 did, this would not warrant the inference that 
 Christianity itself then held polite learning in dis- 
 favor, any more than it would be true to say that 
 the Bible has hindered the progress of modern art, 
 because some weak Christians have denounced sacred 
 sculpture and painting. 
 
 Any one who will take the trouble to trace the 
 first decline of Latin literature will find that this 
 decline can not be ascribed to the introduction of 
 Christianity into Italy; since, Boman writers them- 
 selves being the judges, it had commenced previous 
 to that event. Cicero's "Tusculan Epistles" were 
 penned before any Christian apostle had visited the 
 Italian shores. Yet in these letters the great Eoman 
 orator plainly indicates that he was not unconscious 
 of the operation of those causes which in his time 
 had secretly begun to corrupt the genius of Boman 
 eloquence. "In this very faculty," he says, "in 
 which we have advanced from the most imperfect 
 beginnings to the highest excellence, we may, as in 
 all human things, soon expect to see symptoms of 
 decrepitude and the process of decay." The prog- 
 ress of events hastened that decay more rapidly 
 than Cicero could have anticipated. For what he 
 foresaw as to happen probably some centuries hence. 
 
316 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 had become matter of actual observation ere yet the 
 first apostles of Christianity had set foot on the 
 coasts of Italy. It were, therefore, an anachronism 
 in history to ascribe the decadence of its literature 
 to an event which was of a later date; and no less 
 a solecism in philosophy to call that the cause which 
 was subsequent to the effect. 
 
 It would seem to be a conditional law of develop- 
 ment, whether physical or mental, that a precocious 
 growth is followed by premature decay. And in 
 this law, cooperating with certain social influences 
 which intensified its action, we are inclined to seek 
 for the primary cause of the rapid decline of Koman 
 literature. That its rise was rapid, any one ac- 
 quainted with Roman history mus.t be aware. How 
 that almost at a bound it gained its altitude; was 
 in its zenith almost as soon as it had touched the 
 horizon ; shot up with scarcely a twilight to the full 
 noon of its splendors; passed at once from its in- 
 fancy to manhood. During five centuries Rome had 
 devoted herself entirely to war; for not till after 
 the conquest of Tarentum was the harp heard above 
 the din of arms in the destined capital of the world. 
 Within half a century of this non-literary period 
 appeared Ennius — justly regarded as the father of 
 Latin poetry — Plautus, and Terence. Half a cen- 
 tury later Latin literature burst forth with a splen- 
 dor which still continues to astonish succeeding 
 ages, for then its luminaries were Cicero, Caesar, 
 and Lucretius. Close on the steps of these followed 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 317 
 
 the bright ornaments of what has always been con- 
 sidered the golden age of Eoman literature. Now 
 here was a growth unprecedently rapid, both as re- 
 gards the language and the literature. At the end 
 of five centuries, the language was rough, unfixed, 
 and unharmonious ; ere the close of the sixth cen- 
 tury it was graceful in its idioms, settled in its 
 principles, and pleasing to the ear. At the end of 
 half a century more, the literature had attained its 
 highest excellence. Thus within a century and a 
 half a people who had passed through five centuries 
 without a literature of any sort, rose to be the 
 second greatest literary nation of antiquity. 
 
 How much more gradual had been the growth of 
 Grecian literature. Slowly as the oaks of Attica 
 grew the Attic literature. Between the father of 
 Latin poetry and the Augustan age of Latin litera- 
 ture, as we have seen, was only about a century and 
 a half. From the time of Homer to that of Demos- 
 thenes was at least three times that interval. And 
 there was another difibrence in the progress of the 
 two literatures. The genius of the Greeks following 
 the natural order of development, where the litera- 
 ture is original and self-evolved, the lyre had given 
 forth its highest melodies before oratory was heard 
 to raise her voice in the assemblies of the people. 
 Among the Puomans, whose literature was not orig- 
 inal but imitative, we find the reverse order. For 
 while Demosthenes followed Homer, Cicero preceded 
 Virgil. Of a growth thus natural and so slow, the 
 
318 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE, 
 
 literature of Greece would doubtless have proved 
 very lasting but for the disasters of war. When 
 the Macedonian conqueror, after the destruction of 
 Thebes, demanded the delivery of the Athenian 
 orators, he intended a death-blow to Greek oratory, 
 which he well knew had been the chief means of 
 keeping alive the spirit of liberty. He succeeded 
 in his design, but the Nemesis of fame avenged the 
 wrong. For the declension of Grecian literature, 
 which was one of the most signal results of his am- 
 bitious policy, proved at the same time a severe and 
 felt retribution of his political crimes. He who had 
 trampled out the firesr of genius, and dried up the 
 true sources of fancy and natural emotion, was left 
 to sigh in vain for a great poet to celebrate his ex- 
 ploits. Thus fell Grecian literature, as a noble oak, 
 of ancient root but still vigorous, falls beneath the 
 woodman's ax. But while Eome was still in the 
 very zenith of her military power, Roman literature 
 began to decline. Its tree had shot up too rapidly 
 to be deep-rooted in the national mind; there was a 
 softness at its core, so that when the spirit of liberty 
 was crushed its weakness became at once apparent, 
 and pliable as weak, it speedily was effeminated in 
 the breath of court favor. Its decline was more 
 rapid than its rise. For toward the close of the 
 reign of Augustus, and still more during that of 
 Tiberius, all that was great and elevating in Roman 
 literature had disappeared. Poetry became a para- 
 site of the court, history sank into a hireling pane- 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 319 
 
 gyrist, eloquence was nothing higher than a mere 
 scholastic gladiatorship. 
 
 There are some historians, who while freeing 
 Christianity from the absurd charge which others 
 have preferred against it, of having led, by its in- 
 troduction into Italy, to the decline of Italian litera- 
 ture, would blame it because when that literature 
 had begun to show signs of decay, the Christians 
 did nothing or little to revive it. But is this fair? 
 Admitting the fact alleged, should that be taken as 
 decisive of their utter want of literary tastes, which 
 was a necessity of their condition. Their sect 
 was every-where spoken against. Not seldom, and 
 against fearful odds, they had to battle for the bare 
 life. So far from having opportunity or the means 
 to cultivate the polite arts, it was not always 
 allowed them to pursue the ordinary handicrafts. 
 Thus it continued more or less, with few pauses of 
 rest, up to the time of Constantine, when the Chris- 
 tian cause, nourished by the patronage of the court, 
 was in the ascendant. 
 
 Those who could allow themselves to impugn 
 early Christianity as being either hostile or indif- 
 ferent to polite learning, must have overlooked the 
 circumstance that the first Christian who wore the 
 imperial mantle was himself a man of cultivated 
 tastes, and did much to foster among his subjects 
 literary studies. We have the testimony of Euse- 
 bius, in his History of the Life of Constantine, that 
 letters and the arts were the object of his fond solici- 
 
320 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 tude — that liis mind had been early imbued with a 
 tincture of learning — that he afterward cultivated 
 eloquence, and composed not inelegantly in the 
 Latin language, while the decrees published by him 
 in favor of the professors of the learned arts, which 
 may still be read, afiPord incontestable proof of his 
 desire to extend a higher education throughout the 
 Empire. What effects on literature his removal of 
 the seat of government to Byzantium may have ex- 
 ercised is a point about which historians differ, nor 
 needs it that we enter on the question. "What we 
 are concerned with is the fact that the first Chris- 
 tian emperor proved himself a patron of polite let- 
 ters, and that his Christian subjects, now for the 
 first time relieved from their political disabilities, 
 were not slow to prosecute those studies in which 
 hitherto their more favored heathen cotemporaries 
 had been greater proficients. 
 
 The new era, so auspiciously inaugurated by Con- 
 stantine, fixes the date from which it would be fair 
 to begin to reckon the services of early Christianity 
 to the ancient arts and literature, which were now 
 so much in their decline. ''From this time," ob- 
 serves Mosheim, '' the Christians applied themselves 
 with more zeal and diligeoce to the study of philos- 
 ophy and of the liberal arts. The emperors encour- 
 aged this taste for learning, and left no means un- 
 employed to excite and maintain a spirit of literary 
 emulation among the professors of Christianity. For 
 this purpose schools were established in many cities, 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 321 
 
 libraries were also erected, and men of learning and 
 genius were nobly recompensed by the honors and 
 advantages that were attached to the culture of the 
 sciences and arts." 
 
 For very obvious reasons, it was sacred more 
 than profane literature which the Christians culti- 
 vated; yet they were by no means deficient in the 
 latter, while in the former they furnish some emi- 
 nent writers, who, besides genius and learning, 
 proved themselves to be no mean masters in style. 
 The works of Ambrose of Milan, of Jerome, of 
 Sulpicius Severus, of Augustine, when compared 
 with the most applauded productions of their hea- 
 then cotemporaries, must be pronounced vastly su- 
 perior. In Jerome the age of Ciceronian latinity 
 might seem to have revived. 
 
 With regard to the fine arts, even at this period, 
 when now some four centuries had elapsed, the 
 Christians would seem to have been fettered with 
 a measure of that distrust which the pagan abuse 
 of these arts had so deeply rooted in the minds of 
 their predecessors. When paganism had not yet 
 ceased to decorate its temples with images and 
 paintings, and the old mythologies were still re- 
 hearsed in Homeric and Virgilian verse, shall we 
 greatly blame the Christians if a solicitude for the 
 purity of worship kept them somewhat jealous of 
 arts which had for so long been the handmaidens 
 of idolatry? Still, with all their natural jealousy, 
 they were beginning to show that they could dis- 
 
322 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 criminate between the uses and abuses of the arts, 
 and gave proofs that they were, at least, not inimi- 
 cal to them. If more than this can scarcely with 
 truth be said, we deem it, in the circumstances, no 
 small praise; for, in troublous times, with earnest 
 men, first impressions or early prejudices are not 
 speedily removed. They might be compared to 
 some parasitical fibers which the vigorous tree car- 
 ries down with its roots far from the surface. 
 
 Two events may be cotemporaneous, proceeding 
 as in parallel lines, or even inter-crossing, and yet 
 have little or no causal connection. When Chris- 
 tianity rose, the heathen arts fell. Here were co- 
 temporaneous events. Yet were they not causally 
 connected; for it was not the rise of the Star of 
 Bethlehem which occasioned the eclipse of the fine 
 arts. These would have sunk had that star never 
 risen. They had begun to sink, as we have seen, 
 before its light had yet skirted the Italian shores. 
 But for the influence of extraneous causes, it is not 
 difficult to conjecture what the effect of Christianity 
 would have been on the progress of the arts. It 
 could not have patronized them in their heathen 
 forms, since it forbade bowing to gods of stone, 
 and wood, and brass, and proclaimed it impossible 
 to grave or mold any similitude of the Divine 
 Being whom no man hath seen at any time. But 
 this would have purified art rather than crushed it. 
 ^'Painting and sculpture," to use the words of Al- 
 lan Cunningham, "taking a new direction, and in- 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 323 
 
 spired with a truer inspiration, would have wrought 
 miracles worthy of the days of Phidias and Apelles." 
 
 How then, it may be asked, did Christianity not 
 achieve this for heathen art? To have accomplished 
 it must have required considerable time. It could 
 be the work only of peaceful centuries — a slow re- 
 formation, which resembles the labors of the horti- 
 culturist in rearing the forest trees, and not that 
 of the woodman who might cut down any one of 
 them in a few hours. But time was not afforded 
 Christianity to work the change which, judging from 
 its accomplished effects in after centuries, we fee^ 
 confident it would have achieved for ancient art. 
 
 The provinces of Germany, which the Eomans had 
 not subdued, and the more remote regions of the 
 North of Europe, and North-West of Asia, swarmed 
 with barbarous tribes, who, partly compelled by 
 their amazing fecundity to migrate, and partly fired 
 with a love for warlike adventure and the hope of 
 conquest, poured forth an un summed and unknown 
 race toward the plains of the sun, to contend with 
 those who called them barbarians for the vineyards 
 and cornfields of Italy and Greece. Their terrible 
 march was as that of the locust-swarms described 
 by the prophet Joel — innumerable and devouring. 
 Even before the Christian era, these Northern na- 
 tions had given indications of their resolution to 
 move southward; and in the days of the apostles 
 their barbaric armies were on the march. Thus it 
 happened that while the messengers of the cross 
 
324 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 were approaching Rome from the East, with the 
 voice of peace and good-will to men, from the 
 North there already sounded the war cry of those 
 Gothic hordes, which were coming in like a flood. 
 Had Rome sooner listened to the message of peace, 
 she would have allied to herself a power which 
 might have so girded up her loosened might, and 
 revived her waning vigor, as to enable her to stem 
 back the torrent which ultimately swept over the 
 Empire. For a time the warlike spirit of the early 
 emperors, and the discipline of the legions, retarded 
 or repulsed these ruthless invaders. But each re- 
 turning tide rolled further on with increased swell, 
 for there seemed no limit to the myriad numbers 
 which kept pouring forth from their teeming fast- 
 nesses, which have not inaptly been called "the 
 storehouse of nations." Nor did the fiercest of the 
 hordes which had already appeared equal in ferocity 
 those hordes which followed, for in savage barbarism 
 the Goths were exceeded by the Huns. Onward 
 swept the wasteful flood, the decaying barriers of 
 the Empire giving way before it; till, at the opening 
 of the sixth century, no country of Southern Europe 
 remained unoccupied by some Northern tribe. It 
 was a flood of absolute devastation. Liberty fled 
 before it, but could find no Ararat. The ancient 
 glory of the Caesars was quenched in blood. Science 
 and letters were all but extinguished on the earth. 
 The reign of barbarism was reproduced; for though 
 the serpent tribes are known to be fascinated by 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 825 
 
 the power of music, these savage Norsemen would 
 not be charmed by the harmony of song, nor soft- 
 ened by the sculptor's or the painter's art. Tem- 
 ples were razed to the ground; statues trodden 
 ruthlessly under foot; pictures and books burned as 
 so much brushwood. Nothing was spared which art 
 or literature had reared; and amid the ruins bar- 
 barity crowned itself with iron, and with iron shod 
 its heel, which was on the neck of the vanquished. 
 
 But where was Christianity all this time? 
 
 Let us first say a word upon its preservative, be- 
 fore speaking of its restorative power. 
 
 The history of these dismal times strikingly ex- 
 hibits Christianity as a preservative influence. Its 
 divine, and therefore indestructible vitality, enabled 
 it to survive the sad devastation which followed the 
 irruption of the barbarians. Amid the wasteful 
 commotions which overflowed the seats of ancient 
 civilization, though there was found for Christianity 
 no fixed resting-place, it continued to float secure 
 as the ark of old upon the flood of waters. A 
 power greater than man's kept it on the surface, 
 when in the social whirlpool which was caused by 
 the shock of confluent nations, or rather of conflict- 
 ing races, every thing else fair and lovely and of 
 good report went down. It still survived, and with 
 it survived the hopes of science and letters. That 
 which has been suspected of hastening their decline 
 alone saved them from utter extirpation. Under 
 the shadow of its troubled branches, though they 
 
326 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 could not find a peaceful shelter — for peace was 
 then unknown — yet were they protected from irre- 
 trievable destruction. The breath of its undying 
 life was that which kept them in any measure 
 alive. 
 
 But Christianity had more than a preservative 
 power. The salt which retards putrefaction can not 
 vivify the dead carcass. The balms and unguents 
 which preserve the flesh, and even the features of- 
 the coffined corpse, through thousands of years, can 
 never restore to it the breath of life; for, unwind- 
 ing the swathed linen, it is only a mummy you un- 
 cover. But Christianity has more than an anti- 
 septic influence. It has a vital restorative virtue; 
 and now we are prepared to make good, by a simple 
 appeal to the history of the times, the great fact 
 which forms the heading of this chapter, namely, 
 that the Bible, or — what in effect is the same — 
 Christianity, restored literature and the arts to 
 Europe when it had relapsed into a military despot- 
 ism, and lay with its crushed head under the iron 
 feet of the barbarians. 
 
 The restoration of literature and the arts was not 
 to be effected by the repulsion of the conquerors 
 and the reinstatement of the Romans into their 
 former seats of empire. This was now, indeed, im- 
 possible ; for the latter had been exterminated in a 
 long succession of ravage and war ; and what scanty 
 remnants were spared had either been compelled to 
 seek for shelter in some other soil, or been mixed 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 327 
 
 up with the invading mass. If, then, civilization 
 was to be restored to Europe, the barbarous con- 
 querors who now possessed it must be civilized. 
 
 It was Christianity which achieved this. The 
 fierce conquerors, who had remained unsoftened by- 
 all that was civilized and elegant, were not un- 
 touched by the preaching of the dauntless succes- 
 sors of the apostles. Seated among the ruins of 
 temples and cities, they would hold their wassail 
 feasts amid the grim accompaniments of barbaric 
 revelry; their swords still in hand, the wine-cup 
 perhaps some human skull, their footstools some 
 broken statue — Apollo or Venus. And thus, during 
 the pauses of runic song and revel merriment, the 
 rude and fierce chiefs who ruled the Gothic tribes 
 would give a sort of surly audience to the preachers 
 of the Cross, who came to tempt them with the joys 
 of heaven, or alarm them with the horrors of hell. 
 Nor did they listen without emotion. There was 
 that about the preachers which was fitted to disarm 
 hostility; they came neither as rivals nor as ene- 
 mies. There was also about them much which was 
 fitted to command respect from warriors of a bold 
 and independent spirit; they stood before them 
 neither as mercenaries, nor as suppliants, nor as 
 flatterers; while in the doctrines they proclaimed, 
 more especially in the glory or the woe of a future 
 state, there was something which suited the imag- 
 inations, and, in some measure, accorded with the 
 natural belief of the Goths, and fitted their minds 
 
328 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 to receive the divine truths of the Gospel. While 
 the Christian, besides these secondary causes, will 
 not deem it credulity to ascribe the almost miracu- 
 lous success of these early preachers to a power 
 beyond their own, which employed them as the 
 human instruments in achieving its own divine pur- 
 poses. 
 
 It has been said, and we can find no reason to 
 doubt the assertion, that painting and scul|^ture 
 aided largely in bringing about the conversion of 
 the barbarians. According to Allan Cunningham, 
 '' the first missionaries, speaking the classic lan- 
 guages of Greece or Eome, were not understood 
 by their Northern audiences till they called in the 
 works of the pencil and chisel as auxiliaries. A 
 Christ on the Cross, a Virgin Mother, a St. John in 
 the Wilderness, the Raising of Lazarus, the Ascen- 
 sion, together with relics of the early saints, all 
 helped to relate the history and the hopes of Chris- 
 tianity, and impress it on their rude understand- 
 ings. Nor were the barbarians reluctant hearers: 
 so anxiously did they look and listen, that when the 
 first preacher of the Scriptures to the Irish struck, 
 unwittingly, the iron-shod end of his crosier through 
 the foot of one of the princes, the latter bore the 
 pain with fortitude, from a belief that it was a 
 sample of the truths which the other came to 
 teach." 
 
 We vhave here two remarks to offer: The first, 
 that if the fine arts did some good service to the 
 
LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED. 329 
 
 Christian preachers, in enabling them the better to 
 interpret and symbolize an intellectual and spiritual 
 doctrine to the comprehension of the barbarians, it 
 is not to be thought that very great assistance 
 could be got from any so coarse and rude specimens 
 of art as they had to exhibit. Our second remark 
 is, that any assistance which the arts rendered to 
 Christianity was more than a hundredfold repaid to 
 them by the effect which the conversion of the bar- 
 barians exercised on their restoration, extension, 
 and improvement. But for Christianity, there is no 
 reason whatever to believe that Europe would have 
 again been lighted up with a healthier literature 
 and art than that which barbarism had extin- 
 guished. To persuade the same rude hands which 
 had broken the lamp to trim it anew, and rekindle 
 it — this was the singular triumph of Christianity. 
 
 28 
 
330 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE BIBLE THE RESTORER OF INTELLECTUAL LIFE— 
 WHEN EUROPE HAD SUNK INTO AN EF- 
 FEMINATING SUPERSTITION. 
 
 It were both a foul and a wearisome task to 
 wade through that slough of ignorance and super- 
 stition which had collected during the Middle Ages, 
 and which lay as a mental dead-weight on the 
 nations of Europe up till nearly the time of the 
 Reformation. Still our subject requires that we 
 shall take some notice of it. The corruptions by 
 which the Christian religion was universally dis- 
 figured, at the time indicated, together with the 
 gross ignorance which prevailed, not only among 
 the people, but also the priests who were their pro- 
 fessed teachers, are matters of history. Supersti- 
 tion and religious imposture, in the grossest forms, 
 were wielded with a high hand by the clergy, who 
 by such means had attained to an exorbitant degree 
 of opulence and power. As a natural consequence, 
 what small learning might then be found was sedu- 
 lously kept from the laity. Intellectual culture, if 
 not positively interdicted, was even more effectually 
 checked by being stigmatized with tending to skep- 
 ticism or heresy, while ignorance received the con]. 
 
INTELLECTUAL LIFE RESTORED. 331 
 
 mendation of being the mother of devotion. To be 
 ignorant and to be devout were accounted much 
 the same thing. Then it might be said, as if the 
 earth must needs have its mental, as of old it had 
 its material chaos, that "darkness was upon the 
 face of the deep." For ignorance mingled with 
 superstition spread a vail over the nations blacker 
 than the shades of Erebus. 
 
 As invariably is the case with an ignorant age, 
 this was also an age of servile bondage. And it 
 was the minds and consciences of men which were 
 enslaved. Fetters were then worn such as had 
 never been forged of iron, and drudge-work was 
 then done such as blind Samson had not to do 
 when he ground at the mill, the sport of Philistia's 
 nobles. When the soul that is in a man holds out 
 its thoughts to be put in thrall, and bends its un- 
 derstanding to be girded with the yoke, then is 
 such a man, though all unfettered his limbs, a very 
 slave. 
 
 But was there no ark of liberty in this age of 
 bonda.ge? no Pharos during these dismal centuries 
 of ignorance? There were; but we are not to seek 
 for that ark at Rome, nor for this Pharos in the 
 cloistered cell. 
 
 The rise and history of the Waldenses, or Vau- 
 dois, must be familiar to the reader. This inter- 
 esting sect was singular, during these times of 
 mental serfdom, in asserting the right of private 
 judgment, and in claiming liberty of conscience for 
 
S32 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the individual to worship God according to the 
 prescriptions of his "Word. As might be supposed, 
 the standard of religious liberty which they reared 
 was obnoxious in the eyes of a dominant priesthood 
 who had conspired to trample all liberty in the 
 dust. The princes of Europe were inflamed against 
 them, and they were chased by fierce persecutions 
 from place to place, till only a small remnant was 
 left, who found a retreat, fortified by nature, in the 
 valleys of Western Piedmont, where they founded 
 a distinct Church, which continued to keep alive 
 the spirit of liberty till the trumpet of emancipa- 
 tion was sounded at the Reformation. It was not, 
 then, at Eome, but among the mountains of Pied- 
 mont, that the ark of freedom rested on its Ararat; 
 and not till it had been tossed by the floods of 
 cruel persecution. And the remarkable fact which, 
 in connection with our subject, falls chiefly to be 
 noted by us, is, that this champion band of true 
 freemen, when all others submitted to be slaves, 
 made the Bible alone the rule of their faith, and 
 avouched it to be the charter of their liberty. 
 
 I have said that, during these dismal centuries of 
 ignorance, the Pharos of literature was never en- 
 tirely extinguished, but had continued to shine, 
 here and there, a light in the darkness; and those 
 who would place the revival of literature and co- 
 temporaneous with the Preformation, post-date it by 
 more than a century. For Dante, whose marvelous 
 poem so took the world by surprise, and has by his 
 
INTELLECTUAL LIFE RESTORED. 333 
 
 admiring countrymen been styled, with a pardon- 
 able pride, the Divina Comedia, gave a luster to 
 the fourteenth century. Cotemporary with Dante 
 in the different departments of learning were men 
 of no mean acquirements; but eclipsing them all 
 by his genius, his learned labors, and enthusiasm, 
 was Petrarch. The taste for poetry and elegant 
 composition, for which the public mind had been 
 prepared by the writings of Dante, was raised to a 
 pitch of enthusiastic admiration when the works of 
 Petrarch appeared. And it will not be denied that 
 the Genius of Poetry was beginning once more to 
 be honored, when the ceremonial of a public coro- 
 nation, which in her days of splendor Eome reserved 
 for the victorious commanders of armies, was be- 
 stowed upon a votary of the muses. The crown of 
 Petrarch, with all its attendant applause, reflected 
 back a glory on the age which had placed it on the 
 poet's brow. Nor may we omit to mention, as asso- 
 ciated with Petrarch in his noble efforts to revive 
 literature, and all but equaling him in genius, Boc- 
 caccio of Tuscany; and, without stopping to trace 
 the symptoms of a reviving literature in the other 
 countries of Europe, I would mention the appear- 
 ance of Chaucer in our own, who is the acknowl- 
 edged father of English poetry, and who, though 
 perhaps not in an equal degree, did for the lan- 
 guage of his country what Petrarch and Boccaccio 
 had accomplished for the language of theirs — gave 
 it a literary permanence and consistency. His na- 
 
834 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 tive style, whicli Spenser terms "the pure well of 
 English undefiled," formed a standard of compo- 
 sition. 
 
 We are, therefore, free to admit, what is some- 
 times overlooked by those who have written on the 
 supposed total darkness of the Middle Ages, that 
 the revival of letters preceded the Beformation by 
 at least a century. But in making this admission, 
 we must still maintain that only here and there, 
 like some bright, particular star, a brilliant name 
 appeared in the surrounding gloom — the harbingers 
 of a noonday whose twilight had as yet but dimly 
 shown itself; and among these names we shall cer- 
 tainly find but few Churchmen. Nor did this alto- 
 gether arise from the want of natural talent, but 
 because the general studies of ecclesiastics and of 
 monks, so far from being favorable, were averse to 
 polite literature. The monastery seldom sent forth 
 any other light than what was shed by the gloomy 
 bale-fires of superstition, and rarely was there any 
 other light visible within it except the sickly 
 smoke-flame of an idle, impracticable erudition. In 
 these so-called retreats of learning, the literature 
 was monkish legends, and the philosophy the unin- 
 telligible jargon and logomachy of the Schoolmen. 
 There were written and read the lives of saints who 
 had never existed, and the authority of Aristotle 
 was advanced while his pages were left unopened, 
 and as to any acquaintance with the learned 
 tongues, if we except the Latin, this was dispensed 
 
INTELLECTUAL LIFE RESTORED. 335 
 
 with, not only among the lower clergy, but even 
 among the hierarchy of the Eomish Church. Ex- 
 amples of the total ignorance of Greek, not to speak 
 of Hebrew, among the priesthood might be cited, 
 which would be utterly ludicrous were the subject 
 not so grave. 
 
 The great event which must be regarded as the 
 chief impulse which assisted the revival of litera- 
 ture in the centuries preceding the Eeformation, 
 was what has not inaptly been called "the resur- 
 rection of the ancient classics." The noble pro- 
 ductions of classic antiquity might be said to have 
 been lost to modern Europe; for, though it still 
 possessed them, it was as a hidden treasure, piled 
 away among the lumber and cobwebs of the clois- 
 ter. The priceless manuscripts which contained the 
 imperishable thoughts of a Cicero and a Demos- 
 thenes had, for the sake of the mere parchment, 
 been blurred over with some obliterating unguent 
 that the legends of saints and similar absurdities 
 might be written upon it, or they lay rotting away, 
 unread and unthought of, on the shelves of the 
 sacristy. How great a loss to literature was the 
 loss of these matchless productions it needs not that 
 we say. But there is an immortality in the works 
 of true genius. Those, therefore, of Demosthenes 
 and Cicero, of Sophocles and Horace, of Herodotus 
 and Tacitus, though buried for a time, could not 
 die. And the time drew on when they were to be 
 disentombed. Once more the literarv firmament of 
 
S36 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Europe was to be lighted up with the ancient lu- 
 minaries, which were not any longer to be like 
 those sepulchral lamps which are said to have 
 burned in the tombs, shedding their light on the 
 pale faces of the dead who could not see it. 
 
 Dante, whose original genius did so much to 
 awake anew a literary taste, called Virgil his mas- 
 ter; while both Petrarch and Boccaccio confessed 
 their obligations to the authors of ancient Qreece. 
 And now the cry arose, Where are the lost classics? 
 Popes vied with princes, and cardinals strove with 
 scholars, to search them out; so that in a very 
 short time the works of Cicero, Diodorus Siculus, 
 Homer, Strabo, Polybius, Xenophon, Quintilian, 
 were restored to Europe. The cultivation of the 
 Greek tongue now became the rage of the period. 
 Not to know it was considered as a mark of igno- 
 rance, which was singularly debasing in every pre- 
 tender to letters. Nor did the revived enthusiasm 
 stop till libraries were formed, and schools and uni- 
 versities instituted for the cultivation of the classic 
 languages and literature. While with the eagerness 
 to restore the literary remains of classic antiquity, 
 there kept pace a zeal to discover and collect the 
 monuments of its arts; so that with revived letters 
 Europe witnessed a revival in the arts. 
 
 But what was the effect of all this? Did a men- 
 tal revolution follow? Europe had recovered Cicero 
 and Demosthenes, Virgil and Homer; but did these 
 Bet Europe free? While the learned devoured the 
 
INTELLECTUAL LITE RESTORED. 337 
 
 long-lost treasures of classic literature — its poetry, 
 eloquence, and philosophy — were the great body of 
 the people any less ignorant than they were before? 
 The answer to these questions is but too explicit. 
 The general mind was as much asleep as ever, and 
 Europe still lay helpless at the feet of a priestly 
 superstition. In short, the revival of ancient litera- 
 ture was no emancipation; the recovered classics 
 were not the key which was to unlock the treas- 
 ures of knowledge for the people. Neither Demos- 
 thenes with his eloquence, nor Homer with his song, 
 could break the enchanter's spell which still held 
 the nations in mental fascination. Not yet had ar- 
 rived the second epoch in the intellectual culture of 
 Europe. For the ruling tone and spirit of the age 
 proceeding mainly, we might say exclusively, from 
 the revival of the ancient literature and learning of 
 the Greeks and Romans, could not be expected to 
 rise much, if any, above these. There were not 
 wanting courtly literati and Latin poets formed on 
 the old classical models; political writers in the 
 Latin tongue, which was still the language of diplo- 
 macy; statesmen and politicians of the greatest in- 
 fluence, trained up in the school of Greek and 
 Eoman history and politics; and polite dilettanti of 
 pagan antiquity. So that the aesthetic part of an- 
 cient literature, and the political application of clas- 
 sical knowledge, were cultivated with avidity; but 
 then these formed the main and almost exclusive 
 
 object of pursuit, and gave very much of a pagan 
 
 29 
 
338 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 complexion to revived literature and the arts. Many 
 of those classical spirits were more conversant and 
 more at home in ancient Rome and Athens, in the 
 manners, history, and politics of antiquity, or even 
 in its mythology, than in their own age, in the ex- 
 isting relations of society, or in the doctrines and 
 principles of Christianity. While therefore we must 
 freely own that the recovery of the ancient classics 
 led to a revival of letters, we must repeat that it 
 failed entirely in producing an intellectual regenera- 
 tion. Any thing like earnest, practical thought, or 
 original investigation, was entirely wanting among 
 the learned, whose classical enthusiasm, drawing 
 them after objects totally foreign, made them en- 
 tirely regardless of the existing relations and wants 
 of society; and like an enchanting draught, seemed 
 to waft them into a dream-land that had no connec- 
 tion with the actual world, which then eminently 
 needed their talents and learning to be devoted to 
 practical reform. And while this was the case with 
 the learned, the common people were still the dupes 
 of superstition and the slaves of ignorance. The 
 resurrection of the lost classics then did not bring 
 intellectual life to the nations of Europe. 
 
 The Bible also had become as it were a lost book. 
 For buried in the crypt of the cathedral, or stowed 
 away on the shelves of the sacristy, or covered over 
 with heaps of legends on the tables of the scripto- 
 rium, few even of the clergy knew any thing about 
 it, and fewer still ever thouglit of reading it. But 
 
INTELLECTUAL LIFE RESTORED. 339 
 
 it too was immortal. Though buried it could not 
 die, and the time of its disentombment also arrived. 
 As we had occasion to remark in a preceding part 
 of this work, the art of printing may be said to 
 have given wings to human thought; and so far as 
 is known, the first book that issued from the print- 
 ing-press was the Bible. Still it might be said of 
 the Scriptures, which were now at length disen- 
 tombed, that, like Lazarus, they came forth bound 
 hand and foot with grave-clothes; for as yet, with 
 scarcely an exception, they were wrapped up in the 
 learned languages, and not for some time would 
 they be presented to the people in their own ver- 
 nacular. A book which had been so long held back 
 needed a forerunner to proclaim its coming; one 
 who could herald its approach with a voice of 
 power, which the nations hearing, would be pre- 
 pared to hail its appearance, and prize it as a 
 treasure invaluable. That forerunner was raised up 
 in the person of Martin Luther. He unquestion- 
 ably was the modern Baptist, of whom it might be 
 said, that he was the voice of one crying in the 
 wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Word of 
 the Lord, make his paths straight." 
 
 In the year 1501, there arrived at the University 
 of Erfurth a poor scholar, who, having tasted the 
 sweets of literature, burned with a desire of knowl- 
 edge, and longed to slake his thirst for letters at 
 one of the academic fountains of learning. The 
 young student showed a singular aptitude, was 
 
340 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 endowed witli a fine genius, and with indomitable 
 perseverance set himself to peruse the writings of 
 Cicero, Virgil, and other classic authors. He had 
 evidently caught the enthusiasm of the age, which, 
 as we have seen, still reveled with a sort of intoxi- 
 cation among the newly-recovered masterpieces of 
 antiquity. But if these studies fired the genius and 
 gratified the literary tastes of young Luther, they 
 failed to reach the inmost depths of his being. 
 There slumbered in him a power which they could 
 not wake; and which, going out from him, was yet 
 to awake the world. 
 
 "The young student," to quote the words of 
 D'Aubign6, ''passed in the University library all 
 the time he could snatch from his academical pur- 
 suits. Books were as yet rare, and it was a great 
 privilege for him to profit by the treasures brought 
 together in this vast collection. One day — he had 
 then been two years at Erfurth, and was twenty 
 years old — he opens many books in the library, one 
 after another, to learn their writers' names. One 
 volume that he comes to attracts his attention. He 
 has never, till this hour, seen its like. He reads 
 the title — it is a Bible! a rare book, unknown in 
 those times. His interest is greatly excited; he is 
 filled with astonishment at finding other matters 
 than those fragments of the Gospels and Epistles 
 that the Church has selected to be read to the peo- 
 ple during public worship every Sunday throughout 
 the year. Till this day he had imagined that they 
 
INTELLECTUAL LIFE RESTOKED. 341 
 
 composed the whole Word of God. And now he 
 sees so many pages, so many chapters, so many 
 books, of which he had no idea! His heart beats 
 as he holds the Divinely-inspired volume in his 
 hand. With eagerness, and with indescribable emo- 
 tion he turns over these leaves from God. The 
 first page on which he fixes his attention narrates 
 the story of Hannah and of the young Samuel. 
 He reads — and his soul can hardly contain the joy 
 it feels. This child, whom his parents lend to the 
 Lord as long as he liveth; the Song of Hannah, in 
 which she declares that Jehovah 'raiseth up the 
 poor out of the dust, and lifteth the beggars from 
 the dunghill, to set them among princes;* this 
 child, who grew up in the Temple in the presence 
 of the Lord; those sacrificers, the sons of Eli, who 
 are wicked men, who live in debauchery, and ' make 
 the Lord's people to transgress;' all this history, 
 all this revelation that he has just discovered, ex- 
 cites feelings till then unknown. He returns home 
 with a full heart. '0 that God would give me 
 such a book for myself!' thought he. Luther was 
 as yet ignorant both of Greek and Hebrew. It is 
 scarcely probable that he had studied these lan- 
 guages during the first two or three years of his 
 residence at the University. The Bible that had 
 filled him with such transports was in Latin. He 
 soon returned to the library to pore over his treas- 
 ure. He read it again and again, and then in his 
 astonishment and joy, he returned to read it once 
 
342 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 more. The first glimmerings of a new truth were 
 there beginning to dawn upon his mind. 
 
 "Thus had God led him to the discovery of his 
 Word, of that book of which he was one day to 
 give his fellow-countrymen that admirable transla- 
 tion in which Germany has for three centuries 
 perused the oracles of God. Perhaps for the first 
 time this precious volume has now been taken down 
 from the place it occupied in the library of Er- 
 furth. This book, deposited upon the unknown 
 shelves of a gloomy hall, is about to become the 
 book of life to a whole nation. In that Bible the 
 Eeformation lay hid." 
 
 That Bible in the University library at Erfurth, 
 and afterward the chained Bible which he found in 
 the convent of the hermit of St. Augustine, accom- 
 plished in Luther what the ancient classics, for 
 which he had so great a passion, failed to achieve. 
 Behold the broad-browed monk with the eagle eye, 
 in his convent cell, how greedily he drinks in, page 
 after page, the wonderful book, till that broad brow 
 seems to expand, and those eagle eyes to shoot out 
 fire! Eureka! the solitary monk exclaims — I have 
 found it : the key of knowledge, the sword of truth, 
 the watchword of liberty. And now — his time hav- 
 ing come — with that key at his girdle, that sword 
 in his hand, and that watchword on his lips, this 
 God-sent man goes forth to instruct, to reform, to 
 liberate the world. He proclaims freedom in the 
 name of that book which has made himself free. 
 
INTELLECTUAL LIFE RESTORED. 343 
 
 He puts the Bible as a trump of jubilee to bis 
 mouth, and sounds over Europe the redemption- 
 year of literature as well as theology. 
 
 And now let the fact be pondered: the finding 
 of the Bible did lead to a mental revolution — the 
 revival of Biblical learning was an emancipation — 
 the classic of Palestine has proved the key, which 
 at a touch was to open the locked stores of knowl- 
 edge to the people. And since these glorious days 
 of Luther, on and still on has rolled the tide of lib- 
 erty, on and still on has moved the march of prog- 
 ress, on and still on has spread the light of truth, 
 till now, the accumulated stores of modern learning, 
 the astonishing discoveries and inventions of modern 
 science, the rapid progress of modern arts, the spirit 
 of earnest inquiry, the spread of education, the read- 
 ing millions, are a monument of what the human 
 mind can accomplish when it is free; and not less a 
 memorial that it was the Bible which procured its 
 freedom. 
 
344 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE ON SCIENCE. 
 
 Although it does not fall within the strict title 
 of this volume, yet it is so congruous with its de- 
 sign that I can not allow myself to pass over, with- 
 out some remark, the influence which the Bible has 
 exerted on science. 
 
 The objection may be heard that the Scriptures 
 have not made any contributions to the physical 
 sciences. But this is surely most frivolous. Sup- 
 pose an infidel, who is addicted to natural philoso- 
 phy, to take up the Institutes of Calvin; and, after 
 reading a few pages, to throw the book aside with 
 a sneer that there is nothing in it about the laws 
 of motion or the mechanical powers. Or suppose 
 an infidel, who has a preference for mathematical 
 studies, to complain of Humboldt's Cosmos that it 
 contains no pure geometry, and does not expound 
 the differential calculus. Or suppose a third infidel, 
 who is fond of natural history, to take exception to 
 Herschel's treatises on astronomy that they are 
 wanting in zoology and botany. Or we shall sup- 
 pose that a fourth, who is a distinguished chemist, 
 faults Brewster's Optics because they do not de- 
 scribe the atomic theory; or that a fifth, who is an 
 
MODERN SCIENCE. 345 
 
 enthusiastic geologist, censures De Morgan's work 
 on Probabilities, because it gives no account of ex- 
 tinct genera; or that a sixth, who is addicted to 
 metaphysics, blames Macaulay because, in his His- 
 tory of England, he has not discussed the doctrine 
 of innate ideas. These suppositions imply a stand- 
 ard of criticism so vastly absurd that they provoke 
 a smile by their bare mention. The only fair and 
 reasonable criticism by which to test a book, is 
 whether, first, the subject was worth writing upon ; 
 and if so, secondly, whether its author has done 
 that well which he undertook to do. Now the 
 sacred penmen never undertook to write on science. 
 Their chosen subject is theology. The only relevant 
 question, therefore, as to the merits of their works, 
 is whether they have handled this subject well; en- 
 larging its field by solid contributions, and illustra- 
 ting its several objects by just exposition. 
 
 Had the Scriptures made contributions to phys- 
 ical science, then, just in proportion to the amount 
 of these contributions, they would have been useless 
 as a revelation of moral and spiritual truth. "Were 
 a Bible to be given to mankind now it might allude 
 not only to the facts, but also to the higher gener- 
 alizations of modern science, and this with good 
 efiect, for its readers could understand its allusions. 
 But with what other efi'ect than to bewilder man- 
 kind, could the Bible have announced any one of the 
 modern discoveries in science? Fancy it speaking 
 to the ancient Hebrews of the diurnal rotation of 
 
316 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the earth, or of its annual revolution. If it was to 
 teach science, it could only do so by commencing 
 with its first elements : in other words, it must have 
 been an elementary treatise on astronomy, botany, 
 chemistry, geology, etc. And if thus a popular 
 digest of the sciences, it must have been a very 
 voluminous affair indeed. And one might be 
 tempted to ask, if the masses were to master its 
 scientific portions, what time would they have left 
 to study its theology, or its subject proper? 
 
 Some reputable writers have expressed the opin- 
 ion, that there are to be found in the Bible the 
 germs of undeveloped science, prophetic anticipa- 
 tions, or oracular allusions let drop here and there 
 prenunciating modern discoveries, which, though 
 not intelligible in those unscientific ages, do now 
 yield an intelligible meaning when read in the light 
 of these times. But for our own part, we are free 
 to confess, that we would set small value on these 
 so-called Scriptural prelusions of science before its 
 age. We apprehend that the Divine Author of the 
 Bible intended to leave it to man himself to write 
 his own books on physical science. And in this he 
 has acted in accordance with a fundamental prin- 
 ciple in his providence; which is, not to proclaim 
 by a voice from heaven truths which are discover- 
 able by the due exercise of man's own reason. No 
 doubt it has taken a long time for man to discover 
 true science. The Baconian philosophy dates only 
 from the sixth millennium in the world's history; 
 
MODERN SCIENCE. 847 
 
 the three magna opera on science — Bacon's Novum 
 Organurrij Newton's Princijpia, and La Place's 
 MSeJianique Celeste, are "far between." But then, 
 necessary as these three great works were to its 
 science, the world could better afford to wait for 
 them than for a completed Bible. Accordingly it 
 was given and its canon closed many centuries 
 before the first of these appeared; whereas He who 
 *'knoweth the end from the beginning," foreseeing 
 that Bacon, Newton, and La Place would yet arise, 
 did not reveal what they, without a revelation, were 
 to discover. 
 
 But the infidel will have it, that the Bible has 
 been obstructive to science. 
 
 Now, it is confessed that science has had its 
 martyrs, and that the Church kindled the pyre. 
 With pious indignation and eloquent invective the 
 Fathers of the Christian Church condemned the 
 theory of the Antipodes as being opposed to Scrip- 
 ture. With equal indignation, but employing tor- 
 ture instead of invective. Pope Zachary treated 
 Virgilius as a heretic for broaching this same 
 theory. The council of Salamanca indignantly de- 
 nounced the notion of the earth being a sphere; 
 and the doctors of the inquisition consigned to their 
 dungeons the illustrious Florentine who proclaimed 
 the theory of the earth's rotation. Nor was it only 
 the Papacy which by an appeal to Scripture at- 
 tempted to lay an arrest on modern science. Our 
 earlier Protestant divines arrayed themselves against 
 
348 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the system of Copernicus; and one of the most 
 learned and eloquent of them set himself to prove 
 from Scripture, as if it were a very article of or- 
 thodox Christianity, that the earth is stationary, 
 while the sun, with the entire host of stars, are the 
 only pilgrim-orbs in the firmament. Among our 
 later divines not a few have set an anti-Biblical 
 brand upon the researches of the geologists. 
 
 We can not justify either the scientific opinions 
 of the theologians, or the means which they took to 
 defend them. Still so far in apology we may plead 
 that principle of conservatism in our nature, which 
 makes us slow to give up old beliefs, and which, 
 though often no better than a mental vis inertice, is 
 yet useful as a counteraction to that love of novelty, 
 which, unless met by an opposing immobility, would 
 in its efibrts at reformation produce rather a revo- 
 lution. Doubtless the theologians ought not to have 
 been so alarmed, and their fears only betrayed their 
 ignorance alike of Scripture and of science. Still, 
 some allowance is to be made for the tenacity even 
 of needless alarm, when what it clings to, as with a 
 death-gripe, are as it believes the very foundations 
 of sacred truth. And there was, it must be owned, 
 some reason for the anxiety of the theologians, since 
 among the philosophers there were those who ex- 
 pressed what looked very like indifference as to the 
 effect which scientific discovery might have on the 
 credibility of the Scriptures. 
 
 But we may not content ourselves with being the 
 
MODERN SCIENCE. 349 
 
 mere apologists of the theologians. That not a few 
 of them yielded to false alarms, and when pressed 
 by rash theorists became obstructionists to true 
 science, we frankly admit. But to assert of them 
 as a class that this has been their character, would 
 be a most undeserved calumny. Without neglecting 
 the duties of their sacred profession, or any the less 
 enriching theological literature, many of them have 
 ranked beside the very brightest ornaments of sci- 
 ence, have enlarged it by their discoveries, and at 
 the present day are among its ablest expositors. 
 We shall instance, in mathematics. Dr. Isaac Bar- 
 row, who dignified the chair to which Newton was 
 not unwilling to succeed; Dr. Wallis, to whom we 
 owe the origin of the arithmetic of infinities; Eoger 
 Coles, who discovered a property of the circle, which 
 is justly reckoned among the most remarkable prop- 
 ositions in geometry; Eichard Price, whose work 
 on reversionary payments has rendered so signal 
 service to the important subject of life-assurance; 
 Stifels, a German Protestant, who by his Arithmet- 
 ica Integra gave an amazing impulse to the analytic 
 art, himself being the first to devise the modern 
 algebraic notation; Dr. Matthew Stewart, who, in 
 his physical and mathematical tracts, has shown 
 that the old geometry, in such skillful hands, can 
 be made to unravel questions which were thought 
 to require all the resources of modern analytics. 
 And if from the discoverers in mathematical science 
 we descend to its popular expositors, here also the 
 
3^50 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 theologians will be found to occupy a foremost rank, 
 as, for example, Peacock, Cresswell, Bland, Wood, 
 and many others. In astronomy we find the names 
 of Bradley, to whom the science owes the two 
 brilliant discoveries of the aberration of the celes- 
 tial bodies and the mutation of the earth's axis; of 
 Dr. Samuel Clark, to whom in chief measure is due 
 the honor of introducing the Newtonian philosophy 
 into the University of Cambridge; of Abb6 Picard, 
 who, under the direction of the Academy of Sci- 
 ences, made the first measurement of a degree of the 
 meridian, on which perfect reliance could be placed. 
 In pneumatic chemistry the name of Priestly will 
 always be ranked high. Electricity owes its first 
 impulse and one of its greatest discoveries to a the- 
 ologian, Volta, of Como. In mineralogy the most 
 celebrated name is also that of a theologian. Abbe 
 Hauy. Mechanical science ranks among its great- 
 est promoters the Rev. Dr. Carpenter, the inventor 
 of the power-loom. In the philosophy of zo5logy 
 the name of the late Dr. Fleming stands deservedly 
 high, and the celebrated work of the Rev. William 
 Kirby, his Monographia Apium Anglice, may claim 
 the merit of first originating the analytic method 
 of investigating nature. In general science few 
 names in recent times will compete with that of 
 Whewell; while, in political science, one of the 
 greatest masters, though his views have not re- 
 ceived the attention they deserve, is, in our opinion, 
 Dr. Chalmers. In geology — the science which more 
 
MODERN SCIENCE. 351 
 
 than any other the theologians have been blamed 
 with obstructing — it happens that at once its most 
 profound and most popular defenders are clergy- 
 men — Dr. Pye Smith, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Buck- 
 land, Dr. Whewell, Professor Sedgwick, Dr. Harris, 
 Dr. Anderson, Dr. King, and Professor Hitchcock. 
 Among theologians who have not written expressly 
 on science, yet who show an intimate acquaint- 
 ance with it, as also a thorough appreciation of 
 its importance, we might instance Derham in his 
 Astro- Theology and his Fhysico- Theology , Chalmers 
 in his Astronomical Discourses, Paley in his Natu- 
 ral Theology, Sumner in his Record of Creation, 
 and M'Cosh in his Method of the Divine Govern- 
 ment. Of such men as these, while they have stood 
 forth as the unflinching advocates of the Bible, it 
 will scarcely be said by any one competent to form 
 a judgment, that they have retarded the progress 
 of physical science. On the contrary, by bringing 
 to its investigation the truth-lovingness of sanctified 
 intellect, they have made it instinct with a higher 
 life, and have haloed it with a brighter glory. 
 
 This much on the infidel's calumny against the 
 theologians, that as a class they have obstructed 
 science. And now, as to the Bible itself, we fear- 
 lessly challenge the infidel to show how it could pos- 
 sibly obstruct science. On which of its pages does it 
 interdict scientific pursuits? Where does it breathe 
 a spirit in the slightest degree inimical to physical 
 research? Does it unfit the mind for the investi- 
 
352 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 gation of natural phenomena? On the contrary, it 
 peculiarly prepares it by presenting the material 
 universe in all its departments as the work of that 
 same Infinite Wisdom to which we owe Eevelation 
 itself; and the laws and processes in nature as the 
 one part of the same stupendous scheme of Provi- 
 dence, of " which the other part are the operations 
 of grace. The Bible knows but one God, its own 
 author, who is also the architect of the heavens 
 and the earth. And, therefore, when rightly inter- 
 preted, it must necessarily concord with the discov- 
 eries of science, while it holds out one of the 
 strongest stimulants to the students of nature, as 
 the works of God, to strive to enlarge our knowl- 
 edge of it. 
 
 And we will make our appeal to the history of 
 science itself, whether it has not made the most 
 rapid and solid progress in those lands where the 
 Scriptures are most widely circulated — whether 
 among its pioneers and promoters the sacred vol- 
 ume has not occupied a foremost place. British 
 infidels, at least, might well pause before closing 
 the issue against the Bible. For if our island owns 
 the proud preeminence of being the birthplace of 
 inductive philosophy, it is matter of history that 
 before Bacon, the father of that philosophy, was 
 born, the Bible had found its way to England, and 
 the art of printing had already put many copies of 
 it in circulation. How far these two events — the 
 antecedent spread of Biblical knowledge, and the 
 
MODERN SCIENCE. 353 
 
 subsequent appearance of tlie Baconian philosopliy, 
 both happening within the same century and in the 
 same country — are to be regarded as cause and 
 effect, we shall not presume to say. But this much 
 we may affirm historically, that in no land which 
 the Bible had not visited did true science arise; 
 and that when the invigorating and suggestive 
 truths of that divine book had been brought fairly 
 into contact with the strong Saxon intellect of our 
 forefathers, one among them was able to discover, 
 and many among them were prepared to receive, 
 the true method of philosophy. 
 
 The assertion is easily made that Christianity has 
 obstructed science, but does the biography of scien- 
 tific men bear out the assertion? Have those who 
 believed the Bible to be divinely inspired been mere 
 sciolists? or have our profoundest physicists been 
 infidels? It were little in the spirit of the Bacon- 
 ian philosophy to parade the authority of great 
 names — that idolum tribus, which Bacon himself 
 has so labored to break. Nor will common justice, 
 not to speak of philosophy, excuse the tone in which 
 skepticism has adulated mediocre talent, simply to 
 suit its own purposes. It is very much as if, in 
 measuring the size of a statue, one were to include 
 the altitude of the pillar on which it is set. We 
 do not deny that not a few highly-gifted men have 
 avowed themselves to be infidels, and we have no 
 wish to disparage their genius. Yet why should 
 
 infidelitv so ostentatiously inscribe their names 
 
 30 
 
354 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 above its temple gates? Is their number after all 
 so great? or will they once compare with the high- 
 priests of the temple? Shall we find among them 
 a Galileo, a Kepler, a Bacon, a Newton? — those in- 
 tellectual giants, taller by the shoulders than any 
 who are living now — men of inventive genius, pos- 
 sessed of more than the merely logical or mathe- 
 matical faculty, being gifted besides with those 
 penetrative and sublime intuitions which come near- 
 est to the divine. Yet these men believed the Bi- 
 ble, and were not ashamed to confess their obli- 
 gations to it. Too many of our philosophers have 
 been infidels; but Philosophy herself, in the person 
 of these her most gifted sons, has set her seal to 
 the inspiration of the Scriptures. . 
 
 The infidel will have it that the Bible has ob- 
 structed true science, by teaching a science which 
 is false. We simply deny it. Whenever such an 
 assertion has been made, and an instance specified, 
 one of two results has happened — either the alleged 
 instance has been satisfactorily disposed of, or it has 
 been shown to be one of those residual difficulties 
 which must lie over till science further advances, 
 being in the mean while manifestly not an actual, 
 but only an apparent discrepancy. The history of 
 modern science abundantly carries us out in mak- 
 ing this affirmation. The time was when it was 
 in fashion to trump up a whole host of Scriptural 
 inaccuracies in geography, chronology, and astron- 
 omy. But no infidel of any intelligence will be 
 
MODERN SCIENCE. 355 
 
 found bold enough to press those objections now. 
 It is mainly on the field of paleontology the battle 
 is now being fought, and we have no misgivings as 
 to the result. The facts of the science itself, in so 
 far as they conflict with the Mosaic account of 
 creation, are but partially investigated; some of 
 them but ill generalized, and many of them not 
 yet verified. Physical theories have been woven 
 out of very slender materials. Cosmogonies have 
 been more hurriedly gotten up than there were 
 scientific data with which to build them. We 
 can calmly wait the advance of science, assured 
 that, as it advances, it will do what it has done 
 before — supply the answer to its own objections; 
 while in the mean time it is gratifying to know, 
 that step by step, the friends alike of Scripture 
 and science have walked abreast of the infidel, 
 furnishing methods of conciliation, at every stage 
 of the controversy, between the geologic and the 
 Mosaic cosmogonies. And one thing the infidel 
 himself must admit, that no chapter in any book 
 has provoked more scientific investigation and spec- 
 ulation, none has done more to stimulate one of our 
 most recent sciences, than the first chapter in that 
 so ancient book, which was written before the birth 
 of science, or even literature, under the shadows of 
 Sinai. 
 
356 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 On a review of the subject which has occupied 
 us on these pages, some practical reflections suggest 
 themselves with which we may appropriately con- 
 clude. 
 
 It must, I think, be acknowledged that in any 
 view we can take of it, the Bible is a most remark- 
 able book, and has had a most remarkable history. 
 In the rapid sketch which has been given of its 
 literary achievements, we have seen that it has 
 stimulated the intellect, refined tlfe taste, improved 
 the literature, sanctified the arts, vivified the phi- 
 losophy, and given an impulse to the industry of 
 every people among whom it has found a footing. 
 The question which we would press upon the con- 
 sideration of the reader is. Can this book be other 
 than Divine? Even other evidence apart, might 
 not- its literary characteristics, and its literary 
 achievements, be held as proof conclusive of its 
 divinity? For on what known or conceivable law 
 of mental development shall we otherwise account 
 for it? . The Bible exists; how came it to be at all? 
 how to be what it is? The simple principle of 
 causation which necessitates the human mind to seek 
 
CONCLUSION. 357 
 
 out for every effect an adequate cause, would seem 
 here to shut us up to one explanation of the origin 
 of the Bible. Any other cause short of Divine in- 
 spiration is manifestly inadequate to account for it. 
 
 Suppose the greatest geniuses of antiquity — its 
 poets, orators, scholars, sculptors, painters, musi- 
 cians, its men of letters, and its mental philoso- 
 phers — had met to compose a book, which should go 
 down to future ages as their joint production; if 
 this book had accomplished one tithe of what the 
 Bible has done we would have proclaimed it a 
 marvel. But here is a book the earlier portions of 
 which were written when literature was in its in- 
 fancy, and the fine arts were as yet unborn; its 
 later portions being composed, it is true, during the 
 Augustan age of ancient learning, yet not by any 
 of its great ornaments, but by illiterate Galileans — 
 fishermen from the banks of an inland lake, who 
 had never read a Greek or Latin poet, had perhaps 
 never seen a Greek or Latin piece of art, who, even 
 in their own land, which was remote from the seats 
 of classic learning, were deemed illiterate — that this 
 book, written by these authors should be what it is, 
 and have achieved what it has done, is not merely 
 a marvel — it is a miracle. 
 
 Either part of our subject, therefore, furnishes a 
 contribution to the Christian evidences. Taking 
 the first, or the literary characteristics of the Bible, 
 we have a book altogether original and unique, not 
 in its theology merely, but also in its method and 
 
368 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 style, its poetry, its history, its delineations of 
 nature, and its analysis of human character. Or 
 taking the second part, the literary achievements 
 of the Bible, we have a book equally without a 
 parallel. No other can for a moment be compared 
 with it in the history of mental development — itself 
 receiving no additions since the sacred canon was 
 closed, yet constantly adding to the stock of human 
 knowledge in almost every line of investigation. If 
 we take these two together it appears to us alto- 
 gether impossible to account for the existence of 
 such a book, except on the admission that it has 
 proceeded from God. The invariable equation of 
 cause and effect seems to shut us up to this conclu- 
 sion. For dispute about the Bible as men will, 
 there it is, a great fact; and like every fact has in 
 some way to be accounted for. Applying the fun- 
 damental maxim in causality to the Bible, simply 
 as an effect, it seems to us simply impossible to find 
 any sufficient explanation of its existence, except 
 one, that it is the Book of God, or in other words, 
 that he who is the Great First Cause of all great 
 effects is the author of this great book. Beyond 
 this, of course, we need not go; but short of this 
 we can not stop, in seeking to account for the bare 
 existence of a book whose contents and whose his- 
 tory are alike so entirely unique. 
 
 I have already taken occasion on these pages to 
 avow my belief in the literal theopneicstia of the 
 Bible. And in reavowing that belief, in this con- 
 
CONCLUSION. ^9 
 
 eluding chapter, the reader will allow me to observe 
 that in applying the term inspiration to the Scrip- 
 tures, I do not define it in the loose sense of many 
 of our philosophers, when they tell us that every 
 great poet and orator is a man inspired — that the 
 writings of a Plato, a Homer, or a Milton, are 
 divine writings, or inspirations caught from God. 
 Were it only meant by this way of speaking the 
 more strongly to confess that genius is a divine gift, 
 and that, therefore, the productions of genius are to 
 be ascribed to him who has endowed it with its in- 
 tuitive penetration, its creative conceptiveness, and 
 eloquent utterance, we should be far from blaming 
 the use of the term inspiration in this secondary or 
 figurative sense. But this is not what these philos- 
 ophers mean. They make no distinction in apply- 
 ing the term to the writings of men and to the 
 Scriptures of God. According to them, Plato, 
 Shakspeare, Homer, Milton, were inspired in the 
 same way in which Moses, David, Isaiah, and the 
 other sacred writers were inspired. 
 
 I shall grant — to avoid a discussion about mere 
 words — that there is a lower, or non-literal inspira- 
 tion, to which are owing the works of human genius. 
 But then let it be carefully discriminated wherein 
 this differs from the true literal inspiration which 
 the Scriptures lay claim to. 
 
 The difference is not one of mere degree; as if 
 Moses had only a higher measure of the same divine 
 afflatus than Plato or Seneca. But the difference is 
 
360 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 one in kind; the divine operation in the two cases 
 being essentially dilBferent. If the man of genius — 
 the poet, the philosopher, the orator — is inspired, it 
 is by a certain divine action upon his mind, which 
 may be said to energize, elevate, and clarify it; in 
 which condition it is enabled to perceive and appre- 
 hend ideas, which otherwise it might not have per- 
 ceived or apprehended, and is also enabled to give 
 fuller and more forcible utterance to these ideas, 
 as if the lips were touched with that hidden fire 
 which kindles true eloquence into "words which 
 burn." Thus far, and in this sense, we are will- 
 ing to ascribe a divine inspiration to the great 
 works of human genius, for we would not venture 
 to deny the possibility, or even the probability, of 
 a certain divine operation on the mind, by which it 
 is raised above more common minds, and, in a sense, 
 carried beyond itself; so as in a higher region to see 
 what before was unseen, to hear what before was in- 
 audible, to comprehend what before was incompre- 
 hensible, and to articulate what till now had been 
 unspoken. 
 
 But now let the phenomena and conditions of this 
 sort of inspiration be distinctly noted. First, the 
 ideas are extraneous till the mind, as best it may, 
 has seized upon them. Secondly, the mind, for 
 itself, has to bring them into the sphere of its 
 consciousness. Thirdly, there is no such infallible 
 guidance or supervision, but that the mind may 
 miss the truest forms, and mistake the truest ex- 
 
CONCIiUSION. 361 
 
 pression of those great ideas, of whicli in its intens- 
 ified state it Lad caught the floating outlines. 
 Hence, in the fourth place, supreme authority does 
 not attach even to the most oracular deliverances 
 of this species of inspiration. Of Nature's hidden 
 verities there may not yet have appeared either 
 poet or philosopher who is the truest prophet; but 
 another more inspired than they — that is, with his 
 mind more elevated and energized by this divine 
 operation, whatever it is — may some time hence 
 better interpret her mysteries. We believe Milton 
 to have had truer visions than Homer, but a third 
 poet may yet arise who shall be more largely 
 truthful than Milton. And now, in the fifth place, 
 when the question is mooted, by what standard are 
 we to test the truthfulness of this inspiration? the 
 answer plainly can not be, that itself is to be the 
 standard of last resort. For this would imply abso- 
 lute infallibility, which, as we have just seen, does 
 not belong to it. Its deliverances are to be accepted 
 as truth only in so far as they agree with that 
 standard of the true which is within my own con- 
 sciousness. Homer, Milton, Shakspeare, have no 
 authority over my faith except in so far as the 
 findings of my own conscience, understanding, and 
 taste, accredit and indorse their teachings. No 
 doubt these in me may be at fault, but so might 
 they also be in them. If, therefore, this species of 
 inspiration sets up its idola tribus, I can not fall 
 
 down and worship them. 
 
 31 
 
362 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 Let me here recapitulate the characteristics and 
 conditions of this lower or non-literal inspiration. 
 First, the ideas are presented as extraneous to the 
 consciousness. Second, the mind, for itself, as best 
 it may, has to bring them within the sphere of its 
 consciousness. Third, there is no such supervision 
 as would guarantee against mistakes. Fourth, there 
 is therefore fallibility ; either actual, or at least pos- 
 sible error. Fifth, there can not then be absolute 
 authoritativeness. Sixth, there lies open an appeal 
 to another canon or standard of certitude. 
 
 We have now to mark the total difference in that 
 divine afflatus, which we call inspiration proper, 
 which the Bible claims for itself, and which we 
 are entirely disposed to award to it. 
 
 Here we have predicated an operation on the 
 minds of the writers, not merely of an energizing 
 or elevating effect, which left them to seize upon 
 the ideas, and, if equal to the effort, to express 
 them in the fitting words, if such they could find. 
 But here is an operation conveying the ideas into 
 their minds, and shaping these ideas within their 
 consciousness, into the exact form and phrase in 
 which the Divine Spirit intended them to go forth 
 as from Himself. Now there is infallible certitude 
 here, since the persons thus inspired were not left 
 to select, to seize upon, and to find expression for 
 the ideas, but the infallible Spirit did this for them. 
 These ideas, with the clothing language, had to 
 pass through a human channel; but then a part of 
 
CONCLUSION. 363 
 
 the inspiration was to see that tliey should not con- 
 tract the slightest tincture of error or mistake in 
 the passage. It hence follows, that the Bible being 
 in this sense inspired, it is an authoritative standard 
 of faith and morals. If I receive it at all as divine, 
 it must be to bow with implicit submission to its 
 teachings. And this excludes the notion of any- 
 other arbiter, standard, or tribunal of appeal what- 
 soever. Itself is the supreme, the sole canon — the 
 test of all tests — the standard of all standards. 
 
 But is reason then to become a blind credulist? 
 Must it abnegate its peculiar function, to sift, to 
 weigh, to decide on evidence? Far from this; of 
 all books the Bible most entirely acknowledges the 
 prerogatives of reason. It asks not, nor will it ac- 
 cept, a blind credence. What it demands is a belief 
 which is founded on evidence. Superstition holds 
 in her hand a mystic scroll, which her devotees, 
 without having examined its credibility, or even 
 read its contents, are expected to believe. But it 
 is not so with Christianity. What she presents to 
 us is no folded scroll, but an open book. This she 
 invites us to read; and challenges us to test it. 
 She claims for it a Divine inspiration; but not that 
 we shall receive it as inspired till we have rigor- 
 ously tested it by the acknowledged proofs or crite- 
 ria of inspiration. Here, then, is the function of 
 reason. Eevelation owns it, and appeals to it as 
 the arbiter of inspiration, so far as the investigation 
 of the fact is involved. That is to say, reason has 
 
364 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE BIBLE. 
 
 to weigh, sift, and test the evidences which the 
 Bible offers of its inspiration. 
 
 But now let the limits of reason be defined. 
 Suppose the evidence, being sifted, weighed, and 
 tested, has been found sufficient. Say that reason 
 is now satisfied on proof that the Bible is the Word 
 of God, then its sole business is to find out the con- 
 tents of the book, what it actually says, and what 
 is the meaning of its sayings. For now what Rev- 
 elation demands is implicit faith. It allowed reason 
 full liberty to put the proofs of inspiration into the 
 crucible, but if these have come out approved from 
 the ordeal, then reason is not left at liberty to deal 
 otherwise with the contents of Inspiration than im- 
 plicitly to receive them, for "thus saith the Lord" 
 is voucher sufficient for reason as well as faith. 
 
 Nor could I pardon myself were I to close these 
 pages without saying a word on the religious uses 
 of the Bible. It is indeed a thing of light, and 
 illumines whatsoever it shines upon; a thing of 
 beauty, and adorns whatsoever it touches; a thing 
 of life, and quickens whatsoever it comes in contact 
 with. So has it illuminated, adorned, quickened 
 literature and the arts. Imagination has felt its 
 power, and new visions have risen to its raptured 
 eye. Taste has felt its power, and become more re- 
 fined. Intellect has felt its power, and its thoughts 
 have gathered greatness. Genius has felt its power, 
 and soared on a loftier wing. It could not have 
 been otherwise. For, to say that it could were to 
 
. CONCLUSION. 865 
 
 affirm that tlie sun shall shine in his strength and 
 yet the darkness of night not be chased away; or, 
 that he shall pour down his heat with the advancing 
 year, and yet the snows of Winter not melt in the 
 valleys; or, that he shall bathe the budded flower 
 in his fostering beams, and yet the bud remain 
 folded till it dies on its stalk. The Bible is the 
 sun in our mental firmament. But then this sun 
 has a double sphere. It moves in two orbits. In a 
 lower, where it makes its solar influence be felt on 
 the taste, the imagination, the intellect ; in a higher, 
 where it is intended to reach the heart and the 
 conscience. JSTow the question which it behooves us 
 to ponder is, whether we are letting it shine upon 
 us only from its nether firmament? Granting that, 
 with what may be called its natural influences, it 
 has reached us so as by its intellectual rays to ex- 
 pand our imaginations and refine our tastes, by its 
 sesthetical rays to elevate our literature and im- 
 prove our arts, with its thought-creating rays to 
 enlarge our science and extend our philosophy; is 
 this all that we are letting it do for us? Is this, 
 its lesser mission, to be accomplished in us, and the 
 higher mission for which God sent it to remain un- 
 accomplished ? Is it neither to regenerate our souls 
 nor renew our hearts? Are we to see by means of 
 it only more clearly, and with a higher apprecia- 
 tion, what we saw before; or, shall we not in meek- 
 ness strive to learn from it those spiritual mysteries 
 which are hid till it reveals them to the soul? If 
 
366 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 this be not the case, what were literature, what 
 were art, what were science, what were philosophy 
 to us then? What were they, even as illumined, 
 amplified, and refined by this wondrous book, if 
 they are all we have learned from it? Would they 
 even then be any thing better than a gilded meteor, 
 which may lend enchantment to the visions of our 
 youth, but which will pale over our dying pillow, 
 and vanish into blackness beside our tomb? 
 
 I will not be suspected, after what has been ad- 
 vanced on these pages, of any disposition to under- 
 value literature, or art, or science; without their 
 humanizing influences this earth had been a wilder- 
 ness, and man a savage. Through means of them, 
 the very humblest spot — the peasant's patch of 
 ground, the day-laborer's thatch-roofed cottage, the 
 plowman's furrowed field, may be made to smile as 
 a garden; and the poorest son of toil may take in- 
 tellectual rank — a rank which royal patent can not 
 create — with the nobles of the land. If the Bible 
 does not proclaim this in express statement, it is 
 the spirit of all that it has said. 
 
 If, therefore, we are obedient to the sacred vol- 
 ume we shall cultivate to the full measure of our 
 opportunity all useful literatures, arts, sciences, 
 and philosophies. And we shall not be slow to ex- 
 press our gratitude, that it has made these such, 
 that they are worth our studying. When in litera- 
 ture we discover a healthier instruction than is to 
 be found on Homer's page ; in art a purer sentiment 
 
CONCLUSION. 867 
 
 tlian was to be seen in the marbles of Phidias; in 
 science a truer discovery and a more beneficial in- 
 vention than was revealed to Archimedes; and in 
 philosophy a profounder insight than Socrates at- 
 tained, we will be careful to ascribe the praise 
 where most it is due — even to that Divine Book, 
 which by its light, its power, its beauty, its living 
 and life-imparting influences, has made literature, 
 art, science, and philosophy, what they are. 
 
 But the question returns, Have we nothing more 
 than this to praise it for ? It is the book of celes- 
 tial wisdom, wherein alone can be learned the way 
 of salvation. The only book which tells us whence 
 we are, what we are, and whither we are going. 
 It compasses both worlds: this which is passing 
 away, we leaving it sooner than it passes; and that 
 other which is eternal, where we must spend our 
 immortality. It declares to us how that immor- 
 tality may be endless bliss, and not endless woe. 
 
 I can picture to myself a youth wreathing his 
 self-complacent soul witJi tne flowers of literature, 
 and saying, all is well; but has this youth thought 
 of it, how this book of truth tells him that he is a 
 sinful creature in the eyes of a holy God? Or I 
 picture another youth, as he gazes on the fair crea- 
 tions of art, who, like the former, also says, it is 
 enough: but has this one considered that the book 
 of God tells him that unless his soul is created anew 
 by the Divine Spirit he must perish everlastingly? 
 Or I picture to myself yet another youth, who hav- 
 
368 LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ing penetrated into the depths of science or philos- 
 ophy, is ready to exclaim that he has found the 
 Eureka of his life; but does this one reflect that 
 the Book of books declares to him that life can not 
 be his in any sense worth his possessing it, unless 
 his death-doom is canceled by the blood of the 
 Lamb? 
 
 May I not, then, without seeming to be presumpt- 
 uous, close these pages with a charge to these 
 youths, and to all, that they seek till they find the 
 sacred literature of Zion; that they search till they 
 have learned the science of Calvary; that they 
 study, patiently and prayerfully, till they have 
 mastered the philosophy of redemption ? 
 
 THE END. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 
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 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
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