L IT E R A R Y
A
RACTERISTICS AN
D ACHIEVEMEN
CH
TS
OF
T
H
B IB L E
E
.
B Y
REV W
.
.
T RA I L A M
CINCINNA 71
H IT
C
H CO CK
NE W
C ARLTO N
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,
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,
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W AL D E
Y ORK
:
LANAHAN
.
N
.
PR E FA CE TO THE A ME RI CANE DITI ON
.
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 H e manifes tly entered into the spirit of
his w ork While with a master hand he discloses
—
the beauties of the Bible its high literary char
ac t e r i s t i cs
and its wonderful achievements—h e is
constantly directing the reader to its Divine author
ship No one c an rise from the perusal of this
work without feeling that the blessed volume of
whi ch it treats is
O e v ery l i ne
M arke d wi t h t h s e al of h i g h D i vi n i ty
O e v ery le af be d e w e d wi t h d rop s of l o v e
D i v i ne an d wi t h t h e t erna l heral d ry
A d si g a t u e of G d A l m i g h t y s t mp e d
”
F rom fi rs t t l a s t
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,
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n
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e
n
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e
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n
n
o
a
o
r
,
.
T he religious public of Great Britain have a t
tested their appre ciation of its value in the suc
been demanded
c ess i v e editions of it that have
T he E nglish press has also bestowed upon it the
highest encomiums It now remains to be seen
whether it shall have equal appreciation from the
C hristian publi c of A merica
.
.
.
3
P REFACE
4
.
W e hav e al so felt desirous of supplying a want i n
our d enominational literature O ur book catalogue
in this department was utterly wanting
As a
help to a better appreciation of the characte r 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 Bi ble
student ; it should find a place in every C hris t ian
home T he Bible class or S unday school teacher
who shall read it consecutively will have his vi ews
of the Bible enlarged and find himself more fully
equipped for h i s work No S unday school library
should be without a copy But to the mi n ister
preaching C hri st 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
—
L
earned
criticisms
as
dry
as
learned
l
e s book
p
—
and as long as dry w e have in abundance But
popular presentations of the Bible exhibiting its
striking characteristics and its adap tations are fe w
and rare We have gone over its pages carefully
and given it such adap t ation to its mission in A mer
ica as seemed desirable
With these brief notes we now commend it to
the C hristian public
D W C
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Cm c mm u, O C T O B E R 1, 18 6 3
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PR E FA CE TO THE EN
GLI SH E DITION
.
IT i s
witho ut consider able hes itatio n that I
t
o
resen
this
lume
to
the
public
T
he
subj
ec
in
v
t
p
detached parts has been treated by far abler pens ;
but so far as I am aware the attempt h as not been
made in any single v olume at l east t o exhibit the
subj ect with the same compre hensive ness and sys
tem Where I had the labors of pre ceding wri t ers
to direct and aid me I felt less h esi t ati on p wh e r e I
had not these guides the importance of the subj ect
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
la t e d to strengthen o ur belief in its Divine i n spi
cu
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 n ot on e v ery other page reiterate my
net
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P RE F AC E
6
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belief i n i ts D i v i ne inspiration I am hope fu l that
the reader will find nothing in this volume whi ch
can have a tendency to put away fro m his m ind the
thought which w as constantly present to my own
that the book whose own literary beauties I exam
ine and whose influen ce on literature and the arts
I endeav or to trace and re cord is none other than
the Book of God I shall have sadly failed in my
design i f what I present t o the reader does not
in crease his de v out admiration of the Bible as a
book whi ch is as div i nely beautiful as it is div i nely
true
Notwithstand i ng my misgi vi ngs whether I have
been at all able to do j usti ce to so impo rtant a sub
f
f
I
am
ain
to
ersuade
mysel
that
till
s
me
t
ec
o
p
j
one more competent to the task shall undertak e it
the present v olume may, i n some small degr ee sup
ply what I hav e l ong fel t t o be a desi deratu m i n
sa cr ed l i terature
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C O
NT
E
NT
PAR T F IR S T
S
.
ARACTERISTICS OF THE BIB LE
RY CH
LITERA
.
CHAPTER I
.
A
D F N S N D E N F OR C
T UB E o H B BL
E E
E A
n T
I
E
EM E
NT
or
THE
S TU DY
o r T8 !
LT R
A
P GE
.
I E A
13
E
P
CHA TER II
TEE
S TY LE
.
OE THE
35
CHAPTER III
.
THE F IGUB ATIVE
IN THE
SCRIPTU B ES
51
HAPTER IV
S C R PT UR S—C N T N U D
C
THE F
X GUB ATIVE IN THE
.
E
I
P
S C R PTUR S
O
I
E
65
CHA TER V
TEE Sv n
ouc IN THE
I
.
89
E
C AP TER VI
H
TE E SUB LIX
Tn
Pu n n
.
E IN THE
x c IN THE
102
S u mmo
n
s
.
121
8
CO NTENTS
.
C APTER VIII
H
TE E
P IC T UR S Q U E
E
IN TE E
.
141
Sc RIPTU REs
HAPTER
IX
C
H BR
E
P T RY
EW
16 1
OE
HAPTER
X
C
H BR
E
P O T R —C ON T NU D
EW
E
I
Y
E
18 3
HAP TER
H IST ORIC L
X I
.
IN TEE
A
198
HAPTER
S C PT UR
X II
C
TE E
.
. .
C
TE E
.
B IOG RA PH S
IE
RI
0 F
.
212
E
HAPTER X III
LT R R M RT
C
S T A N D RDS
TE E Two
A
OF
.
I E
A
Y
2 21
I
E
P AR T S E C O
ND
.
LITERA
RY ACH
TS OF TH
IEVEMEN
E BIBLE
.
HAPTER
C
I
.
NT R DUCT R
I
229
O Y
O
HAP TER II
P N R
L T R T UR N D
C
THE
B BL
I
E, TE E
IO
EE
.
I E A
OE
E A
HAPTER
C
TE E
B IBL
E,
TE E
PR OMOT ER
OF
L
T
I E
24 1
TE E
III
.
R A T UR E
AND T E E
A R TS
CONTENT S
9
.
HAPTER IV
TR
L T R AT UR A N D
C
TE E
B BLE T P R OMO
M D RN P A N T N G
I
O
EE
E
I
.
E
0 F
E
I E
HAPTER V
B BL
PR T R
L T RA T UR
M D R N S C ULPT UR A N D M US C
I
.
OM O E
TE E
E
O E
I E
E
E
O E
ARTs
TE E
.
OM O E
TE E
ND
2 91
HAPTER VI
PR T R
L T R AT UR
B
M D RN G N RA L L T R T UR
IB LE
A
I
E
C
TE E
OF
I E
E
.
2 76
I
C
TE E
A R TS
TE E
A
P GE
I E
E
A
ND
ARTs
TE E
302
E
A
CHAPTER VII
.
TE E
B BL
N E UR
W
I
TE E
E
EE
L T R A T UR N D
A R TS
F A LL N RAC N T O M L T A R B A R
REB TOB E R
E AD
OPE
OF
I E
E
E
E
I
TE E
A
I I
Y
3 13
HAPTER VIII
—W N E U
R ST R R
IN T LL C T U A L L
NA N SUP RST T N
S UN N T N
C
TE E
B BL
R OP
I
E
E
TE E
E AD
E
O E
E
I
.
E
OE
O
A
EF F EE I
IEE
E
TI C
C AP TER IX
H
N F LU N C
TE E I
E
E
OF
TE E
B BL
I
E
ON
HAPTER
C
.0 .
.
X
.
E
EE
I IO
330
PA R T F I R ST
.
LIT E RA RY CHA R A CT E RI STI CS OF THE BI BLE
.
THE
LIT E RA RY CHA RA CTE RI STI CS OF THE BI BLE
CH A
A
D EFE N SE
P
T
ER I
.
.
AND
E N FORCEME N T OF THE S TU D Y
L ITERATURE OF THE B IB LE
OF THE
.
T H ERE are certain prej udi c e s from which dissent
should be entered with a frank ac knowled gment of
the righteousness of the feeling from which they
spring T he subj ect which we purpose to dis
cuss on these pages will at once sugge st a case in
which this ought to be done T here are not a few
who co nfes s to a strong disinclination to hear the
Bible spoken of as a literary production Now
with the feelings of these we are free to o wn a
sym pathy ; since what disinclines them to as sociate
i t wi th li terature is their devout reverence for the
Word of God A nd we should have to blame our
se lves did we not frankly admit this while express
ing our e n tire dissent from their opinion Indeed
j ustice to our selves re quires this for we would not
willingly be thought to be one whi t behind them in
our reveren ce for that Book which as devoutly as
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13
L ITERARY CHARACTERISTICS O F THE B IB LE
14
.
they we believe to be the v ery Word o f God
With a faith as simple as theirs we would bow to i ts
Divine authority and with equal reverence we would
approach its holy pages T o us as to them it is
full of God ; and could we suppose that there is
irreverence or even idle curiosity in examining i ts
literary characteristics certainly we would ne v er
have essayed the task We v enture on our subj ect
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
T his disinclination which some avow to hear the
S acred V olume spoken of as a literary production as
seems to us is calculated to do i t the great inj ustice
of prej udicing against it such as are of literar y
tastes and culture ; and it may besides be shown
to proceed from more than one misconception
T hus when the suspicion is expressed that i t
d erogates fro m the Divine authority of the S cri p
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 T hey 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 C reator who in this respect has
form ed his creatures after his own i mage F or
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THE
ST UD Y O F THE BIB LE LITERAT URE
15
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when re vi e wing all that he had made he pro
n oun ce d it to be very goo d ; doubtless he tried the
v isible forms by those mental conceptions of beauty
and fitness whi ch in him are e t ernal and in us
from h i m derived E ach several work w as 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
S criptures We can not therefore see how it shall
derogate fr om their Di vine authority or m aj esty to
be tested by a standard which is itsel f divine
T he truth is we can not avoid applying the prin
c iples or laws of taste to the Word of God any more
than we c an refrain from applying them to his
works A nd as we have j ust said there is the
Divine sanction or rather the D i vine example for
our doing the latter With regard to the natural
landscape the obj ect 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 S o shall it be the offi ce o f the
critic not to bend the S criptures to the rules of his
art so much as it will be to show that i n the m
these rules have their finest verification
A nd
surely this task is not incompatible with a faith
both simple and devout
It shall not nurse t he
arrogance of pride but the humility of devotion
Not petulant to fault but disposed to praise i ts
work is every way fitted to increase the sentiments
of a devout admiration F or when the critic brings
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16
his
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
THE
OF
BIBLE
.
con ceptions Of the beauti ful w i thin the pre
c i n c ts of in spir atio n and sh al l find as he i s sure to
do , that e ach utt erance of th e sacre d oracle gives
full expre ss ion to the se conce ptions an d might be sa id
to be the par ent v oice of which they are the feeble
though articulate echo it is impossible that his
admiration of this Div i n e book shall not be greatly
increas ed T he progress of criticism has enabled
him to reduce our notions of the beautiful and the
s ubli me t o certain rules ; but here i s a most ancient
book great part of which w as written during the
rudest infancy of literature which has anticipated
these rules ; thus showing that its author was mos t
intimately acquainted wi th the yet unstudied laws
of our emotional nature A nd surely the discovery
of this fac t is calculated to raise our ad miration
both of t h e book and its author
T hen 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 mu st pro
nounce this also to be a misconception F or 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
A nd although it is not to be expec t ed of us that
on every other page we shall keep reiterating our
belief in its divinity the avowal with which we
start in maki ng the comparison is that it stands
forth the one Divine composition which bibliogr aphy
authenticates ; so that there are certain respects in
own
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18
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS
B LE
THE B I
OF
.
the compari son at on ce assumes and thr o ugho ut
m ai ntai ns this form : here is God s style and man s
st yle— God s history and man s history—G od s po
etry and man s poetry which both being presented
i n human la n guage can be compared ; a nd the
result of that comparison is t o determine whether
the Book of God does not surpass all o ther books
in li te rary excellen c e j ust as the works of God on
bein g compared with all other works are fo und to
ex ce l the m in artistic finish
W e may not then allow ourselves to be forbidden
the ameni t i es of sac red literature by a weak piet ism
which will not itself n or let ot hers enter the te mple
“
of sac red truth by the gate which is called b e au
”
tiful
Nor doe s it content us merely to de fe nd
for we must go further and enforce it as a duty to
st udy t h e lite rature of the Bible
I O ur first argument shall be drawn from the
const itution of the human mind itself O ne of its
primary and essential fa cul ties is imagination With
out this creative faculty how much more limite d
would be the range of human thought ! an d without
this soft ening and ornative faculty in how dry a
light would the material forms in nature be seen
sh arp cold and mechanical ! while the t h ough t s o f
the mind itself would either be abrupt impressions
w ith s carcely any coheren ce or reasoned inferen ces
hung together by cold links of logic Depose i mag
i n at i on from its seat among the mental fa culties
a n d you introduce a schis m into the soul the result
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STUDY OF BIBLE LITERATURE
19
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of which would be that its highest affections would
remain unexercised F or without the fascinating
combin ations in which imagination groups and the
pict uresque lights in which it variegates the conclu
Sions of the reason the obj ects of perception the
reminiscences of memory and the anticipations of
hope it may be questioned whether the exercises of
th ese fac ulties would long be tolerable But assign
to imagination its due place among the mental pow
—
e
and
then
all
are
harmoni
z
d
the sharp angles
er s
at which they would infringe and grate on e ach
other are rounded and smoothed ; intellectual labor
becomes a pleas ure while the intellect itself is
exalted , refined enlarged
F rom its excursive nature the imagination r e
quires to be kept un der the government of the
un d erstanding otherwise it might run into mere
fant asies
But when under proper control the
beautiful for ms and imagery into which it shapes
our thoughts though some of them more beautiful
tha n actua lly do exist are n o t neces sarily untruth
ful Or delusive F or the id eali z ations we do not
sa
O
f
mere
fancy
but
of
the
imagination
in
i
t
s
y
hi gher sense are a reality and a truth in so far as
they are t he expression of that yearning in the
human soul after some things better purer more
be autiful— i n short after perfection
It can not therefore be that so sublime a faculty
was gi Ii en to man unless to be used by h i m A nd
in cultivating it are we to throw open to it every
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20
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
.
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
O n the contrary the pag e s of his inspired prophets
are made re d olent with the voice of song as if
purposely to woo the approach of that faculty
which poetry specially addresses A nd 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 T hen the style of the S criptures
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 F irst that i m
a i n at i o n was employed in th e composition of the
g
S criptures ; for witho ut their possession of this fac
ult y and in a high degree neither Ez ekiel into his
prophetic n or J ohn 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 S econd if God availed
himself of the imaginative faculty of the writers in
the composition of the S criptures he certainly must
have inte n ded the same faculty to be used in the
perusal of them F or j ust as there are beauties on
th e pages of a M ilton or a C owper which the reader
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THE S TUD Y OF THE BIB LE LITERATURE
21
.
would not di scover and still less appreciate unl ess
he brings imagination s eye to peruse what it needed
imagination s finger to pencil ; so is it with the pages
of Isaiah or J eremiah or Ez ekiel F ully to per
c e i v e the beauties of these writers we must bring
wi th us the same imaginative faculty which in them
was inspired and which in us may be rightly g ui ded
by the same S pirit
C losely allied with the imagination there belongs
to the human mind another faculty which , by a
metaphor borrowed fr om one of the bodily senses
has been called taste T hough mental philosophers
di ffer as to whether this is an original or a deriva
tive faculty they are all agreed that it is universal
in human nature E xactly to define this faculty
were n o t easy for it is indeed as E dmund Burke
”
“
“
says of it delicate and ae rial and seems too
”
volatile to endure even the chains of a definiti on
Without precisely defining w e m ay describe taste to
be that faculty of the mind by which we both per
cei v e and enj oy whatever is beautiful or subli me in
any works whether Divine or human T he ple as
ures of taste are of a pure and exalted kind and
though in thems elves not strictly virtuous yet they
have this much to do with virtue that one of the
best aids in cultivating a correct taste is g oodness
of heart or moral purity ; for when it is allied with
this its perceptions are quicke n ed and its pleasures
enhanced
C an this fine faculty have j ustice done to it if it
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interdi cted the contempl ation of the literary beau
ties o f the Bible ? We certainly think not F or
believing as we do that the cr ea ted is as it were
—
the vestibule to the r evea led 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 sfibli mi t y of spiritual ideas in
—
the latter w e claim for taste that if it co mes with
its eye purged aS with r ue it shall be admitte d
through the vestibule into the shrine of the temple
A nd if it shall be said that all its eye c an pe rceive
is the mere embroidery or ornaments on the vest
ments of celestial truth and all i t s ear c an lis ten to
Is the music of her voice th en we may answer th at
he who can do this is so far prepared for ga z ing o n
her form and entering into her thoughts
T he truths of phys i cal science have often to be
searched for over paths that are rugged an d in
pla ces where b eauty rarely dwells O n the rough
steep of the mountain am ong the rift ed rocks dow n
in dark mines the geologist with toilsome pa t i én ce
Bu
t
h as to gather t h e materi als Of h i s science
when h e comes t o some s equ e ste red noo k where t he
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 a n d stony places he may glean his speci
mens ? Is he to have no e ye for Nature s living
charms in exploring the catacombs of her an ci ent
dead ? Must his emotional sensibilities be turned
is
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THE
STUDY OF
THE
BIB LE LITERATURE
23
.
—
stone
fossili z ed into something as hard as th e
fl i n t s which he has to bre ak with his hammer to
get at the incas ed 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 geol ogist ? A nd why should
it be otherwise with sacred science ? We will ow n
that it also h as i ts rough and rugged paths where
with little of external beauty to woo the patien t
searcher its truths must be explored But if it h as
likewis e its fair and lovely places which a correct
t as te can not fail to be delighted with are these to
be passe d by and truth because of pleasing form
not to be con te mfl at e d ? If so metimes 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 S ummer to beautify her
to
,
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,
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,
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‘
,
,
,
,
II O ur s e cond argument in enforcing the study
of the literature of the Bible is d rawn from the
des ign of r evelation itself ; for in whatever form
a Div ine revela tion 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 A ll
—
beautiful the F irst F air as well as the F irst Good
P lainly this must lie at the bas is of all the uses
intended by a revelation since the only preservative
.
,
,
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.
,
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE
24
.
innocence and the only restorative from apostasy
is the knowle d ge of God as the supremely F air and
Good A ccordingly in n ature viewing it as a man
ife st at i o n of the C reator to his intell i gent creatures
we find that the aesthetical has also an ethical use ;
the sublime and beautiful in which the visible cr e
ation so greatly abounds when rightly studied
having the e ffect of increasing our devout admira
tion of the wisdom power and goodness of the
C reator But for this one might say that much
needless artistic decoration h as been lavished on our
plan et ; since why else Should the C reator have mir
r or e d
images of such ama z i n g grandeur on the
waters of ocean ? or why have dipped the desert flow
ers in hues so exquisitely various ? or why have
v er n ale d the crumbling ruin with the green ivy and
taught so n g birds to build their nests in its riven
crevices ? or why have painted those i ce palac es
where arctic Winters sit throned upon eternal snow
with a thousand iridescent aurorae ? 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 j uster conceptions
of H imself who is the infinitely beautiful ?
S uch is the ethical value of the aesthetics in
nature ; and what other than a similar e ffect can
the aesthetics of revelation have if they are rightly
studied ? A scheme of restorative mercy h ad to be
made known to our fallen race— fallen be it noted
by their ceas i n g to believe in God as the supremely
of
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36
LITERARY CHARACTE RIS TIC S OF THE BIB LE
of
.
cunning workmanship when on the grea t day
of atonement the per luce n t shekinah forced its way
from within through the transparent tapestry ; and
the rich tracery while itself made more visi b e
did not darken but rather intensified the lustrous
e ffulgence
III T he third argument by which we would e u
force the study o f the literature of the Bible is
suggested by the tactics of infidelity It has been
in fashion with our infidel li ter a ti 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 e x t r ava
gant even when tried by an O riental stan dard
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 bei n g unworthy of a divine au
thor that the infidel asserts it to be deficient
i n literary attractions A re we then to yield up
the argument to him ? E specially are we to al lo w
him to prej udice ingenuous youth agains t the Bible
by his unjust representations of i t s literature when
we have it in our power to invite them to its page s
by those very beauties which have a peculiar charm
to the you n g ? A re w e to hear this celestial gar
d e n with its tree of knowle d ge hung with the
,
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THE STUDY OF THE BIB LE LITERATURE
27
.
—
literature
fruits and flo wers of sacred
fair to the
eye and pleasant to the tas te 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 ?
S urely not so but the rather because the infidel
would dissuade it is our duty to invite those of li t
e r ar
ta
s tes and culture to frequent
this
second
y
P aradise fair as the fir st 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
conv erse with his children
A nd 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 F or what is the course of
reading through which our students are Conducted ?
It is almost entirely of a heathen complexion
Greek and L atin are the classic languages in our col
l eges H omer and H orace H erodotus and C aesar
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28
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS O F
—
Isaiah
BIBLE
THE
.
not M oses or
are the text boo ks T o exce l
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 T his
I make free to say is not as it ought to be ; and
those who Shall succeed in obtaining for t h e B i bli
cal writings the attention which is due to their li t
i
n the training of youth besides doing
e r ar
merits
y
a service to th e Bible itself will by infusing a
purer element have conferred a benefit on the edu
Not that I
ca t i o n al i nstitutions of our country
would see banished from our se ats of learning the
classics of ancient Greece and Rome ; but that I
would have oftener to be found along with them the
L et Gre
Incomparably higher classic of P alestine
c i an eloquence and Roman song continue to culti
vate the minds of our academies ; but let it cease to
De thought that the orators and poets of J udah are
less worthy to be studied
A nd here it occurs to me to add another general
—
observation that out of the literary excellences of
t h e S criptures no small argument for their divinity
might be made A dmit them to be divine writings
a n d their incomparable literature can of course be
easily accounted for But on the supposition of
their being merely human compositions it is d i fli
cult to conceive how the infidel c an give an e x pla
nation o f their literature which will in any way
harmoni z e with the known laws of human thought
-
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THE S TUDY OF THE BIB LE LITERATURE
29
.
T hat the Greeks should have constructed so noble
a literature will s urprise us less when we consider
no w singularly endo wed by nature th at people
were to excel both in literary and artistic pursuits
T heir poetry eloquence music and sculpture won
d e r ful as they are do not go beyond what we
would have exp ected from their natural genius
A s for the Roman s they had the Greci an models
to work upon and every scholar k n o w s w h at free use
they made of these T he literary monuments there
fore which these two nations h ave erected while
they s urprise us by their grandeur can be accOun t
ed for by what we know of t h e laws of mental
development Indeed it could scarcely have been
otherwise than that the Greek mi nd should develop
itself in such a l iterature as it actually creat e d and
the Roman mind in such a literature as it formed on
its models T his was a necessity of cause and e ffect
But when we turn to the H ebrews it seems to us
impossible to explain on natural grounds how a
people so vastly inferior to th e Greeks in li terary
ge nius Should have constructed a literature which
not only equals but excels that of the latter ; or how
a people not superior to the Romans i n literar y tal
ent should have reared some of the noblest p ar ts 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 H ebrew literature is a
problem which will n ot admit of a like sol ution
with the literatures of Greece and Rome or i ndeed
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LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS O F THE BIBLE
30
of
.
any other n ation whether ancient or modern
F or we hold this literature to be a singular effect
for which except on the admission of a divine i n
spiration no adequate cause can be assigned
I V O ur 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 S parkles with the
richest imagery is replete with picturesque d escr i p
tion and redolent with m aj estic song ; while its
singularly d i v er si fie d style exhibits the ama z ing
compass and flexibility of which language as at
once the organ and ornament of thought is capable
Nor needs this surprise us F or seeing that our
human conceptions of the beautiful admit of being
worked ou
t by means of audible as well as of visi
ble S igns or may be embodied in langu age not less
than in form in harmony as well as in symmetry
we must necessarily infer that the divine con cep
tions of the beautiful are also capable of being
exhibited in both ways We se e the one in the
inimitable statuary and landscape painting in n a
ture which so conspicuously attest the Divine A rt
ist A nd it is no more than we were prepared to
expect that an inimitable eloquence i n the S crip
tures should attest the Divine A uthor
S eeing then there are the beauties of language
and the attractions of literature in the Bible must
we pass them by unnoted and unadmired ? M ay
.
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THE STUD Y OF
THE
BIB LE LITERATURE
31
.
the naturalist by the use of his microscope trace
the graceful lineations on a shell or the exquisite
venation s on the fronds of a fern so as to reveal to
us the infinite art of the great C reator in even these
his lesser works ; and m ust the critic though he has
discovered them by the instrument of hi s science
refrain from pointin g out those charmi n g 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 ? S urely this may not be seeing that
creation and revelation each in its own way a per
fe c t exposition of the beautiful t h e graceful and
the grand are alike t h e productions Of the same
A uthor and have both been produced with the like
obj ect of manifesting his perfections
V O ur fifth and las t argument i n e n forci n g the
study of Biblical literature is founded upon the
desirablenes s of getting minds of every cast brought
i n to actual contact with the sacred pages F or 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 T hey would no doubt be doi n g it an
inj ustice 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 wo uld break in upon them ? that
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32
LITE RARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIB LE
.
admiring its literature none the le sS they might be
awakened to an adm i ration of its divine e x cellences
We know that some who approached the Bible with
hostile intentions have been disarmed of their hos
t i li t y by a simple perusal of its C
ontents A nd
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 m antle she wears they might
see her face and be smitten with her heavenly love
,
.
.
.
,
,
,
,
,
,
li n e ss
.
T o quote the words of Dr J ames H amilton
“
God made t h e Bible as the guide and oracle of
m an ; 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 paragra phs
announci n g God s own character and his disposition
toward us sin n ers here on earth mentioni n g the
provision he has made for our future happiness and
indicating the di fferent duties which he would have
—
us perform a few simple sentences would have suf
fi c e d to tell what God is and wh a t he would have
us do T here w as no n e ed for the picturesque nar
r at i v e
the maj estic poem— no need for the
an d
proverb the story and the p salm A chapter of
theology and another of morals a short account of
the incarnation and the great atonement and a few
.
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,
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’
,
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,
L ITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS OF
34
BIB LE
.
a book which in trying to catch the heart of
man should captivate his taste ; and which in
transforming his afl e ct i on s should also expand h i s
"
int ellect
,
,
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'
,
.
THE STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES
CH A
THE
S TYLE
PTER II
OF
.
S CR IP TURES
THE
IT i s
35
.
.
a remark of A ddison s that there is as much
diH
er e n c e bet ween comprehending a thought clothed
in C icero s language and that of an ordinary writer
as
between seeing an obj ect hy the light of t h e
t aper and the light of the sun
E very on e feels
the j ustice of this remark ; yet it would be d i fli cult
exactly to S pecify what i t is that distinguishes the
style of C icero from that o f an ordinary writer
T he truth being that while the bro ader features of
a style are easy enough to be distinguished ; as
whether it is a loose or a terse style— laconic or
—
—
—
fl o w i n g 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 compoundi n g 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 analy z e
S tr i ctly
speaking style does not include the thoughts ; and
yet we should err in sayi n g that it is confined to
’
,
’
,
,
_
.
.
,
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’
,
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’
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,
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS O F THE BIB LE
36
.
the mere diction either in the choice or the arrange
ment of the words ; since it comprehends whatever
is ch aracteristic or peculiar in the manner in which
a writer presents his ideas We m ay not there
fore separate the lan guage from the thoughts nor
the thoughts from the language in j udging of style
It has indeed been said of words that they are the
outward dress or costume of our though ts ; but in
accepting this comparison it ought to be observed
tha t our words clothe our ideas n o t as the loose
mantle of cloth drapes the sculptor s model but
rather as the chiseled m antle may be said to clothe
the finished statue
T he marble bust and its
marble cincture can be distinguished the one fro m
the other but not separated ; for the latter ad
heres to and forms a very part of the sculpt ured
figure ; and so it is with the ideas and the words in
style
But while it is thus di fficult to analy z e the vari
ous components in style our critics an d grammarians
are tolerably agreed as to what are the principal
requisites in a good style T hese are purity per
ow
N
s i c ui t y v i gor ha r mony dignity and beauty
P
"when tried by this standard the s t les of the Bib
y
AS
li c al writers will be found to rank very high
was to be expecte d amo n g some forty di fferent
authors there is considerable diversity and degre e s
of excellence F or it has ple a sed the Divine S pirit
to employ the Ii at ur al style of each so tha t com
pared amo n g them s elves we can perceive that some
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,
THE STYLE OF THE S CRIP T URES
37
.
of them were greater masters of lan guage than
Y et is the d i fference as among the orbs of
o thers
“
the fir mam en t in which one star di ffereth fro m
”
another star in glory
F or taking them as a
whole and comparing them with the writers of
other nations the sacr ed penmen form a literary
galax y than which a brighter d oes not shine in
the fir m a m e n t of letters
T o j ustify this high praise which I have chal
lenged for the sacre d writers it does not see m
necessary that I should a ttempt a critical analysis of
their respective styles ; since this even were I equal
to the task would only exhibit their merits when
It will be sufli ci en t
c ompared among themselves
if I indicate the general excell ences 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 s tyle
merits to be pronounced good T hese a r e : if he
fully displays the capabilities and resources of the
lan guage in which he writes ; and if his style is
adapted to the subject of which he treats T he
sacred writers have fulfilled both these conditions
F or in the first place no m atter what his individual
style each author brings out to a sur pr i sm g extent
the capabiliti e s of the lan g uage which he had to
employ as the vehic le of h i s thoughts C ertainly a
more favorable exhibition of the H ebrew language
could not be desired than is to be found in the O ld
T estament
T he li ter a ti of P alestine m ust have
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38
L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIBLE
.
felt
that the language of their nation had ampl e
j usti ce done to it in their sacred books ; and how
rarely is it that the theolog i ca l works among a
people present the most favorable specimen of the
language ! T hen with regard to the Greek of the
New T estament though it was not the vernacular
—
of the writers and they had not with perhaps the
exception of P aul studied its class i cal models— ye t
it may with truth be affirm ed that no pen not
Grecian had ever written it better if so well
E ven Demosthenes had he lived to read the pages
of the A postles must have confessed n o t w i th st an d
ing the ad m ixture of H ebraisms and a certain
oriental tincture that the language which he him
self has immortali z ed was not di sgraced by the
pens of t hese foreigners A nd supposi n g no other
specimens to have come down to us than what the
Ne w T estament furnishes we should still have no
mean idea of the ama z ing compass the marvelous
flexibility the discriminating precision and the
euphonious cadence of that wonderful l an guage
T hen in the second place I observe that the
sacred writers have shown an admirable adaptation
a n d fitness in their respective styles to the subj ects
Thus the
o f which t h e y have severally treated
style of M oses and L uke who are p a r ex cellen ce
the sacred historians is precisely the style we look
for in historic composition
T he style of David
—
—
and Isaiah chief among the sacred poets is emi
poetical
T
he
style
of
S
olomon
the
sacred
n e n tl
y
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THE STYLE OF THE SCRIP T URE S
39
.
aphorist has exactly the point terseness and
antithesis which that species of writing requires
T he style of P aul who is confessedly the sacred
logician is j ust the style for argume n tative and
expository composition ; happily relieved at times
by the highest e fforts of t he rhetorician T he style
of P eter singul arly fitted him for t he epistolary to
which he has confined himself T he same happy
adaptation of the style to the subj ect is observable
in all the other sacred writers T he instincts of
their literary tas tes or say rather these directed
by the S pirit of Inspiration guided them to choose
those themes which they were best fitted to ad orn
S o that this rare eulogium may be pas sed upon a
volume which is the j oint production of forty differ
—
ent authors that there is not a single alteration
one could suggest i n their division of the literary
labor ; but one great Presiding M ind— 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 C er
t ai n ly 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 ever y star is in its proper place and
shines with its appropriate luster
O f what is usually unders tood by fin e wr i ti n g
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
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4O
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIBLE
.
selves in the maj esty of their subj ect— whose aim was
not to da zz le or astonish but to instruct an d inform
—
mankind whose souls never kindled with the de
sire o f posthumous renown and who had no leisure
for literary revision ; w i th such men rhetorical em
belli sh m e n t was incidental rather than designed
But when instances of it occur they surpass all la
bored eloquence in the same d egree and for the
same reasons that the ease of nature surpasses the
e fl o r t s of art
S ome of Isaiah s lyric outbursts ; or Job s mag
n i fi Ce n t sketches
dashed o ff 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 r ushing thoughts ; or Paul s e x t e mpo
rauc ous orations ; or t h e S avior s own un pr e med i
t at e d discourses ; or the closing apocalyptic im ages
of J ohn s o gorgeous and graphic but whi ch the
seer seems to have copi e d with hurried touches as
if afraid the vision might dissolve b e fore the tran
scrip t was fin i sh e d — these will serve as examples
of the spontan eous eloquence which is to be met
with i n the S criptures It comes upon us like the
echoes of the forest as when a sudden s un burst i n
cites its winged choristers to mi n gle their notes ; or
as when the free winds rush through its rustling
boughs It flashes as a meteor ; but n o t like i t 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
,
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,
’
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42
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS OF THE BIB LE
.
less because it took so much time and patience to
rear them L et 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 P indar s fervor
—
kindled by expected fame t he accurate historian
without Gibbon s fastidious elaboration O ratory
poetry history flowed S pontaneous from their
pens as the dew drops of morning fall glittering on
—
the fl ow er s neither receiving nor requiring the
polish of labor or art
I have remarked that there are considerable di
v e r s i t i e s of style among the sacred w r i t e r S which
is owing to the circumstance also already men
t i o n e d that the Divine S pirit s aw meet i n stead of
one ideal style to employ the actual styles of the
several writers Inspiration was no m ere mechan
ical process as when the organist touches the sev
eral keys of his instru m ent which whatever the
melody to be brought out are ever th e 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 th i s so far from being a blemish i m
parts one of its m ost striki n g beauties to the Bible
and instead of lesseni ng greatly increases its c He c t
i ve n ess as a revelation of Divine thought in human
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THE
STYLE OF THE SCRIPTURES
43
.
language F or s upposing one i d eal style of uniform
exactn ess and equality and superexcellence to h ave
been selected then how monotonous how mechan
ical and how very sti ff— how like to a dead i n st r u
—
ment and how unlike the living voice would the
sacred writings have been ! Whereas instead of this
on e x am i n i n g t h e 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 h aving all the force and fresh
ness of an original T here is the narrative style of
M oses severely simple even when he descants
on creation a n d chaos ; and with touches of the
homely the quaint and the antique befitting his
times T here is the lyric style of David which
through all his moods and these were often vary
ing is still ever in j oy or sadness the music echoes
\
of the same harp wh i ch n on e other could string or
touch as he T here is the sententious aphoristic
style of S olomon ; the fervid bold and masculine
style of Peter every way so like the man himself ;
the brilliant burning style of Isaiah as if fire
fl ash es from a truly poetic soul ; the simple lo Ve
breathing style of J ohn in his epistles but rising
as true simplicity and tenderness can rise into the
sublime in his apocalypse ; the argumentative e lli p
tical parenthetic style of Paul ; the truly dramatic
style of J ob ; the oracular style of Ez ekiel ; the
elegiac style of J eremiah whose every word seems
to drop t e ars over a forlorn land S o that in stead
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44
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
.
of monotony or mechanicalness there is all the flex
i bi li t y variety and cadence through which the h u
man voice can rise or fall
Besides the di fferences 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 subj ects which he discourses
F or in the same book we shall sometimes find his
tory doctrine prediction poetry exhortation fervid
expressio n s of devotion gratitude and holy desire
But with all this diversity in the nature and Obj ect
of the writings and in the character an d style of
the writers one great and common manner pervades
the whole which may be reg arded a s the s tyle of
the Scr ip tur es since it is peculiar to them and not
to be paralleled by any other writers T ho ugh per
haps not easy to be described there is certai nly a
characteristic m ark which enables us at once to dis
With great diversity
t i n g ui sh the sacred authors
of manner and expression they have all of them t h e
features of one family diverse from any other which
literature presents
T here is to be see n underlyi n g individual di ffer
the same peculiar stamp easily perceptible
e n c es
though perhaps less easy to be described which
m arks their productions to be of heave n ly origin
T his is due no doubt in great measure to t h e
unexampled beauty and greatness of the sentimen t
which again is to be traced to the grandeur of the
themes which in common t h ey discourse But there
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STYLE OF
THE
THE
SCRIP TURES
45
.
is besides an excellence which belongs to the writ
ers themselves which though it unites with the
sentiment i s yet distinct from i t ; and it is by this
excellence that the writings of the O ld and Ne w
T estaments are specially characteri z ed
T his excellence as I have already remarked is
not e a sy to be described It is the result Of a com
bination of qualities which a critical analysis can
only so far resolve
A mong the qualities which distinguish the i n
spired penmen in common not the leas t striking is
t h e entire absence of those selfish passions and
weaknesses which almost always appear in the man
ner of ordinary writers T he sacred authors are to
themselves as n othing so completely does their
subj ect absorb them T hey 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 A poc
r yph a we find the author expressing a h O e that if
p
he has written aught amiss the reader will excuse
him A ny thing like this so common with ordi
nary writers is not t o be found in any of the
canonical S criptures T he idea of literary reputa
tion or of being thought well of as authors seems
n ever once to have crossed the minds of the inspired
penmen
A nother common quality which distinguishes the
sacred writers is their extreme S implicity and art
lessness We see no artificial painting ; no desire or
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE B IB LE
46
.
e ffort to produce e ffect Beauty great and varied
is every where visible ; but it is the unst udied
beauty of S pontaneous c ase T here is a total ah
sence of every tendency to exagg eration— nev er
once any attempt to work up a subj ect ; but instead
a calmness of tone prevails throughout Not h o w
ever the calmness of i n d i fler en ce but that which
arises from a sense of the innate maj esty of the
subj ects which they handle In no other writers
will we find an equal relian ce on the self evidential
power of purity and truth
S ome have expressed a difficulty to admi t the
Theop n eas ti a of the S criptures in consequence of
their containing some inelegancies of style But
we apprehend this di fficulty very much arises from
their forming a j udgment a p r i ori as to what would
be the style of an inspired w
riting without making
due account of the actual circumstances i n which it
appeared and the practical uses which it is intended
to answe r We are free to own that j u d ging a
r i or i and going upon the simple idea of the divin
p
ity of the book we would expec t to find its style
but altogether superlative We
n o t only faultless
should n o t be prepared to find in it occasional inel
nor
solecisms
in
the
lan
e a n c i es of expression ;
g
guage ; nor sentences which i n point of syntactical
construction would scarcely bear strict criticism ;
nor passages which in r espect of rhetorical finish
might certainly be improved We say that an a
r i or i j udgment would n o t prep a re us to meet with
p
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THE STYLE OF THE SC RIPT URES
47
.
any thing of this sort in a volume which is inspired
But in the B i ble such things are to be met with
C an it then be inspired ?
In answering this question I Shall grant that it
was certainly possible to the Divine S pirit even
while usi n g the human vehicle to have conveyed
his ideas in the most pure and perfect phrase that
human diction could aHor d ; 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
T his could have been done ; and thereby the style
of the S criptures in every sentence and vocable
have been in a literary point of view absolutely
perfect But n ow suppose this to have b een done
what would have been the r esult ?
In the first place a pri mitive Bible of a date so
early as the age of the H ebrew fathers would have
been either impossible or useless Impossible if
the Divine S pirit w as to employ any of the then
existent dialects which were as yet rough un fix e d
and unharmonious U seless if anticipating t h e prog
ress of lan guage the Divine S pirit had employed
a purer and more perfect dialect than any which
yet existed since in that case it could not have
been understood T o furnish a revelation suitable
to these early times it behooved the language to be
such as w as then in g e n eral use A nd when one
—
reflects for a moment on the alternative either no
B ible at all till at least the A ugustan age of liter
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LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS O F THE BIB LE
48
.
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 aesthetical
—
principles on which another work of God the n at
ural landscape— h as bee n laid out Within any
—
given compass say a forest or a sea beach or a
—
mountain range individual obj ects are to be seen
which certainly might be more beautiful ; but then
if these were improved it would be at the expense
of the combi n ed e ffect In the mountain ra n ge for
example there are j agged inequalities bar e an d
unshapely masses contorted e x c resce n ce s an d riven
seams which vie w ed alone no one would think of
pronouncing beautiful Y et im a gine a polished range
—
of mountains conceive the A lps or the A ndes to
be blocked out in exact geometrical curves with
—
every inequality polished away tame indeed would
be the landscape then ; the bald monotonous pre
c i se n e ss ill compensati n g for the want of a bold
picturesque irregular ity F or tho ugh singly n o t
beau t iful at least according to our notions of beauty
e t in combination these contrasted shapes fill up
y
a picture which taken as an entire piece is not
merely beautiful but sublime
S uch are the aesthetical principles on which the
natural landscape is laid out Now analogy would
lead us to expect a n d observation I think will
sh o w that the Bible wh i ch m ay be fi t ly called t h e
u
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50
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
0 F THE
BIBLE
.
scale having to fill but a few yards of canvas ;
whereas the Divine A rtist works on a grand Scale
his pictures bein g so vast that what would be blem
ishes on the bit of canvas serve to h armoni z e and
to enhance th e e ffect of the mo re beauti ful parts
when the eye ranges over miles of landscape A nd
j ust so it is that the A uthor o f the B ible in com
posing a book so marvelously comprehensive can
having room and verge enough
ad m it inequalities
to harmoni z e them which the author of an ordi nary
book confined within so much narrower limi ts could
not with sa fety introduce ; and thus the occasion al
inelegancies in its style which to the fastidious
critic might seem to be blemishes and which the
mere grammarian might se t down as faults are to
us among the proofs of the divinity of the Bible
T he author of a lesser b ook would not have ven
t ure d could not indeed have a fforded to admit
them ; but in God s v ast book they h i gh t e n the
general effe ct ; j ust as in God s v ast lands cape s the
j agged corners of the ri v en rock while giving pic
t ur esque n ess to its contour cause the Wild flowers
which creep up or hang over i ts uneven spiracles
to look still more beautiful
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FIG URATIVE
TE E
IN
SCRIP TURE
CHAP TER
THE
F IG URAT IVE
51
.
III
.
IN
S C R IP TURE
.
term fig ur e in i ts ordinary use signifies the
shape or form of any piece of m atter which distin
ea
By
dropping
the
id
i
u
sh es it from other pieces
g
of mere shape or form and re ta ining that of dis
various secondary meanings have been
t inction
at t ached to the ter m figure Those persons whom
rank in life or political influence distinguish from
the bulk o f mankind are said to be men of figure ;
and we say of men of eminent learning or shining
par ts or of the authors of use ful di scoveries and
inventions in arts and sciences that they will make
a figure in their country s history P recisely on the
same principles h as this te rm been appropriated in
i t s application to lan g uage
C ertain forms of speech
as possessing more mark or disti n ction than the or
d i n ary for m of expressing the same thought have
be en call e d figures
H en ce figurative language i s
opposed to plain ordinary or literal S peech
“
When we say the parched ground absorbs the
”
rain we express a familiar fact in common la n
u
age
but
when
we
sa
the
thirsty
ground
drinks
g
y
”
in the rain we convey the same fact in the lan
“
uage
of
figure
T
o
call
youth
the
early
part
of
g
THE
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52
L ITERARY 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 i n a di fferent sense from that
which they properly signify ; being changed or as
we might say tur n ed from their o wn strict proper
meaning to a noth er which has been suggested by
the association of ideas H ence a figure of speech
—
is also called a trope i n Greek pm g from pe w
—
to turn and this change is made for the sake of
giving life beauty and emphasis to the thought
A lthough 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
i n g ly 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
i fic a t i o n have been attended only with partial suc
cess ; for when tropes are divided into figures of
lan guage and figures of thought a basis of classi fi
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 effect is produ ced A bet
“
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THE FIGURATIVE
IN
SCRIP TURE
53
.
ter division is into figures of the imagination an d
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 pas sions in their hi gh t en ed
workings ever entirely separate ?
F ortunately it is not necessary that I should
classify the figures of speech my task merely r e
quiring me to S ho w that the principal ones at least
are to be found i n the Bible and that when any
one of these is introduced this is done with pro
both
as
respects
the
treatment
of
the
figure
riet
p
y
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 recogni z ed 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 prosopop oei a or per son i fica
tion the apostrophe as also pleonasm exclamation
inversion metonymy prolepsis w si on catachresis
synecdoche irony antonom asy But I do not see
that it would ser v e a m aterial purpose to give a
mere string of s pecimens of this long catalogue of
figures A preferable course seems to be to make a
selection thus leaving sufli c i e n t spahe for some r e
marks on the nature of the figures themselves and
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54
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE
BIB LE
.
also on the sk i ll which the sacred w riters so notabl y
exhibited in the management of the fig ures F or
this purpose I shall select the comparison— o n which
as being the mos t frequent I shall somewhat e n
—
large the metaphor the allegory the climax the
hyperbole the prosopop oeia or personification an d
the apostrophe
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COM PARISON
.
E very obj ect which makes any considerable i m
pression on the mind is constantly accompanied by
certain circumstances and relations which stri ke us
at the same time ; so that an obj ect seldom if i n
deed ever presents itself to our view ex c ept as
—
e
relat d to other objects as going before them or
—
following them as their cause or their e ffe c t — as
resembling them or Opposed to them By this means
any idea which a single obj ect suggests may be said
to carry in its train a group of other ideas drawn
after it by the force of association A nd it m ay so
happen that these attendant or associated Ideas
strike the imagination more forcibly than the prin
They are perhaps more agreeable ;
c ipal idea itself
or they are more familiar ; or they recall to our mem
ory a greater variety of important circumstances
T his propension i n the human mind to compare and
contrast obj ects arises from an original law in its c on
and is called into constant exercise by the
s t i t uti o n
system of nature which is that of unity in variety ;
it being rare indeed if in the midst of numerous r e
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THE
FIGURATIVE
IN
SCRIP T URE
55
.
emblan ces we do not dis cover s ome diversity a n d
among mani fold diversities some resemblance T h us
does nature at once delight and instruct us by fur
n ishing ample ma t erials on which we can exercise our
faculty of comparison A nd if a writer expects to
impart pleas ure and instruction to his readers he
—
must i mi tate na ture that is he must make free
use of S imilitudes
H ow agreeably a j udicious use of comparisons
thor in giving both brilliance and per
assists an a u
i
s e asy to be seen
s i c ui t
to
pages
S
u
po
e
h
s
i
s
p
y
p
he wi shes to embell ish an obj e c t instead of pres ent
ing it n akedly by itself he will do better to compare
it to some other obj ect which is known to be beau
tiful when the imagination w ill at once tran sfer the
i mpression of beauty from the subsidiary to the pri
mary obj ect O r suppose hi s design i s to illus trate
or thro w light upon an obj ect which is more or
less obscure ; if he compare it with another obj ect
which is familiar the imagination at once transfers
the i m pression of per spicuity from the subsidiary to
the principa l obj ect O r suppo se his desire is to a m
n Obj ect ; in this case
l
i
f
inste
a d of laboring to
a
p y
expand it he will often accomplish his purpose at a
single stroke by comparing it with another obj ect
whose magnitude is alrea dy known O r suppose he
wishes to rivet an obj ect on the memory ; by using
a comparison he may succeed in fixing it s o to spea k
by t wo bolts instead of one T hus it will ap pear
how greatly similes assist to e mbell ish to illustrate
s
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LITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS O F THE BIBLE
56
.
to amplify and fix our ide as ; and therefore to i m
part beauty perspicuity grandeur and force to the
language in w h i Ch we clothe them
O f Biblical comparisons it were almost useless t;
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 v a
r i o us than they are numerous
being drawn from
every conceivable source and ranging from obj ects
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 colle e
tion T he lofty movements of the heavenly bodies ;
the stately march of the seaso n s 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
wilder n ess wi t h its roving herds and nomadic hordes ;
the cloud capt mou n tains and th e low ly vales ;
the tempest and the calm ; every variety of t h e
vegetable tribes ; the treasures of the mines ; the
sunshine the rains t h e winds and the fl e e cy clouds ;
the elements and the elem e ntal phenomena ; the
habits and instincts of animals both wild and do
m es t i c ; agriculture ; the arts and handicraft occupa
tions ; the battle field and the tented camp ; the
most familiar pictures of do mes t ic life ; the palace s
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58
L ITERARY CHARACTERISTIC S OF THE BIB LE
.
upon the beard even A aron s beard that went d own
”
PS cxxxiii T hen
t o the skir ts of his garments
also the geographical aspec ts of Palestine which are
of a kind so peculiar and i mpress ive sugges t ed
manifold local comparisons which have a str i ki ngly
picturesque e ffect There is a liveliness In these
topographical similes which does not fail to convey
a h i gh t e n e d pleasure though we who read them
may never have seen the localities which are re
ferred to
It h as been urg e d as an Obj ection against s ome
of the comparisons in the Scriptures th at they are
strained and far fetched being founded on S lig ht
and distant resemblances T his objecti on we ven
ture to say is without foundation as respects the
later sacred books In those of an earlier date
there may occasionally occ ur a comparison which
to m od ern taste will seem to be carried beyond
moderation
But in this respec t the S criptures
only follow a universal law of mental developm e nt ;
for when a n ation emerged out of barbarism begins
to think of the fine arts and of the aesthetical in
nature the beauties of la n guage can not long lie
concealed ; and w hen discovered they are generally
by the force of novelty carried to excess T he
i m agination for a time riots as i t were in a n e w
regio n of pleasing ideas H ence i n the early poetry
of every nation we find m etaphors and similes
founded on what app ear to us slight an d dis tant
resemblances ; but which ere they had lost their
’
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TEE
n o ve
.
FIG URATIVE
would appear
t y,
to
IN
SCRIPTURE
59
.
be quite natural and appo
site
P erhaps of all the sacred books the Song of S0 1
omon is the one against which the objection of
extravagant similes might be brought with the
most Show of reason ; but with r egard to this
remarkable composition besides the explanation
already o ffered it ought to be kept in view th at
without a certain air of extravagance it could n ot
—
what
it
professes
a song of love
I v e n t ure to
be
that
when
the
cH
e c t of this passion on the i ma g
sa
y
i n a t i o n is allowed for the comparisons employed by
S olomon will be acknowledged to be in strictest
accordance with human nature The r ead er may ;
turn for a specimen to the fourth chapter verses
one to five Were this a mere d escription of female
beauty from the poet s pen I know not how I could
defend it fro m the charge of extravagance Bu t i t
is not as a poet merely but likewise as a le v er
that S olom on here describes the obj ec t of h i s a tfe c
t ion ; giving free utterance
as lovers will do to
those fervid images of the i magination which the
passion of the lover never fails to kindle M aking
allowance for a certain O riental tincture in his
Imagery
the poet will be found throughout this
d ivine song to have exhibited with consummate
skill the work ings of the universal pas sion ; a n d
t hus to have laid a correc t foundation in the nat
ural for that spiritual love which it is his obj ect to
celebrate
.
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6O
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE
.
It has also been obj ected to the Bible compari
sons that many o f them are so homely and familiar ;
but for our own part we take this to be one of
their chief merits F or when the obj ect of a writer
is not so much elegance as lucidity when he seeks
rather to illustrate and make plain than to aggr an d
i z e and ornament his subj ect 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 j udgment in using ple n
t ifully this class of illustrations ; and yet though
the obj ects employed by them are thus necessarily
of a very homely kind s uch as in less skillful
t h an d s
might impart an appearance of lowness and
vulgarity to the subjects illustrated we do not find
this to be the c a se F or even when their compari
sons are taken fro m the most insignificant obj ects
the sacred writers still sustain the full dignity of
their themes I Shall sho w this by giving a fe w
examples
O ne could scarcely seek out a more
homely or trivial obj ect than a barn or a thrashing
floor Y et how forcibly and dignified are the fol
“
lowi n g similes : Behold I will make thee a new
sh a rp thra shing instrument having teeth ; thou shalt
thrash the mountai n s an d bea t them small and
shall make the hills as cha ff ; thou shal t fan the m
and the wind shall carry them away and the whirl
”
“
Is xli 15 16
wind shall scatter the m
M ake
their nobles like O reb an d like Z e eb ; yea all their
princes like Z ebah and as Z almunna : O my God
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IN
THE FIG URATIVE
SCRIP TURE
61
.
make them like a wheel ; as the stubble before the
”
wind
PS lxxxiii 11 13 A gain what coul d be
a less poetical scene bordering as it does on the
ludicrous than a company of fig gatherers shak i ng
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 S imile : A ll thy strongholds shall be like
fig trees with the first ripe figs ; if they be S haken
”
they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater
Nah iii 12 O r again the common place idea of
a fe w school —boys gone out a bird nesting supplies
Isaiah with a comparison of great energy which he
puts into the mouth of the A ssyrian conqueror
“
boas ting his victories : A nd my han d 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
A gain h ow homely an obj ect is the mother hen
shielding her frightened broo d under her wings on
eve n
t h e appro ach of danger ; yet how pathetic
sublime a comparison has this furnished to the
“
S avior : 0 J erusalem J erusalem which killest the
prophets and stonest them which are sent unto
t hee h ow o ft e n would I have gathered thy children
together even as a hen gathereth her chickens
”
under her wings and ye would not ! M att xxiii
3 7 O r again what more homely Obj ect could on e
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62
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S OF THE BIB LE
.
look on than a handful of brush w ood set to bla z e
under a pot ? yet h o w forcibly is this made to
repres ent the vanity and evanescence of boisterous
“
mirth : A s the cracking of thorns under a pot so
”
is the laughter of the fool ! E ccl vii 6 O r to
g ive on e other example it is even a repulsi v e obj ect
when a sow bemires itself in its own litter or a
dog laps its own vomit ; yet h o w skillfully is the
very repulsiveness Of those obj ects made to set
“
forth the sin of the apostate
It h as happened
unto him accord ing to the true proverb : the dog
is turned to h i s o wn vomit again ; and the sow
”
tha t was washed to her wallowing in t h e mire
2 P et ii 2 2
Nor are the sacred writers sin gular in their use
of homely obj ects t o illustrate subj ects of a lofty
cast T he same thing h as been done by the great
epic poets both ancient and modern T hus H o m er
compares the Grecians crowding to the council from
their ships and ten t s to a swarm of be es among
the vernal flowers V irgil employs the same com
parison to se t forth the innumerable nations and
people which crowded the shores of L ethe M ilton
likewise has used the same comparison to represent
the gathering of the fallen angels to P an demonium
H omer has ventured on a still more homely simile
where he com pares the numbers of the Grecian army
their ardor and eagerness for battle to swarms of
flies bu zz ing round a milk pail Nor have the cri t ics
p retended that by such comparisons these great
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THE
FIG URATIVE
IN
S CRIPTURE
63
.
masters of simile have in the least degraded t h e
dignity of the E pic muse
S eeing that so many of the Biblical similitudes
are taken from natural scenery and familiar li fe in
order to perceive their poi n t and propriety the
reader must have made himself acquainte d with
the social habits and domestic manners in the E ast
as also with the p h ysical aspects of P alestine
It
does not surprise us that certain i n fld e ls have ridi
le d some of the Bi ble comparisons as obscure
cu
pointless and out of proportion when they Sho w
themselves to be so i n sufli c i e n t ly informed on the
subj ects mentioned A little less ignorance would
h av e cause d them to spare their ridicule
I may not close these brief remarks on th e com
parison s of the Bible without Observing how keen
an in sight the sacred writers must have had into
those analogues which subsist betwe e n the processes
in the natural and the spiritual worlds ; and how
finely they have illustrated the great fact that the
invisible is adumbrated or symboli z ed in the visible ;
and that Nature is God s great parable Doubtless
their peculiar religious training practiced the m i n
this rare art of deci phering symbolical resemblances ;
for their entire ritual w as itself a matchless sym
holism— their typology was a system of pictorial
—
analogies or parallels ad dressed to the eye their
his t ory and their chief historical pers o nages were
typical A nd well did they profit by their train
ing ; for there is scarce any natural proc ess of which
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64
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE
.
they have not given the spiritual correspondent or
analog ue T he alternation of day and nigh t — the
succession of the seasons and the seasonal phenomena
—
—
of the year the action of the elements the forma
tion of hail and snow a n d the deposition of dew
—
the processes of v eg e t at i On the functions of animal
life — the fluxes of the ocean— the asp ects of the
h eav e nh : have all been translated into their S pirit
ual forms and si g n i ficat i o n s O ne is reminded of
S wedenborg 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 materiali z ed But he is ever extravagant
fanciful and grotesque— d arkening 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 til l it
looks like some E gyptian obelisk one mass of hier
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66
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
”
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“
leys
C ant ii 1
A nd he said unto them Go
”
“
ye and tell that fox
L uke xiii 32
A nd he
took bread an d gave thanks and brake it and
gave it unto them saying T his is my body which
is given for you : this do in remembrance of me
L ikewise also the cup after supper saying T his
which is
c up is the new testament in my blood
”
“
—
shed for you
L uke xxii 19 2 0
I am the true
and my F ather is the husb andman E very
v ine
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 J ohn
“
xv 1 2 5
A nd did all drink the same Spiritual
drink ; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that
”
followed them ; and that Rock was C hrist
1 C or
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ALLEG ORY
.
By some of the grammarian s 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 i m
by which one thing is feigned to be
a g i n at i o n
another ; in the allegory there is not this fiction
but a subj ec t is chosen having properties or circum
stances resembling those of the principal subj ect
and is described in such a manner as to represent
it T here is this other d i He r en ce in the metaphor
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THE FIG URATIVE
IN
SCRIP TURE
67
.
the principal obj ect is first mentioned before the
subsidiary obj ect is introduced ; and the transition
of thought is thus from the former to the latter
In the allegory the process is reversed ; for while
the subsidiary or representative obj ect is described
in terms s uitable to its nature the subj ect 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 rese mblance ; in the
allegory the reader is left to discover the res em
blance for himself and by means of it the obj ect
intended
T he allegory aHor d s a m ple S cope to the d escr i p
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
O r we might call i t a t ype or emblem by means of
vocal in place of visible symbols
O f the allegory a fine example is to be found in
“
the 8 0 t h P salm :
T hou hast brought a vine out
of E gypt ; thou hast cast o ut the heathen and
planted it T hou p reparedst roo m before it and
dids t cause it to take deep root and it filled the
land T he hills were covered with the shado w of
it and the bough s thereof were like the goodly
cedars S he sent out her boughs unto the sea and
her branches unto the river Why has t thou then
broken down her hedges so that all they which
pass by t h e way do pluck h er ? T he bo a r out of
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68
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
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the wood doth waste i t and the wild beast of the
field doth devour it Return we beseech thee O
God of hosts : look down from heave n and behold
and visit this vine ; and the vineyard which thy
right hand hath planted and the bra n ch that thou
madest strong for thyself It is burnt with fire ; it
is cut down : they perish at the rebuke of thy
”
—
countenance ! V er 8 16
H ere God s chosen people are represented by a
vin eyard ; and the figure is sustai n ed throughout
with great correct ness T here are no mixed meta
h
o r s ; n o t a single circumstance is intro d uced that
p
does not strictly agree to a vine ; and the subsidiary
subj ect exactly represents the state of the J ew i sh
C hurch which is the principal subj ect T he ampli
fi ca t i o n of the representative Obj ect 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
A nother fine exam ple of the allegory occurs in the
“
No w will I sing to my
5 th chapter of Isaiah :
well beloved a song of my beloved touching his
M y well beloved ba t h a vineyard in a
v iney a rd
very fruitful hill : and he fenced it and gathered
out the stones thereof and plan t ed it with the
choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it
and he looked
a n d also made a wine press therein :
that it Should bri n g forth grapes and it brought
forth wild grapes A nd n o w 0 inhabitants of Je
men of J u d ah j u d ge I pray you
an d
Iusale m
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THE FIGURATIVE
IN
SCRIP TURE
69
.
betwixt me and my vineyard What could have
been done more to my vineyard that I have not
don e in it ; wherefore when I looked that it should
bring forth grapes brought it forth wild grapes ?
A nd 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 t he wall
ther eof and it shall be tr odden do w n : and I will
lay it was te : it shall not be pruned nor di gged ; but
there shall come up briers and thorns : I will also
command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it
F or the vineyard of the L ord of hos ts is the house
of Israe l an d the men of J udah his pleasant plant :
and he looked for j udgmen t and behold Oppression ;
”
for righteousness and behold a cry
V er 1—7
An other exam ple perhaps even finer oc curs in the
“
Remember n o w thy
12 t h chapter of E cclesias tes :
C reator in the days of thy youth while the ev i l
days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou
shalt say I have no pleas ure in them : while the
sun or the light or the moo n 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 bo w themselves and the
rinders
cea
s e because they are few and those that
g
l ook out of the windows b e darkened ; and the do ors
shall be shut in the streets w hen t h e sound of the
grinding is low ; and he shall rise up at the voice
5f the bird ; and all the daughters of music shall
be brough t lo w : also when they shall be afraid of
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70
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S OF
THE
BIBLE
.
that which is high and fears shall be in the way
and the almond tree shall flourish and the g ras s
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 silv er cord be
loosed o r 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
a s It was ; an d the spirit shall return unto God who
”
—
gave it
V er 1 7
T he allegory often assumes the form of a contin
ued narrative into which may be introduced living
beings i n any variety of circumstance according to
the fancy and design o f the writer O f this kind
of allegory we have some fine examples in Our own
language— the F a i r y Queen of S penser in poetry ;
Bunyan s Pi lg r i m s Pr og r ess and the Vi si on of
A mong the poetical
M i r z a by A ddison in prose
books of S cripture the S ong of S olomon 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 C hrist and his
C hurch is beaut ifully allegori z ed
A s bei n g of a ki n dred nat ure we may fi tly con
si d er the parable in connection with the allegory
Waving certain subsidiary me ani n gs wh i ch the term
occasionally h as in S cripture a parable may be de
fined a narrative either fictitious or real under
which is vailed some important truth ; the Obj ect of
the writer b e i n g to conv e y h i s m e ani n g in a less
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TE E
FIGURATIVE
IN
SCRIP TURE
71
.
offensive or more engaging form than that of direct
assertion T he parable may be considered as com
—
posed of two parts the p r otasi s which conveys
merely the literal sense and the ap od o si s which
contains the mystical or figurative sense It is not
necessary however that this second par t should be
always expressed but may be left to be inferred
In his parables the S avior fr e que htly omits it
“
T he excellence of a parable depends on the pro
and
force
of
the
comparison
on
which
it
is
r i et
p
y
founded or the gener al 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 Obj ect obscure it will
throw no light on the point to be illustrated If
the resemblance is force d and inobviou s the m i nd
”
is perplexed and disappointed in seeking for it
We remember having been much struck by an e x
u
i
si t e piece of art in sculpture which w as called
q
”
“
the Vailed V estal
S een at a distance the head
appeared as if wrapped in a thick m ass 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 tr aced ;
and in our memory that virgi n countenance dwells
more vividly than if we h ad seen it w ithout its vail
of solid stone which we wondered how the sculp
to r s art could render so entirely transparent S o
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72
LITERARY CHARACTERIS T ICS OF THE BIB LE
.
is i t w i th a par able when properly constructed
L ooked at from a distance so to say what the
r e ad e r perceives is merely the outward narrative
or story but on a nearer inspection beneath this
through the marble transparency which va iled
without concealing the vestal s countenance he dis
covers the spiritual truth which is all the more
striking and likely to d well long er in the me mory
because he has had to seek for it under t he para
boli e style
In the O ld T estamen t there are in stances of th e
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 Jo th am s P arable of t h e
”
“
—
T rees ? J udges ix 7 15 ; or Nathan s Par able
—
of the E we L amb
2 S am xii 1 14 ; or J ehoash s
“
2 K ings
Parable of the T histle and the C edar
“
xiv 9 10 ; or Ez ekiel s Parable of the L ioness
”
—
and her Whelps ? Ez ek xix 1 9
But the parables uttered by our S avior claim pre
eminence over all others on account of their num
ber variety appositeness simp li city force and
beauty Infidelity itself has owned its admiration
of them ; nor will the most ardent admirer of cl as
sic o r O riental literature rich as the latter is in
parabolic hesitate to admit that incomparably su
perior to any thing they furnish ar e the parables
L ike the nymph of the fountain be
o f our L ord
holdi n g her own lovely limbs in their si m ple attire
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74
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
.
duce v ery much the same emotion as when standing
on the highest point in some A lpine range one
looks down upon the mountainous steps he had to
climb to get to it
E xamples of the climax some of which are of
great force are frequent in the S criptures I shall
cite a fe w
“
But where shall wisdom be found ? and where is
the place of understanding ?
M an knowe th not the price thereof ; neither is it
found in the land of the living
T he 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 O phir with
the precious onyx or the sapphire
T he gold and the crystal can not equal it ; and
the exchange of it shall not be for j ewels or fine
gold
No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls ;
for the price of wisdom is above rubies
T he topa z of E th i op i a shall not equal it neither
shall it be valued with pure gold
Whence then cometh wisdom ? and where is the
place of understanding ?
S eeing it is hid from the eyes of all living and
kept close from the fowls of the air
Destruction and death say W e have heard the
fame thereof with our ears
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IN
THE FIG URATIVE
75
SCRIPT URE
.
God un d er stan d e th the way thereof and he know
”
eth the place thereof
J ob xxviii 12—2 3
“
Whither shall I go from thy S pirit ? 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 ;
E ven there shall thy hand lead me and thy right
hand shall hold me
If I say S urely the darkness shall cover me ; even
t h e 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 alik e to thee
F or thou hast possessed my reins : thou hast
”
c over e d me i n my mother s womb
PS cxxxix
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7 13
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T he hand of the L ord was upon me and carried
me out in the S pirit of the L ord and set me down
in the midst of the valley which w as full of bo nes
A nd caused me to p as s by them round about :
and behold there were very many in t h e open
valley ; and 10 they were very dry
A nd he said unto me S on of man can these
bones live ? A nd I answered 0 L ord God thou
knowest
A gain he s aid un t o me P rophesy upon these
bo nes and say unto them 0 ye dry bones hear
t h e word of the L ord
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76
LITE RARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIB LE
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T hus saith the L ord God unto these bones
Behold I will cause breath to enter into you an d
ye shall live
An d I will lay S inews upon you and will bring
up flesh u pon you and cover you with skin and
put breath in you and ye shall live ; and ye shall
know that I am the L ord
S o I prophesied as I was commanded : and as I
prophesied there was a noise an d behold a shaking
and the bones came together bone to his bone
A nd when I beheld lo the Si n ews a n d the flesh
came up upon them and the skin covered them
above : but there w as no breath in them
T hen said he unto me Prophesy unto the wind
rophesy
son
of
man
and
say
to
the
wind
T
hus
p
saith the L ord God ; C ome from the four winds O
breath and breathe upon these slain that they may
live
S o I prophesied as he co mmanded me and the
breath came into them and they lived and stood
”
up upon their feet an exceeding great army
—
Ez ek xxxvii 1 10
“
T hat 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 bat h the caterpillar eaten
J oel i 4
“
A nd not only so but we glory in tribulations
also : knowing that tribulation worketh patience ;
A nd patience experience ; and experience hope :
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THE FIGURATIVE
IN
SCRIPT URE
77
.
A nd hope maketh not ashamed ; because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the H oly
”
—
Ghost which is given unto us
Ro m v 3 5
“
F or I am persuaded that neither death nor
life nor angels nor pri n cipalities 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
”
Ro m viii
which is in C hrist J esus our L ord
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38 3 9
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.
“
A nd besides this giving all diligence add to
our
faith
virtue
and
to
virtue
knowledge
;
;
y
A nd to knowledge temperance ; and to temper
ance patience ; and to patience godliness ;
A nd to godliness brotherly kindness ; and to
”
—
2
5
brotherly kindness charity
P et i
7
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.
HY PE RB OLE
,
.
.
The
hyperbole is a figure of exaggeration It
con sists in magn ifying or diminishing an obj ect
beyond i ts n atural dimensions T he tendency to
do this must be natural to man S ince in all lan
guages even in common conv ersatio n hyperbolical
expressions ve r y frequently occur When the i m
a i n a t i o n is favorably a H
e
by
its
present
obj
ect
t
e
d
c
g
and as it were is challenged by some other obj ect
possessing a similar property i n a higher degree
unwilling to confess the former to be inferior it
boldly as serts i ts equality T hus if the fl e e t n ess
of a racer is t he obj ect which has preoccupied the
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,
78
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
BIB LE
THE
OF
.
i magination his speed is as swift as the wind ; i f
some obj ect which is white say a bridal robe i ts
whiteness equals that of sno w ; if a lofty mountain
it pierces the heavens ; if a numerous host it is as
multitudinous as the stars in the fir m am e n t or the
sand upon the sea shore ; if the sheen of buckler
and spear it da zz les us as if the lightning s flash
T he tendency to hyperboli z e is greater in youth
than in maturer years when experience h as taugh t
us to take a j uster measure of things and when the
imagination has cooled to a lower heat F rom the
same cause the earlier literatures abound most in
hyperbole S o also according as the imagination
of a pe ople is more or less lively will their lan
guage be characteri z ed by this figure H ence the
literature of the O rientals who are ardently i mag
i n at i v e is far more hyperbolic than that of the
E uropeans who under a less torrid sky are more
phlegmatic
F rom its nature the hyperbole scarce admi ts of
bounds or limitation It will not be fenced in by
formal rules or prescriptions Its line of motion so
to speak i s not the circle but its tangent ; but for
this very reason it is the more imperative that the
subj ect hyperboli z ed 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 Oldes t h istory has fa iled
to trace its beginnings as eternal But no con ce i v
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IN
THE FIGURATIVE
SCRIPTURE
79
.
able circumsta nces could r e concile us to a trifling
obj ect being equaled with one that is great or a
small obj ect with one that is immense It were
mere burlesque or caricature to magnify a mole hill
in to a mountain ; or an ephemera into an immortal ;
or a l oc k of hair into a comet s tail T o be r epr e
sented as immense an obj ect must a t least be large ;
or an assemblage to be set forth as inn u
merable
must be literally a multitude A n attempt to mag
nif
minuteness
or
to
aggrandi
z
e
meanness
or
to
y
elevate what is low would be resented as an ex
t r a v ag an ce or a deception
T hough examples of hyperbole are not wanting
in the S criptures i t occ urs less frequently than one
might expec t considering h o w partial the O riental
writers are t o this figure
T he native maj esty 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 i n fr e
quen ey with which the sacred writers employ a
figure which deals in exaggeration
T he following S pecimens are worthy to be cited
without however , being in the
as extremely bold
least extravagant :
“
A nd they said Go to let us build us a city and
a to w e r whose top may reach unto heaven ; and let
us make us a name lest we be s cattered abroad
”
upon the face of the whole earth
Gen xi 4
“
An d I will m ake thy seed as the dust of the
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80
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
.
earth : so that if a man can number the dust of the
”
earth then shall thy see d als o be numbered
Gen
xiii 16
“
A nd he brought him forth abroad and said
L ook n ow toward heaven and tel l the stars if thou
be able to number them A nd he said unto him
”
S o shall thy seed be
Gen xv 5
“
T he earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard
and shall be removed like a cottage ; and the trans
r e ssi o n thereof shall be heavy up on it ; and it shall
g
”
fall and not rise again
Is xiv 2 0
“
I beheld the earth and lo it w as without form
and void ; and the heavens and they had no light
I beheld the mountains and lo t hey 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 w as a wilder
and all the cities thereof w e re broken down
n ess
”
at the presence of the L ord and by his fierce an ger
—
J er iv 2 3 2 6
“
A nd 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 M att
xix 2 4
“
A nd there are also many other things which
J esus 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
”
A men
J ohn xxi 2 5
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82
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS O F THE BIB LE
.
we
bestow
sensibi
l
ity
and
v
ol
ntary
motion
u
p p
on things inanimate and ascribe rational intellect
and moral feelings to the lower animals T his un
questio n ably is a bold figure ; yet such is the e ffect
of the passions to incline us t oward it that pro
v i d e d it is naturally introduced we acquit a w riter
of any charge of extravagance who employs it
T here is a temperate heat of the passions which
is little more than a glow of t h e fancy when what
might seem a mild form of personification is used
—
even in ordinary d iscourse as when we speak of
the thi r sty ground a fur i ous dart the a n g ry ocean
the m ela n cho ly groves the li s ten i n g air But this
will be more properly co n sidered as simple meta
phor ; since such epithets do not produce even a
momentary conviction that the grou n d 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 sympathi z e with t h e sincerity and
truthfulness of our e motions ; and instead of sporting
in fancied conceits is i m pressed with the belief
—
which is of course only temporary that the inani
mate obj ects which it addresses are actually endowed
with t h e attributes of sensible beings
T here would seem to be j ust two deg rees of this
figure T he first or lower degree when we intro
duce inanimate obj ects as feeling and acting like
those tha t have life ; and the seco n d or higher
degree when inan i mate Obj ects are i ntroduced n ot
SO O oe i a ,
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THE FIGURATIVE
IN S
CRIP TURE
83
.
only as feeling and acting but as speaking to us or
h ear i n g and listening to us when we address our
selves to them
In the sacred S criptures personification in both its
deg rees is frequently used ; and the equal of some
of the instances w i ll not be found in any literature
Indeed it is this figure which beyond all others
elevates the style of S cripture ; for no person ifica
tions employed by any poets are so magnificent and
striking as those of the inspired wri te rs T hat
noted passage in the book of Isaiah which describes
the fall of the king of A ssyria is full of personified
obj ects :
“
That thou shalt ta ke up this proverb agai ns t
the king of Babylon and say H ow hath the op
pressor ceased ! the golden city ceased !
T he L ord hath broken the staff of the wicked
and the scepter of the rulers
H e who smote the people in wrath with a con
t i n ual stroke he that ruled the nations in anger is
persecuted and none hindereth
T he whole earth is at rest and is quiet : they
break forth into si n ging
Y ea the fir tree s rejoice at thee and the cedars
of L ebanon saying S ince thou art laid down no
feller is come up against us
H ell 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 nation s
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84
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S
THE
OF
BIBLE
.
A ll they shall S peak and say unto thee A rt
thou also become weak as we ? art thou become like
unto us ?
T hy pomp is brought down to the grave and the
noise of thy viols : the worm is spread under thee
and the worms cover thee
Ho w art thou fallen fro m heaven 0 L ucifer so n
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 L ebanon breaking
forth into exultation over the fall of the tyrant ; as if
their bleeding trun ks had felt the blo w of his bat
tle ax when it smote down the warriors of J udah !
H ell from beneath moved up to mee t him— and the
dead kings introduced as commiserating with mock
pity the fall of one whose magnificence and victories
had eclipsed their own ! T hat also is a bold personi
fi cat i o n in the book of J ob where inquiry being
made about the place of wisdom the deep is intro
”
“
d uce d as answering
It is not in m e and the sea
”
“
as replying It is not with me
H ow animated a
picture the P salmis t raises when not co n tent to
strike his harp alone he summons to the choir to
j oin with him in his anthem every thing that lives
“
!
or moves or h as a being
Praise the L ord from
'
the earth ye d ragons and all deeps : fire and hail ;
s n o w and vapor ; stormy wind fulfilli n g his word :
mountains and all bi lls ; fruitful trees a n d all c c
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IN
THE FIG URATIVE
S CRIP TURE
85
.
dars : beasts and all cattle ; creeping things an d
flying fowl : kings of the earth and all people ;
princes and all j udges of the earth : both young men
and maidens ; old men and children : let the mpraise
the name of the L ord ; for his name alone is excel
”
lent ; his glory is above the earth and heaven
When any appearance or operation of the A lmighty
is concerne d the sacred writers are so filled with
animated views of his maj esty 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 th roughout creation T ake the follo wing
as an example of this : Before him went the pesti
lence : the waters saw thee O God and were afraid ;
the mou n tains saw thee and trembled T he over
flo wing 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 C hrist that looking upon
“
the tempestuous sea on rising from sleep
H e re
buk ed the winds and the sea and there was a great
—
calm
T o speak to the raging tempes t its rushing
—
winds and its c rusted waves with the word of a u
t h or i t y as though Nature in her wildest m oods
could not fail to recogni z e t h e voice of her L ord ;
could a sublimer personification be conceived ! A S
an example of this figure where simplicity is com
bi n e d with great beauty the following may be cited :
“
T he heavens declare the glory of God and the
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86
LITERARY
OF THE BIB LE
CIIARACTERISTICS
fi r m am e n t
.
Sheweth his handiwork Day unto day
uttereth speech and night unto night She weth
knowledge T here is no S peech nor language where
”
their voice is not heard
Ps xix A ddison h as
paraphrased this thought with his usual felicity of
diction in his celebrated hymn which first appeared
Nothing can be con
i n NO 46 5 o f the Sp ecta tor
c e i v e d more beautiful and sublime than the personi
f wisdo m which S olomon so frequently
fi ca t i on O
—
introduces A s for example P rov viii 2 7 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
li sh e d his decree to the sea that the waters should
not p as s their bounds : when he planned the fo un d a
tions of the earth : then w as I by him as his o flspr i n g ;
and I was daily his delight ; I rej oiced continually
before him ; I rej oiced in the habitable part of his
”
earth and my delights were with the so n s of men
Not less admirable is the P salmist s personification
“
of the Divine attributes : M ercy and truth are met
together ; r i gh t eo usri ess and peace have kissed each
”
other
Where shall we find a bolder use of this
figure than where the pro phet H abakkuk represents
the pestilence as marching before J ehovah when he
comes to vengeance iii 5 ; or where J ob introduces
death an d destruction affi rming of wisdom that her
fame only had come to their ears xxv iii 2 2 ; or
where Isaiah in his tremendous image of H ad e s
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TEE F ICURATIVE IN
SCRIP T URE
87
.
figures
her extending her throat and Opening her
satiable and immeasurable j aws v 14
.
,
in
.
APOSTB OPHE
.
T his figure and the former are derived from the
same principle F or the like impulse which to
gratify a plaintive passion leads us to bestow a mo
mentary sensibility upon an inanimate Obj ect does
also incli ne us to besto w a momentary presence upon
a sensible being who is absent T he 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 who m that
ocean separates from us T he memory of our for
mer companionship when we exchanged our fee l
ings becomes so very lively as to change for the
moment fro m a mere reminis cence into a conviction
that the absent one i s at our side
T his figure i s sometimes j oined with pe rson i fica
tion ; things inanimate to qualifythem for listening
to our apostrophic appeal be i ng not only conceived
to be present but personified
E x amples of the apostrophe are nu m erous in the
sacred writers and the figure is often managed with
great boldness
“
O thou sword of the L ord how long will it be
ere thou art quiet ? P ut thyself up into the scab
bard res t and be still H ow can it be quiet seeing
the L ord ha th given it a Charge against A shkelon
and against the sea shore ? there he hath appointed
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-
L ITE RARY CHARACTERISTICS O F THE BIBLE
88
”
.
“
it
J er xlvii 6 7
O death I will be thy
”
plagues ! O grave I will be thy destruction ! H os
“
xiii 14
0 death where is thy sting ? O grave
I Cor xv 5 5
where is thy victory
“
Descend and Si t in the dust O virgin daughter
of Babylon ; sit on the bare ground without a
throne 0 daughter of the C haldeans ; for t h qu shalt
”
no longer be called the tender and the delicate
Is
“
xlvii 1
A wake awake ; put on thy strength 0
Z ion ; put on thy beautiful garments 0 J erusalem
the holy city ; for henceforth there shall no more
come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean
S hake thyself from the dust ; arise and Si t down
O J erusalem ; loose thyself from the bands of thy
”
—
neck 0 captive daughter of Z ion
Isa lii 1 2
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90
LITERARY C HARACTERISTICS OF THE BIB LE
.
But there is to be found in the S criptures a
scheme of symbolism which will not resolve into
mere figures of speech Its use w as ev i dently i n
tended to be mor e profound and far loftier than
merely to give a literary e ffect to the style While
figurative in its expression there are un d e r c ur
rents deeper than any figures of spe ech could carry
O n t urning to the prophecies we shall find that
the language in which they are couched goes be
yond the metaph or and allegory ; for terms are used
in a manner which is al together unique and pe cu
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 vocabulary is singular ; its languag e
i t s o wn
h as an alphabet by itself T o decipher the pro
h
e
t
i
hieroglyphics
belongs
rather
to
the
exegesis
c
p
than to the literature of S cripture Y et it falls
within our design to remark how rich is the lit
crary dress in which their symbolism h as clothed
the prophetic writings T hese visions of the future
have an ama z ing scenic e ffect ; are gran d some
times gorgeous beyond conception i n consequen ce
of the substitution of their symbolic images for the
literary events themselves A splendid drapery is
thrown around these future his t ories which in t h e
ordinary historian would be extravagant ; but which
in the prophet is dignified and becoming as the
solemn folds o f his own prophetic mantle T here i s
a noble obscurity as when the clouds gilded by the
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,
THE SYM B OLIC
IN
THE SCRIPTURES
91
.
twilight from the unrisen sun seem to pile up
palaces upon the mountains dusky summits A ny
one may convince himself of this by turning to the
nd
pages of Ez ekiel Daniel or J ohn ; a
if with
darkling pen these have written down on tablets of
Shado w the world s future history this very Oh
s c ur i t
h
i
h
t
e n s the artistic e ffect
A
prediction
y
g
which should present itself in bare literalities would
want those spectral proportions which only dimness
c an give to it as we se e it move on the indistinct
verges of distan t centuries Whatever the rapt eye
of the seer might itself descry it could fling back
for other eyes only mantled glances A nd it is t h e
working out of the symbolism necessary for this oh
which so ama z ingly exhibits the literary
s c ur a t i on
excellence of these prophetic compositions T he
artistic e ffect in the working of light and shade is
similar to the finest e fforts of Rembrandt T he
bare thought of a prediction however ordinary the
event predicted has in it something sublime ; and
this sublimity is wonderfully sustained by the sym
bo li c style of the prophe ts
T o en ter on an examination of the prophetic style
would lead us into the subj ec t of Biblical i n t e rpr e
t at i o n which is aside from our purpose
A S ingle
illustration however may be given It is to be
found in the chronology of the prophets in which
the term d ay instead of the diurnal circle of
twenty four hours counts the annual circle of the
su n s revolution ; in other words a year Now
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS O F
92
THE
BIB LE
.
why did these ancient seers reckon by days thus
ex tended into years rather than by years them
selves ? M ay 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 fe w hours the earth takes to turn on its axis ?
where as when it is God who works hi s day s wells
in dimension and becomes as a year— the period of
the far wider revolution when our planet sweeps its
entire o r bi t ual curve
T he visual range of prophecy was n o t confined
within our terrene hori z on ; for to her eye was given
to pierce the world unseen No w it will at once ap
pear that in his descriptions of the invisible world
the prophet could only describe by means of symbols
H is pictures of a condition of existence of which we
have no experience if worked i n colors borrowed
from the earth can be no other than symbolic
representations T he material parts of his d escr ip
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 S imply a symbol of its magni t
A re its inhabitants figured in white rai
i ce n c e
—
ment which glistens in unclouded light ? this is
merely a symbol of their purity T he entire scenic
representation is but one grand piece of symbolism
F or clearly on no other pri n ciple could the unseen
world and the future state he described if the de
s cr i t i o n s are to be at all pictori al
But
this
once
p
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THE S YM B OLIC
ad
IN
THE S CRIPTURES
93
.
mitted what an a mple scope was given to the
prophet to work out the magnificent imagery of the
heavenly world ! A ll that is beautiful and bright
—
l
n
d
that
is
grand
a
gorgeous
the magnificence of
al
—
—
architecture the minstrelsies of music the wealth
of E as tern mines— the insig ni a of E as tern royalty
—
t
the rich ves ments of E astern costume all could be
collected into the prophet s representations H e
could dip his pen in the glories of the first para
dis c— could borrow beauty from the landscapes of
—
Pal estine and magnificence from its palac es could
gather into his pictures the sacred grandeurs which
gleamed fro m the T emple an d enrich them with the
“
loveliest hues of M ount Z i on
the perfection of
”
m by means
beauty
O r working out his sym boli S
of contras t he could figure a paradise where no
—
e
serp nt 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
“
what the prophet had to describe is that which
eye hath not seen nor e ar heard neither hath
”
entered into the heart of man to conceive yet
worki ng out his d escr i pt i o n s on t h e princi ple of
symbolism where in an y language will we find a
grandeur of apocalyptic imagery to compare with
that with which the banished seer of Patmos h as
enriched the sacred literature ?
It is however in the typology of S cripture that
we shall best see its peculiar symbolism It be
longs of course to the theolog i an t o set forth the
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIBL E
94
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doctrinal meanings of the types ; our business i s
only with their literary effect A nd certainly this
w as to give a singularly pictorial vividness to the
sacred literature of the H ebrews T he bare de
scription of the types especially of those which were
ritualistic has made the P entateuch read like a
fi n e ly illustrated work
It is profusely and most
graphically pictorial Th e pen of the sacred law
giver becomes also the pencil of the sacred ar tist
T he entire ritualism under which are vailed so
many spiritual meanings is one grand picture rep
r ese n t a t i o n of heavenly truth
It is a trite saying that it is a d i fli cult 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 C hurch in its infancy or
—
non age 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 t o be hereafter given in the fullness of
the times H ow admirably suited for this purpose
w as the symbolistic manual which M oses prepared !
It has sometimes been a taunt with the infidel
that the ritu al of M oses was so sanguinary and so
o ffensive even to the sight that it turned the
sanctuary as into a Slaughter house and filled the
holy places with ghastly spectacles ; that it e n san
n e d the very li terature of the H ebrews for the
u
i
g
book of L eviticus seems to drip with blood an d is
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SYM B OLIC
THE
IN
THE SCRIP T URE S
95
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evolting with horrid details of sacrificial butch
“
“
eries
C onceive — the infidel says— what a r e
pulsive sigh t it must have been when the tender
lamb j ust brought from the fold or the pasture fie ld
had its throat cut i t s white breast smeared with i ts
own gore and its dismembered limbs laid o n the
al tar faggots to blacken in the flames O r what a
sickening sight it w as to see the turtle dove which
so
lately c ooed its tender responses to its mate
strangled plucked of its feathers and d i sembow
c led
A ll this must have been excessively r e volting
to behold while it could be scarcel y less revolting
to read a detailed account of it A literature which
describes it could only gratify a taste fer the borri
ble and of this sort w as the early sacred history
of the H ebrews where you have the whole details
”
of the disgusting S pectacle
S uch is the obj ection
of the infidel who forgets that if these sacrifi cial
rites had been any less revolting they would have
failed in their great symbolic use A n image of sin
that abominable thing which God hateth— had to
be presented ; an d it w as to be seen in that bleed
ing lamb as it pante d in its death throes its eyes be
come gla z ed and luste rless i ts limbs rigid its flee ce
dappled in i ts own g ore It was to be seen In that
strangled dove whose plumage is so ru ffl ed its
wings draggled and torn its very bo wels pro t r ud
ing through the gash which the priest s k n ife h ad
made In these sickening to look upon what the
Israelites saw w as the image of sin T hose ghastly
r
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
96
.
changes which had come over the lamb whi ch a
few hours ago w as at its gambols on the green
meado w and over that turtle dove which yesterday
cooed its note among the sycamore branches or
—
n
clove the air a thi g of beauty and of life those
gh astly changes which have made creatures lately
so fair to look upon n ow sickening to behold were
not exhibited as a mere spectacle but were symbols
of a grea t truth which needed to be graven on the
memory even if it should be as with the point of a
knife dipped in blood A s the worshiper ga z ed upon
his sacrifice what he saw was the image of si n — o f
himself the sinner : what he polluted depraved
death doomed w as in the sight of the H oly O ne
Nor was it sin only which was symboli z ed but
salvation as well A nd h o w sustaining to h Ope
while having to look through the dim vista of cen
t ur i es to h a ve set forth visibly before it the sym
”
“
bols of the great salvation ! It is impossible for
us fully to reali z e the impress ion which these pre
figurative types would make on the mind o f an
ancient H ebre w T he gushing wound in the br east
of the animal wo uld lose its ghastliness in his eyes
when faith beheld as in a mirror the foreshadowed
images of redemption
M odern science has discovered a typical system
in nature Of which one peculiar element is that
the earlier is a s ort of pr efig ur at i on of the later
T he seed contains what is to become the full grown
plant T he embryo has within i t what is to ex
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98
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB L E
.
own as prefig ur at i on s of the grand archetypal ideas
in the economy of redemption which they were i n
tended to adumbrate We can not conceive a m ore
pl easing or healthier exercise for the analogical
faculty than the study of the O ld T estament types
when rightly pursued T he subj ect has at length
been reduced to a scientific method by one of our
most accomplished S cottish divines Principal F air
bairn in his v ery able work on typology
T he loose treatment of the types which rej oiced
in runni n g out mere wire drawn coincidences with
out having got hold of any main or central idea
w as 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 n o t 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 ; e Ve n as the
midrib to the veins in a leaf or as a stem branch to
the o ff shooting twigs T here 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 A nd we take
only that to be typical in any theological sense
which is truly prefig urat i v e H ad 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
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TH E S YM B OL IC
IN
TH E S CR IP TURE S
99
.
degrade the majesty of the Divine te achings bysym
\
bo l if w e regard a type as other than a great
thought which waiting its higher manifestations
was worthy to be anticipated in symboli c e x h i bi
tion T o say for instance that M oses was a type
of C hrist in respect that danger threatened the
infancy of both is to confound a mere historical
coi n cidence with typical identity H ere was no
root principle no essential law nor any funda
mental idea i n the me thod of Divine P rovidence
toward our race to be brought out In like man
ner we dismiss some twenty other par ticulars in the
life Of M oses as not me riting to be esteemed
strictly typical V ie wed as coincidences they are
i n teresting some of them remarkable ; as historical
parallels they are instructive shedding broad r e
v olving lights on P rovidence when it is seen r s
e at i n g itse lf yet still progressive ; but they do not
p
rise into the regi on of that class of facts which
alone were worthy to be typified T his much only
would we say of them that they fall in with a
natural expectation that where two persons have
a typical relation t h e circumstances of their his
t ory will run more parallel
tha n where there is
no such relation
T he great H ebrew prophet has himself sei z ed upon
and expressed the root idea in the typical relation
in which he stood to C hrist F o r if the reader
—
—
carefully examines his word s De n t xviii 15 19
he can scarcely fail to perceive that the type is
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LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS O F THE BIB LE
10 0
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founded upon and gives sens i ble form to the one
idea of m ed i a ti on H ere we have an essential prin
c i le in the m ethod of Providence toward man
It
p
was to have its arche t ypal consummation in the
person and work of C hr ist ; in M oses a lesser per
so n a e and on a lower platform it had its typ al
g
adumbration A nd 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
T here is often a poetical beauty in the types
some fine thought fit ly draped in the infolding sym
S o have we thought of the tabernacle in
h olism
the wilderness with its holy of holies screened o ff
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 ! S o have we thought also of the bra z en
serpent in the desert T here 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 C ould a more affecting pre
figuration have been chosen of the great fact in
—
red emption that it was by dea th th e death of Him
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10 2
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
CH A
THE
SU B L IME
P
TER
IN THE
IT
THE BIB LE
OF
.
VI
.
SCR IP TURES
.
will readily he confessed that to excel in these
—
three the sublime the pathetic and the pi c t ur
—
esque is the h i ghest achievement of literary gen
i us
By the sublime to fill the soul ; by the
pathetic to touch the heart ; by the picturesque to
fas cinate the eye A n author who succeeds in doing
this proves himself a very m aster in literature
S waying 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 s ub
lime the pathetic and the pic t uresque In the
present chapter I design to treat of the subli m e i n
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the Scr ip tur es
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In
order to sublimity in writi n g three things are
requisite F irst the obj ects described must be such
as a re fitted to raise those ideas or emotions which
we cal l sublime ; for if an author chooses mean or
commonplace obj ects then however grand or loft y
his descriptions of them he do es not m erit to be
called a sublime w riter H is gorg e ous language
may produce a momentary sensation approaching to
sublimity j us t as a ha z e of mi n gled cloud and sun
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THE S UB LIME
IN
THE SCRIP TURES
10 3
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shine some t imes causes us to mis take a very ordi
nary bi ll for a lofty mo unta in ; but unl ess the obj ect
itself is really sublime the i llus ion will speedily
pass a way S econdly the writer himself must have
a lively impression of the obj ect which he exhibits ;
for if h i s own feelings are languid he can never
Insp i re hi s readers with any strong emot i on
who
have to take their impressions from his at second
hand O nly when a writer h as himself ca ught a
heat and elevation o f soul in the presence of the
sublime will his descriptions of it bear tran smission
t hrough the medium of language which in no cas e
T hirdly not only must the
ca n equal open vision
object in i t self be sublime and the writer have a
lively impression of i t s sub limity but it must be
set before us in such a light so described in appro
r i a t e language that a full and clear impression of
p
it shall at once strike upon the mind of the reader ;
for unless the images of sublimity which the o r a tor
or poet conj ures up impress us at once as sublime
the e ffect of his des cription is entirely lost T he
sight of a catara ct or a lofty mountain instantane
o n ely 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 cas e it will rarely come
at all
Now the sa cred writers possess in a very eminent
degree these three requisites to the sublime in writ
ing F or in the first place their chosen themes
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L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S O F THE BIB LE
10 4
an d
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obj ec ts are wonderfully sublime A mong things
s i r i tua l what can be more grand or lofty than the
p
being and perfections of the Infinite Divine Provi
dence the origin of evil and its removal ; or amo n g
thi n gs hi s tor i ca l what can equal for sublimity the
creation of worlds the incarnation of Deity the
redemption of a fallen race ; or among things which
are p r osp ec ti ve what is more sublime than the
”
“
closing up of time when its last day shall have
been numbered the universal j udgment 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 m a ter i a l
what can be more sublime for va stn ess than the
starry fir m am en t and the mighty ocean ; or for
en ergy a n d for ce than a thunder storm
a tempest
of wind an d the overflowi n g of waters ; or for so
lem n i ty a n d a w e than the darkness of night the
solitude of the desert a n d the silence of a vast for
est ; or for scen i c g r a n d eur than t h e risi n g of the
dead and the great c o n flag r at i on which is to reduce
a world to ashes ? Now it is amo n g such subj ects
as these that the sacred writers del i ght to expatiate
Nor shall we d o them full j usti ce if t h e impression
is conveyed that they produce these lofty obj ects as
if inc i dentally or as a poet m ight intersperse his
cantos with an occ asional sublime episode T here
is thro ughout an e pical unity th e se subj ects form
ing so to say the wa rp and woof in the gorgeous
web Not more n aturally do we look for stars in a
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LITE RARY C HARACTE RI S TIC S O F THE BIBLE
10 6
.
tion T he drifting clouds though picturesque are
scarcely a sublime obj ect ; but to a devout min d
they appear wonderfully sublime when represented
as the chariot of God T he fall o f a sparro w from
the house top has nothing o f sublimity in it ; but
sual event is connected with the special
w hen this c a
—
providence o f God hi 8 eye w a tching alike the
—
d
l
flight and the fall o f the despised fl e g i n g i t be
co mes morally sublime
T hen secondly the sacred penmen possess the
emotion of sublimity in a v e ry high degree F or
their feelings in presence o f the sublime are never
languid nor their impressions o f it ever feeble
H ow the poetic rapture m ust have kindled and
burned in the breasts o f the ancient prophets !
Wh at holy fren z ies must have sei z ed o n the min
s t r e l spiri t o f D avid ! What pulses of strong emo
tion beat quick in the heart veins of J ob ! What
sublime musings filled the soul o f the lonely sage
who pondered the mysteries of P rovidence amid the
m ountain s olitudes of Media ! Ho w E z ekiel seems
to have ga z ed a w e struck o n his ow n prophetic
images ! Ho w tremblingly did D ani e l look into
those future ages which rolled their distant centu
r ies like sea mists from an invisible hori z on ! What
ecstatic fervors fired that ge n tle breast which sighed
its sorrows and saw its visions o n the prison isle
o f P atmos ! \
Vh a t deep ama z ement was his to
whom in mystic trance the third heavens revealed
their secrets and poured forth their unutterable
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THE S UB L IME
THE SC RIP T URE S
IN
10 7
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sympho nies ! S ublimity ! is it only to souls sublime
whi ch can understand it and appreciate it that it
reveals itself— its silences and i ts solemn ities ; its
?
hights and its depths ; its grandeurs and its glory
T hen were these men worth y to look upon it for
not o n them were lost even the passing shadows of
its mysterious forms ; but when these h ad passed
there remained o n their souls images like to i tself
v ast solemn maj estic and sublime
T hird ly the s acred authors are complete m asters
o f the proper style in which to describe a sublime
obj ect and so to convey their o w n impressions of its
sublimity F or t hey write with clearness v i gor
conciseness and simplicity ; are ever natural ; do
not labor to be gran d iloquent ; seek not to a ccum u
late turgid epithets and swelling phrases ; but in
words o f simple grandeur so w ell 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
s ay almost the nakedness o f many of the B ibl e de
B
ut
sc r i t i o n s will take from their impressiveness
p
the same might be said o f the works o f nature
T hese when grande st are generally least elaborate
—
A treeless desert of s a nd a heaving expanse of
—
waters a huge moun t ain rudely blocked capping
—
its rugged brow with stor m clouds these in form
are as simple as may be conceived ; yet in e ffect
T he rush o f
t hey are subli m e beyond conception
—
—
cataracts the booming o f sea billows the crash of
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LITERARY CHARACTE RIS TICS O F THE BIBLE
10 8
.
—
cloud i n
the riven thu n der
these there are no dia
pason music notes nor choral symphonies ; they are
S imple sounds— the untuned voice of N ature when
S he cries aloud : yet how sublime without being
musical is that awful voice ! T o such therefore as
have the true perception the B ible of all books is
most co m parable with the great works o f Go d — i t
is so sublime in its simplicity and so S imple in its
sublimity
It were easy to multiply examples o f the admira
ble plainness and brevity of t h e sacred writers
when descanting o n subj ects o f the greatest sublim
ity ; but two may su ffice S uppose then an unin
spired writer to atte m pt a description o f the
primeval ch aos when darkness and tempest held
divided sovereignty o f the ocean earth ; how labored
his language would be we may gather from reading
the descriptio n which that most graphic of pens h as
essayed in the Testi m on y of the Rocks B ut h ow
brief h o w si m ple— sublimely brief maj estically sim
ple— is the description by Moses In a single verse
containing not over thirty words he raises an image
which haunts the imagination as a
o f t h e chaos
“
terror dream of the night :
A nd t h e ear th w as
without form and void ; and d arkness was upon t h e
face o f the deep A nd the S pirit breath o f the
"
L ord moved upon the face of the waters
Gen i 2
O r take his account of the crea t ion of light ; i n
some six words he strikes off quick as the motion
of that e thereal substan ce whose creation be de
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110
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
THE BIB LE
or
.
I
am not aware that there is one who has not
gone for examples of it to the sacred wri tings
N or is this to be wondered at seeing that o f all
writings ancient or modern the B ible affords us
the highest instances of the sublime Without
needlessly multiplying e x amples some fe w may be
cited by way of specimens In his narrative o f
the creation Moses has several strokes of the true
sublime one especially which dre w commendation
“
—
fro m a heathen critic
God said L ight be ! and
"
light was
O f this passage L ord K ames j ustly
“
re m
arks
It is scarce possible in fe wer words to
convey so clear an image of the infinite po w er of
"
the D eity
D avid is more distinguished by ten
derness and sweetness than by grandeur o r sub
limit y ; yet in his P salms there are many gr and
and sublime p assages When he touches his lyre
to describe the appearances o f J ehovah to the
ancient fathers the swelling stri ngs rise above
their ordinary soft and tender sounds into a strain
"
“
o f the grandest maj esty
What an assemblage
“
says D r B lair
of awful and sublime ideas is
presented to us in that passage in the 18 th P salm
where an appearance o f the Almighty is described :
‘
In my distress I called upon the L ord and cried
unto my God : he heard my voice o ut of his temple
and my cry came before him even into his ears
T he earth shook and trembled ; the foundations also
o f the hills moved and were shaken because he w as
w roth T here went up a smoke out o f his nostrils
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THE S UB LIME
DI
THE SC RIP T URE S
111
.
and fire out of his mouth devoured : coals were
kindled by it H e bowed the heavens also and
came down and darkness Was under his feet
A nd he rode upon a cherub and did fly ; yea he
He made
d i d fly upon the wings o f the wind
darkness his secret place ; his pavilion round about
him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies
A t the brightness that w as before him his thick
clouds passed ; hailstones and coals of fire T he
L ord also thundered in t h e heave n s and the High
est gave his voice ; hailston es and coals of fire
Y ea h e sen t o ut his arrows and sca t tered them ;
and he shot out lightn ings and d i sc om fi t e d them
T hen the channels o f waters were seen and the
foundations of the world were discovered at thy r e
buke O L ord at the blast o f the breat h of thy
nostrils
V erses 6—15
E qually sublime is that
“
other description in th e 77t h Psalm : T he waters
s aw thee
O God the waters saw thee ; they were
afraid : the depths also were troubled T he clouds
poured o ut waters ; the skies sent o ut a sound : thine
arrows also went abroad The voice of thy thun
der was in the heaven : the lightnings lightened the
world : the ear th trembled and shook T hy way is
in the sea and thy path in the great waters an d thy
”
footsteps are not known
V erses 16—19 Worthy
t o be classed w ith these is that noble p as sage in the
“
prophet Habakkuk :
God came from T eman an d
the Holy O ne from Mount P aran S elah His
glory covered the heavens and the earth w as full
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L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S O F THE BIB LE
112
of
.
his praise A nd his brightness w as as the light ;
he had horns coming o ut of his hand : and there
was the hiding of his power B efore him went the
pestilence and burning coals went forth at his feet
He stood and measured the earth : he beheld and
drove as under the nations ; and the everlasting
m ountains were scattered and the perpetual hills
did bow ; his ways are everlasting I saw the tents
o f C ushan in a ffliction : and the curtains of the land
o f Midian did tremble
Was the L ord displeased
against the rivers ? w as thine anger a gainst the
rivers ? was thy wrath against the s ea that thou
didst ride upon thy horses and thy chariots of sal
vation ? T hy ho w was made quite naked according
to the oaths of the tribes even thy word S elah
T hou didst cleave the earth with rivers T he mount
ains saw thee and they trembled : the overflowing
o f the water passed by : the deep uttered his voice
and lifted up his hands o n high T he sun and
m oon stood still in their habitation : at the light o f
thine arrows they went and at the shining of thy
glittering S pear T hou didst m arch t hrough the
land in indignation thou didst thresh the heathen
in anger T hou wentest forth for the salvation of
thy people even for salvation with thine anointed ;
thou woundedst the head out of the house o f the
wicked by discovering the foundation unto the
”
neck S elah
C hap iii 3—13
When the imagination is conducted in a suc ces
—
sion of flights over wide intervals of space set off
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114
L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
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t he
ocean ; there also thy hand shall l ead me and
”
thy right hand shall hold me
PS cxxxix 7—10
It is well known that obscurity h i gh t e n s o ur i m
pressions o f the sublime ; for the imagination lost
as in a darkling ma z e becomes n o t only exhausted
but awe struck b y its ow n e fforts t o define the
shadowy vastness w hich seems about to sink ere
it can be sei z ed into abysmal night
O ur ow n
Milton h as some fine strokes of this sort ; that o n e
especially w here he so dimly deline ates the huge
bulk of the fallen archangel :
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“
T h u s S at an t alking t his n eare s t ma t e
W i t h head up lift abov e t h w ave and eyes
T ha t sparkling bla ed his o ther part s beside
o
-
e
z
,
,
Pron e on t h fl ood ex t ended long and larg e
”
L ay fl oat in g many a rood
e
,
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'
We have a still finer example in the following pas
“
sage in the book of J ob : In thoughts from the
visions of the night when deep Sleep falleth upon
men fear c ame upon me and trembling which
made all my bones to shake T hen a spirit stood
before my face ; the hair o f my flesh stood up ; i t
stood still but I could not discern the form there
”
—
3
C hap iv 1 16 T his writer not only abounds
of
in sublime passages but by the strength an d dig
o f high
and
the
current
o f his conceptions
n it
y
ideas that runs through his whole composition pre
serves the reader s m ind al w ays i n a tone nearly
allied to the sublime
T he prophet Isaiah i s another writer who is nota
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THE SUB LIME
IN
THE S C RIP T URE S
115
.
bly sublime With wo n derful elevation and sud
den as the sunward sweep of an eagle s wings this
Homer of P alestine begins his vision which contin
ues through the reigns of four successive kings ;
y et never once does his muse flag o r droop in her
maj estic flight N othing can be conceived more
sublime ; nothing within the whole compass of liter
ature ancien t or modern is to be found so sublime
T he book is throughout as a mighty Alpine range
with occasionally a Mont B lanc towering its loftier
summit where all is loft y S uch is the following
“
passage : Who hath measured the waters in the
hollo w o f his hand and meted o ut heaven with the
Span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a
meas ure and weighed the mountains in s cales and
the hills in a balance ? Who hath directed the S pirit
o f the L ord
or being his counselor
hath taught
him ? With whom took he counsel and who i n
s tructed him and taught him in the path o f j udg
ment and taught him knowledge and shewed to
him the way of understan d ing ? B eh old t h e nations
are as a drop o f a bucket and are counted as the
small dust of the balance ; behold he taketh up the
isles as a very little thing A nd L ebanon is not
s ufli c i e n t to burn
nor the beasts thereof sufli c i e n t
for a burnt o ffering All nations before him are as
nothing ; and they are counted to him l ess than
”
“
—
nothing and vanity
C hap xl 12 17
E very
”
on e
says D r J B ro wn in h i s Hor oe Subseci vw
“
every o n e must have trembled wh en reading that
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116
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
THE BIB LE
or
.
pas sage in Isaiah in which hell is described as
moved to meet L ucifer at his coming ; ther e is not
in human language any thing more sublime in c on
more exquisite in expression ; it h as on it
c ept i o n
”
A s additional ex
t h e light of the terrible crystal
amples o f the sublime I would instance the myst eri
o us vision which passed be fore the awe struc k eyes
of the prophet E lij ah at the cave in Horeb 1 K ings
—
xix 11 13 ; the ama z ing descri ption of a thunder
storm in the 2 9 th Psalm compared w ith which
those o f L ucretius V irgil or B yron great poets as
they were are prosaically tame ; that marvelous
meditation upon the maj esty po w er and providence
the gorgeous vision of
o f Go d in the l 0 4t h P salm ;
the four cherubim overarched by t h e bow o f glory
which drew the wondering eye of the son o f B u z i
in the land of the C haldeans by the river C hebar
E z ek i ; D aniel s dream with its mystic v ision o f
—
the A ncient of D ays throne seated o n the ruins o f
empires a fiery river rolling flame before him
while ten thousand times ten thousand ministers o f
v e ngeance wait but his S ignal to s w eep the earth
with their havoc wings D an vii 9 14 ; J oel s terri
ble picture of invading armi es innumerable as
locust bands wasteful and devouring J oel ii ; the
successi v e visions of E z ekiel which like a ma g n i fi
cen t panorama moved as by a W i za rd s hand cause
the sp ectato r t o feel as if he were in a dream
o f ama z ement ; the e ually gorgeous visions in the
q
a oc alypse ; and that marvelously sublime d e sc r i p
p
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118
L ITERARY CHARACTERIST IC S
or
THE BIB LE
.
scribes to herdsmen and unlettered fishers might
be supposed to differ widely in their views and i m
pressions ; yet this wondrous volume which thus
grew to what it n ow is part by part slowly at
long intervals under di fferent hands in strangely
varied circumstances during on e entire millennium
and half another is to be see n like an unbroken
bow stretching across the divided ages ; the com
p act and completed arch of truth with o n e limb
resting o n creation s prime the other o n the end
o f time ; as evidently an emanation from o n e M as
ter —Mind though reared by forty di fferent authors
as the iris though reflected by millions o f rain
drops is the workmanship o f o n e Master Hand
It is sublime in its li ter a r y a chi evem en ts ; for
though composed by writers dwelling secluded o n
a narro w selvedge o f E astern land remote from the
seats o f classic literature it has nevertheless gone
out through all the earth t o become the world s
book ; though written in t wo ancient languages
which are no longer living tongues it has n o tw i th
s tanding made its voice to be heard in the ver
h acular dialects of the scattered family o f A dam ;
though markedly J e wish in its cast o f thought i t
is now incorporated with the literature and the phi
lo s0 ph y o f every civili z ed country in both hemi
spheres
It is sublime in its snf eri n g s and in its tr i ump hs;
for it has endured the martyr s death by fire and
its blackened leaves h ave been strewn like the mar
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THE S UB LIME
IN
THE S C RIPT URE S
119
.
tyr s calcined ashes o n 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 ; h as been denounced as a dangerous
and laughed at as a silly book ; has been a butt for
the shaft s o f ridicule and a ma rk for the arrows o f
persecution ; the skeptics o f modern times had done
t o it what the ancient skeptics did to its D ivine
Master— buried it in the grave ; and the priests o f
Rom e after the manner of the priests of J erusalem
had rolled a stone on its grave s mouth and sealed
it with a seal B ut this immor tal book has come
forth from its sepulcher and by many wonders and
signs h as showed i t self alive to the people ; it has
flung back from its invulnerable bre as t the shafts
o f the s c o fl e r and the arrows of the skeptic ; h as
shaken fro m its eagle wings the calumnies of slan
der ; and as the phenix not o f mythologic fable
but of heavenly truth it has risen from its ashes
to light the world when the stormy bale fir es of
superstition shall bla z e no more
It is sublime in the d esti n y which it marks o ut
for itself What is to be the future history o f this
book ? It is say some by the progress o f science
a n d 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
t i n ue w hat it is a mysterious child o f antiquity
mantled in its age by the same mists which lay
around the crad le o f i t s infancy
it
oth
rs
i
s
s
a
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12 0
LITERARY CHARACTE RIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
.
come out of the crucible o f the critics not al to
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 ! T he book itself h as a sublimer vatic
“
T he grass withereth and
i n a t i o n of its destiny :
”
the flower thereof falleth away —philosophy may
perish and science m ay cease and literature may
"
“
fail— but the word of the L ord endureth forever
—
V erily the B ible itself its very existence— t h e
bare idea of it not to speak o f its conte n ts is an
example unparalleled in the history of letters, of the
truly sublime
to
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIBLE
122
.
mountains of Gilboa let there be no dew neither let
there be rain upon yo u nor fields o f o fferings ; for
there the shield of the mighty is v ilely cast aw ay
the shield of S aul as though he h ad not been
”
anointed with oi l
A nd then ho w soft ly 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
J onathan ; very pleasant hast thou been unto me ; thy
"
love to me i s wonderful passing the love o f women
D avid s apostrophe t o his dead son is a still more
“
striking instance o f the pathetic : O my son A bsa
lom my son my so n A bsalom ! would Go d I had
”
died for thee O A bsalom my son my so n ! N or
reckon this a passionate outbur st of extravagant
sorrow or the raving of ni ad d e n e d grief which
knows n ot what wild words i t is uttering ; but think
o f the father who had su ffered such cruel w rongs at
the hand of this unnatural son and then you w ill
adm i re the pathos of paternal love which fo rgets all
except that the dead on e was his son T hink t oo
not merely o f the untimely fate but also o f the
character o f the wretched youth who without a
moment to cry to Heaven for pardon had been hur
ried into the et ernal world with his unrepented sins
o n his head ; and
ah no wonder that the sainted
father who w as himself ready to meet death should
in the anguish o f his pity and his fears cry o ut
“
Would God I had died for thee
T ake as another
e x ample o f the truly pa t hetic that incomparable
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THE PATHETIC
IN
THE S CRIPT URE S
12 3
.
monod y the 13 7t h P salm Here at first each word
comes slowly as a labored breathing but grad ually
the current s w ells till at last the surcharged bosoms
o f the e x iles overflow into a torrent of grief
Ho w
pathetic also are many of the penitential P salms
where godly sorrow melts into a strain o f t he mos t
tender repentan ce ! T hough o n e can not admire the
man yet is there som ething inexpressibly touching
in E sau s sorrow o n finding that his bro ther had
“
r eceived the parental blessing :
A nd when E sau
heard the words of his fathe r he cried with a great
and said unto his father
a n d exceeding bitte r cry
"
B less me even m e al so my father ! As pictures
what cou l d be more simply
o f natural t e ndern ess
touching or more artles sly told than the sacrifice
o f Isaac es pe cially at that part where the un sus
“
l
B
h
e ct i n
victim
says
the
fire
t
o hi s father
e
b
d
p
g
and the wood but where is the lamb for the burnt
”
O r the s t ory o f J a cob and R achel ; o r
o ffering ?
o f J o se ph an d his brethren ; o r of R uth and N aomi
We challen ge the whole circle of literature t o pro
duce any thing more tr uly pathetic than this :
“
A nd R uth said E ntreat me not to leave thee or
t o return from following aft er thee ; for whither
thou goest I will go ; and where thou lodgest I will
lodge ; t hy people shall be my people and thy God
my God ; wh e re thou dies t will I die an d t h e re will
”
I be buri e d
Po ets i n all ages have attempted to
describe the love and constancy of woma n —who in
th e first mutterings o f the app r oa ching s to rm tre m
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124
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS OF THE BIB LE
.
bles as the aspen leaf ; but when the tempest breaks
will cling like the ivy to the gray wall either t o
shield it or to S hare i ts fall ; but where w as ever
that constant love so touchingly so truthfully yet
briefly described as in these few simple words o f
R uth to N aomi ?
I have given examples o f the pathetic when its
affecting sounds fall upon the ear and there lingers
the tremulous echo o f its plaintiveness to move the
memory with tender recollections B ut the pathetic
may reach us through the eye as well as by the ear
F or there are S ights not less than sounds which
awaken pathos No w in this form also o f the
pathe t ic the S criptures abound ; for they present
us with many m ost affecting incidents ; and here
o n e thi n g is especially noticeable
as showing ho w
perfect masters the sacred writers are of the pathetic
in narrative ; namely that they never try to move
ou
r passions by working up a scene ; but with bre v
—
ity and without art unless we shall say that art
—
lessness is the per fection o f art they merely give
the S imple n arrative and leave it to produce its
natural e ffect How touching for example is the
scene o f t h e little children i n the arms o f J esus !
as if innocence like a frightened dove had nestled
in the bosom of the S inless O ne ; or the scene
near the grave o f L a z arus while that single verse
”
“
J esus wept is in itself a very master stroke of
pathos ; or the scene outside the gates of N ain
w h ere o n e m ay scarcely say which a ffects him most
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12 6
L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
THE BIB LE
or
.
degree pathetic ; although we confess it w as n o t till
having looked upon T urner s rendering of it in h i s
L iber Stud i or n m that we felt ho w a true touch o f
pathos will thrill the nerves as i f a spirituous elec
t r i ci t y were suddenly discharged along their thread s
T he painter s Sketch exhibits a foreground of gloom
“
with one bit of purest radiance a light shining i n
”
a dark place going out into the illimitable sk y ;
um
w hile a few grim trees deepen their beav
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 to rch ; around her lie stretched o ut seven
bod ies as of de ad m e n half naked already indica
ting that foul decay had claimed the Share which
falls to it T here is a lion seen slinking o ff w ith a
sulky disappointed look ; and a bittern as if scared
h as j ust S prung up i n the corner from a reedy po ol
T he w aning moon sends dow n a sickly paleness on
the bar ley sheaves j ust su fficient to let us see that
it i s in the beginning of harvest B ut w ho are these
dead ? T hey are the two sons and five grandsons
“
w ho fell all seven together and w e re put
o f S aul
to death in the days o f harvest in the beginning o f
”
barley harvest
A nd w ho is S he the living o n e
w h o sits there keepi n g her unfailing forlorn vigils ?
“
S he is R i z pah the d aughter of A iah who took
sackcloth and Spread i t for her on the rock from
t h e beginning o f harvest until water dr o pped upon
them out of heaven and su ffered neither birds of
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THE PATHETIC
THE SCRIP T URE S
IN
12 7
.
the air to rest u pon them nor the beas ts of the
”
field by night
T he wonde r ful genius of the painte r
br ought the entire scene before us an d held o ur
eye as if spell fix e d on that des olate mother who
for five month s— s till at her ceaseless work morn
n oon and nigh t — kept watch by the bodies o f her
sons
T here is sti ll a third form of the pathetic when
rather by the force of assoc i ation than by what we
actually se e or hear our feeli ngs are tenderly a f
A nd in this form also there abounds true
fe c t e d
pathos in the S criptures
F or example there is
something profoundly touching in the m agnanimous
pity which noble minds feel for obj ects which minds
less noble would deem beneath their notice Hence
the pleasing emotion with which one reads these
lines o f the poet C owper :
I w ould t en t er on my lis t of friends
”
T he man w ho needlessly se t s foo t s upon a w orm
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O r these lines by a still greater poe t
T he sense of dea t h is mos t in apprehension ;
A nd t h poor bee t le t ha t w e t read upon
I n c orporal ufi
finds a pang
A s grea t as w hen a gian t dies
e
,
'
s
e ra n c e
”
.
B ut how exquisitely more touching are some
S imilar pas sages in S cripture ! A s this for example
“
where it is the Infinite O ne who speaks : A nd
should not I spare N ineveh that great city wherein
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are more t han S ix score thousand persons that can
not discern their right hand and their left hand
,
12 8
LIT ERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
oE
THE BIB LE
.
and also much cattle
O r this other where it i s
the D ivine S on wh o speaks and of his D ivine F ather
“
he says it : A re n o t five sparrows sold for t wo
farthings and not o n e o f the m is forgotten before
God
C onsider the ravens for the y
neither so w n or reap which neither have store house
”
nor barn and God feedeth t hem
A gain through the power of association fe w
things more sadly a ffect us than the sight of fallen
greatness A s we look o n a ruinous castle its old
walls scarred by the pi tiless storms or blackened
by the fiery brand o f war seem plaintively to echo
with the me m ories o f other days when the sound of
revelr y rang through these n o w deserted halls an d
chivalry mustered its mailed knights and men a t
arms o n those ra mparts where now the melancholy
o w l h as built her secluded nest ; and where it is a
—
moral ruin some noble nature tha t h as fallen or
some migh t y kingdom that has wasted away or
some pr ofl ig at e city which h as been overtaken with
—
a sudden destruction o ur feelings are still more
profou n dly melancholy N ow where w i ll you find
so a ffecting instances ei t her o f the material or the
moral ruin as are furnished in the S criptures ?
T here with pathe t ic sad n ess you ga z e on the phys
ical desolation which has fallen upon the earth smit
ing its soil with barrenness and glooming its Sk y
with storm clouds till i ts fairest parts are n o w but
T here also with sadness
as the wreck of P aradise
still more pathetic you look upon the fall of p rime
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13 0
L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S
THE BIB LE
or
.
sometimes the turn of a phrase or a single word
w ill start a whole tr ain of the mos t tender emo
tions Man y notable instances of this are to be
found in the S criptures A t the L ast S upper the
S avior in giving the broken bread t o h i s disciples
”
“
said unto the m : D o this in remembrance of me
When o n e re ads these few and simple words in vie w
o f the memorial institution
what a flood o f tender
ness they pour round the heart ! D o thi s in r em em
—
f
brance o thee
thi s to S how forth what thou my
S avior didst endure for me ! Y es since thou hast
I will do this B ut O it tells not
so commanded
the thousandth par t o f thy willing su fferings for me !
T hat bread which I see broken i t feels no pain ; but
when thy b ody was broken for me it was pierced
with bleeding pangs T hat wine which I see poured
forth i t felt no pai n w h e n it was pressed from the
grape ; but when thou w a st in the wine press of thy
F ather s wrath thy soul was exceedingly sorro w ful
even unto death A nother touching ins tance o f
suggested pathos is to be found in the words which
the angel addressed to the wo men at the sepulcher :
“
B e not a ffrighted ; ye seek J esus o f N a z areth who
w as crucified ; he is risen he is not here ; behold
the place where they laid him B ut go your way
tell his di sciples an d P eter that he goe t h before you
into Galilee ; there Shall ye see him as he said unto
”
t hing i n e x
Mark
xvi
6
T
here
is
some
ou
7
y
e
of P
touching
in
the
individual
mention
r e ss i bl
y
p
ter by n ame seeing that while the others were
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THE PATHETIC
IN
THE SC RIP T URE S
131
.
plunged in grief his sorrow w as far more poignant ;
for he had denied that L ord whose living v oice h e
How touching
n ow feared he would hear n o more
in this view is the sympathy which this angelic be
ing Shows for the sorrowing P eter ! It i s as if he
“
h ad said
T ell the glad news to all ; but be sure
especially tha t ye tell it t o h i m whose heart is op
”
pressed with a double sorrow
We have another
instan ce of suggested pathos in what might be called
the masked reproof which J esus gave to P eter afte r
his resurrection T hree times he said unto him
”
“
L ovest thou me ?
Ho w keen yet how tender
the reproof conveyed in the thrice repeated ques
tion for thrice repeated had been P e t er s denial o f
his L ord !
S uch examples o f the pathetic as I have instanced
perhaps have their parallels in
o r alluded t o may
other writings ; for the m asters o f literat ure have
in all ages striven to show their powers o f pathos
B ut in th e S criptures there ar e instances of a pa
thos which can be found in no oth er book ; because
in no other book is J ehovah heard pleading with his
S inful creatures or the S on of God with his D ivine
F ather Here we find ourselves o n ground which i s
solemnly sacred and feel that we are listening to
accents which are m ysteriously pathetic F o r hear
in what moving appeals the Holy Infinite address e s
“
the si n d efile d potsherds of the earth : A s I live
saith the L ord I have no pleasure in him that
”
“
dieth
L ook un t o me and be ye saved all ye
,
.
,
,
,
.
.
,
,
-
’
-
,
,
,
,
.
,
,
.
,
.
-
,
,
.
,
LITERARY CHARAC TERIS TICS O F THE BIB LE
132
”
.
“
ends o f the earth
T urn ye turn ye why will
”
“
ye die ?
A ll day long have I stretched o ut my
”
hands to a disobedient and gai n sayi n people
—
S urely this is pathos the J ehovah pleading s t r i v
ing entreating with sinners ; the voice o f the Al
mighty tremulous with emotion ; the great hear t
o f the Infinite heaving wi t h the earnestness of its
compassions ; the hands that created the universe
stretched out as a supplicant s to draw the wan
d e r e rs back to an inj ured F at her s love— this is pa
thos to which we vainly search for a parallel in any
other writings either ancient or modern
A gain listen : T he S on o f God had consented for
the sons of me n to drink the cup o f human ag onies
and o f D ivine wrath ; and while within the shad
m ysterious su ffering hear h o w that
ows
o f this
Son agoni z ing unto tears pleads wi t h his F ather
t hat same F ather in whose bosom in D ivinest com
he
had
lain
from
the
unbeginni
n g a ges :
a n i o n sh i
p
p
“
F ather if i t be possible let this cup pass fro m
“
me
N ow is my soul troubled and what shall I
”
“
F ather save me from this hour
My God
sa y ?
”
Mysterious
m y God why has t thou forsaken me ?
pathos ! My pen h as copied its weeping words but
what pen could write i t s bleeding though ts ? When
m an pleads with his fellow man or when human son
there is a chord in my
a ppeals to human father
breast responsive to each pa the tic word B ut when
i t is the S on of God I hear i n agony in tears in
blood in desertion at the dark hour of death
.
,
,
o
0
‘
.
,
,
’
,
’
.
,
,
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,
,
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,
H
.
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,
,
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-
,
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,
,
,
,
,
,
134
LITERARY CHARACT ERIS TIC S
CE
THE B IBLE
.
with ap parent abruptness yet in no instance till
after due preparati on gives vent to his own impas
s i o n e d feelings
T here is a seeming i m
petuosity in
t hese sudden appeals which takes the he art as i t
were by storm ; yet when you analy z e the e ffect
you find it due in no small part also to the pre
paratory arg u
ment A nd the great art o f the sa
cred orator is to be seen in this that having firmly
riveted the subj ect o n the understanding of his read
ers he sei z es the critic al moment that is favorable
to emotion and kindles their passions before they
are aware
T his truly great master o f the persuasive will be
found to exhibit every S pecies o f excellence in th 1s
department o f eloquence Y o u will find for exam
ple t hat when he is pathetic the subj ect is uni
formly such as to admit of pathos He never a t
tempts to exc i te the passions in the wrong place
When he warms and kindles with his theme his
readers can not fail to be convinced that there is
good and su fficient reason for his warmth ; and on
their catching his ardor they remain satisfied t hat
they have not been carried away by a mere delu
sion A gain yo u never find him sounding a note
o f warning that he is about to be pathetic ; o r call
ing upon his readers to prepare themselves to be
moved T his expedient sometimes resorted to by
less skilled orators seldom fails to have the Opposite
e ffect ; for instead of disposing the m to be move d
it rather dispos es them to criticise T hen also you
,
,
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,
,
,
,
,
,
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,
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-
.
,
,
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,
,
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,
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,
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,
,
,
.
,
,
PATHEIIC IN
THE
’
‘
THE S C RIPT URE S
135
.
t hat
it is the in t ernal emotions of the writer
himself which gives their pathos to his words ; and
thus he fulfills o n e of t h e prime c ondi t ions of being
pathetic— namely that when we would move others
we must ourselves be moved T hen besides Paul s
style in these persuas ive appeals exhibits the proper
language of the pas si on s It is precisely such as a
person under the power o f a strong emotion would
employ— bold arden t S imple In his argumentative
parts the style is oft en involved and paren t hetical ;
but in those parts where he h as become heated with
his subj ects and aims at persuas ive appeal we per
Instead o f
c e i v e a m arked di fference in the style
involve d periods the sentences are short rapid
terse ; the parenthes es are fewer ; there is a force
almost a vehemence in the language ; and if there
occurs o ccas ionally a bold figure yet is there an
entire absence o f any thing like art or labor In
short it is the very style of the orator whe n he
wishes to be persuasive
ca n see
,
’
.
,
,
.
,
.
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
,
,
.
,
.
I have treated separately on the pathetic and the
sublime but when pathos is carried t o i ts highest
pitch it may in truth be said to have become sub
limity T his is specially the case in the language
o f the passions such as love admiration
sh
me
o
a
j y
remorse and hatred T hen the pa thetic and sublime
m ight be compared to t w o tremulous drops o n the
same string which touch tremble and unite No w
we kno w no book which contains more striking
,
~
,
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
LITERARY C HARACTE RISTICS O F THE BIBLE
136
.
examples o f the sublime of passion than are to be
found in the Hebre w S criptures T here we shall
find admiration breaking forth into bold and ele
v a t e d uttera nces ; j oy exulting in its still more bold
and elevated strains ; resentment flingi ng forth its
withering scornful words ; grief n o t only in its
stricken sorrow when it S its with bowed head speech
less i n the dust but also when it rises in the fren z y
o f 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 bitterne ss
o f its o w n wild regrets
A dmirat ion if t he obj ect which h as excited it is
o f a loft y cast
fills the m ind wi t h great and mag
n i fice n t conceptions and sentiments
which it ex
presses i n language which is bol d elevated and
—
glowing i n sentences abrupt energetic concise and
rapid T ake the following examples :
“
J ehovah reigneth ; let the people tremble : he
”
S itteth upon the cherubim ; let the earth be moved
PS X cix 1
“
Who is like unto thee among the gods 0 J eh o
vah ? who is like unto thee adorable in holiness
fearful in praises who w or k est wonders ? Thou
thy right hand the earth swal loweth
e x t e n d e st
”
them
E xod x v 11 12
“
O the depth o f the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge o f God ! h ow un se ar ch able are his
”
j udgments and his ways pas t finding out
R om
x i 33
.
,
,
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'
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138
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
THE BIB LE
or
.
par ticularly when the D ivine w rath is displayed
nothing can be greater or more magnificent than
what o f this sort is to be met with in the S crip
tures T he words burn E very utterance is as a
flashing stroke T he language w ithers as the fierce
wind of the desert
,
.
.
.
.
of v en g e an c e w as in my h e ar t
A nd
y e a r of my re deemed w a s c ome
A nd I look e d and t her e w as n o one t help ;
A nd I w as as t onished t ha t t here w as no on e t o uphold ;
T herefore my o w n arm w rough t salva t ion for me
A nd mine indigna t ion i t self sus t ained me
A nd I t rod do w n t h people in min e an g er ;
A nd I crushed t hem in mine indigna t ion
A nd I spilled t heir life blood o n t h e ground
I s lxiii 4—6
F o r t h e d ay
th e
,
.
o
,
.
.
e
’
-
.
.
,
.
Grief in its more impassioned attitude when its
fury sustains it and its voice has in it a tone o f
fren z y vehement fervid acute requires a hand at
once bol d and delicate righ t ly t o depict it B ut w e
Shall find this done with great success by the sacred
penmen T ake the follow i ng from J ob as translated
by Mr S cott J ob vi 2 3 4 8 9
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
.
.
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
O for a balance poised w i t h e qual hand I
L ay all my sorro w s t here gains t ocean s sand
L igh t is t h sand w hereon t h billo w s roll
W hen w eighed w i t h all t h sorro w s of my soul
A h ! t herefore t herefore does my boiling w oe
I n such a t orren t of w ild w ords fl w ;
R ankling I feel t h A lmigh ty s venomed dar t
Hi arro w s fire my veins a nd rend my hear t ;
Hi s t er r ors gains t me t hrong i n dire array
W ar urg ing w ar his bou n dless w ra th display
0 t h a t r el en ti ng t my earn es t cry
’
’
e
e
:
,
e
,
,
’
o er
’
o
’
,
s
’
,
.
,
.
a
,
.
THE PA THE TIC IN THE S C RIP T URE S
w oul d ex t e n d his th u d
arm on high ;
R u t hless t onc e his m ld i g t riden t t hro w
A nd forcing t hrough his mark t h vengefu l blo w
”
At once des t roy me
God
n
a
s
’
o
’
139
.
ri n g
r n
,
e
,
,
.
B oth in the excitation and expression
terror
the sacred writers S ho w themsel ves to be masters in
the sublime o f passion What a terrific representa
tion at which dismay might well stand aghast is
the following by Isaiah :
H o w l ye for th day of Jehovah is t hand
A s a des t ruc tion from th A lmigh ty shall i t come
T herefore Sh ll all hands be S lackened ;
A nd t h hear t of every mor t a l shall mel t ;
A nd t hey sha ll be t e rrified ;
T ormen t s and pangs shall sei e t hem ;
A s a w oman in t ravail t hey shall be pained
T hey shall look upon one ano t her w i th as t onishmen t ;
T heir coun t enances shall be like fl ames of fire
of
,
.
,
,
a
e
e
.
a
e
z
:
B ehold
.
day of Jehovah come t h inexorable ;
E ven indigna t ion and burning w ra t h ;
T o make t h la n d a desolat ion
A n d her sinners shall he des t roy from ut of her
Y ea t h s t a s of h eaven and t h cons t lla t ions t hereof
t S end for t h t heir ligh t
Shall
T he sun is darkened t his going for th
A nd t h moon shall t cause her ligh t t shine
A nd I w ill visi t t h w orld for i t evil
A nd t h w icked for t heir ini qui ty
A nd I w ill put an d t t h arrogance of t h proud
A nd I w ill bring do w n t h haugh t iness of th e t rrible
I w ill make a mor ta l more precious t han fine g old ;
Y ea a man t han t h rich gold of O phir
W herefore I w i ll make t h heavens t remble ;
A nd t h eart h shall be shaken ut of her place
”
I n t h indi gn at ion of Jehovah G od of hos t s
I s xiii 6 13
,
th e
e
o
e
,
r
e
,
no
.
e
,
:
a
,
no
e
o
e
s
.
,
’
e
en
o
e
e
e
e
e
,
.
.
e
e
o
e
,
.
,
.
As an example
-
,
.
vehement grief h i gh t en e d by
terror I would cite the remarkable vision in which
,
of
,
,
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
140
BIB LE
or THE
.
J eremiah exhibits the impend i ng s laugh ter and de
S truction of J udea :
M y bo w els my bo w els are pained t h w alls of my h e art ;
M y heart is t roubled w i t hin me ; I can t be silen t ;
B ecause I have hea d th sound of t h t rumpe t
M y soul t h alarm of w ar
,
,
e
no
r
e
e
e
,
.
D es t ru c t ion has come upon t h h e els of d e s tru c t io n
e
urely t h w hole land is spoiled ;
O n a sudden have my t en t s been spoiled ;
M y cur t ains i n an ins t an t
H w long shall I
t h s t andard 7
Shall I hea r t h sound of t h t rumpe t ?
I beheld t h ear t h and lo I disorder and confu sio n
”
T he heavens also a nd t here w as no ligh t
Je r iv 19—23
S
e
.
o
se e
e
e
e
e
,
,
.
.
,
.
T o this I would add that brief passage in
the
R evelation which by a single stroke raises such an
“
image of anguish mingled with terror : B ehold he
cometh w ith the clouds ; and every eye Sh all see
him and they also who p i erced him : and all kin
”
dr eds o f the earth shall w ail because of h i m
,
,
,
.
142
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
on
THE
B IB
LE
.
we might say rather a series o f ta blea ux vi
va n ts
which with wonderful animation and dis
t i n e t n e ss restore to us the men and the manners
o f a long b
gone
age
A
braham
S
itting
in
his
tent
y
door ; Isaac going forth to the fields at even tide to
meditate ; old J acob weeping o n the neck of his
—
so
n
long lost
these and many similar are as viv
idly before our eyes as if we were looking on so
many pictures hung round o ur household walls
In order to picturesqueness especially in the
delineation o f homely incidents there needs to be
an air of verisimilitude which only some natural
touches w ithout t h e appearance of design can i m
part As h as been said :
or ,
,
,
,
,
-
.
-
-
,
,
.
,
,
,
,
,
.
On e t ou c h of na ture m akes
th e
w hole w orld 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 ho m e with all the
force and freshness o f reality We find this oft en
verified in the S criptures How true t o nature by
o n e single touch h as Moses described an incident in
the deluge ! Wi t h spent stre ngth 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 surgi ng flood ; but N oah put forth his han d
and took her and p ulled her in unto him into the
”
ark
T he s cene before A braham s tent door in the
plains of M amr o when he enterta ined the three
,
,
,
,
,
.
.
,
,
’
,
’
.
,
THE PIC T URE S QUE
IN
THE SCRIPTURE S
.
148
ngels is picturesquely described throughout ; but
o n e part especially is rendered true to the life by a
single natural touch It is where S arah s i n cr e d u
lo usn ess that S he would become a mother in her old
age is described T he thing appeared to her utterly
ludicrous but e pen laughter would have been d i s
co urteous to the strangers ; nor would i t have con
sisted with the modesty o f her sex on such a sub
e c t to have betrayed outward emotion
A
smile
j
rose to her lips but courtesy and modesty repressed
”
“
—
the laugh
S arah laughed wi thi n h er self
T he
first interview between Isaac and R ebekah h as its
picturesqueness greatly h i gh t e n ed by some natural
touches When we read that Isaac has chosen the
sh ades o f even tide and its pensive hour to go into
the fields to meditate it seems so natural in the ex
e c t an t lover
to
whom
doubtless
h
Ope had begun
p
to whisper that the looked for o n e must now be on
the way A nd then R ebekah the betrothed bride
lets out with charming n a i vete of whom She was
“
thinking by her question What man is this wh o
”
walketh in the field to m e et us ?
O n hearing as
no doubt sh e expected that it w as Isaac a fond
impatience caused her to alight from her camel for
sh e had been too simply brought up to a c t a pru
dish part ; yet true to her sex s modesty she drops
her vail to conceal from hi m at their first meeti n g
her blushing charms D avid s Hymn of the C ap
t i v e s h as always struck us by o n e exquisite touch
o f nature which is in it
T he philosophy of laugh
a
,
’
.
.
,
,
.
,
.
.
-
,
,
-
.
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
’
,
,
’
.
.
L ITE RARY C HARAC TE RI STIC S
I LE
THE B B
OF
.
ter is perhaps deeper than even that of tears We
laugh when merry and we laugh when sad O ur
tears and o ur laughter someti m es strangely blend
It w as therefore a most natural stroke in the poet
to make the manumitted captives say in the s ud
“
d en n e ss o f an unexpected j oy :
T hen w as o ur
m outh filled w ith laughter and o ur tongue with
”
PS cxxvi
singing
In giving o n e other example
how these touches o f nature h i gh t e n the picturesque
I S hall turn to the N ew T estament w here I select
the account which is given of the miracle which
followed close upon the day of P entecost— A cts iii
—
1 11 T he entire incident is very graphically d e
scribed and the grouping of the picture is quite
—
picturesque the T emple in the background ; the
lame man laid at o n e of its gates— i t is that w hich
—
is called B eautiful to as k alms ; the two apostles
about to pass through i t conspicuous among the
crowd who are thro n ging in for it is the hour of
prayer Here w as a fit subj ect for R aphael s pencil
who selecting the m oment when the miracle was
being wrought has succeeded in catching the n at
ural expression of the cripple— astonishment blended
with delight and hope with fear lest all might turn
o ut to be a dream ; an d also his natural attitude
combining agility w ith awkwardne ss S ince n o w for
the first time these fort y years h as h e used his limbs
B ut the historian has a succession of natural touches
w hich the painter s more circum scribed art wo uld
not permit i m to introduce F irst there is that
.
,
.
.
,
,
,
.
.
.
,
,
,
.
,
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’
,
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,
,
,
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,
’
l
‘
.
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
146
on
,
THE BIBLE
.
sart Y et as the hand o f a true artist may be
s een in an etching as well as in a highly fin i sh e d
engraving so in the historic S ketches in the S crip
tures— for they are seldom more than sketches— w e
find not withstanding the brief n arrative and the
simple style a wonderful picturesqueness
T here are two ar t i fice s by which a historian even
w hen his descriptions are meager can greatly e n
liven his n arrative T he one is when sensible that
the eye is the best avenue to the heart he r epre
sents every thing as passing in o ur sight— when
from readers we are tran sformed as it were into
spectators B y this contrivance a writer o f genius
can impart even to a brief narrative a wonderful
picturesqueness when each incident makes its i m
pression not as if heard at second hand but when
seen by an eye witness The other artifice which
exceedingly helps to enliven a narrative is to t hrow
it as much as possible into the dramatic form when
the writer conceals himself and presents his per
so n ag es to tell t heir o w n story
O f this latter expedient the s acred historians have
made abundan t 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 d r a m
a ti s p er son ce are there ; to whom we listen while
as interlocutors in a dialogue they relate their ad
ventures in o ur hearing A nd thus it happens that
the oldest history in the world h as a freshn ess which
many a m odern history fails to possess
.
-
,
,
,
.
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-
.
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,
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,
,
.
.
THE PICT URE S QUE
IN
THE S C RIPT URE S
147
.
—
expedien t
With regard to the former
namely the
representation o f 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 o ur eyes— the sacred writers were debarred
from using it by a somewhat strange peculiari ty in
the Hebrew language : F or the Hebrew verbs have
no form for expressing the indefinite o f the present
tense or an action which is now performing ; this
being us ually e ffected by a participle only o r by a
verb substantive understood It w as probably this
defect in their language which led the sac red writ
ers when expressing future events not unfrequently
to make use of the past tense ; and when expressing
past events the future tense F rom this arose a
much more frequent change o r variation of the tenses
in the same continuous narrative than occurs i n o r
d i n ary writers ; and the effect of this is often like
that of shifting lights upon a picture or landscape
O f the first of these forms o f con struction— name
ly the expressing of the future b y the past tense
we have a striking e x ample i n Isaiah s prediction o f
the inroad of S ennacherib T hough the event was
still future with great exactnes s and perspicuity the
prophet has traced the route of the invader toward
J erusalem and the di fferent sta ges of the army inso
much that the prediction h as all the lively verisimili
tude of a historical narration :
,
,
,
,
.
.
,
.
,
’
.
,
,
He
At
,
is c ome t o A ia th ; he ha t h passed t M igro n
M ichmas he w ill deposi t his baggage
o
.
:
148
L ITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIB LE
.
T hey have passed t h S trai t ; G eba is t heir lodging fo r th ni gh t ;
R amah is frigh t ened G ibeah of S aul fl t h
C ry aloud w i t h t h y voice 0 daugh t er of G all im ;
H earken un t o her 0 L aish an s w er her 0 A na t ho t h
M dm
is gone a w ay t h inh bi t an t s of G ebim fl amain
e
e
ee
.
,
,
a
Y
.
,
en a
e
ee
a
.
his day shall he abide in N b ;
shall S hake his hand agai ns t t h moun t of t h e d augh t er of
”
Sion
I s 28—32
et
t
He
o
e
.
.
.
’
A fter the same style is J oel s pr ed iction of
plague
of
t he
loc usts :
a na t ion ha t h gone up on my l an d
W ho are s t rong and w i thou t number ;
T hey have d t royed my vine an d hav e ma de my fi g t r a brok en
branch
T hey have made i t qui t e bare and cas t i t a w ay ; t h e br a nches
t hereof are made w hi t e
”
T he field is laid w as t e ; t h e ground t h e g round mou ne t h
Jo e l i 6 7 10
F
or
;
es
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B oth these are examples of w hat the grammar ians
call vi si on in which animate d narrative for the
sake o f picture sque e ffect is not unfrequently ex
pressed T hose future actions and events an En
glish w riter according t o the idiom o f the language
migh t have expresse d in the present tense ; the He
brew writers do in effect the same thing when in
accordance with the idiom of the Hebrew verb they
employ the past tense
—
In the other form o f construction namely the
—
expressing of past events by the future tense t h e
sacred writers impart a v ar iety to their narrative
style which is altogether pecu liar We have an ex
ample o i this in the S ong o f M oses where after
mentioning the D ivine dispens ation by which t he
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150
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS
OR
THE BIBLE
.
past and the rapid transition from the o n e to t h e
other h as caused no small perplexity to the gram
marians and the commentators B ut on e thing is
very manifest ; namely that greater picturesque
ness is imparted to the narrative ; for as I have
already remarked the e ffect o f the sudden changes
o f the tenses may be compared to t hat of shifting
lights upon a landscape or a painting
,
,
.
,
,
,
.
B ut if we would see to full advantage the pic
t ur esque in the S criptures we must turn to their
,
physical delineations o f nature In this department
they incomparably surpass all the other writings o f
antiquity T he features of the country in which he
lives exert a strong influence o n the mind o f a
w riter and unless he is destitute of the graphic art
if its scenery is strongly m a rked he can scarcely
fail to be picturesque when describing it No w the
sacred writers dwelt in a region which was pecu
li arly favorable to topographical delineations ; for
theirs w as a lan d of the mountain and the flood
o f hills and valleys — o f brooks and streams — o f spots
o f exuberant vegetation alternating wi t h iron ribbed
rocks and arid desert — a land which as it has been
“
j ustly remarked united the phenomena o f S um
mer and Wi n ter the pasturage o f the N orth with
the palms of the S outh ; so that in a few hours an
Israelite m ight pass from the soft luxuriance o f a
sunny vale to the rocks and groves of An t ili ban us
from a garden like the bowers of the first pair in
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THE PIC T URE SQUE
IN
THE SC RIPTURES
151
.
E den to the savage s t erili t y o f the deserts of En
”
gedi
Y et neither this striking natural scenery
nor the skyey influences of an E as tern climate would
,
.
,
,
have imparted their rare picturesqueness to t h e sa
cred writers unless they had possessed that poetic
susceptibility which has Showed itself in their i n
tense sympathy with nature T he poets and o ra
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 compar ed
with the delineations of nature which we meet with
in the Hebre w poets how cold and unimpassioned
“
!
are those which we find in the Grecian
If we
”
bear in mi nd says S chiller the beautiful scenery
by which the Greeks were surroun d ed and remem
ber the opportunities possessed by a pe ople living in
g into the free enj oy
so genial a climate of enteri n
ment of the contemplation of nature and observe
ho w conformable were their mode o f t ho ught the
bent o f their imagination and the habits o f t heir
lives to the simplici t y of nature which was so faith
fully reflected in their poetic works we can not fa il
t o remark with surprise how fe w traces are to be
met among them of the sentimental interest with
which we in modern times attach ourselves to the
individual characteristics o f natural scenery T he
Greek poet is certainly in the highest degree cor
rec t fa ithful and circumstantial in h i s descriptions
o f n at ure ; but his heart h as no more share in his
words than if he were treating of a garment a
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152
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
on
THE BIB LE
.
Shield or suit of armor N ature seems to int e rest
”
his understanding more than his moral perceptions
T he same thing and more strongly m ight be said
B ut when we turn to the He
o f t h e R oman poets
brew poets we find their landscape pictures su ffused
with life warmth and animation T heir ow n minds
pervaded by a pro found feeling of nature they have
breathed a sympathetic glow into all their d esc r ip
tions of it T hey cling to its charms with the fervor
and the plaintive passion o f the poet of modern times
T hey exhibit in a very rare degree that form o f
poetic susceptibility which F oster has felicitously
“
—
called p hysi op a thy
the faculty of pervading all
nature with o n e S o w n bei n g so as to have a per
”
F or even
c ept i o n a life an agency in all things
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 Y et we never find pictorial exact
ness sacrificed to poetic emotion for their physical
descriptions are uniformly characteri z ed by their
t ruthfulness to nature
O n t his point I prefer giv
“
ing the words o f Humboldt : A S descriptions o f
the writings of t h e O ld T estament are a
n ature
faithful reflection of the charac ter of the country in
which they were composed of the alternations o f
barrenness and fruitfulness and o f the A lpi n e for
ests by which P ales tine w as characteri z ed T hey
describe in their regular succession the relations
of the climate the manners of this people of herds
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154
LITERARY CHA RACTE RIS TICS
or
THE BIBLE
.
any sensibility must remember the sensation o f de
—
light in the mere sound like the color of a butter
fl y s wings o r the shapeless glories o f evening
clouds to the eye— ln reading aloud such passages
‘
as these : Heshbon Shall cry and E lealeh ; their
voice Shall be heard to J aha z ; for by the way of
L uhi t h with weeping shall they go it up for in the
way o f Horonaim they shall raise a cry God came
from T eman the Holy O ne fro m Mount P aran IS
not C alno as C archemish is not Hamath as A rpad ?
is n o t S amaria as D amascus ? He is gone to A iath
he is passed to Migron ; a t Michmash he hath laid
up his chariots ; R amath is afraid ; Gibeah of S aul
is fled ; lift up thy voice O daughter o f Gallim ;
cause it to be heard unto L aish ; 0 poor A nathoth
Madmenah is removed ; the inhabit a nts o f Gebim
gather themsel ves to flee T he fields of Heshbon
languish ; the vine o f S ibmah ; I will water thee
with m y tears O Heshbon and E lealeh
A ny o n e
may prove to himself that m uch of the e ffect and
beauty of these passages depends o n these names ;
”
put others in their room and try them
We have discovered two o f the causes which go
to account for the pleasing picturesqueness o f t h e
B ible descriptions o f the physical universe ; namely
their tru t hfulness to nature and the s t rong sympa
thy which t h e writers felt with nature T he first
gives to t hem a pictorial exactness which makes
t hem pleasing as faithful reflections of obj ective
nature ; while the second by interfusi n g the sub
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THE PIC T URE S Q UE
IN
THE S CRIPT URE S
155
.
life
of
the
writer
imparts
a
poetic
warmth
j
something
t o his pictures which renders them
higher than mere copies A nd the result o f the
two combined is what the re ader will not find
at least in any other ancient writing that union o f
reality with idealism which alone can enable a
writer truthfully to delineate the f a ce o f N ature
that is while presenting her great permanent feat
—
ures also to catch that ethereal ever shifting ex
pression which gives i n d i v i d uali t y or its idiosyncrasy
s o to speak to each several piece o f the landscape
T here is yet another cause which has largely con
tributed to the picturesqueness of the B iblical deline
a t i o n s o f nature ; namely the true perception which
the writers had o f what nature really is T he an
cient polytheist managed t o throw a certain poetic
coloring over his landscape which he borrowed from
the fictions o f his mythology D ryads peopled
the woodlands ; O reads fl i tt e d over the mountains ;
N ai ads gave mirth to the waters and music to the
streams
B ut without the aid of these fabulous
divinities the sacred writers have bathed their land
scapes in still warmer hues T he modern pantheis t
also is a ble to infuse into his pictures o f nature an
ama z ing warmth and richness B ut this he a cco m
l
i
sh e s not by simply d escribing the universe
for
p
he must first deify it and thus confou n ding God
with nature o r nature with God and so interfusing
each into the other as o n e substance it is a God
world of his o wn creation which he throws in so
e c t i ve
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156
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIB LE
.
’
gleaming images across men s eyes to da zz le and
astound B ut 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 C re
ator and nature not consubstantial with God ;
yet bright to their eyes with his penetrating all
pervasive glory they ha ve exhibited the universe
as
a picturesque adumbration in visible symbols
of
his invisible Godhead T hough not confound
i n g the Maker w ith t h e things which he has made
they do n o t on this account S hut o ut the C re
ator from his works o r represent him as a sol
i t a ry potentate seated o n an inaccessible throne
amid the e ternal silences and casting only i m pas
sive glances on the e mpire he had reared O n the
contrary they represent him as every where pres
ent vivifying by his ubiquitous activity even the
—
solitudes o f remotest space to us remote but to him
A nd h o w animated is all nature when thus
n ear
viewed as luminous with his light as vocal with
his voice as moved by his motive energy and as
sustained by his providence ! E very sunbeam and
star ray though not himself is his shekinah His
voice rolls in the thunder and whispers in t h e
breath o f wi n ds T he light n ing is the flash o f his
T he rain drops and t h e dew are sprinkled from
i re
He rides on the chario t
o ut his bounteous hand
clo uds and plants his footsteps on the sea His
children o n the earth approach his footstool ; wh i le
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S O F THE BIB LE
158
v ery elements as if co n scious
.
’
their S overeign s
w ill are represented as waiting his summons to co
operate with him i n his great works T he fi t ful
waves and the still more fi t ful winds ; the heaving
earthquake ; the bla z ing meteor ; the electric fire as
it flashes from the riven cloud ; and even the very
dreams which S hape their wild visions o f the night
all are made to pass in the grand pageant which
moves in J ehovah s train when he is accomplishing
redemption work V erily one m ay scarcely call
any thing common when thus the passing winds are
represented as if uttering t h e name of J esus ; and
the lightning s flash as if writing it in lines of fire
o n the Sk
and
the
waves
o
ocean
if
rolling
it
f
as
y
from pole to pole E very sound whether it be the
z ephyr s whisper or the tempest s r e ar ; 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 o f it the R edeemer may be carrying out
his glorious work A nd as the pious reader kin
dles over these animating views of P rovidence he
“
can not repress the exclamation : My F ather which
art in heaven do all thy works praise thee ? do the
stars i n the fir m am e n t choir for thee their silent
hymns ? and fo r 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 so O F ather ? and shall n o t I the creature of
,
of
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IN
THE PICT URE SQ UE
THE SC RIPT URE S
159
.
thy bounty the nursling of thy care thy very child
be one among these ministers o f thy pleasure and
”
o n e among these minstrels of thy praise ?
,
,
,
,
It may reasonably be asked why so large a por
tion o f the B ible which is professedly a book for
all nations has been taken up with topographical
descriptions of P alestine ? O ne purpose o f this we
doubt n o t was to render the B ible a picturesque
and thus a pleasing volume to the lovers o f natural
scenery B ut w as this the sole purpose or is there
not a divine philosophy here ? We apprehend there
is F o r w e persuade ourselves that we can disc over
in the geographical picturesqueness of the B ible no
small proof o f its D ivine origi n In the first place
its A uthor has th us shown himself to be acquainted
with human nature in o n e o f its universal insti n cts
or sentiments
B y 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 se t before uS
—
i t s streams
a vivid picture o f its physical aspects
its mountains its valleys its cities ; to have pho to
graphed so to speak to o ur mind s eye the exact
spots in the wilderness where its patriarchs pitched
their tents ; t h e precise haunts of its ancient seers ;
the T emple where its congregations worshiped ; and
”
above all the holy places which w ere frequented
by the S avior T he A uthor of the B ible knowing
this law in o ur nature h as made provision for i t
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16 0
LITERARY CHARACTERISTIC S
on
THE BIB LE
.
the S criptures being so eminently topographical
F or more than by Grecian poets the isles of the
E g e an by the Hebrew bards ha s P alesti ne in i ts
geographical features and remarkable localities be
come a land familiar to the stranger
B ut further may we n o t trac e a beautiful har
mony between the scenic picturesque n es s of t h e
B ible and i ts prophetic character ? F o r when the
perio d of the expatriation shall have been completed
and t h e children of the exiles are restored t o their
fatherland is the country of their sires to be to
them as a strange country ? When they are t o be
restored to their ancestral home shall it be to them
as an alien land ? Must the returned exiles S it down
t o weep saying We know not this place ? N ot so ;
for though they have never visited it with the
B ible in their hands as their guide book they w ill
recogni z e eac h sacred locality and be able to trace
the fo otsteps of their ancient S ires T hese local
recognitions linking at once into the chain o f their
historic memories will make the returned e xiles
feel at home ; with j oy they w ill say T his i s the
la hd o f our fathers
by
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16 2
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS
or
THE BIBLE
.
the sentiments o f piety and the passions of the
human heart T hen w i th regard to the function of
the poet high authorities have pronounced it to be
to please while that o f the historian and ph i loso
pher is to instruct N ow unquestionably poetry
affords pleasure both by the richer hues in which
it dips its pen by its peculiar phraseology its ryth
m ical constructio n and its abundant figures ; but
while the vehicle in which the poet conveys hi s
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
—
i
put t for who may define the e thereal art itself
what are the attributes of the true poet ? T here
is first that peculiar quickness of perception wh ich
“
we call the poetic eye which in a fine fren z y
”
rolling can detect not merely t h e ostensible but
also the occult forms and fash i ons o f the beautiful
and the sublime ; then there is the poetic suscep
t i v e n e ss o r that un d e fi n able excitability by which
obj ects whether real o r only present to the fa ncy
impress themselves o r their images more vividly
more thrilli n gly and more endurably than the less
delicate tissues o f unpoetic minds will receive at
least at first sight and o n a single glance ; then
there is the nervous system both physical and
mental so finely threaded as to move i n sympathy
w ith every heart-throb of every living thing an d
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HEB RE W
PO ETRY
16 3
.
vibrate at every tender touch and every breath
ing sound o f sadness or of j oy c ome whence the se
may from far or near from great things or small ;
there is also in a high state o f activity the illustra
tive faculty the true poet having a keen insig ht
into those analogies which by links often t o o fine
to be visible to ordinary observers unite the vari
o us depa rtments o f nature
and so harmoni z e the
processe s in the material wi t h those in the spiritual
world that to his eye n o t only is the i n visible ad
umbrated o r sym boli z e d in the visible but all nature
appears one great parable ; there is also in i ts hi gh
e s t degre e o f devel opment the faculty o f r e c om bi n
ing the materials of perception of memory an d
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 wi t h the poet s fervors and which gleam
with h is fancies and which he pours forth in streams
o f song
mus i cal because his thoughts themselves
are music
S uch we take to be the poe tic talent ; and the
func tion of t h e true poe t is to consecrate this talent
to the elucidation and enforce ment o f truth in those
impressive and ple as ing forms in which his lofty ar t
enables h i m to clothe it
Now in the bards of the B ible w e find the p oetic
talent in the very highest degree ; and in the po etry
of t he B ible we have the consecration o f that talent
to the noblest of all uses
to
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LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE
16 4
.
T he first point which would naturally fall to be
considered is the structure or prosodial mechanism
o f Hebrew poetry
B ut on this subj ec t I do not
i ntend to dwell at length and for two reasons
F irst because owing to the prosody— even the pro
n un c i a t i o n of the Hebrew l a nguage being in a great
measure los t — i t is little else than a conj ectural
solution of the question which can now be reached ;
and secondly the critics have nevertheless so keenly
maintained opposite Opinions that more space than
o ur limits will allow would be required to give even
a summary of the controversy
A mong the Greeks and the R omans the regular
measure of poe m s was formed according to a law o f
syllabic quantity or the ti m e o f pronouncing every
line T hus a hexameter verse whatever the num
ber o f the syllables w as formed o f si x feet or
measures each containing two notes ; and the words
were so arran ged that the same quantity o f time
S hould be regularly observed T his metrical con
struction o f course required that the long or short
syllables in every word in the language Should be
fixed ; and the standard o f notation w as that two
short syllables were eq uivalent in time to on e long
sy llable B ut amon g t h e m odern n a t ions of E urope
the meters are formed according to a law of accent
accent
being
understood
a
particular
n ation — b
y
stress or force o f voice upon certain syllables o f
word s which dis t inguish them from t h e others
T hus an E nglish hexameter consists of twelve syl
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L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE B IBLE
16 6
.
meters has S hown that the lines o f A rabic verses
may be sca n n ed like those of the Greek He then
proceeds to Show the probability that S imilar meas
ures would be adopted by the Hebrews whose lan
guage w as a branch o f the same S emitic family ;
and forms a theory of long and S hort syllables for
Hebrew words similar t o those o f the Arabic He
applies hi s th eory apparently with su ccess to the
2 8 t h chapter o f J ob the S ong of S olomon some of
the P salms the L amentations of J eremiah the S ong
o f Moses
the S ong o f D eborah and th e E legy o f
D avid on the death s of S aul and J onathan B esides
the authority of names we might plead the natural
inclinatio n 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 n o t to have indulged We might further
plead that m usi c disposes to measures o f di fferent
kinds N ow it is well known that many of the
Hebrew hymns were se t to music ; and few n ations
have reached a higher excellence in t he art o f min
than
did
the
Hebrews
especially
from
the
s t r e ls
y
times of D avid and S olomon
S till what may be true o f a few compositions
may n o t be true of the general composi tions o f a
people ; and when we consider how little adapted
by its forms and construc tion the Hebrew language
is for those transposi t ions which verses o f m eas ured
ti m e require w e can n o t a v oid the conclusion t hat
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HE BRE W P OETRY
16 7
.
for H ebrew poetry to have been confined to such
modes of v e r si fica t i on would have been felt by th e
poets to have been irksome and unna tural B esides
we meet with many specimens of poetic composition
at a period SO early as almos t to preclude the s up
positio n that the length or S hortness o f the syllables
in t h e language could have then been so fixed as to
admit o f syllabic meters bein g very general
While therefore it will scarcely deny on the o n e
hand that specimens Of verbal v er Si fica t i o n are not
uncommon in Hebre w poetry ; yet on the other
hand it is j ust as obvious that this w as not the
proper or peculiar characteristic of its rhythm
What then w as this c haracteristic ?
T o B ishop L owth we o w e the discovery o f the true
nature of the rhythm in Hebre w poetry Its dis
t i n e t i v e characteristic he has shown to consist in a
correspondence o f the lines not as in more modern
languages in sound but in sense— i n the recurrence
Of a regular measure dependent not on the quan
tity or length of syllables but on the agreement
o f ideas
T his correspondence he h as denominated
“‘
a r a lleli sm
which
he
defines
to
be
certain
a
p
equality resemblance o r relationship between the
m embe rs o f e ach period ; SO that in o n e or more
lines o r members of the same period things shall
answer to things and words to words as if fit t ed t o
”
each other by a kind Of rule or measure
T hi s new
tract which L ow t h claims the honor to have opened
has been successfully pursued by subsequent inves ti
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16 8
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
.
gators In our ow n country by B isho p J ebb in
”
“
his S acred L iterature and the R ev T B oys i n
”
“
“
his Ta cti ca Sa cr a and subsequently in his K ey
”
to the B ook o f Psalm s ; and in Germany by the
learned Hebrew sch olar E wald T he latter in place
”
“
of parallelism adopted by L owth prefers the
”
term thought rhythm
N ot attempting any thing beyond a S hort and
S imple account which will best suit these pages I
would state the leading principle to be that a si m
ple verse or distich consists both in regard to form
and substance of two corresponding members ; and
o f this
a r a lleli s m us m em br o r um
as it has been
p
called three kinds may be specified F irst there is
th e syn o n ym ous p a r a lleli sm where the t w o 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 :
W ha t is man tha t t hou t mindful of him
”
A nd th S on of man t ha t t hou c ares t for him 7
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,
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-
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,
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,
,
“
ar
,
e
Ps
.
viii
,
4
.
S o metimes the second member repeats only a part
of
the fir s t :
W oe t t hem t hat j oin house t house
T ha t field t field uni t e
Is v 8
“
o
o
,
”
o
.
.
,
.
A nd some times the second member contains an
an si on
p
of the first :
G ive t Jehovah ye sons of G od
"
G ive t J e hov ah glory a nd praise
o
,
,
o
.
PS
.
xxix l
,
.
ex
LITE RARY CHARA CTE RISTICS
OF
THE
BIB L E
.
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
T his may be called the i n tr over ted parallelism
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
.
T h e idols of t h heat hen are silve r
T h e w ork of men s hands
T hey hav e mou t hs but t hey speak
T hey have eyes but t hey
t
T hey have ears but t hey hear t
e
g ol d
an d
,
’
n ot
;
se e n o
no
Nei t her is
here any brea t h in t heir mou ths :
T hey w ho make t hem are like un t o t hem
”
S o ar e all t hey w ho put t h e ir t rus t in t hem
P cxxxv
t
:
.
S.
,
15- 18
—
eighth i n
.
H ere the first line introverts with the
the
o n e we have the idols o f the heathen 1n the other
those who put their trust in i dols T he second line
—
introverts with the seventh i n the one is the fab
in the other the fabricators T he third
r i ca t i o n
—
line introverts w ith the six t h i n the on e there are
mouths without articulation in the other mouths
without breath T he fourth line introverts with
the fifth where th e introverted parallelism may be
said to unite its two halves in a parallelism o f syn
—
thesis eyes without V i s i o n ears without the sense
Of hearing
T he S imple two me mbered rhythm is the more
common ; but not unfrequently verses occur with
three four or yet more m embers and in these the
parallelisms exhibit considerable varie ty In the
tr i s ti ch for example the m mbers are sometimes
e
all three parallel ; sometimes two o f th e members
,
.
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-
,
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,
,
HE B RE W P OETRY
17
1
.
t nd Opposed t o the third In t h e qua r tette we
find at o n e time two S imple parallels at another
time a kind o f semi introverted parallel the first
and third answering to each other also the second
and fourth B y a combination of the various sorts
several being found together in o n e composition
great freedom ease and capability is given to t h e
styl e
s a
.
,
-
,
,
.
,
.
,
,
,
.
B efore proce eding to enumerate some of the char
which prove the superior excelle n ce Of
Hebrew poetry it is right that the reader be ap
pri z ed of two Special disadvantages under which
owing to the accidents of time and language that
poetry labors
F ir st then while the melody and rhyth m ical flow
not
essential
to
poetry
yet
these
o f numbers
s
;
i
greatly help its full e ffect B ut from such aids
Hebre w po etry can n ow derive very little if i n
deed any aid at all What may have been its
prosodial structure is as w e have seen a point
upon which the lear ned ar e still divided
B ut
whether its cadence was owing to the arrangement
Of the syll ables according to their quantity o r their
accent or w as the e ffect of a certain parall elism
or the iteration o f the thought in balanced or par
—
allel members it is obvious that S ince not only the
prosody but even the pronunciation of the Hebrew
lan guage is i n a great measure lost —i n reading its
poetry even our m ost skilled Hebraists can do but
a c t e r i st i c s
,
,
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,
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,
.
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS OF THE BIBLE
172
.
scant j ustice to the harmonic arran gement of the
words We are able to scan and correctly intone
the odes o f Hor ace ; but the lyrics of Isaiah we can
neither scan nor intone so as to give them the
proper metrical e ffect Whatever therefore may
have been the prosodi al structure Of Hebrew po
that very di fferent from
o n e thing is certain
e t ry
what they are as read by us must have been the
P salms of Moses A saph and D avid w hen set to
music they were sung or chanted in the choral
services Of the T emple
T he other great disadvantage under which Hebre w
poetry labors is that by the ordinary reader it can
be j udged Of only from translations Now even in
prose— i n poetry Of course still more SO— the finer
shades of thought in being transfused into another
language lose much of their force and beauty ; j us t
as of volatile Odors much of the aroma evaporates
when they are poured into a new vessel A nd
moreover while the great poets o f Greece and
R ome have had the good fortune to be translated
by great poets the bards of P alestine h ave not yet
been so fortunate D ryden and P ope the t ran sla
tors o f V irgil and Homer were unquestionably
poets ; but o n e w ould hesitate to say as much of
St e r n h old and Ho nk i n s or o f T ate and B rady or
o f F rancis R ous
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,
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T hose who by their talents and scholarship were
qualified to be j udges hav e not hesitated to a w ard
,
,
,
174
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIBLE
.
W i th Z ion s son g s t all t ime t a s t es exal tin g
W here G od is praised arigh t and G od like men
’
,
o
-
,
T he H o lies t of H olies and his sain t s
Such are from G od inspired
t uch from t hee
U nle w here moral vir t ue is expressed
,
,
no
s
ss
B y ligh t of nat ure
, n
ot
in all qui t e los t
”
.
Were then the Hebrew bards possessed of higher
poetical talent o r had they a t tained to greater
metrical Skill than the Grecian and R oman poets ?
We s carcely presume to say so ; but will rather own
that in point of natural genius and acquired culture
th ey were inferior It must also be admitted th at
i n form and variety the ancient classic poetry sur
—
l
passes the Hebrew Y et i n substance i n the
thoughts and the themes— the latter is i n compa
It draw s its inspiration from a
rably superior
source which w as inaccessible to other ancient liter
atures ; and dwells in a region pure serene truth
ful and religious to which they could n ot attain
C ould Homer for example have chosen a divine
theme and had he been divinely Insp i red then
H omer would probably have been the first among
sacred ,as he is confessedly the first amo ng profane
poets B ut wanting both these the mere force o f
genius high as it carried his muse could not bear
her up to those supernal hights where the Hebrew
m use had planted her footsteps on celestial light
T he poets o f Greece might be compared to o n e o f
i t s Own eagles soaring from its m ist capped eyrie o n
—
n
Mount P arnassus toward the s u its dank wings
half reflecting half absorbi n g the incident rays ;
,
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-
,
HE BREW P OETRY
175
.
while the poets of Palestine are as an eagle darting
downward from t h e sun i t s wings so steeped i n
light direct from the solar font that they continue
t o illumine the rock o f Horeb or S inai o n which it
perch es with a halo of supernatural glory
A nd yet though d i v m e how instinct with human
sentiments is the Hebrew poetry It throbs with
all natural sympathies pulsates with t h e j oys and
the sorrows the hopes and the fears which are
universal to humanity C elestial born it n ev e r t h e
less owns the S isterhood Of the muses ; i s passionate
or plaintive ;
wreathed in smiles or bathed with
tears ; crowns itself with the laurel the olive or
the cypress ; lift s its voice to the lively tones of the
timbrel and dulcimer o r sinks it to the dirge no t es
—
according as i t yields itself to
o f the solemn harp
the varying moods and emotions of our human
natu r e T he glor i ous hymn of victory which Moses
sang and Miriam echoed b ack on th e s hores o f the
R ed S ea utters in every line the natural sen t i
ments of gratitude The elegiac strains of J ere
miah tear steeped in the prophet s o w n sorrow
touch a responsive sadness wherever a true patriot
beholds his country forlorn and desolate T he
heart bursts of penitence which came from the
trembling strings of D avid s lyre are felt by every
C hristi an who mourns his backslidings as if the
strings of that lyre were those o f his own breast
N 0 poetry could be more truly human than this
same poetry which is truly divine A nd this com
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,
.
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BIB LE
176
.
—
character i ts
literal
humanity
and
i
t
s lite ral
p
divinity— w e give as the first distinctive feature of
Hebre w poetry because to it alone it belongs
A nother composite character of Hebrew poetry
which I would instance is that while intensely
national it is yet o f no nation — while strictly local
it nevertheless belongs to no locality O n taking
up the P salms of D avid composed as they were
in the first instance to furnish a P salter for P ales
tine yo u find the m in their structure their senti
ments their imagery their entire cast o f though t
and historic allusions unmistakably J ewish F or
whether in martial o d e the nation celebrates its vic
tories o r in sacred hymn the poet pours forth his
individual emotions you feel that you are
ow n
listening to J ews Indeed no poetry could bear a
deeper or broad er mark Of nationali t y T he coun
try the climate the customs the peculiar religious
institutions rites and ceremonies and the unique
history o f the Israelites are all so fai t hfully and
vividly reflected i n the Hebrew poetry that there
is no mistaking any o n e song for a poem o f an y
other people A nd yet these songs have touched a
chord which at this day continues to vibrate through
the bosom o f the universal brotherhood T he bym
n olo i s t O f the E ast h as been confessed to be the
g
sacred poet o f t h e West T he P salter o f the J ewish
T emple has been adopted as the Psalter of the C hris
tian C hurch T he Hebre w lyre has been tuned b y
Gentile n ations to the same Olden themes ; to the
o si t e
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L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS O F THE BIB LE
178
.
from local obj ects are usually o f a kind with which
men Of every age and coun tr y ca n e asily S y mpa:
AS was to be expected in a poetry SO gen
t hiz e
ui n e yo u perceive a reflex copy o f O bj ective n ature ;
the deep rich coloring along with the ample or nate
foliation o f E astern flora being transferred to the
pages o f the Hebre w bards Y et not like other
O riental poetry does theirs copy what is merel y
topical o r paint in colors which exceed those of
nature It is a faithful transcript ; but a tran
script which is softened and subd ued ; breathing
rather the S pirit than affec t ing t o copy the forms of
N ature in her luxuriant climes A nd the reason of
this is not di fficult to perceive T he sacred poets
could not be natives of the E as t and not exhibi t
an O riental cas t o f thought and expression ; but
from their possessing a truer appreciation o f N ature
they hav e pe netrated beneath local and climatal
varieties to her deeper characteristics ; and by trans
ferrin g th ese to their poetry have made it o f un i
v ersal S ignificance T hen besides this the great
ness and sacredness o f their themes have toned down
the O riental hues o f t heir poetry ; while a wider
breadth has been imparted to it by the conscious
ness which they must h a ve felt th a t their mission
was to universali z e the poetry o f their nation as
God s chosen vehicle by which to convey sacred
truth to the lates t generatio n s o f ou r scattered
race
A nother characteristic of Hebrew poetry i s its
.
,
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,
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.
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,
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,
’
'
.
HEB RE W P OETRY
o r i g i n a li ty
—
causes
its ex
treme antiquity and the uniqueness of its themes
It IS the most archaic o f all poetries S tanding
nearer than any other to the first days of creation
it fell to it to be the first to sing creation s hymn
A nd how greatly sublimer every way is the muse
which has sung of the origin of worlds and o f the
race than those which by the aid of fable and i n
v e n t i o n have attempted to trace t h e rise o f a nation
or the birth Of a single people T he hero o f ancient
—
Hebrew poetry w as no ZEn e aS the foun der o f a
particular dynasty ; but the first man— the primal
father Of the race It has j ustly been asked HO
In er had his teachers but who taugh t Moses
Hebrew son g had indeed no pattern to copy fr Om
no Older muse than itself to imitate It is essen
t i ally and entirely original— self educed self devel
Oped It is no exotic t ransplanted from some sunnier
clime N o warp crossed into a foreign woof N o
echo o f an older minstrelsy O t her poesies have
Sprung from that of P alestine ; but it sprang fro m
none T he first o f vocal streams i t issued direct
fro m its fountains in the depths of nature when
these were filled by the inspiration of God O ther
bards may borrow and imitate— the bards Of the
B ible lend and create
A nother marked characteristic of Hebrew poetry
is its profound r elig i ousn ess A ll true poetry in its
higher forms is religious ; for it is the impassioned
utterances of the soul when it is seeking after or
.
T his is owing to
179
.
t wo
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’
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‘
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,
,
.
-
-
,
.
'
.
.
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,
,
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.
.
,
18 0
LITERARY CHARACTE RIS TIC S OF THE BIB LE
.
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
o f the a m plified conceptions o f the soul itself
B ut
when the poet stands in the presence o f 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 o w n ; and is animated with a
fire which has descended from an altar which is
higher than that o f his muse N ow in the Hebrew
poetry it is the actual not the ideal divine which
is celebrated T he bards o f P alestine stood in the
—
immediate presence o f the J e h o v ah they heard his
v oice— they listened to the echoes o f his footsteps
they looked upon his awful symbols— beheld the
—
m iracles o f his power and received his inspiration
H ence a d ivine and imperishable power is in all their
songs ; and their poetry m ore than that of all other
nations is characteri z ed by its pure and rich and
living religious element
It rings and rolls through the ages as on e contin
uo us hymn of praise to t h e C reator and the Re
deemer GOd It is the one grand psalm o f piety
many voice d yet ever the same choral symphony
A t first you listen to it faintly breaking o n the ear
a s if it were the caught up echoes of those music
n otes which the sons Of the morni n g had raised in cre
deepening and widening like the
a t i on s hymn ; till
river in i ts flow you hear it pour a fuller minstrelsy
as it seems to mi n gle with the heaven ly choirs
,
,
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,
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-
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-
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,
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-
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-
’
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,
.
18 2
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS O F THE BIB LE
.
which I shall mention is its great range and variety
o f subj ect
With imperial eye the sacred muse
looked out on flood and fi dld — on land and ocean
o n earth and sk — o n the starry night and t h e sunlit
y
day— o n the quiet pastures and the battle field — o u
the bo w ers o f love and the bier o f dea t h— o n the
—
o
f
solitary haunts
the crowded city On the king s
palace and the shepherd s tent : sh e beheld i n fancy
manhood old age ; grief j oy h Ope despair ; time
and eterni t y —d eath 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 sh e has
left to remo test generations the gathered treasures
o f her universal poesy
.
-
’
’
,
,
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,
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
HEB RE W P OETRY
CHAPTER
183
.
X
.
HE B R E W P O ET R Y— C O NTI NU E D
.
W ITH regard to the forms of poetry i t must be
confessed that there is not the same variety among
the Hebrews as is to be found among the Greeks
the R o mans and even the nations of India F or
while the epic an d the drama t h e two highest
styles SO far as mere art is concerned were culti
v a t e d suc c essfully by these amo n g t h e Israelites we
find only their germs or first rudiments B ut as
we shall see this might arise from other causes
than the want o f the requisite literary cultivation
Indeed we can n o t 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 j ust appreciation Of its true character
A n epic poem requires an heroic age su fficiently
remote to enable the poet to found upon its tradi
tions which by his time have fallen into that degree
o f Obscuri t y which leaves him at full liberty to mix
poetic fable with historical facts While it thus
allows the poet to adorn his subj ect by means o f
fic t io n antiquity Is also favorable to those high and
augus t ide as which epic poetry is des i gned to raise
since it tends to aggrandi z e in o ur imagination
,
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LITERARY CHARACTERISTIC S O F THE BIB LE
18 4
.
both persons and events If the epoist chooses h i s
subj ect within any period of history with which we
are intimately acquainted he will either be wanting
in grandeur or appear extravagant We have an
i nstance o f this in !
L ucan !and V oltaire who have
both unwisely attempted to bring the epic muse
within the v erge of real and au t henticated history
T he former in his Pha r sa li a by confining himself
to strict historical truth has rendered his story
j ej une ; while the latter in his Hen r i a d e asserting
more liberty h as mingled the true and the fictitious
in a manner wh ich is utterly incongruous a n d gro
Homer it is true selected a subj ect which
t esque
was not S O very remote from his own times for he
lived as is generally believed only two or three
centuries after the T roj an war B ut at that early
age through the want of written records tradition
would more rapidly fall into the degree o f Obscurity
most proper for epic poetry
L et us now adver t to the Hebrew history from
w hich o f course w hatever is historical in Hebrew
poetry had to be taken We shall not find that
history wanting in an heroic age ; for such n uques
t i on ably w as the patriarchal age ; such also was that
that
o f the j udges ; and such ; in its earlier period
No t in these epochs o f Hebrew
o f the monarchy
history were wanting the elements for epic song
—
Heroic deeds worthy to be immortali z ed wonderful
events rising into the miraculous— a pilgrim march
—
of forty years through the sterile w ilderness th e
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186
LITERARY CH ARACTERISTICS OF THE BIB LE
.
been n o t any w eakness in their poetic genius but
rather that guided by its correct intuitions the y
perceived that their national history w as not suit
able for the epos T here was t o o much of truth
a n d reality in its heroic age to admit o f poetic fi c
tion Moses the historian and also poet might
j ustly claim to have written a prose epic ; but i t
must be by the poet of another land that the rich
materials which the P entateuch supplies were to be
woven into poetic fictions T he so n of A mram lived
too near the realities w as too much an actor in the
most remarkable of them for himself to have chron
i cle d them in epic so n g
T he sam e thing might be
said of D avid Israel s second great poet with refer
—
ence to its third heroic age the early period of the
monarchy N or might P alestine s epic be written
by any o f its later poets ; for the wonderful events
which made up its earlier history being preserved
in written records did not like the early histories
assume the leg e n d arv form ; nor
o f other nations
did it degenerate into mythology o r pass from the
truthfulness which w as i t s essen c e ; but retained
through all periods its character o f earnest lofty
and impressive reality Instead therefore of the
circumstance of Hebrew poetry co ntaining no epic
being taken as an indication that the Hebrew poets
were unequal to this highest form of poetry i t
ought rather to be received as evidence that the y
h ad the j ust appreciation o f the conditions under
which it i s proper for the poet to attemp t this de
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HEB RE W P OETRY
18 7
.
his
art
T
hey
found
no
earlier
histor
y
p
o f other lands worthy of epic commemora t ion ; and
the history of their own land was t oo grand a
reality to be mixed with fiction Y et must they
have been conscious that though not in form yet
in Spirit their poetry and Oft en their prose was
highly epical ; and mayhap at times in o n e o f 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
tur n to their pages to seek for the materials o ut of
which to form the foundation and in no small
measure the fabric of his sacred epic S uch at all
events has proved to be the case A nd so long as
the Pa r a d i se L ost survives besides being a monu
ment o f o ur Milton s genius it will equally be a
proof that though Moses wrote no epic poem his
P entateuch presents the richest materials for one
In the N ew T estament also Milton found mate
rials for the epic ; and the subj ect which he has
”
“
selec t ed for his P aradise R egained might be
taken as a confirmatio n of o ur statement that by
the peculiarities o f their national history the sacred
poets felt themselves S hut out from epic s ong T he
question which Milton had to decide w as w hich
part of the S avior s life was it best to select as that
in which paradise was regained S ome have been
of opinion t hat he should have taken the cr ucifix
ion which w as the crowning and decisive even t in
our L ord s history and where the poet would have
ar t m e n t o f
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18 8
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF
THE
BIB LE
.
h ad
a much wider field than in the te m ptation
B ut Milton had a truer perception Of the conditions
o f the epos
T he crucifixion is narrated in full de
tail by the four E van gelists ; if Milton had modi
fi e d or in any w ay altered their n arrative he would
have shocked the religious sense of all C hristians ;
yet the struct ure of an epic poem would often r e
quire that he should so modify them With a fine
sense Of this d i fli c ult y he chose the narrow basis
o f the temptation
in the wilderness because the
/
whole had been wrapped up by S criptu r e in a few
Obscure abstractions which the poet could expand
into epical pictures without o ffense to the nicest
religious scruple
N one o f the Hebre w poets can be said to be
dram atists in the sense in which we would apply
T here is no
t hat term to E uripides or Sh ak spe ar e
comedy o f course in the s acred volume ; but neither
is there formal tragedy T his absence of the drama
we apprehend w as not owi n g t o a want of the
requisite literary cultivation but is rather t o be
acco unted for by the religious earnestness o f the
Hebrews ; the solemnity o f the subj ects with which
they had to do in their lit erary productions and
t h e vivid reality with which even t h e m ost primi
tive events in their national history continued to
abide in the memory of the people L ike the epic
though not i n e qr al degree the drama a ffects an
t i qui ty ; at leas t it prefers to retire behind the
fresh footprints o f more recent history because
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIBLE
19 0
.
In its stricter acceptation lyric poetry i s such as
It w as greatly culti
i s sung to the harp or ly re
v at e d by the ancients among whom A nacreon Al
c aens S appho and Horace are distinguished as lyric
poets In mod ern times the epithet has been trans
ferred to all kinds of verse partaking in any degree
o f the same nature as that to which it w as first
applied T he predominance o f feeling is what chiefly
distinguishes a lyric composition the poet being
supposed either directly to express his o w n emo
tions or to clothe the emotions of others in appro
r i at e expression
p
T he lyric poetry of the Hebrews embraced a
great variety Of topics ; from the shortest and most
fleeting e ffusion to the loftiest subj ects treated in a
full and detailed manner It w as also composed for
a variety of occasions as when some great national
event w as to be commemorated ; likewise for se t
holiday seasons when it formed a part of the
national worship No t unfrequently it was used
by individual worshipers o n presenting their thank
O fferings ; nor alone within the precinc ts Of the
T emple but in the palace and the shepherd s tent
among the palm groves and the
o n the battle field
pas ture field s was heard the Hebr ew lyre ; for
whatever the occasion the Hebrews were a people
whose emotions seemed to find spontaneous utter
ance in song T he lyric music o f P alestine ran
equally through all the moods o f the human soul
nothi n g being too lowly too d eep or t o o high for
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HEB REW P OETRY
191
.
it S oftly and sweetly it could S ing of the benign
e ffec t s of brotherly love ; with burning raptures yet
less vehement than S appho s it has given expres
sion to the lover s passion It uttered its wail over
the bier o f death and threw its graceful imagery
over the nup t ial couch It lisped in n umbers for
the children and poured forth its divine philosophy
for the sage It told how the horse and the Eg yp
tian rider were sunk in the depth o f the sea ; and
with plaintive penitence confessed the frequent back
S lidings of God s favored people It lingered round
the roses o f S haron with their fragrance to perfume
the breath of music ; and it soared as on eag le
wing into the hights o f the sk y to borro w luster
from its orbs
O f the several species of the lyric the most com
”
”
“
“
m on were the Hymn
or P sal m o f Praise and
”
”
“
“
the D irge or S ong of S orro w
O f the hymn or Ode it is needless to give exam
ples ; the reader h as only to turn up the Hebrew
P salter where he will find abundance Of both kinds
o f this composition — that which is sometimes call ed
the less Ode which is characteri z ed by sweetness
and
ease ; and that also which is known as the
greater Ode whose char acteristics are sublimity
rapture and quickness of transition T he 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 s oul to j oy and gl adness and were celebrated
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192
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTIC S OF THE BIB LE
.
with music often accompanied wi t h dancing in the
public assemblies of the people or after a more
solemn manner in the sacred courts Of the T emple
T he very peculiar history of the Hebrew nation
their no t able deliverances as In their exodus from
E gypt ; their frequent victories ; the manifold divine
favors bestowed upon their land ; their rare social
and ecclesiastical privileges ; the brilliance o f their
ear l
f
of
monarchy
their
illustrious
roll
heroes
o
;
y
j
prophets and princes furnished abundant materials
for the lyric hymn which broke o ut so frequently
in p aeans o f victory and thanksgiving both in the
ten t s Of Israel and in her T emple an d her palaces
O f elegiac poetry many very beautiful S pecimens
occur i n the S criptures D avid s lament over S aul
and J onathan is so perfect an example Of the elegy
tha t I can n o t refrain from quoting i t in full :
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T he ga elle O I srael has been
z
,
,
Ho w
T ell i t
c ut
do w n on
th y
high t s ;
are t h y migh ty fallen !
in G a th publish i t
L es t t h daugh te rs of
L es t t h daugh t ers of
n ot
n ot
,
e
.
e
in t h s t ree t s of A skelon
Philis t ines rej oice
uncircumcised exul t
e
th e
,
,
th e
.
H ills of G ilboa no de w nor rain come upon you r d e vo t e d fields !
t here is s t a ined t h heroes bo w
F
S aul s bo w never anoin t ed w i t h i l
,
’
e
or
,
’
O
.
F rom t h blood of t h slain from t h f t of t h migh t y
T h e bo w of Jonathan t urned t back
A nd t h s w ord of S !came t idly home
e
e
e
e
,
an
a
e
no
,
no
S aul and Jona than lovely and pleasan t in life !
A nd in dea t h y e are t divided ;
Sw ift er t han e agl e s s t ron g e r t h a n lions
.
no
,
!
,
LIT E RARY CHA RA CTE RIS TIC S OF THE B IB L E
19 4
.
great deal too much o f art ; whereas the Hebre w
bard as befits the elegiac muse is all fee li ng and
nature S everal o f the Psalms composed on occa
s 10 n s of d i stress and mourn i ng are i n the eleg i ac
style T he forty second P salm in particular is in
the highest degree tender and plaintive presenting
us with what may be termed a spiritual elegy when
in dirge like strai n a forlorn soul laments its being
denied access t o God in his sanctuary
B ut chief among the Hebrew ele gists is J eremiah
His L amentations present the most regular and per
fe c t elegiac composi tion
A s the prophet mourns
over the destruction of the T emple and the holy
city and the overthro w o f the whole S tate nothing
could exceed for dirge like grandeur his melan
ch oly strains ; and the images which he assembles
are of the most affecting description P ut together
and united in o n e book executed with consummate
skill ye t natural and unrestrained as is the voice
o f sorrow these L amentations 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 o ther land than
that o f Israel O nly on the fall and ruin of J er usa
lem could sorrow have raised these so sad wailings
o r patriotism have shed these so melancholy te ars
T he great grief o f the prophet is j ustified by i ts
T he mind o f J eremiah was of a s oft and
c ause
delicate te x ture ; by nature he w as mild and r e t i r
ing highly susceptible and sensitive especially to
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HE B RE W PO ET RY
195
.
sorrowful emotions S uch a o n e under the influence
o f divine energy
was pe culiarly fitted t o wake the
solemn harp to the dirges o f sorrow and lament
ation T he strength of his anguish makes it sub
lime His poetry h as all the maj esty of a sorrow
which will not be comfor t ed yet it withdraws not
into aus tere sec lusion but moved by an irrepressible
sympathy with the miserable it finds utterance in
t he most touching descriptions of their condition
His is not a selfish grief which wee ps merely to fill
its o wn bitterness with tears ; but moved by pity
he exhibits the obj ects of his song as obj ects o f sym
pathy and founds his expostulations on the miseries
which he exhibits His book of L amentations is an
astonishing exhibition o f his power to accumula t e
images of sorro w T hrough this series o f elegies
—
o n e obj ect only is present t o h i s muse
the expres
sion of grief for the forlor n condition o f h i s 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 te d ious reiterations
but th e reader 18 captivated by the plaintive melan
ch oly which perv ades the w hole
O thers of the Hebrew poets h ave left us speci
mens of the elegy which though briefer than J ere
m i ah s are admirable o f their kind
With what
dirge like grandeur D avid has sorr owed over the
misfortunes of Israel as in Ps xliv lx lxxiii ! S o also
have E z ek x xvii xxxii and Is 1 xx 1 mou r ned over
the des e c ration or the destruction of the hol y city
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LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS O F THE
19 6
I LE
B B
.
didactic poetry we have a Splendid specimen
in the B ook o f Proverbs where the poet tears away
the tinsel mask an d bran ds t he unco vered brow of
V ice as with a searing iron while he adorns V irtue
with her o w n pure loveliness and strings upon her
virgin robes the O riental pearl s o f Eastern p oe try ;
w ith a satire t wo edge d and kee n are mingled th e
grave sagacity o f the sage the elegance of the
finished scholar the profound ma xims of the phi
los0 ph er an d refl e ctions on human life and charac
ters which show th e acc urate observer and astutious
moralist T he B ook of E ccl e siastes by the sa me
author is a n other example o f the didactic specie s
o f poetry
In this rem arkable piece t h e satir e of
the poet seems for a time t o ind ulg e itself in burn
ing scorn an d biting sarcasm : fl inging w ithered
leaves o n the footsteps of S ummer strewing t h e
path of memory with ashes and closing the vista of
hope w ith gloo m; but ere long the s a ti rist is for
gotten i n the s age whose more genial utterances
fall like revivi ng showers on the expe r i ences which
s atire with i ts hot br eath had scorched a n d bli ht
g
ed when all is not left to seem a wi l dernes s but
o n e spo t a t least i s spar ed where as in a bo we r o f
beauty and peace and pleasure V irtue can dwell w ith
Hope serene and secure Hence the e ffect which
the first po rtion o f this p oem might prod u ce on
some min ds by fos t ering a mi se rable or mocking
cyni ci sm is ad m irably counteract ed in the closing
e
ortions
entire
piece
by
t
poet
s
felici
an
t
e
h
h
d
;
p
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198
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
CH A
THE
PTER
HI S T O R I C A L
IN THE
or
THE BIB LE
.
X I
.
SC R I P T UR E S
.
A FTER w hat h as 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 o f the sacred histories In their method
and design there are cer ta in peculiarities which
merit a few observations
T he question What is history ? like the question
What is poetry ? h as given rise to a good deal o f
discussion w h i ch r epeat ed attempts at definition can
hardly be said to have settled T hat history has a
higher function than simply to furnish a bare regis
ter of events or a book o f annals or a chrono
logical table is n ow universally admitted O n facts
ev e ry veracious history of course is founded ; but if
there be only these then yo u have merely the
bones or at best the bones and the flesh while the
spirit i s wanting What then is that vital principle
by which the historian shall a n imate the m aterials
S ome have sought for i t in the vivac
o f past ages ?
i ty which can be imparted to a narrative by pi c t ur
esque description and artistic grouping O thers
have sought in philosophy the principle which
should impart life to their labors wi t h their narra
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IN
THE HIS TORICAL
THE S C RIPT URE S
199
.
tive of events having interwoven instructive lessons
political and philosophical truths and enlarged views
o f human nature an d social progress
That the em
belli sh m e n ts of literature and the expos itions o f phi
losOph y communicate a measure of life to history we
readily admit but we can not think that its real life
h as 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 o w n
which if the historian shall sei z e i t will impart to
his pages the warm breath which it breathes A
history which is only v i v i fie d by the aids of litera
ture a n d philosophy does not appear to us to resemble
a dead body W hile under the act ion o f the galvanic
current : there is the movement of the limbs but i t
is after all the spasms of death ; the mouth opens
but there is n o living voice ; the eyelids lift but
vision is not there
What then if not literature or philosoph y i s the
spirit the intellige n ce the life of past ages ? We
”
“
reply It is religion
T he 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
”
“
D o not those revol utions
asks D Aubi g n e
“
which hurl kings from their thrones and pre c i pi
tate whole nations to the dust —do not those wide
sp read ruins which the traveler meets with among
the sands of the deser t —do not those maj estic relics
w hich the field o f humanity presen ts to our view
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L ITERARY CHARAC TERIS TICS O F THE BIB LE
20 0
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do they not all proclaim aloud a G od i n hi story ?
Gibbon seated among the ruins of the capitol and
contemplating its augus t remains owned the inter
v e n t i on of a superior destiny
He saw it he felt it ;
in vain would he avert his eyes T hat shadow of a
mysterious power started from behind every broken
pillar ; and he conceived the design of describing i ts
influence in the history of the disorgani z ation de
cline and corruption of that R oman dominion
W hich had ens laved the world S hall n o t we dis
cern amid the great ruins o f humanity that Al
mighty Hand which a man of noble genius— o n e
—
who had never bent the knee to C hrist perceived
amid the scattered fragments o f the monuments o f
R omulus the sculptured marbles of A urelius t h e
busts o f C icero and V irgil the statues o f C aesar
and Aug us t hs P ompey s horses and the trophies
and shall we n o t confess it to be the
o f T raj an
”
hand of God ?
If then God is the life of history of all histories
that which we find in the sacred S cri ptures has the
most life E very page is vitali z ed ; fo r on every
page the historian constantly keeps in view a per
sonal God and a special P rovidence A high au
“
History is philosophy teaching
t h o r i ty has said
”
by example
T he S cripture histories suggest a
—
loftier aphorism history is P rovidence teaching by
example
B ut the sacred historians present Go d in history
not merely to a greater extent than profane bistori
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L ITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
202
.
made bare his arm in the sight o f all the nations
In ordinary history though present God is unseen
In the B ible 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 hi s hand i s
visible in its naked maj esty and po w er ; across t h e
historic stage he is seen to move himself the actor
in the marvelous scene In a word the sa cred his
tory is a record o f miracles ; and in this respect it
stands alo n e O nly to it has been permi tted to
enter the region of the supernatural and so to un
cover the D ivine phenomena that the reader is more
than made to feel for he doth in truth se e that
this is the finger of God T hat an awful grandeur
shoul d surround such a history is only what w as to
be expected B ut how should we have been pre
pared till the history itself presented it to find so
great a si mplicity in the record o f the miraculous ?
C ompare a battle scene as described by T hucydides
in his account of the war of the P eloponnesians and
A thenians where it w as only host that encountered
host with a battle scene in the wars o f Israel when
—
it w as the artillery of heaven the hailstones hurled
and the bolted lightning flashed direc t ly from J eho
—
that routed the foe ; how elaborate and
v ah s hand
highly worked the former how simply and artlessly
n arrated is the latte r !
A nother characteristic of the s acred histories is
the unity o f d irection in which the several portions
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THE HISTORICAL
IN
THE SC RIPT URES
20 3
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fragments point Here are separate historical
pie ces written by di fferent hands at wide intervals
and under very diverse circumstances ; yet are they
like so many converging lines o f light making for
their foca l point N o matter what may be the
historian s o wn epoch o r the local circumstances
which determine his stand point ; he writes with his
eye ever upon o n e obj ect— the manifestation of God
in t he red emption of the race Hence it happens
what we shall find in no other literature that some
t hirty historical pie c es each but fragmentary and
covering many centuries when put together instead
o f a mere
fasciculus form a continuous volume
whose several parts fit in and harmoni z e as thor
oughly as if o n e pen had writ ten the whole O r
let us say rather that so great a unity in di versity
can only be accounted for on the admission that it
is the work of o n e superintending mind— even his
who is the F ather of the ages and who seeth the
end from the beginning
A feature in the B iblical histories which can n o t
fail to strike on e is that events which the profane
historian if noticing t hem at all would have barely
reco rded are give n with much minuteness ; while
other even t s which the profane historian would
have minu t ely chronicled are dispat ched in the
briefest notice T he explanation of this will be
found in the design o f the B iblical history which
w as t o develop God s special providence in the evo
lut i on of a scheme o f remedial grace
T his the i n
or
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS O F THE BIBLE
204
.
spired historian h as constantly in his vie w so that
he dwells o n whatsoever event be it great or small
which at the time reflected most direct ly upon it
A nd how marvelously by this means have the sa
cred historians illustrated their great them e while
i n a literary point o f view their method gives a
singularly pleasing variety to their pages F or in
the progres s of the nar rative which opening with
an account o f the creation unfolds itself in the
grand vicissitudes of n ations a nd going forth from
P alestine as a center embraces the entire ancient
world we are ever m eeting interspersed with great
historical events charming episodes o f domestic li fe
and snatches o f biography While there i s being
exhibited to us o n the vast th e ater o f the world
where kingdoms are seen to rise and fall a Special
providence suddenly we are in t roduced to some
quiet nook o f home life that there as well we may
behold the finger of Go d ; so that neve r in any
other history has it been so vivi d ly illustrated that
the Great R uler of the un iverse worketh out his
plans alike in t h e grea t and the small
T he Hebrew nation with whose history so large
a portion of t h e historical S cripture is taken up
h as been represen t ed by V oltaire as an obscure
S yri a n t ribe ; yet that tribe h as exercised an ama z
ing influence over the des t inies o f mankind— over
all t h e feelings thoughts beliefs and deeds o f
men even to t h e most remote cor n ers o f the ear th
What about that people w as t here so peculiar as to
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20 6
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
.
profane historian e x tant completed his history
in the year B C
Moses had completed the P en
t a t e uch in the year B C 145 1 s o that he preceded
Herodotus by upward of a thousand years In this
sense then the B ible history is the most ancient
that it w as the first written B ut it is also the
most ancient as to its contents Herodotus carries
his history back to somewhat over 70 0 years before
the C hristian era ; Moses carries his back 40 0 0
years before that era for he commences with an
account of the creation of the earth ; gives us the
name and the names o f the children of the first
created man ; traces down to his o w n times in the
direct line o f genealogical descent the birth the
life and the death of the gray fathers o f the world
O n his pages we have the sole monument o f pri
m e val history ; for where tradition had lost its
way findi n g no footprints o n the san ds o f ancient
time Moses has laid bare the footsteps of living
men — e ven p f 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 S cripture his
tory is also the most modern o f histories F or
events which have yet to be written by the histo
rian and which could n o t have a place on his pages
seeing they have not yet happened will be found
already narrated by the sacred historians If to
t hem i t w as given to restore the past it w as also
permitted unto them to anticipate the future T hey
e st
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THE HIS TORICAL
IN
THE SC RIPT URES
20 7
.
have described the full round circle of history O n
the on e side it touches the beginning on the o ther
the end o f time
L et us for a moment ponder the value of the pro
h
e t i c element in the B iblical history
p
A nd first it is a voucher for the divinity of that
book which contains the history
With regard to
miracles as an evidence of C hristianity it must be
confessed that so far they have a diminishing val u
e
F or removed by centuries from the date o f their
performance we can scarcely be said to be in so
favorable a position to feel their full for ce as those
were who saw them wrought or who received an
account of them from eye witnesses No doubt test
i m on y may be a su fficient voucher ho wever dis ta nt
t h e event whi ch it h as transmit t ed s t ill testimony
can not be said to increase in evidential v al ue as
the channel lengthens through which it h as to flow
T he evidence from miracles therefore thou gh still
s uflfic i e n t may be said to be diminished ; but as if
t o compe nsate for this the evidence from prophecy
h as an incre as ing force ; for the older a prediction
is j ust in proportion is i t a more valuable testimony
when it h as been fulfilled
T he infidel meets us with the taunt that the
B ible is so very old a book ; but does he not per
c e i v e how the taunt recoils upon himself ?
It i s an
o ld book
the oldest extant by very many centuries ;
and stamped with i ts ow n antiquity are many of the
predictions which it contains T hey lie far back
.
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S O F
208
THE
BIB LE
.
behind
the longest conceivable range of human for e
sight or conj ecture T hey separate by the breadth
the event from its first announcement
o f centuries
A cross that wide interval n o human eye could have
caught the forecast shad ows o f the rise and fall of
empires yet to be founded ; the building and ruin
o f cities of which n o t o n e stone had yet been laid
T he B ible i s ancient and so are i ts prophecies
Will then the infidel read the pages of the m od
ern traveler who describes the present condition of
E gypt B abylo n T yre E phesus S myrna T hyatira ;
and having read these then turn to the pages of
this so old book ?
A Gibbon o r a V olney friends to C hristianity
neither o f them have nevertheless become witnesses
to its truth T hey could not describe what they
saw among the ruined cities o f the E ast
withou t
repe ating almost the identical words o f the ancient
seers In copying what the iron hand o f time had
written o n broken pillars and Shattered frie z es o n
t dm bled masses of fallen masonry and o n sand
mounds drifted from the desert which had buried
beneath them the once magnificen t s ta dium the
gorgeous palace and the s t upendous temple the
travel er has unwittingly transcribed the fulfillment
o f many an ancient prediction
N ow let us view the t w o facts in combination
T he S cripture history is at once the most ancien t
and the most modern o f histories ; and if we do not
m istake we shall find here a very striking proof
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
2 10
.
l ets and alabaster slabs yet they were los t to the
world ; while the S crip ture histories written on the
fragile papyrus or the perishable parchment were
preserved Had these fo rmer histories also been pre
served the friends o f truth were ready t o exclai m
Ho w striking the corroboration they m ight have
furnished of the truth of the S cripture history !
B ut the wish seemed vain T hree thousand ye a
rs
h a d passed away since eye looked on the n ative
annals of B abylon o r N ineveh ; but the grave h as
given up its dead T hese buried cities have r e
turned from their tombs and their rock written
histories which were hidden so long and which
were believed to be lost forever are disclosed B y
the labors o f B otta and L ayard as explorers the
long hidden book of N ineveh s history has been ex
h um e d ; while by the learning of P rofessor Grote
fend P rofessor L assen and S ir Henry R awlinson
as interpreters the characters with which the stone
leaves o f that book are inscribed have been deci
h
er ed ; and now we may be said to have the annals
p
o f the A ssyrian empire in o ur hands and have only
to wait a more familiar knowledge o f the cuneiform
writing to possess a more detailed history o f that
early people than we have of the Gr e eks and
R omans or even o f the first aboriginals of o ur o w n
island
A nd what is the bearing of the disco v ery and
deciphering of these long covered but n ow n u
It is to furnish during
c overed antique table t s ?
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THE HISTORICAL
D:
THE SC RIP T URE S
.
2 11
b ut a thousand years a his tory which runs co
temporaneously with the S cripture narrative ; and
at whatever points these two histories come in
contact the coincidence between the N inevite mon
ume n t s and the S cripture records is such as i n co n
t e st ably t o prove the genuineness an d authenticity
o f t h e latte r
a o
,
,
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2 12
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS OF
CH A
THE B
P T ER
I O GR A P H I E S
0F
BLE
THE B I
X II
.
.
S C R I P T U RE
.
WITH his usual profound sagacity D r Chal mers
.
,
makes on e of his incidental w eighty sayings w hich
S ho w s h ow strongl y he w as impressed with the i m
portance o f the study of the S cripture biographies
“
in their literary aspects : I have never entered
much on the study of S cripture characters though
I doubt not much might be gathered this w ay
both for the purpose of a moral influence o n one s
and also so as to make out a dramatic
o w n mind
consistency in t h e statements given and the traits
e xhibited of certain individuals which w ould fur
”
n ish an internal evidence for the B ible
T he first thing w hich probably strikes a reader in
the B ible biographies is their exceeding life likeness
T hese por traits so to call them of the world s
"
“
gray fathers are the merest outlines ; yet so bold
is the etching that o n e is reminded o f those studies
by the old masters S o forcibly h as the
o f heads
indi v idual expression been caught that if I might
say so w e recogni z e the features across the breadth
o f thirty centuries
T he reader may possibly have
seen hung on some household wall a portrait of an
anc estor in the family whom he had n ever seen ;
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2 14
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S O F THE BIB LE
.
canvas if their biographies had been written by
less graphic pens ?
A nother striking feature in the S cripture bi og ra
h
i
eS i s their variety or the great range o f charac
p
ter and condition which they present Y ou have the
hero the patriot the poet the prophet the priest
the recluse the politician the prince the plebeian
the simple patriarch and t h e poli she d courtier— all
exhibited with the exactest individuali z ation but at
the same time with a comprehension which entirely
takes away the contractedness which so generally
d i sfig ures what may be called class biography
T he
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
v ersal brotherhood
A nother characteristic o f the S cripture bi og ra
phies is the solemn we might say awful grandeur
”
“
wh ich surroun d s these holy men of old as actors
in a divine drama T he great scheme o f P rovi
dence as it revolves its maj estic 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 T he Grecian or R oman mythology
would have apotheosi z ed such men and on the pages
o f the poets they would have figured as demigods
B ut though there shone around them a certain God
l ike glory from their near acc e ss to him who alone
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THE BIOG RAP HIE S O F SCRIPT URE
215
.
is Go d t here is nothing approaching divine honor
paid to them in the S criptures ; but they are uni
formly spoken of as men of like passions with o ur
“
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 o f the princes
T he
moderati o n with which men of so heroic a stam p
ar e S poken o f i s in most striking contrast with the
mythic extravagance of ancient profane biography
to which we might apply the language o f the poet :
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“
I have no sp ur
T o prick t h sides of m y in t en t
l
V aul t ing ambi t ion w hich
A nd falls on t h o ther side
e
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o er ea
,
only
i
self
t
s
p
but
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If any where is to be found the true heroic in i ts
highest epic forms we venture to say it is in the
Hebrew S criptures which with so rare a modesty
have memori z ed the most brilliant epochs and most
illustrious men that ever adorned the history of a
nation F alle n alas ! is that people n o w who were
once the favored o f Heaven ; fallen from being a
nation o f princes to be wandering tribes o f misers
and usurers ; but the ancient history o f the people
“
of God is brilliant with names which ascend far
back to those high times when the D ivine P resence
sho ok t h e mercy seat between the cherubim and
which derive their splendor fr om no earthly prince
but from the awful voice which bade their fathers
be nearest of t h e congrega t ion to the vision S uch
were the princes o f the house of J uda
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216
LITERARY CHARACTERIS TIC S O F THE BIB LE
.
feature o f the B ible biographies is their
e xtreme fidelity
Without exaggeration either o f
praise or o f censure an impartial pen h as recorded
alike the virtues and the vices wha t is t o be imi
t at e d and w hat avoided in the lives o f these men
In this respect among the ancien ts the
o f o ld
sacred biographers are altogether singular N or is
the contrast much less if w e compa re them w ith
th o se modern memoirs w hich so often betray either
the partiality of friendship o r the bitterness of
hatred How often do we find the memory of some
favorite hero garnished with fulsome panegyric his
faults even his vices bei n g palliated or apologi z ed
for under soft names ; w hile if it is a memory
which the biographer wishes to blacken no epith et
i s thought t oo severe by which to proclaim some
trifling misdeed and none t oo equivocal in which
to w hisper the most shining action When w ill
those who employ the biographic pen learn to ta ke
for their exemplars the biographies in S cripture !
On e other feature in these biographies which I
would notice is what may be called their se lf
evolved individuali z ation o f character T here is no
m istaki n g any o n e indivi d ual for yo u see him as he
His q uali t ies for good o r evil stand o ut as if
is
chiseled o n the living rock Y ou could detect his
exact idiosyncrasy among a t housan d A sked to
give an analysis o f the character o f Moses or
D avid or P eter o r P aul yo u could have he man
N ow turn up o n e of
n e r o f d i fficulty i n doing s o
A nother
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2 18
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTIC S OF THE BIB LE
.
by a few illiterate J ews ? If ever a life was this
assuredly is an original It stands out unique in
the gallery of universal biography A nd yet w e
are as ked to believe not merely that it is a historic
fiction but that so rare an imagination as w as
requisite to produce s uch a fiction was possessed by
a few Galilean fishers V erily next t o the life
itself this were the most mar velous of miracles
I have already remarked o n the moderation
amounting even to modesty with which the sacred
biographers speak o f the renowned personages whose
lives they record In no c ase is this more signally
exhibited than by th e apostles the biographers of
J esus S eldom do you meet with a panegyric fro m
themselves concerning him whom they loved so
affectionately and so profoundly admired It is
otherwise with the prophets for the S avior not ye t
having appeared when his life would speak for
itself they kindle expectation by anticipative eu
logy He is the rose o f S haron and the lily of the
valley the chief among te n thousand and altogether
lovely B ut when the P erfect O ne had come what
His life would be its o wn panegyric
n eed for this ?
Y o u read his eulogy while you read his biography
T he infi d el points to the seeming contradictions
in the life of C hrist as If they invalidated its truth
fulness B ut has i t never occurred to him that
without these i t coul d n o t possibly be true ? for
how otherwise we would ask could the life of the
God man have been written ? It behooved b oth
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THE BIOGRAP HIES
SCRIPTURE
OE
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2 19
atures the D ivine and the human to preserve their
proper attributes ; each as occasion called for it
w as to speak and act in i ts appropriate character ;
and h ow could this be without appar ent con t rad i c
tions ? When the D ivinity speaks i ts fitting lan
“
guage is I and my F ather are one but w hat is
“
the humanity to say other than My F ather is
"
greater than I ? A t C ana s bridal banquet the S on
and at h i s creative
o f the Highest sits a guest
word the water reddens into wine ; but when fain t
and foot sore with travel Mary s son arrives at
J acob s well he is fain to ask a cup of water fro m
a stranger woman In yonder ship tos sed on the
storm -waves of Gen esar e th s lake lies o n e asleep
doubtless overcome by fatigue for many were his
j ourneyings and frequent his night vigils ; it is
J esus the m a n w h o sleeps so deep a slumber in his
weariness that even the howlings of the tempest
fail to awake him ; but now awoke by the cry of
his disciples w here is he whom slumber late ly held
fast bo und in its drowsy chain ? T he God looks
o ut upon the storm and at his imperial glance the
hurricane winds hold their breath and the wild
w aves droop their surgy crests T hese are seeming
contradictions and we pray the reader specially to
mark that the s acred biographers never attempt to
reconcile or even t o explain them N ow we venture
to assert that no i mpostor ever possessed the moral
qualities necessary for such a t as k We m uch ques
tion whether he w ould have ventured to pen such
n
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2 20
LITERARY CH ARACTE RISTICS
or
THE BIBLE
.
pparent contradictions or if he had certain w e ar e
No
h e w ould have attempted to reconc i le them
n o t to the fa bulist belongs that bold reliance in the
maj esty of truth w hich sus ta ined the E vangelists
in their ta sk while writing the life of the Go d man
In the D avidic Psalms w e have one of the mos t
remarkable pieces of autobiography ever penned
T he whole man is there not only his outer but also
his inner life A s the eye glances over these auto
biographic hymns a series o f self pictures struck
o ff as it w ere by a process o f menta l photo graphy
seems to p ass before us O r shall we rather call
them a series of dissecte d views for the paint er or
the photographer gi ve only the outward forms but
D avid like the anatomist has laid bare wh at lies
beneath O n readi n g the autobiography of a great
modern poet we fe lt very much as if w e had been
standing at the threshold of some lar ge temple
w hose dim lamps reflected phantasms along the
walls the shadows but scar ce the shapes of obj ects
The reas on of this w e took to be that Goethe did
We found ourselves admitted
n o t kno w himself
only to so many of the p oet s inner musings while
a cur tain seemed ever an d anon to dr op concealing
from our eye as mayhap it had done from h is ow n
the inmost secrets o f the man B ut with D avid
there is no di sguise ; hi s w hole soul is l aid Open ;
so that his hymns furnish w hat we venture t o say
—
is not t o be found in an y other literature a spe ci
men of pe r fect autobiography
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2 22
LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS
or
THE BIB LE
.
and the closer the imita tion the more likely th e
artist shall achieve t wo triumph s ; o n t h e o n e hand
his fidelity t o Nature w ill impart a measure of her
elevation and grandeur to his works ; w hile on the
other hand the y will reach downward among the
root feelings which are very much the same in all
H ence w e believe the reason why it happens that
in the main the verdict of the multitude o n works of
real genius is correct Nor may any author expect
his fame to be l asting who ca n n ot make his appeal
to this tribunal— that is to the j udgment o f unso
i
st i ca ted N ature
h
p
We shall probably hear it said that the attention
o f the m u
ltitude is apt to be seduced by tinsel and
glitter and that their understandings m ay be con
founded by indefinite and mysterious terms while a
S how of learning of which they themselves are
consciously deficient may impose upon their i g n o
rance B ut not w ithstanding I am inclined to be
l ieve that in all countries the people are the bes t
j udges of genuine eloquence A frothy bombast
m ay please them more than o n e would wish ; but
l et a true orator in plain a n d sim ple language ad
dress them and they will be moved to the depths
When h e h as so studied art as to
o f their nature
appear artless and what may have cost h i m much
labor is poured forth with seeming spontaneousness
the common people will hear h i m gladly will sway
to his eloquence as the branches o f the forest to the
rush of winds and be infinitely more ple ased with
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THE TW O STANDARD S
LITERARY
or
E
22 3
M RIT
.
his
natural orn aments than w ith any amount of
v itiated decoration
It must surel y have been in a fit of Spleen the
great R oman lyrist allo wed himself t o pen the line :
.
Od i
profan m v u lgus
a
et
,
ar c eo
”
.
A better insight into human nature was shown by
the celebrated F rench comedian of whom it is r e
corded that he w a accustomed to read his comedies
before performance t o a favorite servant or house
keeper and w hen he perceived that the passages
w hich he intended to be humorous and laughable
had no e ffect upon her he altered them T he same
kind o f principle may be observed in another r e
corded habit of his that of requesting the actors to
bring t heir children to the rehearsal of a new piece
that he might j udge of the eff ect o f particular pas
sages by the natural emotions they raised i n their
minds In this Moli ere showed a profound knowl
edge of human nature and of the philosophy o f
criticism
N ow what w e have to say of the B ible in vie w
o f the two tribunals o f opinion is that it h as stood
before both with approbation
It has abidden the ordeal of erudite criticism
r greatest scholars who have given the grounds
Ou
o f their j udgment
which they have j ustified by
proof specimens have pronounced the very highe s t
eulogiums on the literary merits of the B ible T o
give even a tithe of the en comiums which our men
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LITERARY CHARACTERIS TICS OF THE BIB LE
224
.
of
erudition have pronounced on this sacred clas si c
would swell o ut our pages beyond what we can
afford P erhaps w e can n o t better summari z e their
verdict than by quoting t h e language o f S ir William
J ones whose refined taste equaled his erudition vas t
“
as it w as : I have regularly and attentively read
these Holy S criptures and am o f Opinion that this
volume independent o f i t s D ivine origin contains
more sublimi t y and beauty more pure morality
more important history and finer strains of p oetry
and eloquence than can be collected from all other
books in whatever age or lan guage they may have
”
been compos ed
To this I might add the testi
mony of a very di fferent witness whose taste for
fine w riting w ould seem to have overcome for the
t ime at least his prej ud ice against C hristianity ;
“
this other witness is R ousseau : I will confess to
you further that the maj esty of the S cripture
strikes m e with admiration as the purity of the
Gospel hath its influence on my heart P eruse the
w orks o f o ur philosophers ; with all their pomp o f
diction how mean how contemptible are they com
pared with the S cripture ! Is it possible that a book
at once so simple and sublime should be merely the
work of man
B ut the B ible has also stood at the tribunal o f
A s w as said o f its D ivine
unlearned criticism
A uthor so o f itself with equal truth may it be
a ffirmed that the common people hear it gladly
P osterity echoes antiquity in its praise ; the voices
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2 26
LITERARY CHARACTE RISTICS OF THE BIB LE
.
B iblical
literature either in o ur elementary or
higher schools ? S ome o f us can remember h ow
in the former we got long tasks from it and had
“
to spell our way through polysyllabic chapters
”
and j oyless genealogies
Had o ur teachers singled
by their simple be auties are
o ut such passages as
calculated to impress even a youthful reader and
made some attempt to point out those w hich might
be less obvious we have a strong impression that
o ur school boy associations and recollections o f the
B ible would be less irksome and insipid A nd with
reference to o ur higher schools we can n o t help
being of opinion that if occasionally the same pains
were taken to point o ut the literary beauties of a
chapter in Isaiah o r J ob as is d one to exhibit the
beauties o f some passage from A ddison or M ilton
the result w ould be in the highest degree beneficial
to the interests both o f literature an d religion
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P A R T S E C O ND
LITE RARY
TS OF
ACHIE VE ME N
.
THE B IBLE
.
LITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS O F THE BIB LE
230
.
spared of the history of the bulk o f an cient nations
is such as to occasion but small regret that oblivion
h as blotted o ut the rest ; for while the annals o f
war and the calendar of crime are curtailed of some
of their chapters the history o f literature or o f
philosophy h as 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
reputati on for emine n ce requires a certain innate
force of character combined with natural talent
Hence we would conclude tha t as from the want of
these the great mass o f mankind pass away almost
unnoticed by their cotemporaries and altogether
unkno wn to posterity ; so from the lack of the social
ca pacity o r 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 w hich it does
n o t require much genius to secure
A nd if we might carry o ut the parallel somewhat
farther we would observe that as in the c ase of i n
d i v i d uals whom N ature may have endowed with
s uperior parts some have failed to reach distinction
from not being pl aced in circums tances favorable to
the cultivation of their peculiar gifts ; so many
n ations which had in the m the germs o f greatness
have m issed becoming great owing to ad verse i n fl u
e n c es which nipped these germs in the bud
T hough
true genius is known to have surmounted the grea t
est d i fli c ult i e s by its own indomitable energy yet
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NTRO D UCTORY
I
2 31
.
owing to poverty to constitutional bashfulness to
the want o f patronage or still more of sympathy
and appreciation it doub t less will have happened
"
“
that some mute inglorious Milton wi t h the fires
o f poetry in his soul h as sunk into the cold grave
where the lamp which under happier condi tions
might n o t much longer have been fl am ele ss is
quenched forever ; and so we believe many an an
cient nation might have been heard o f with renown
had not the disas ters of its fate prematurely e ver
t aken it
We would venture to carry out the parallel ye t
another step T here are few di fficul t ies in the pur
suit of knowledge which the poor scholar finds
greater than the want o f books S o w ith nations
this want may be reckoned among the causes which
have prevented many of them from attaining t o
literar y eminence ; when deficient in the mental
vigor and originality which are requisite to pred uce
a native literature they were also without the aid
which an imported literature would have afforded
T he Greeks seem to have been endowed by nature
with that rare force o f natural genius which enabled
them t o strike out an original literature that was to
become a model to succeeding ages T he Romans
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 withou t
t h e B i ble w e may classify them into three groups
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMEN TS O F THE BIB LE
2 32
.
T he first represented by Greece w e re those ver y
,
,
few which by the force of their native genius reared
for themselves a native literature T he second rep
resented by R ome includes those nations also few
which stimulated and assiste d by a foreign litera
ture attained to literary distinction T he third
including the great mass of ancient nations presents
them as barely emerged from the darkness o f bar
bar i sm when they passed a w ay without leav i ng a
trace of polite learning or the fine ar ts behind them
How differently it might have fared with these h ad
they possessed the B ible wi ll perhaps appear whe n
we come to indicate the happier fate of modern
nations once as bar barous which enj oy this best of
all auxiliaries to c ivili z ation
B efore proceeding to i llustrate the three great
facts into w hich I have summari z ed the literary
achievements of the B ible it will be proper t o take
a glance at the lite rature and the ar ts o f those
nations w hich thoug h destitute of the sacred v ol
ume have merited to be esteemed both literary an d
artistic
A s representing classic antiquity I sh all select
—
its most polished nati on Greece N 0 o n e will hesi
“
tate to o wn that the la nd where burning S appho
lov ed and sung where D emosthenes won his ever
i mmortal and still increasing fame as the prin c e
o f orators ; where were born P raxi t eles an ac k n o wl
edged master o f the beautiful and P hidias o f the
s
rand
in
sculpture
w
here
arose
a
bright
su
c
ce
;
g
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234
LITERARY ACHIEVEME NTS OF THE BIB LE
melli fluous
.
?
diction
Y et w as the poetry o f Gree ce
—
only a splendid meteor by the poetry of Italy
—
faintly r efl e ct e d which failed to illustrate P rovi
den ce or illumine the tomb o r reveal to mankind
the divinely beautiful and good It w as not given
even to a Homer to draw down from P arnassus the
beam which w as to irradiate the face of ce lestial
truth and light the path to immortality Ho w
di fferent it mi ght have been had Homer known to
invoke Isaiah s m u
se !
As to the general literat ure o f Greece we shall
not here inquire whether it m ade the people chas te
hon est temperate and truthful ; since the same
question might be retorted on C hristian literature
B ut w e shall rather ask did it even inculcate these
virtues or assist to foster them ? It certainly did
n o t ; for seeing it is a necessity o f his moral nature
that man must reflect the deity whom he worships
w hat was to be expected o f the ancient Greek when
the gods whom he saw in his country s literature
w ere liars thieves bacchanals and voluptuaries ?
”
“
Where asks an eloquent writer S peaking of the
R oman deities and wi t h equal truth he might have
used the same language respecting th ose of Greece
“
shall we find one among all the obj ec ts of their
worsh ip whose attributes indicate o n t h e fancy that
h as imagined it the Operation of any thing like
a principle either o f holiness or o f love ? Where
shall w e find on e whom its worshipers have invested
w ith the qualities either o f purity o r o f mercy ?
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mTRODUCTORY
2 35
.
A ll
their duties appe ar to be the product of a
strange and affecting combination of depraved pas
sions and guilty fears T he principal gods of the
P antheon are raised above men solely by the supe
rior enormity of their crimes ; their greater po wer
only enabling them to be the greater adepts and
the greater monsters in Vice T hey are the patrons
—
and patterns of all that is cruel o f intemperance
and lust and knavery and j ealousy and revenge
T hus men love to si n ; a n d they make their gods
sinners because they are desirous to si n under t heir
patronage ; yet are they at the same time conscious
o f guilt
and while they commit si n and even
laugh at si n they tremble with superstitious appr e
.
,
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h e n si on
”
.
T he Greeks were pre eminently an imaginative
people and their poetic feeling is expressed in all
z
their works T he ideali z ation of the
o r the
beautiful went beyond what any other people h as
ever reached ; and j udging from the specimens which
have been preserved their sculp t ure has success
fully translated their ideal o f the beautiful into
form V iewed merely as pie ces o f art their higher
statuary is faultless Y et we can not help being o f
the opinion that there is in i t a radical blemish
which a knowledg e of the B ible would have taught
t h ei r s c ulpt ors to avoid
A rt to be fully successful
must attempt only w hat is possible— that is what
It is not enough that there be beauty of
i s true
form and expression but the higher idea also which
,
10
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x a
oy
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,
that form is intended to enshrine must be such that
the imagination and the heart when doing obeisa nce
to truth can accept it as true F o r then only is
idealism a real power when the ideas which it
embodies in obj ective forms have their subj ective
counterparts i n o ur emotions and sentiments Now
what we venture t o affirm is that while the sacred
statuary of the Gre eks exhibi t s t h e true and the
beautiful in fo rm it has not embodied the t rue in
idea We mean not to say that the Grecian id ea
o f beauty in itself w as not a true idea ;
o r that
their idea of strength of maj es ty o f intellect and
power were not in themselves true ; and so far as
the Greek sculptors strove to personify these their
art was the handmaiden o f truth B ut when the y
aspired to chisel in marble o r t o mold in bras s
divine beauty divine strength divine maj esty and
divine intellect the attempt w as a revol t ag ainst
truth T he statue of a J upiter or an A pollo as it
came from a Greek studio would be exactly true to
the rules of art ; but to the idea of art it could n o t
be true if o ur i n terpreta tion o f that idea is co r
rect F or what does that statue actually re presen t ?
C ertainly not the d ivine ; since not in mar ble or
brass or ivory can even a Phidias succeed in per
n ot
G
dhe
d
A
nd
if
th
t
statu
does
so n a ti n
a
o
a
e
g
trul y e x hibi t the divine so neither does it ex hibi t
the human ; for e x ceeding nature by i ts attempt
to rise to the supernatural it is t oo imaginatively
grand t o be the image of a man T he ide a i tself
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS O F THE BIB LE
23 8
t rat e d
.
the superstitions o f paganism B ut do we
fi hd n o blemishing characteristic in C hinese civili z a
tion which a knowledge o f the S criptures migh t
have prevented ? O ve r against the singular invent
i v e n e ss o f the C hinese se t this fac t — that they
rarel y if ever improve upon their inventions ; but
soo n as a discovery is made b y them thus it re
ma i ns stereotyped A nd the reason of this is doubt
l ess to be found in their isolation ; for lying her
m e t i cally sealed up within their o w n walls they
o w n to no fi li at i o n with the brotherhood o f nations ;
but dwell alone a people proudly selfishly unso
Hence they
c i ally separate from their human kin
have become filled with the conceit of national per
fe c t i bi li t y which could not fail to put an arrest o n
their national progress N ow we need scarcely add
that had C hina been a B ible land this notion o f
perfectibility could never have gaine d ground nor
this position of isolation have been persisted in
Hen ce if instead o f the books o f C onfucius the
C hinese had received the books o f Moses and the
prophets what a noble civili z ation would theirs by
this time have been !
“
Here I can imagine the infidel to say :
Y ou
have glanced at n ations which were without the
B ible ; I no w tur n to a nation which alone possesse d
it for centuries A nd what do I find ? A wretched
people o f a low civili z ation ever ignorant and
”
To
vulgar strangers alike to lette rs and the arts
—
this scornful satire o f the brilliant skeptic fo r I
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INTRO D UCTO RY
2 39
.
of
—
V oltaire
an
have given in substa ce the words
“
eloquent writer has replied : D oes it become you
a writer of the eighteenth century to charge the
ancient Hebrews with ignorance ? A people who
while even the
while your barbarian ancestors
Greeks and L atins wandering in the woods could
scarcely procure for themselves clothing and a se t
ti ed subsistence already possessed all arts of n e ces
si t
and
some
o f m ere pleas ure ; w h o n o t only knew
y
h o w t o feed and rear ca ttle till the earth work
upon wood stone and metals weave cloth d ye
wool embroider stu ffs polish and engrave on pre
c i o us stones ; but even then adding to manual arts
those o f taste and refinement surveyed land ap
of
ointed
their
festivals
according
to
the
motions
p
the heavenly bodies and ennobled their solemnities
by the pomp o f ceremonies by the sound o f i n st ru
ments music and dancing ; who even then commi t
ted to writing the history of the origin o f the world
th at Of their ow n nation and their anc estors ; who
had poetry and writers skilled in all the sci e nces
the n known great and brave commanders a pure
worship j us t laws a wise form of government ; in
short this was the only o n e o f all ancient nations
that has left us authentic monumen t s o f genius and
o f liter ature
C an thi s nation be j ustl y charged
T o the Same
with ig n orance and
“
e ffect I might quote from D r Ed ershe i m s H is
”
tory o f the J ewish N ation
His chapters in which
he describes the social condition customs and cul
n
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
240
.
ture of the J ews give on e a very high idea of
Hebrew civili z ation A s h as j ustly been remarked
there is no surer sign o f a high civili za tion than a
great division of labor and a complication of trades
“
T ake then the following passage :
A mong t h e
craftsmen we find ar t i fice rs i n w ood and all kinds
of metal the precious metals being fused with l ea d
o r some of the alkalies ; tent makers m as ons
tan
n ers
tailors shoemakers , j ewelers coach builde rs
etc who busily an d successfully plied their trades
althou gh with too ls much infer ior to those n o w in
use
T he pot t ers and glass workers produ ce d flat
and deep plates cups looking glasses spoons tum
hlers— hole s in whi ch were covered with pitch or
—
tin bottles and smelling bottles which w ere filled
with scented o i l S ome as tailors and copy writers
would go about to proc ure work or do it in the
houses o f their customers Hats caps shirts nap
kins towels pocket handkerchiefs vails and many
other article s which we could scarcely have ex
e c t e d t o find in P alestine se em to have bee n in
p
common use The wash ers were proper ly fullers
who first clea ned t he clothes with water and then
took o ut the stains by various chemical agents such
alum chalk potash etc
D yeing and orna
as
mental work Of v arious kinds w hether w ith t h e
br ush t he ne edle or in w ood ivory stu cc o an d
”
met al w ere al so known and practiced
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2 42
LITERARY ACHIEVEME NT S OF THE BIB LE
.
uccess A nd now a large induction of instances
spread over an immense geographical area and
including almost e v ery known diversity of the
species warrants us to proclai m it as a fact ex per
i m e n tally proved that the B ible and it alone can
prepare t he savage for being civili z ed ; that more
than all scienc es all ar ts or all literatures it h as a
dynamic al moral power to raise the human mind
from the abysmal depths of b arbarism that while
in i ts rear acting as a reserve force these a e com
i
l
sh not a little
it
only
can
lead
the
van
in
t
h
e
p
march o f the w orld s civili z ation
When a piece of stratified rock is subj ected to th e
wheel of the lapid ary the fossil configurations ar e
brought out on i ts polished surface as if they were
but it i s a piece of
so many fine natur al etchings ;
rock still and these e x quisite l i neat i ons ar e but t h e
epitaph s of dead animals lettered with their o wn
E ven so art w ith its civili z ation might
r emains
perhaps poh sh the hard surface o f heathendom and
bring out some hidden trac es o f our better human
ity in these human fossils ; but w hat w as to breathe
life in t o them ? n o t art not science n ot civili z ation
but C hristianity alone could do this Its only is t he
V i v i fying breath which when i t falls warm o n those
hearts which h ad be en fossili z ed into stone pen e
trates softens resus citates them makes them hear ts
—
hearts which be at now with a tru e natural
o f fl esh
life w hich may yet be at w ith a l ife whi ch i s spir
i t ual and divine
s
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THE PIONEER
0F
L ZA TION
CIVI I
2 43
.
Already h as C hristianity achiev ed many benig
nant triumphs on the stubborn fields of heathe n
d om
It has confronted the cannibal when at his
horrid feasts he was quaffin g human blood and has
made him loathe the ens anguined cup ; it h as fol
lowed the hunter of the w ood s— then as untamed
appare n tly as untamable as t h e wild beasts he
—
chased and has led him back ge ntle as a child to
si t at the feet of his spiritual teachers ; it found the
t e m ple fires of paganism smoking with detestable
sacrifices its altars smeared with the mingled blood
o f a nimals and human beings its idol gods images
hideous t o look on a n d often symbolic o f notions
still more hideous to think of these fires it h as ex
t i n g ui sh e d these altars overturned and these idols
broken in pieces ; it h as abolished infanticide it has
snatched the ag ed imbecile from a w atery grave
and rescued the living widow from the funeral pyre
o n w hich sh e w as about to be consumed with the
de ad bod y of h e r husband ; it has co n verted the
tomahawk into the woodman s ax and the weapons
implements o f bus
o f barbaric w arfare into the
bandry ; smiling villages have sprung up on the
sites of miserable encampments ; the cornucopia of
industry h as poure d out i ts bounteo us stores where
before indolence had pined with its empty horn ; the
sentiments of ci vili z ed have been ingrafted on the
instincts of nomadic life thus forming a characte r
at once ro bust and refined ; alien races have be en
affi liated hostile tribes u n it ed in ami ty ; the g irdle
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2 44
LITERARY ACH IE VEMEN TS OF THE BIB LE
of
.
love is being stretched round the world a cinct
ure which shall bind together i ts scattered sons and
daughters into o n e universal brotherho od S uch
have been the early fruits the first beginnings of
C hristianity B ut the end is n o t yet T ime must
be allowed it to complete its triu m phs ; for while it
h as done marvels we do n o t pretend to say that it
will work miracles ; or that i ts Operations can coun
t e r v a i l the great law o f social progress
A nd it is
—
well known what that law is t hat civili z ation in
any but more especially in barbarous lands is of
slow grow t h bei n g the aggregate of small incre
ments like the annual wood circles of o ur exogen
o us trees
We the cultured sons o f B ritain whose ow n
forefathers once wandered half naked savages in
the woods and where but for C hristianity we
their children might be wandering now can point
—
to our mighty engines o f m anufacture to o ur i m
—
mense maga z ines o f trade t o our spread ing sails
which carry the produce of these engines and the
stores o f these maga z ines to the ends o f the earth ;
we can also point to our venerable colleges of aca
demic learning— to o ur schools o f modern science
to o ur magnificent galleries o f art ; we can also
point to o ur cathedrals and necropolises where the
ashes o f the illustrious dead repose and to the
brilliant names of the illustrious living— yet let us
not think t o sneer at the rude architecture the
i n fant sciences or the simple arts o f the sable
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246
L ITE RARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
.
is
not this o f itself a splendid c ontribution to un i
v ers al literature that the greatest classi c of e u
—
t i qui t y for such w e hold the B ible t o be — instead
o f being locked up in the dead languages is n o w
t hrown open in its living vernaculars to the w ide
w orld ? We have rem arked o f n ations which had
not the inventive genius to originate a purely native
literature how rapidly they advanced when aided
by an imported literature A nd 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 P alestine N or ought
it to be overlooked here the immense contribution
w hich the translation o f the B ible h as been the
means o f making to comparative philology ; since
it h as 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
A nd here again the parallels in history present
a h appy augury F or since the first book ever
printed w as the B ible and the art o f printing thus
inaugurat ed has had such a splendid success we
can not anticipate other wise than hopefully for the
incipien t literature o f recently C hristiani z ed lands
seeing the first book translated into and printed in
their language is the B ible
C ivili z ation might be said to be a problem in the
resolution o f moral forces ; and will prove sound
and lasting according as these are righ tly balanced
T he t wo chief forces which have to be worked in
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THE
PIO NEER O F CIVILIZATION
2 47
.
combination are the social and the individual ; in
other words the powers and prerogatives o f society
in the aggregate and t h e liberty of its several
members When the former is in excess you have
tyranny ; when the latter anarchy B ut when the
t w o are i n their j ust proportions you have legisla
tion without oppression in the S tate and liberty
without lawlessness in the citi z en It is from hav
ing fai led to work out these opposite forces into a
stable result ant that so many of the ancient civil
B ut let us
i z a t i o n s proved unstable and unlasting
lanced in the S crip
se e h ow ad m irably these are b a
tures !
F irst we have the social quantity in the equat ion
F or in no
o f civili z ation given in its ful l value
book is sociology laid on so deep and broad a foun
T he idea o f the unity of the race and the
d ation
correlate d ideas of universal brotherhood and the
fili a t i on o f the nations are now familiar to us
B ut h o w little were they r e ah z e d or rather were
not thought o f at all till the B ible proclaimed
them ! A nd it is not as a theory or a poetic senti
ment but as a historical fact the B ible proclaims
”
“
the whole world kin
It establishes the universal
brotherhoo d by tracing it back to a common an
“
God h as m ade o f one blood all nations of
c e st r y
”
men for to dwell on all the face of the earth
T he
very names of the primal parents and of the fir st
born b rothers of the race are given We are intro
d uce d to the original household from which by
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LITERARY ACHIEVE ME NTS OF T HE BIB LE
248
.
unbroken lineage the great human family has de
scended
T hus the problem o f C i vili z atio n is at
once pointed toward its true solution ; the great
truth to be practically wrought out being the rec
o n i t i o n of a community o f interest and of rights
g
seeing there is a community o f blood and lineage
among all the nations of the earth T he question
o f human progress is thus built upon a foundation
which lies deep as the origin o f the race It be
comes as it were a household question and is
enshrined in all the sacredness we associate with
the fam ily circle A nd doubtless though it will
take time the great problem shall ultimately be
solved in the way which the B ible indicates ; and
which more than all other books it has helped to
accelerate
T hen secondly the other main quantity in the
equation n a m ely the individual is also fully given
N owhere else is the liberty of personal conscience so
fenced round with lofty sanctions or the doctrine
of pe r sbn al responsibility so conspicuously enforced
Individual man is never represented as a stray waif
upon the waters to be t ossed hither and thither
witho ut voluntary motion the spor t of circum
stance He is never spoken o f as a drop in the
ocean which loses all individuali t y absorbed and
lost sight o f and carried without its own Ch e l ce
whithersoever the tide m akes for any shore B ut
individual man is recogni z ed in the distinc t and i n
destructible prerogatives o f his personal being He
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L ITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
2 50
.
—
I
n otice
mean the place w hich it asserts for
w oman C reated t o be the co mpanion o f man how
often sh e h as been mad e his slave the instr ument
o f his passions
the plaything o f his idle ho urs !
T his every where amo n g savage tribes has been lit
e r ally the case and even a mong n ati on s wh i ch w er e
civili z ed if pagan w oman rarely had assigned to
her her due place T hi s was but another phase of
that ferocity which h as cursed the earth by i t s
—
cruelties in war the stronger trampling o n t h e
weaker B ut there w as this mighty di fference
that whereas a feeble tribe might by conquest be
made harmless the influence of woman could n o t be
destroyed T here belongs to her i n each se v eral
relation as sister w ife mother a v as t social po w er
for good or evil o f which sh e can not be depri v ed
If crushed downtrodden and despised by an un
christia n civili z ation w oman alas ! had her t oo
baneful influenc es w hich
ample reve n g e in the
‘
o
n
d
rom
man
s
fault
and
her
sa
misfortune
went
w
f
forth from her as by a law of retribution to avenge
Her w omanly n ature which
h er o n her tyrants
would have shed its sweet and softening influe n ces
o n society could not be dried up but did w ithout
her meani n g it give forth the soured and bitter i n
fl ue n c es which oppression to its o w n j ust punish
ment wrung o ut from her N ever th erefore could
there be a true civili z ation where woman w as not
assigned her proper place B ut w hen this j ustice is
done t o her what a r i ch reward sh e bes tows on
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THE PIONEER OF CIVILIZATION
2 51
.
man ! It is hers then to humani z e hi m by the gen
tler charities ; to ing raft with her d eh ca t e female
touch the softer graces upon the undergrowths o f
his nature ; to distill round the dee p roo ts of his
being a secret subtile bal m of all pure st pas sions
which when sh e has roused into their strength
It is
sh e then softens without enervating them
w oman s mission in the quiet privacies o f home to
feed the center founts of society with those human
i z ing influences which distill as naturally from her
as its balm from the tree or their odor from the
flowers B ut why crush the exuding branch or
why tread down the exhaling flower ? T he mo re
tenderly they are nurtured the richer a balm the
more fragrant an aroma wi ll they yield A nd so
woman if he rself the nursling o f tenderness w i ll
the more tenderly minister
N ow in the S criptures woman h as assigned to
her her proper place ; the amenities of her sex are
vindicated her mission is defined her ministrations
are allowed and acknowledged S he is plac ed at
man s side his companion his friend his equal and
helpmeet for h i m Weaker in physical frame sh e
is ad monished to cling to him for support ; o f intel
lectual energies less Vigorous than his sh e is ta ught
t o m ake him her counselor ; but superior to man in
the finer and more delicate sentiments of their com
mon nature he must seek to ward her unless he
would become stern in his strength and h i s V irile
hardihood degenerate into harshness
’
,
,
,
’
,
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’
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,
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’
,
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS O F THE BIBLE
2 52
.
We know nothing finer in the whole range of
literature than are some o f the exhibitions of female
character which are to be met with in the S cripture
histories A S loving wife and devoted mother sh e
is seen shedding a hallowed loveliness around the
household T he sires and sons o f Israel so noble
patriots heroes o f dauntless bravery men of action
and o f metal in Israel s best days went forth from
homes where woman s worth w as known and
woman s po w er admitted It was she as wife o r
mother who made these sires and sons of Israel the
men they proved themselves to be B ut not only
in the privacy of h ome is the Hebrew woman to be
seen S he could step forth wi t hout forgetting her
womanly modesty in these stirring times equal to
deeds of valor which the veterans o f the nation
S he too w as poetess priestess
m ight have envied
prophetess
B ut above and beyond all C hristianity h as enno
bled woman as the mother o f the S avior o f m an
kind If paradise has its melancholy shadows i n
the gloom o f which woman stands as the first trans
r e ss o r
how
gloriously
are
these
shadows
dispelled
g
at B ethlehem T he nativity sh ines with a double
luster for woman ; the birth hour of hope to her
children i t was also the bir th hour o f her own true
dignity henceforth to be acknowledged wherever
the Gospel should proclai m her to be the mother
of the S avior ; and now is her benign influence
being felt as in pagan l a nds it never was o r indeed
.
,
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254
LITERARY ACH IEVEMENT S OF THE BIB LE
.
a sol emn institution as their absolute right unde r
the C hristian law the charity that proclaims it a
par amount duty for all who hav e any available
power whether these be a community or in d ividual
membe rs thereof to listen to poverty pleading i ts
pangs day and n ight before God and man — this
l
u
b
i
h
i
c
c
ar
t
paganism
knew
nothing
of
C
hris
p
y
t i an i t y was the first to proclaim it and a C hristian
emperor C onstantine was the first to give to i t
practic al e ffect
It was he the first C hristian
C aesar who in testim ony o f that obli gation w hich
C hristianity had laid on princes and the i r peoples
founded the first system of relief for pauperism
”
“
T he poor ye will always have with you
T hese
words of the D iv i ne F ounder o f C hris t ianity w ere
n ow acce pted as at once a true prediction an d an
authoritative appe al
What C hristianity since the times of C onstan
tine h as done for the poor and h ow much it h as
contributed if not t o remove pove r ty out o f th e
lan d— which is only to be thought of in the dreams
—
at any rate to mitigate its su ffer
o f the vi sionary
ings is patent to any on e w ho w ill read the an nals
of philanthropy
T here is still on e other observation I w o uld add
in speaking of C hristianity in connection with civil
i z at i o n or the true solution of the great social prob
lem It alone o f all re ligious systems h as shown
itself to possess the po w er to w ork in cooperation
w ith time and progress and to ad apt itself t o the
,
,
,
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,
,
,
THE PIONEER
CIVILIZATION
OF
2 55
.
endless variations o f epochs and locality S ystems
there have been which could grapple with on e con
dition o f society with o n e se t of feelings and one
system o f ideas but when there came a change and
new elements had to be dealt wi t h these systems
having no power o f plastic self accommodation be
came as a be d on which a man can not stretch
hi ms elf ; there w as in them neither the length nor
the breadth required by these n ew aspects of soci
ety and of these n e w necessities of man B ut
C hristianity h as in it an infi n ite flexibility ; it
transfers itself with out ne edi ng to be stretched
from climate to
as a garment which h as sh runk
climat e from land to lan d from century to century
infolding within its endless adaptations the soc ial
problem no matter where w hen or unde r w hat
condi tions it i s be ing solved
.
,
,
,
,
,
,
-
,
.
,
,
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,
,
,
,
,
,
,
.
2 56
LYIERARY
ACHIEVEME NTS OF THE BIB LE
CHAPTER
B IB L E
THE
III
.
.
PR O M O TE R OF L ITE R AT UR E
A R T S— M O D E R N P O ET R Y
THE
AND THE
.
T H ERE are influences with power in them sufli
cient to initiate a movement but which are not
capable o f consummating it T hey give the first
impulse an d then are left behind by that which
themselves set in motion T his is abundantly i llus
t r at e d in the history o f science philosophy and
literature F or many a book which exerted no
small motive influenc e o n the age when it first
appeared and perhaps o n 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 o f
the books is exceedingly few o f which it could be
said that they both commenced and consummated
any great movement E xtre m ely few at the most
having served as a
n o t over two or three which
primer to the infancy o f human thought are still
”
“
a su fficient principia for its manhood A mong
these very few book s the B ible stands o ut pr e em i
nent A ny other o n the short but shining list is
”
“
T he date o f centu
secun d us m ag n o i n terv a llo
ries but not the decay of age is upon it T he first
,
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2 58
LITERARY ACHIEVEMEN T S
or
THE
BIBLE
.
A ngelo to paint the picture the chisel o f a C ano v a
,
sculpture the pillar the symphonies of a Handel
t o swell the oratorio and the pen of an A ddison to
w rite the eulogy
S till however inadequately my subj ect requires
o f me that I shall essay the task o f pointing out
w hat services n o t merely n o w as their pioneer but
as their promoter the B ible has rendered to letters
and the arts in the civili z ed nations of modern
E urope T here will have to pass in review before
us poetry painting sculpture music architect ure
and general literature ; for by each o f these has this
marvelous book made its influence to be felt We
shall find that it h as breathed into them a new life
from its o w n undying vitality ; that it h as supplied
them with materials o ut of its ow n exhaustless
stores ; that m ixing as it were its ow n 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
T o the B ible modern poetry is under many obli
to
,
,
.
,
,
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.
,
,
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,
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g
at i o n s
.
It has s upplied it with subj ects o f song
F o r if it is asked in the first instance Where
h ave the great m asters o f the lyre the high priests
o f poesy s temple her bards of the epic song turned
for subj ects befitting thei r lofty muse ? we reply to
the B ible T here at least did he most gifted of
t hem all fin d a the m e equal to the immensity of
.
,
,
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,
’
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
MOD ERN P OETRY
2 59
.
his imagina tion and the wide sweep o f his poetic
F or long years must the lofty genius which
V ision
produced the Alleg r o and Pen ser oso have been re
volving some still nobler monument to i ts poetic
fame A nd when it at length essayed to build the
grandest epic the world has ever seen the subj ect
it selected is emphatically a B iblical o n e Had
Moses not penned the P entateuch Milton could
”
“
never have written P aradise L os t
A nd o n his
“
a second time essaying the epic he wrote Pa ra
”
dise R egained thereby confessing that his themes
could be found only in the B ible T here is a
grand unity o f idea in these two epics ; and it was
a fine tribute which the poet paid to the S crip
tures when having found what we might call the
first half of his great thought in the O ld T esta
ment he turned to the N ew T estament as if only
there he could find the other half T he B ible c o m
pletes itself— so reckoned Milton ; and therefore to
the B ible he turned for the completion o f his epical
idea N or c ould this great master o f t he divine
art attempt the drama but he must betake himself
to the S criptures for a s ubj ect ; and thus appeared
”
“
his S amson A gonistes
O r if we turn to the
poets o f Italy and it is asked What h as given its
so solemn tone to the muse of D ante
and kindled
his poetry wi th so pr Oph e t i c a fervor ? the answer
plainly is that it could only b e his high appr e ci a
t i on of the writers of t h e O ld T es tament T his
poet s ardent admiration of the learning o f the
.
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’
26 0
L ITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
.
ancients has too often betrayed him into blen d ing
the ancient mythologies with the sacred writings ;
but at the same time the profounder impressio n
which the latter had m ade on his imagination
”
“
may be traced o n every page of his Inferno
A lthough T asso s great epic is not a B iblical sub
j c et yet does it ow e its peculiar interest to its
scene being laid in a land which the B ible h as
rendered sacred ground J erusalem ! rich above all
other ci t ies in hallowed recollections— brilliant be
yond comparison from its association with all our
—
religious feelings near it lying the cradle o f t h e
—
human race its enviro n s the haunts o f inspired
—
bards itself the city which God chose for his resi
—
dence during his incarnate life o n ear t h how could
T asso s muse sing o f its deliverance and n o t be
kindled w ith somewhat o f the solemn fervor and
sustained by a meas ure of the awful grandeur of
i ts o w n ancient bards ? T asso paid a still more
direct tribute to the B ible— though his muse failed
—
to sustain her former wing by composing a C hris
ti an epic o n the C reation T he epoist of Germany
could not indeed soar in the eye o f the s un like o ur
E nglish Milton ; yet as reverently as he K lop stock
has done homage to the B ible by selecti n g from it
”
“
the subj ect of his Messiah
A nd whether the
"
“
C ourse o f T ime by P ollok shall be admitted to
be an epic yet must it he confessed to be a wo n
d e r ful poem as the production of one so young in
years ; n o r c an yet the reader fail to perceive that
.
’
,
.
,
’
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262
LITERARY ACH IEVEMEN TS
OE
l
THE BIB LE
.
and fantastic i magery after the fashion o f his t ime
has w ithal a holy beauty and magnificence wh ich
are quite S criptural So also Giles F letcher wrote
his Chr i s t s Vi ctory a n d Tr i ump h a poem which
evidently gave hints to Milton when composing his
second epic S o also from the S criptures were
drawn some of the happiest inspira tion s o f the
poetry o f D onne rugged yet fancy rich ; o f Philip
Q uarles so quaintly emblematic ; o f R ichard C ra
shaw over much tinctured with superstition s mel
”
“
a n ch ol
yet
often
rising
into
lyric
raptures
o
f
;
y
C owley too by turns easy gay witty subtile
splendid albeit somewha t fantastic and e x t r ava
gant ; and o f P arnell picturesquely s olemn as i ts
o wn hermit s haunts yet melodious in the rhyth m
o f its numbers as the wood notes in the anchorite s
grove S o also among o ur later poets C owper h as
sung of Hop e Truth Cha r i ty ; Graham o f the
Sa bba th ; B lair of the Gr a ve ; Heber o f Pa lesti n e ;
Montgomery of the Wor ld bef or e the F lood ;
Michael B ruce o f the L as t Da y
,
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’
-
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.
N or could
poets who touched more seldom
the sacred lyre refrain from at times waking up
i ts strings to B iblical subj ects T hus the eagle
eyed but vulture bre as ted muse of B yron has sung
the Hebr ew M elo d i es ; the romantic muse o f S cott
has kindled into more than its wonted passion in
the Hymn of the Hebr ew M a id ; the all but v olup
t uo us muse o f Moore has warbled with a spir i tu al
o ur
.
-
.
MO D ERN P OETRY
26 3
.
ote in the Son g of Mi r i a m ; the polished muse of
Pe pe h as caught the fire of the olden prophets i n
the M essi a h ; and the wayward muse of B urns
random roving as a very child of N atur e h as struck
i ts D oric note the sweetest to o ur taste it ever
sung in the Co tter s Sa tur d a y Nig ht A nd how
can we refrain from adding the remark that if
these favorite sons o f our national muse more espe
c i ally B yron and B urns had oftener tuned the lyre
to similar strains and less often to those they hav e
preferred then might modesty have sometimes bee n
spared a blush passion sometimes a pang and
youthful desire someti mes a temptation ; while the
laurels on their ow n gifted brows would have
sparkled w ith the dew drops o f immortality n u
mingled with the tears shed by those who have had
to lament the hours worse than wasted over some
o f their al as too fa scinating pages !
n
.
,
-
,
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’
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,
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,
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-
,
,
,
hymnology which h as been
charged as wanting in the fervid lyric strain and
the nervous sinew of the true hymn A nd so may
hap it is yet who will not ow n it to be redolent of
all gentlest and soft est emotions ; harping o ut the
soul s sweet love to Him who is the friend o f si n
n ers ;
breathing a chastened rap t ure a subdu e d
passion a quiet devoutness Y es with all their
defects we could ill afford to wan t th ese s acred
lays T he young and the poor in the land at least
w o uld miss them A nd when ce have th ese stream s
T hen there is
o ur
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’
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,
264
LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS
THE BIB LE
or
.
holy song be en drawn ? T hey have been d ra wn
from the B ible ; for had not i ts inspired song first
flowed forth from S ion s h ill and S iloa s brook our
sacred literature would never have been enriched
with the hymns o f an A ddison a C owper a N ew
ton a T oplady a Wat ts a Montgomery a Heber a
B ernard B arton o r a Henry K irke White ; nor
would the literature of Germany have felt the be
n i n influence o f the hymns o f L uther
g
Here it merits to be noticed that the earliest
attempts o f A nglo S axon poetry were upon S crip
tural subj ec t s C aedmon who was a poet o f N ature s
making without the aids o f education so as tonished
hi s cotemporaries by his verse that they all wer e
of opinion that he had received the gift o f song
from heaven
N or is it to be wondered at if the
learned schol astics o f that age w ho thought the
v er n acular tongue unfi t even for prose were s m itten
with marvel to hear it poured forth in not un m el
li fl uo us numbers and o n subj ects s o lofty as the
C reation by the unlettered monk o f Whitby It
has been remark e d and I draw attention t o t h e
s i rc ums t an c e as showing the e ffect of a B iblical
theme to refine and elevate the rustic muse for
—
C aedmon at o n e time had been a cow herd that his
a cco unt of the F all of Man i s somewhat like tha t
“
given i n P aradise L ost and that one passage i n
it might almost be supposed t o have been t he
foundation of a c orr espo n d In g one in Milton s s ub
l ime epic It is that in which S ata n i s d escr i be d
of
’
’
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,
-L
,
-
'
.
266
LITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS
or
THE BIBLE
.
ture H e is indebted to S cripture infinitely more
than to H omer and V irgil and all other books
whatever Not only the principal fable but all his
episodes are founded on S cripture T he S cripture
has not only furnished him with the noblest hints
raised his thoughts and fired his imagination but
h as also very much enriched his language given a
certain solemnity and m aj esty to his diction and
supplied h i m with many of his choicest happiest
"
expressions
In his admirable critique on this
great poem A ddison while showing a fi ne appr e ci a
tion of his author has confessed that for many of
his sublimest strokes he is indebted to the S crip
tures A nd when moreover one considers h o w
much of the spirit of the H ebrew bards is inter
fused throughout this entire epic ; h o w that the
poet s own mind seems to have been steeped as it
were in theirs ; it might seem as if these were
the E lij ahs of ancient song and he the E lisha
of modern song on whom their m antle had fallen
O ur great dramatist who i s confessed the most orig
inal of the poets has not seldom availed himself
of the sacred S criptures I have lying before
me a goodly volume of some two hundred pages
octavo published by a member of the Shak spear e
“
S ociety entitled
Religious and M oral S entences
C ulled from the Works of Shak spe ar e compared
"
with S acred Pass a ges drawn from H oly Writ
S ome of the passages which this author quotes as
references and imitations are somewhat far fetched ;
.
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MO D ERN P OETRY
26 7
.
but after deducting such there remains a full hund
red of what appear to me to be unquestionable i n
stances of Biblical imitation It may gratify the
reader if I g i v e a few instances
,
.
.
.
S l u i ced ut hi s i nnocen t sou l t hrough s t e ms of b l oo d ;
Wh i ch b l ood l ike sacri ficin g A be l s cri es
”
for j us t ice
"
Th sons of E d w ard s l eep i n A braham s bo s o m
I t e ll t hee chur li sh pri es t
A m i i t i g ange l sha ll m y s i s t er be
When t hou li es t ho wling
If e v er I w ere t ra it or
”
M y name be b l o t t ed f rom t h B ook of L i fe
o
r a
,
’
,
,
.
’
e
.
,
’
n s
,
r n
,
”
.
,
e
.
is a s har d t come as for a came l
T t hre d t h pos t ern of a need l e s e y e
Th w orm of consc i ence sha ll b gna w t h y s ou l
Wha t E w ha t serpen t ha t h sugges t ed t hee
T make a second fa l l of cursed man
”
G d sa w h i m w hen he w as b i d i n t h garden
J A d t h i s l and be ca l l ed
Th fi e l d of G o l go t ha and dead men s sku l l s
D i d t he y t some t i me cry All ha il ! t me
So J udas d i d t C h i s t
Wh i l es t h ma d mo t hers wi t h t he i r ho wls confu s e d
Do break t h c l ouds as d i d t h wi v es f J e w ry
At H erod s b l ood y hun t ing s l augh t ermen
0 T hou t ha t j udges t a ll t h i ngs ! s t a y m y t h u g h t s
If m y suspec t be f a l se f org iv e me G d
”
F
j udgmen t on ly do t h be l ong t t hee
Y u drop manna i n t h w a y of s t ar v ed peop l e
Y u found h i s mo t e t h k i g y u mo t e d id s ee ;
B ut I a beam d o fi d i each f th ee
It
o
a
o
,
”
’
e
.
e
e
’
-
.
ve ,
,
o
o
e
‘
n
”
’
e
“
.
.
,
no
o
”
r
.
e
,
e
’
o
,
e
,
,
o
”
-
.
o
,
,
or
o
o
o
,
.
”
e
o
,
n
,
.
e
n
n
o
o
r
r
”
.
LITERARY ACHIEVEME NTS O F THE BIB LE
26 8
my fl
is ank i t s me l ls t heav e
It ha t h t h pri ma l e l des t urse upon t
"
A bro t her s mur d er
.
‘
O!
e n se
O
r
e
o
,
3
’
c
,
n
’
.
t h p e ac e mak e r s on ear t h
B l esse d
H w fa i n li ke Pil a t e w ou ld I w ash m y h an ds
Of t h is mos t gr i e v ou s g u il t y murder d one 1
a re
o
”
-
e
,
.
,
”
,
l
w ere w ere forfe i t once 3
i t h v an t ag e bes t hav e t ook
"
remedy
Al l t h e sou s t ha t
An d he t ha t m gh t
F ound
o ut
th e
e
,
.
W i sdom cri e s o ut i n t h s t ree t s an d
e
,
no
man egard s i t
r
”
.
Dr S pring of Ne w Y ork in his excellent lectures
"
“
on T he O bligations of the World to the Bible
“
re m arks : T here is not a finer character n or a
finer description in all the works of Walter S cott
than that of Rebekah in Ivanhoe A nd wh o does
not see that it owes its excellence to the Bible ?
Sh ak spe ar e Byro n and S outhey are not a little
indebted for some of their best sce n es and inspira
tions to the same source A t t h e suggest ion of a
valued friend I have turned my thoughts to the
—
parallel between M acbeth and A h ab between L ady
—
M acbeth and J e z ebel between the an nouncement
to M a cd ufi of the murder of his family and that
to David of the death of A bsalom by J oab— to the
parallel between the opening of the L amentations
of J eremiah and Byron s apostrophe to Rome as
—
the Niobe of nations to the parallel between his
O de to Napoleon a n d Isaiah s ode on the fall of
S ennacherib— and also to the resemblance between
‘
S outhey s chari ot of Ca r mala in the C urse of K e
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2 70
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LI TERARY ACH IEVEMENTS
OE
THE BIB LE
.
but i f he shall not have proved true to the S crip
tural treatment of the theme it may be found that
he has failed to reach the full altitude of his power
A s illustrative of this though the passag e is of
considerable length I c an not refrain from quoting
“
at full the following from Lan d r i t h s S tudies and
"
S ketches in M odern L iterature :
“
‘
T he L ast M an i s a theme for eign to C amp
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 h i th
erto T he scenery the solitude and the sentiments
of the piece are impressively solemn and in keeping
‘
with the peculiar situation of the last of A dam s
race
T he poet however by disregarding S crip
ture hints about the last day and by following out
inferior and less suggestive ideas of his own h as
failed to develop the proper sublimities of his sub
e ct
We
shall
br
efly
point
out
his
deviations
and
i
j
their inj urious efiec t W hy should he represent
the last day o f time as drawi n g 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 o f revelers groups
eating drinking marrying and giving in mar
and j esting openly under the shadow of the
r i ag e
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MO D ERN POETRY
2 71
.
descending throne of the J udge T here is doubt
less a certain impressiveness in the isolation of one
—
—
man the single remnant of humanity i n a world
erewhile crowded over all its surface of sea and
land with vast populations and their manifold act
‘
i vi t i es ; and striking i s the picture of ships drift
ing with the dead to shores where all was dumb
S till the truth contained in divine prophecy has
ever a richer and nobler poetry than belongs to
any human fancy ; and C ampbell 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 migh t
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 fo r his godless cotempor ar ies ?
“
‘
S econdly Why has C ampbell re served his last
man for the old and common doom of death when
according to S cripture all who shall be living down
‘
to the day of j udgment will be changed ? T his
transformation and its process would have furnished
a new and g rand S cope for imagination
“
A gain C ampbell represents the earth as in the
last stage of decay with every unequivocal symp
tom of imm ediate di ssol ution ; whereas S cripture
se ems to intimate that the las t day will dawn upon
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2 72
LITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE
.
a worl d that has lost none of its meridian vigor
and splendor Scofl ers are to look to land sea and
‘
sk
and
ask
for
the
sign
of
H
is
coming
T
here
y
will be no passing portents much less such a per
t
u
e
al warning as physical deterioration to corre
p
s on d with moral degeneration
Now
had
the
poet
p
adhered to the information of S cripture about such
points the sublimity of the piece would have been
”
greatly enhanced
But beside suggesting subj ec ts an d furnish
ing m aterials the Bible has had an immense indi
rect influence in molding and colori n g our poetic
literature
—
T he function o f every true poet i s twofold that
of an interpreter and a prophet A s an interpreter
the poet has to articulate and expound the ideas of
his own and o f preceding ages A s a prophet or
—
the va tes the poet has
to use the L atin appellative
to utter his own ideas whic h ought to be in ad
vance of his age T he ideas which he has to inter
pret or give articulation to are certain impressions
wide spread i t may be possibly deep seated yet
voiceless till he gives them articulate utterance
when every one hears as i f the echo of his own
thoughts and wonders why he could not have thus
expressed them T he ideas which the poet has to
contribute are those views of n ature and of truth
which his age may be groping toward but sees
them only as dim shadows till he gives them form
”
“
No w this bein g
a local habitation and a name
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2 74
L ITERARY ACH IEVEMEN TS
THE BIB LE
OE
.
conspicuously this Is the case with Young T homson
Byron Wordsworth C oleridge and S outhey T he
fir e fl ash e s of that torc h which when waved in the
h and of genius could so light up the Nig h t
Th oug hts was kindled at the Ne w T estament ; the
easy m agnificence and lavish ornament in the
Seasbn s betray s the arden t admirer of the E astern
pastorals ; the daring imagination which penned
Ca i n a M ys ter y must have g a z ed— 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
i n the Bible ; the solemn seer like though unstable
genius of C oleridge which could pour itself in such
a glorious hymn before sunrise in the V alley of
C hamouni was steeped till like a saturated sponge
it dripped again with the poetry of ancient seers ;
and while S outhey s Tha la ba has somewhat too
"
“
much the arabesque ornamen t of an A rabian tale
and his !Mm e Of E eha m a overabounds in H indoo
mythology yet one can n o t fail to perce i ve that the
poet s eye which ranged A raby and Ind had also
ga z ed on P ales tine whose bards ages before he
essayed his epics had with E astern imagery woven
their own nobler specimens of E astern song
W ith a pardonable pride we boast our national
poetry— that E ngland h as produced the greatest
epoist and the greates t dramatist of any age an d
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MO D ERN POETRY
2 75
.
S cotland the finest lyrist and the finest song writer
of modern times But why not at the same time
confess tha t if it i s not to the Bible but to the
accident of birth that E ngland i s indebted for her
M ilton and her Shak spear e and S cotland for her
C am pbell and her Burns it i s to the Bible we owe
it that among much which i s of the earth earthy
there are in thes e our nation s greatest poets senti
ments more refined thoughts more lofty subj ects 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 ?
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2 76
LITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
C
THE
B IB LE
HAP TER
IV
.
.
P ROMOTER OF L ITERATURE
ART S—MO D ER N P A IN T IN G
AND THE
THE
.
THE
Bible might indeed be called the painter s
book ; for the picture galleries of E urope are hung
with innumerable proofs that beyond all others it
h a s furnished subjects for the pe n cil of the artist
T he chef d oeuvr es of Ra phael of A n gelo of T itian
C orreggio M urillo L eonardi Rubens Rembrandt
P oussin indeed of all the great masters are B ibli
T hough o f diverse schools and in
c al subj ec ts
different countries with singular unanimity as if
drawn by one common impulse our great painters
have turned to the S criptures for those subj ects
which were most to immortali z e their own fames
and ennoble their art
U nder 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 fortit ude of martyrs ; the love and
constancy of woman ; the heroic deeds of the mos t
reno w ned 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
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LITERARY ACHIE VEMENTS O F THE BIB LE
2 78
.
”
“
instance Job and his F riends by P oole H ere
we have a specimen of religious art which is strik
i n gly original a ffording proof h o w impressive a
Biblical subj ect can be made when as this arti st
does it is treated di fferently from the current tone
of conventionality I w o uld also instance the S crip
ture landscapes of M artin which may be said to
form a cl as s by themselves and to reali z e the most
terrible of the O ld T estament scenes A competent
“
critic has pronounced that the supernatural splen
‘
‘
dor of the H andwriting on the Wall and Joshua
C ommanding the S un to stand S till can never pass
from the mind of any one with either imagination
”
or feeling
T here is a living painter not the least bright
luminary of the Northern A cademy who has given
us the results of his pencil in a walk of art which
if not strictly Biblical yet i s of that religious cas t
which is clearly traceable to the Bible M r H arvey
has illustrated with the power of a mas ter the
theological history of S cotland T hrowing his sym
a t h i e s backward into the struggles for conscience
p
sake which were maintained by his countrymen in
by gone times he has reared a pictorial monumen t
t o men who had received the s t ill higher fame of
Drawn
m artyrdom as the heroes of the C ovenant
by a like sympathy to the corresponding struggles
in E ngland he has memoriali z ed the heroic d eed s
and martyr endurances of the P uritans S uch noble
” “
“
”
pictures as C ovenanters P reaching
C ovenanter
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MOD ERN PAINTING
” “
2 79
.
” “
Baptism
C ovenanters C ommunion
F ir st Read
"“
ing of the Bible in the C rypt of S t P aul s
Bun
”
"
“
yan in Bedford J ail and S abbath 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 subj ects 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 L et
me illustrate this in the case of four great m asters
who stand perhaps unrivaled each in his own pe
—
style
L eonardi da V inci M ichael A ngelo
l
i
a
r
cu
Raphael and Rembrandt T hough the first of these
great painters could excel also in depicting rapid
—
m
otion
and
i
petuous
action
as witness the whirl
m
wind charge of his horsemen in the celebrated car
—
toon for F lorence yet his greater strength lay in
depicting tranquil sublimity solemn grandeur an d
pathetic grace C onscious of his peculiar po wer
L eonardi sought for a subj ect on which he could
fully display it ; and as if guided by the instinct
of his genius he turned to the New T estament
and selecting therefrom the L as t Supp er has pro
d uc e d at once his greatest and most ch aracteristic
work T he very boldest conception grandeur of
form and breadth of manner are the elements of
M ichael A ngelo s style
T he imagination of this
mighty genius who has been called the inventor
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28 0
LITERARY ACHI EVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
.
of epic painting delighted in the union of m ag n i fi
cence of plan with endless var i ety of subordinate
parts and of the utmost simplicity with the great
est breadth H e too sought for a subj ect which
would exercise his peculiar powers ; and guided by
the instinct of his genius to the Ne w T estament
he selected therefrom the La st J udg m en t and pro
d uce d that marvelous painti n g in which as F useli
“
observes he has personified every attribute that
varies the human body and traced the master trait
”
of every passion that sways the human heart
T he
genius of Raphael who has been designated the
father of dramatic painting though not less lofty
was milder than that of A ngelo H e too might
have painted a L ast J udgment ; but to represent
some milder glory on the earth better suited his
style S eeking for a subj ect in the full maturity
of his powers the instinct of his genius led him
also to the New T estamen t from which he selected
the Tr a n sfig ur a ti on A nd though death smote the
hand of the mighty master ere yet it had given
the finishing touches to this noble work it remai n s
the most perfect m asterpiece that modern art h as
produced T he head of C hrist which is said to
h ave been the painter s last labor i s his m ightiest
triumph None but Raphael s pencil could have
pai n ted and nowhere but from S cripture could
Raphael s genius have got the conception of such
a head Infinitely beneath those three in all th at
pertains to form Rembrandt excels them as indeed
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L ITERARY A C H IEVEME NTS OF THE BIB LE
2 82
.
ori gi n al drawings relating to Biblical subject s ; and
the se to the number of seven thousa n d he inter
leaved with his Bibl e F rom M ichael A ngelo and
Ra fla elle to Reynolds and Wes t every artist whose
S cripture subj ects had been engraved was b rought
into requisition Bowyer having only his own
taste to please gave a very wide scope to the
‘
‘
words S criptur al and Biblical insomuch that he
i n cluded plates of natural history that m i g ht pos
o f the Bible
illustrate
the
cosmogony
T
he
s i bl
y
collection included the be st S cripture atlases Its
most original features were two hundred drawings
by Lauth er bo ur g T hus he went on step by s te p
ti ll his Bible extended to forty fiv e folio volumes
i ncluding examples from nearly six hundre d di ffer
”
ent engravers
T he history of mode rn painting abundantly illus
trates this important fact that as the S pirit of
C hristianity S pread and interfused E uropean civili
the fine arts expanded with it and for the
z at i o n
first time since the decline of ancient art began to
fe el an inspiration which lifted them into the region
of poetry and sentiment W ithout introducing sub
which
needs
have
n
o
e c t of polemical discussion
j
place on these pages it i s but simple j ustice to
o w n that the C hurch of Rome proved herself the
liberal patroness of painting ; and that to the de
V o t i on with which she i n spired the early m as ters
is in chief meas ure o wing the ama z ing progress
w hich it made ; for with them pain t ing was not
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P AINTING
M O D E RN
m erely
2 83
.
an art but the consecration o f genius to
the servi ce of religion H aving said this much in
praise truth constrains us to add that if the C hurch
of Rome greatly helped the art Sh e also greatly
ham pered the artist F or there i s no denying that
a false ecclesiastical taste with the rage for bi z arre
coloring which was caused by a sensuous creed and
a sho wy ritual too much tied down the early mas
ters to the conventionalis m of C hurch art T hese
were fetters how ever which could not always bind
the spirit or c ramp the hand of genius
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T he great event of modern times is the Reforma
tion ; and as this was c o nnected with the dissemina
tion of the S criptures and with the right claimed
for every man to read the m and j udge for himself
it falls within our subj ect to inquire what e ffec t the
Reformation had upon the progress of art more
especially painting Your dilettante or mere lover
of art whom a fine painting wo uld please more than
a pure faith is loud in his lament that from the
ris e of the reformed religion we must date the
down fall of art more especially that painting
whose sun shone in its z enith was then eclipsed ;
and he h as no terms strong enough in which to
denounce what he considers the v a ndalism of the
Reformers
Now let us see what truth there i s in
this acc usation or what ground for this lament
If the leaders of the Reformati on were slow to
patroni z e and Co mmend the fine arts it ought to be
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2 84
LITERARY ACHIEVEME NTS OF THE BIB LE
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remembered how greatly these arts had been abused
T hey were not the men to obj ect to fine pictures as
L uther we Should take it possessed more
such
love for music than to be destitute of all relish for
painting H e w as t oo deeply imbued with a passio n
for classic learning to be a Goth in his tas tes
E ven although the works of the great masters had
been produced under the fostering care of Popery
a n d savored not a little of her errors ; still
h ad
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 n o t merely for decoration but to be
helps to worship it i s not surprising if the regen
e r a t o r s of the C hurch cared less to preserve these
monuments of art t han to m ak e sur e that the tem
ple w a s purged C onsidering the use to which
these paintings were put and the idolatrous tenden
cies which that use fostered if even with their o w n
hands the Reformers had destroyed them we should
not have charged them with being Goths and
V andals but woul d have called them Iconoclas ts
n o g reat term of reproach i f literally rendered
It is however simply a gratuitous
i d o l breakers
accusation to say that the Reformers wantonly de
stroyed the works of art ; for we kno w that when
the enthusias m — o r if an y reader wills the fan at i
—
i
m
o f the multitude c a r r i e d the m the l en gth of
c s
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2 86
LITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS
OE
THE BIB LE
.
mentum of cu rrent in p roportion as the y gain of
surface by d i fl us io n But the Bible is not among
these In proof of this may fairly be adduced the
service which since the Reformation it h as ren
dered to painting F or it is not saying too much
that the res to ration of thi s ar t is in no small
measure to be attributed to the Bible
We venture to avow the Opinion that under
P rotestantism a healthier school of painting has
risen than that which arose under C atholicism
T he pictor i al art if less than formerly th e illus
trator of religion has become more the interpreter
of Nature which we take to be its more appropriate
Now that l ove of Nature which is on e o f
function
the first attributes in a true painter is g reatly e n
as we had occasion to
c o ura g e d by the S criptures
S ho w when treating of the picturesque T hen fur
ther the opportunity of contemplating Nat ure und er
h e r various as pects and in h e r di fferent climes is
unque stionably a result of that ind ividual fr eedom
which we owe to the Reformation If Cloistered
seclusion was favorable to one branch of the art
that i n which the elder masters excelled— there Was
another branch not less deserving cul tivation which
c a n be studied only where the more modern masters
—
i n the Open fields by the river s
a re studying i t
banks in sight of the forest and mountain ranges
in the thoroughfare s of every
o n the ocean shore
day busy life ; and if it be so that our later painters
go less frequently to the Bible for their s ubj e cts
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MOD E RN PA INTING
2 87
.
than did the earlier there seems small reason to
regret this ; rather we incline to think that there
had been about enough of the S criptures 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 t h e
spirit rather than be co pies of the letter of the
Bible T his 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 g e neral mind ; and thus does it lend its st i m u
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 j oin the dilettante
in his extravagant regrets about the eclipse of
painti n g at the Reformation F or no more than
is the sun quenched by the tran sit shado w was
the glory of a r t permanently dimmed when the
p a ssing obscuration had gone by
It is no doubt true that the Prote stant C hurch
h as n o t been and never can be the same liberal
patron of high art which the C atholic C hurch had
proved herself to be But is this really to be r e
r e tt e d ?
I
S the C hurch the safes t patron of art ?
g
Does her patronage leave it altogether free ? F or
while true genius will not bribe it may from an
over de votedness cease to be independent T he
painter must work like other men for his d ail y
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LITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS
or
THE BIB LE
.
bread ; and if he has lost his most liberal paym as
ter in losing the C hurch we are not sure but that
a fter a season of struggle
he will find as liberal
purch asers who will cra m
him
less
in
his
choice
p
of subj ects than did the priesthood ; while his devo
tion to his art a s such if the talent i s in him will
i n the long end m ake him more purely a painter
T o be thrown upon his own resources to win for
his art works the appreciation of art education must
have the the effect of testi n g what is in him SO
that i n course of time there will be little cause to
regret the loss of C hurch patronage T he public
will be safer patrons in the end than the priests
T he question will naturally be asked : T o what
extent has sacred painting contributed to illustrate
the meaning of S cripture ? H as it had any great
exegetical value ? T o this question we feel some
measure of perplexity what answer to give T he
point is one on which there will be di fferences of
Opinion
F or our own parts we rather incline
to be of opinion that sacred painting has not to
any great extent elucidated the text of S cripture
D oubtless there are certain of the Bible scenes and
ch aracters of which o n e can not fail to have a more
vivid and larger im pression 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 Descen t from the C ross when
helped by the representations of Poussin Re m
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS O F THE BIB LE
.
hi ghest powers and stimulate his genius as subj ec ts
not hav e done ?
o f another class or style would
Nor h ave our great masters bee n slo w to own
T hey have sho wn what a deep hold the Bible
taken on their i maginations and ho w more
o ok
f
other
b
they
ound
t
rep
ete
ith
i
an
w
l
,
y
e st i v e themes
g
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,
M ODERN
SCUL PTURE AND MUSIC
CH
THE
AP TER V
2 91
.
.
B IB LE THE P ROMOTER OF L ITERATURE AND
ARTS—MO D ER N S CUL P TURE AND MU S IC
THE
.
L E SS perhaps than her si ster arts Poetry and
Painting has S culpture borrowed her subj ects from
the B i ble O ne reason of this may be found in
the nature of the art itself which does not admit
of an equ al range of subj ect with poetry or even
painting A nother reason may have been that nu
merc us spec imens of ancient statuary while sc arcely
any ancient pictures have been handed down to us ;
the canvas having decayed while the marble has
endured H ence it h as happened that whereas the
m oderns had to strike out a new path for them
sel ves i n painting in sculpture they made it their
a mbition rather to copy the classic models
T hi s last remark however does not apply to the
ear liest sculptures of British growth which time has
spared us F or these were not imitations of the
classic models but are essentially Gothic with noth
ing of t h e Grecian in their form their grouping or
their character AS works of art these betray man
i fold defec ts in drawing anatomy and composition
Y et though they were finished before the birth of
—
—
C imabue the C haucer of art they exhibit a bold
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS
2 92
THE BIB LE
OE
.
ness of conception and an irresistible sentiment
which are not always to be found in more modern
productions A nd how are we to account for this ?
whence such high attributes in works so early ? It
is doubtless o wing to the subj ects which the artists
made choice of A nd after saying this the reader
will not be surprised to hear that these subj ects
were selected from the S criptures 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
al ted S peaking of the C athedral of Wells which
was built by Bishop Jo celi n e in the thirteenth cen
tury F lax m an confessedly a competent j udge says
“
T he west front of this church equally testifies the
piety and comprehension of the Bishop s mind T he
sculpture presents the noblest most useful and i n
O n the
t erest i n g subj ects possible to be chosen
south side above the west door ar e alto relievos of
the creation in its di fferent parts together with
the deluge and im portant acts of the patriarchs
C ompanions to these on the north side are alto
relievos of the princip al circumstances in the life
of our S avior A bove these are two rows of stat
ues larger th an n ature i n n iches of kings queens
and nobles patrons Of the C hurch saints bishops
and o ther religious persons from its first fo un d a
tion to the reign of H enry the Third Near the
pediment i s our S avior come to j udgment attended
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2 94
L ITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS
OE
THE BIB LE
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great ornaments of modern art to C hristianity will
belo n g no small measure of the applause ; for it was
it which fired them with the noble ambition to per
e
t
u
ate
in
the
productions
of
their
chisel
those
p
images of grandeur and of beauty with which i t
had filled their enraptured Vision T he during
marble is at once a monument of their genius and
a tribute to its sublimer inspiration A nd i t i s i n
deed a marvelous thing in the history of art tha t
a book great part of which was written long before
sculpture was known even in Greece should cen
t ur i es 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
M ichael A ngelo stri v ing to excel all his other
e fforts— not excepti n g among these his Pi eta — did
well to consecrate his chisel to a S cripture theme ;
for his M oses stands forth a monumen t of sta tuary
isolated and inimitable by the pe c uliar nature of its
own especial sublimity A nd C anova aspiring to
excel in the pathe tic of his art did also well to go
to the Bible for his subj ect ; for in h is Rep en ta n t
M ag d a len e he h as succeeded in carrying the expres
sion of the melting an d the soft to the highest
degree : the very marble seems to relax under the
e ffect of penitence t i ll you could imagine i t to be
no cold statue but the very M ary whose gushing
tears bathed the feet of H im who had forgiven her
A nd T horwaldsen when commissioned to execute a
work worthy to be se t up in his native city did
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MO DERN SCUL PTURE AND MUSIC
2 95
.
lso well to S elect a C hristian theme ; fo r so long as
the colossal group of C hrist and the Apostles adorns
C openhagen it may boast the possession of the
masterpiece of its illustri ous son A nd F laxman
who of all our Biblical sculptors is admitted to
have had the loftiest genius did also well to con se
crate his chisel to designs from S cripture for by
none other of his works has this artist so i mmo r
Wh at was it led these great
t ali z e d h i s nam e
masters of statuary to the Bible for the subj ects of
their highest e flOr t s ? We reply it was the same
which had led the great masters of painting also
to the Bible for their loftier subj ects— the instinct
of their geni us T o the volume of inspiration they
were d rawn b y that instin c tive homage which true
greatness is ever incl i ned to pay to greatness In
them was the power to embody i n visible forms
t he grand ideal of beauty and sublimity
A nd
where wer e they to find that ideal ? T heir genius
labor ing in vain to find it else where sou gh t it and
found it in the Bible Nor is this strange T he
Bible is not a book on art ; but its author is tha t
Divine art ist who has chiseled with his c um infinite
—
matchless S kill the statuary of n ature th e grand
the beautiful the sublime ornaments which ad orn
the temple of t h e universe
We hear a great deal of t h e immense superiority
of ancient ov er modern sculpture and i n one respect
it was immensely superior ; for in the delineation
of form t h e Greek S
crilptors h av e bee n but rem o tely
a
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2 96
LITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
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approached by the moderns T hey had acqu i red
the seemingly lost art of chiseling in marble the
perfect ideali z ation of beauty ; but then it was for
the most part merely physical beauty A nd Wh en
they essayed the representation of the passions t hey
ge n erally confined themselves to those which we are
apt to consider among the lo w est of our nature
P ure sentiment they rarely thought of sculptur i ng
Y ou meet with the statue of a dying gladiator or
the group Of a L aoco o n but never with a statue of
Ph i lan th rOph y or P atience or M ercy T heir Graces
were not F aith H ope C harity but merely three
beautiful females who attended the voluptuous god
d ess of love
Now mere form however poetical its
ideali z ation 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 T he sculptors of
the R en a i ssa n ce 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 T hose 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 i s also capable by the representation of
sentiment of eliciting the best sympathies of the
heart A nd in this the nobler function Of high art
we v enture to be of Opinion that the modern scul p
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L ITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS
29 8
THE
OE
BLE
BI
.
genius ? and whether Phidias and Praxitel es would
n ot
have be en still greater sculptors t han 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 ?
,
,
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,
C
M ODE RN M USI
HAS
B E EN G REATLY
INDEB TED TO THE B IB LE
.
Ho w far or whether to any extent the New
T estament sanctions the use of instrumental music
in public worship is a question upon which opinion
i s divided ; but there can be no di fference of Opin
ion that i t enj oins vocal psalmody A ccordingly it
has been the immemorial practice of the C hristian
”
“
C hurch to make the voice of praise a part of i ts
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 S cotland the very peasantry may be heard pour
ing forth the natural eloquence of music in some o f
our national psal m tunes :
T he y chan t the i r ar tl ess no te s i n s i mp l e gu i se ;
T he y t une t he ir heart s— by far t h nob l es t ai m
P erhap s Dundee s wil d w arb li ng measures ri se
O p l ai n t i v e M ar t y rs —w or t h y f t h name
O nob l e E l g i n bea t s t h hea v en w ar d fl ame
"
of S o t i s h o l y l y s
Th sw e t e t f
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e
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o
r
e
e
r
e
e
s
ar
c
,
a
'
a
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M O D ERN
SCUL PTURE AND
Sacred to
M
USIC
2 99
.
our hearths and still more sacred in the
history o f our persecuted forefathers when on moor
land or mountain side these plaintive melodies would
mingl e with the winds of heaven and the curlew s
note in the sky arched te mple to which lyart war
rior s and delicate maidens were driven forth to
worship God — how dear to S cotland are her old
national psalm t un e s whic h human compositions
though they be are worthy to have been wedded
t o the words of inspired song !
In its higher forms music n o t less than poetry
and in the same way has been indebted to the
Bible since from it have been borrowed the sub
t
s of the magnificent oratorios of our greates t
e
c
j
composer s T hese m as ters of symphony could find
nowher e except in the Bible adequate themes in
which to d iscourse their matchless melodies T he
soul of music seemed to be straitened its voice but
as a broken utteranc e till at length finding expres
sion in S criptural themes and almost in the very
words of S cripture it broke forth from the l ips of a
H andel a M o z art a H aydn and a Beethoven into
those immortal oratorios — C reation S amson E lij ah
T he M essiah T he M ount of O lives
Now at length had the genius of music found
her voice and as she pours forth her solemn sym
phonies the y seem to repea t the echoes of those
lyric strains which mingled wit h the sound of the
returning waves of E gypt s divided sea ; or the
ech oes of those sublime choral melod ies which w oke
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30 0
LI TERARY ACHIEVEME NTS
OE
THE BIBLE
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'
the arches of Z ion s temple A nd while we would
not be thought t o approve of the sacred oratorio
being employed as a means of mere amusement
yet were fitting occasions sough t — such as seasons
of national thanksgiving when the people in these
lands might listen to its soul subduing peals — fe w
things in our opinion would contribu t e more to
elevate their tastes and enliven their devotion
.
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T here is still another branch of the arts namely
A rchitecture regarding which in its connection
with the Bible a few words may be sai d We do
n o t assign to it a section by itself because it can
scar cely be said of it that it has borro wed its de
s igns as painting and sculpture have their subj ects
from the Bible T here is no doubt to be fo und in
the sacred writings a d escription of perhaps the
most stupendous and gorgeous T emple that w as ever
—
reared by the hands of man a t any rate the most
stupendous and gorgeous ever erected for the wor
ship of the true God Y et it can scarcely with
truth be said that this T emple has se r Ve d as a
model at le ast we are not aware of any ecclesias
tical edifice having been buil t after its pattern
S hall 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 belo n ged to an economy which was to
pas s away it was decreed by P rovidence to d es t r uc
tion that no copies might be taken of it for the
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LITERARY
30 2
ACHIEVEM ENTS
OF THE BIB LE
C HA PT E R
VI
.
.
B IB LE THE P ROMOTER 0 F L ITERATURE AND
ART S—MO D ER N G E N ERAL L ITERATURE
THE
THE
.
T H IS is a wide a nd also a somewhat intri cate
field for t h e e ffect which the Bible has exer te d 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 di fficult to make apparent You can
tell that the dew drops which moisten the breath
of morning assist to tinge the rose bud with i ts
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 t hey had helped to dye
A nd so it h as been with the Bible in its e ffects on
our ge n eral literature Not with herald sound but
silent as the de wy d rops it has insinuated itself
into many pages whose writers were scarcely aware
of its presence T hey breathed its spiri t 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
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MO D ERN GENERAL LITERATURE
h as
30 3
.
ren d ered to modern literature but will conte nt
myself with offering a few general indications
,
.
T here is the e ffect which the Bible
in molding and enriching our language
h as
had
.
In one of his exq uisite papers A ddison ma kes the
“
following observation : T here is a certai n coldness
and indifference in the phras es of our E urope an lan
guages when they are compared with the O riental
forms of speech ; and it happens very luckily that
the H ebrew idioms run into the E nglish tongue
with a particular grace and beauty O ur language
has received innumerable elegancies and improve
ments from that infusion of H ebraisms which are
derived to it out of the poetical passages of H oly
Writ T hey 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
S ince A ddison s time the number of
these H ebraisms imported into our language has
been greatly incre as ed while many similar forms
of expression have been imitated from them A nd
it is ama z ing how much they have helped to warm
our col d er northern dialect with somewhat of O ri
ental ardor ; and without taking from its n ative
rob ustness have entwined the S axon oak of our
langu age with the more graceful foliation of E as t
ern exotics T here are c urrent in our literature
innumerable phrases of great felicity which were
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L ITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF THE BIBLE
30 4
.
at first peculiar to the poets but have now found
their way into our prose all of which have d is
T he following may serve
t i n c t ly a H ebrew origin
—
:
as Specimens T he wings of the wind hence
winged words etc ; the chambers of the E ast ; the
chariot clouds ; a voice of thunder ; the hosts of
—
fl
m
heaven ; a fiery eye ; tongues of a e 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 i t i s the vernacular translation of the Bible
which h as told most on the E nglish language A nd
we t ak e i t to be a singular phenomenon in the his
tory of li t erature 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
lan guages into which it has been translated P er
haps it i s not too much to say that the authori z ed
version of the S criptures has contributed more than
the writings of any native author prior at least to
the close of the S ixteenth century to improve the
E nglish langu age A s a specimen of A nglo S axon
it is the purest in the world A n A merican writer
has j ustly observed O ur translators have n o t only
made a standard tran slation but they have m ade
their translation the standard of our language T he
E nglish tongue in their day was not equal to such
a work But God enabled them to stand as U pon
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30 6
LITERARY ACHIEVEME NTS
OE
THE BIB LE
.
not read many pages of the book without dis
covering where i ts unlettered author had learned his
“
style ; that it was at that pure well of E ngli sh
”
un d e file d — the authori z ed version of the Bible
O n its model certainly he formed h i s style— S axon
to the backbone clear as any running brook and
terse as a proverb
ca n
.
,
,
.
T he influence which the S criptures have had
on the national mind and hence r eflex i vely which
they have exerted on the national literature
,
,
.
T he ar t of printing might be said to have given
wings to the human mind F or 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 m ul ti
plied into thousands of printed volumes Now it
i s a S ingular 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
a e ; sounded as a night cry in the ear of a S leep
g
ing nation ; or we might say rather like an arch
angel s trump at the opening graves of a buried
world L iberty started to its feet at the sound
Intellect shook o ff its Slumber P ersonal conscience
asserted its right to question and private j udg ment
A nd henceforth the national
i ts ri ght to inquire
literature if it was to gain ac ceptance with the
public mind must partake of the n e w life which
had begun to pulse in the veins of the nations
.
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MO D ERN GENERAL LITERATURE
30 7
.
T here are two facts noticeable about this time
which are surely significant : the first that the r i se
of E nglish poetry the second that the birth in
E ngland of the Baconian philosophy were nearly
cotemporaneous with the restoration of the S crip
tures to the people in their n ative tongue T he
genius of science and the genius of song Slept in
our land till the influence of a di ffused Bible aw oke
them A nd if th e successors of Bacon first prophet
of E nglish philosophy and of S pe n ser first high
priest of E nglish poetry if these whether they
too are also prophets and priests or only L evites
of the tem ple must take care to feed its lamps with
beaten oil ; or with a science and a li terature such
as is worthy the acceptance of a free an educated
—
a reading a thinking people i t is not too much to
say that this is owing to the E nglish Bible
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T he contributions which the Bible has made
to the general stock of ide as which our authors
have worked up along w ith their o wn
,
.
It is in the nature of literature to absorb into
itself and in n e w forms to reproduce whatever at
its several epochs it finds of existent beauty truth
and goodness T o it especially applies the language
of our great poet :
F i nds t ongues i n t rees books i n t h runn i n g brooks
Sermon s i n s t ones d good i n e v e y t h i n g
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“
e
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Now here i s a volume wh i ch more than all t rees
than all runnin g brooks than all stones than every
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30 8
LITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS
OE
THE BIB LE
.
thi ng beside contains i n it materials for the al che
my of litera ture to transform into its own pro
d uc t i on s
F or ther e are in it the seeds of great
thoughts the outlines of high imaginings the fore
shadows of a mighty progress the elements of per
e n n i al m editations
A nd what has our higher lit
e ra t ur e
been doing during these three centuries
but reproducing one or other of these ? F or wnat
spring was left to it to drink a t w i th which the
Bible h ad not mingled ? What seed ing thoughts
were left for it to sow which the Bible had not
impregnated ? What im ages of truth or beauty or
s ublimity remained to be portrayed which the Bible
h ad not adumbrated ? What mine of wisdom could
i t work where the Bible had not sunk t he shaft ?
What line of progression has it pursued where the
B ible had not marked the sta rting point and indi
c at e d the goal ?
S o much is this the case that i f
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
d er tak e to Show that the breath which first Vi v i fied
these thoughts and the fir e which kindled these
w ord s came from the Bible
,
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T he authorship of which the S cript ures them
selves hav e been the subj e ct
.
A book about which a thousandfold more has
be en writ t en th a n all oth er books put together
LITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS OF THE BIB LE
310
.
of the finest productions of the ablest and most ao
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 subj ect
.
.
T he direct infl uence of the S criptures on our
religious and their indire ct 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 i n
cre as e the oftener it is drawn from the streams of
our sacred literature could not have so C opiously
flowed But now how rich and varied are these
streams to instruct the ignorant to cheer the dis
consolate to gla dden the solitary to comfort the sick
and the dying S urely they have earned a claim
to our warmest gratitude those gifted authors who
by the consecration of their talents to such p urposes
as these have proved themselves the true be n e fac
tors of their kind If not theirs to shine the
brightest in the te mple of fame yet d oth not phi
losoph y nor sci ence weave a Chaplet of so hallowed
a renown for the brows o f their most illustrious
T o have produced works which have been a light
in the dwelling and as wells of water in the desert
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M O D ERN GENERAL
LITERATURE
3 11
.
—
soul
’
a thi rsty
which have shortened life s road
t o the way w orn pilgrim and smoothed the pillows
of the dying— this is a praise which the greatest
philosopher might covet But h o w much higher
praise then is due to that book whose light these
authors have borrowed and but faintly reflect ! A s
planets in the Spiritual fir m am e n t we hail their
beams and are grateful Y et are they not i ts pole
star much less its sun Round it yet at how
great a distance they shi ne 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 good ness
With regard to our profane literature I will not
deny that a large portion of it is trifling and i m
moral ; but the Bible is not answerable for this
E ven 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
n o t to be blamed
i
s
but
only
they
who
ero
u
s
i
t
g
have had the audacity to profane its purity to their
own impure purposes T he hemlock distils the sun
beams into a virulent poison ; but there i s 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 F or writers
who had they lived in pagan lands would have
been undisguisedl y obs cene are fain to drop a
to
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3 12
L ITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF
BIB LE
.
though often it may be too thin— over the i r
obscenities ; for in t hese lands the Bible is a h ouse
hold book and Vice dares not appear entirely nud e
in the presence of celestial Virtue
Vail—
,
.
LITE RARY A C HIEVEME NTS
3 14
OP THE
BIB LE
.
of but one God had no idols was without a priest
hood afle c t e d none of the pomp of circumstance
but studied simpli city almost to bare n ess in its
ritual Now as the literature and the ar ts 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 t VVO
literatures that of Italy and P alestine than were
the two religions paganism and C hristianity N e i
ther could meet the literatures nor the religions
without in the first instance conflicting T hen it is
well known that to ad orn and uphold paganism
pagan literature and art had v ery greatly contrib
T hese had populari z ed it F or the initiat ed
ut e d
the priest and philosophers expounded i ts esoteric
mysteries ; for the multitude the poet the painter
and the sculptor embodied i ts exoteric dogmas T he
s culptor chiseled its idols T he painter delineated
i t s mythology , which the poet had invented
A rch
i tec tur e adorned its S hrines while music gave vocal
e ffect to its ceremonial A nd wh ile thus the ar t s
serv ed to populari z e paganism they also clothed it
in those aesthetical forms which are calculated to
fascinate men of ardent sensibilities and refined
taste It i s not then to be wondered at if the
abuse of letters an d the arts by the pagans filled
the early C hristians with a distaste for letters and
the arts themselves F or men do not al w ays dis
criminate between the lawful utility and the unlaw
ful abuse of a thing In cond emning the latte r
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LETTERS AND A RTS RESTORE D
315
.
there
is a risk that in the first instance they over
l ook the for mer
B ut even i f the early C hristians had shown them
selves more hostile to pagan literature than they
did t his 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 h as hindered the progress of modern art
because so me weak C hristi ans have denounced sacred
sculpture an d painting
.
,
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.
A ny one who will take the trouble to trace the
first decline of L atin literature will fin d that this
decline can not be as cribed to the introduction of
C hristianity into Italy ; sin ce Roman writers the m
selves b ein g the j ud ges i t had commence d previous
”
“
to that event C icero s T usculan E pistles were
penned before any C hristian apostle had visited the
Italian Shores Y et in these letters the great Roman
Orator plainly indicates th at he w as not unconscious
of the Op eration o f those ca uses which in his time
h ad secretl y begun to corrupt the ge n ius of Roman
”
“
“
In this very fac ulty he says
in
eloquence
w hich we have advanced from the most imperfect
beginnings to the highest excelle n ce we may as in
al l human things soon expect to see sy mptoms of
”
decrepit ude and the proc ess of decay
T he prog
ress of eve n ts hastened th at decay more rapidly
than C icero could hav e anticipat ed F or what he
fores aw as t o happe n probably some ce n t ur i es hen ce
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3 16
LITERARE
ACHIEVEM ENTS OE
THE BIB LE
.
had become matter of actual observation ere yet the
first apostles of C hristianity had set foot on the
coasts of Italy It were therefore an anachronis m
in history to ascribe the decadence of its literature
to an event which was of a later da te ; and no less
a solecism in philosophy to call that the cause which
w as subsequent to the e ffect
It would seem to be a conditional law of develop
ment whether physical or mental that a precocious
growth is follo w ed by premature decay A nd in
this law co o perating with certain social influences
which intensified i ts action we are inclined to seek
for the primary cause of the rapid decline of Roman
literature T hat its rise was rapid an y one ac
u
i
n t e d with Roman history must be aware
H
ow
a
q
that almost at a bound it gained its altitude ; was
in its z enith almost as soon as it had touched the
hori z on ; shot up with scarcely a twilight to the full
noon of its splendors ; passed at once from its i n
fancy to manhood During five centuries Rome had
devoted herself entirely to war ; for not till after
the conquest of T aren tum was the harp heard above
the din of arms in the destined capital of the world
Within half a century o f this n on literary period
appeared E nnius— j ustly regarded as the father of
L atin poetry— Plautus and T erence H alf a c e n
tury later L atin literature burst forth with a splen
dor which still continues to astonish succeeding
ages for then its luminaries were C icero C aesar
C lose on the steps of these followed
a n d L ucretius
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LITERARY A C H IEVEM ENTS
3 18
OP
THE BIB LE
.
literature of Greece would doubtless hav e prov ed
Very lasting but for the disasters of war When
the M acedonian conqueror after the destruction of
T hebes demanded the delivery of the A then i an
orators he intended a death blow to Greek oratory
which be well kne w had been the chief means of
keeping alive the spirit of liberty H e succeeded
in his desig n but the Nemesis of fame avenged the
wrong F or the declens i on of Grecian literature
which w as one of the most signal results of his am
bitions policy proved at the same time a severe and
felt r etribution of his politic al crimes H e who had
trampled out the fire s of genius and dried up the
true sources of fancy and natural emotion was left
to sigh i n vain for a great poet to celebrate his ex
l
T
hus
fell
Grecian
literature
as
a
noble
oak
t
s
o
i
p
of ancient root but still vigorous falls beneath the
woodman s ax But while Rome was still in the
very z enith 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
a n d pliable as weak it speedily was e ffeminated in
the breath of court favor Its decline was more
rapid than its rise F or toward the close of the
reign of A ugustus and still more during that of
T iberius all that was great and eleva t ing in Roman
literature had disappeared P oe try became a para
site of the court history sank into a hireling pane
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LETTE RS AND ARTS RESTORE D
319
.
r i st ,
eloquence was nothing higher than a mere
scholastic gladiatorship
T here are some historian s, who wh ile freeing
C hristianity from the absurd charge which others
have preferred against it of having led by its i n
t r od uc ti on into Italy to the decline of Italian litera
ture would blame it because when that literature
had begun to Show signs of decay the C hristians
did nothing or little to revive it But i s this fair ?
A dmitting the fact alleged should that be taken as
d ecis i ve of their utter want of literary tas tes which
T heir sect
w as a neces sity of their c ondition
Not seldom and
was every where spoken against
against fearful odds they had to battle for the bare
life S o far fr om having opportunity or the means
to cultivate the po lite arts it was not always
al lowed them to pursue the ordinary handicraft s
T hus it continued more or less with few pauses of
rest up to the time of C onstantine when the C hris
tian cause nourished by the p atronage of the court
w as in the as cendant
Th ose who could all ow themselves to impugn
early C hristianity as being either hostile or i n d i f
fe r en t to polite learning must have overlooked the
circumsta nce that the firs t C hristian who w
ore the
imperial mantle was himself a man of cultivated
tas tes and did much to foster among his subj ects
literary studies We have the testimony of Euse
bi us in his H isto ry of the L ife of C onstantine th at
letters an d the arts were the obj ect of his fond solici
gy
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LITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS O F THE BIB LE
320
.
—
tude
that his mind had been early imbued with a
—
tincture of learning that he after ward cultivated
eloquence and composed not inelegantly in the
L atin language while the decrees published by him
in favor of the professors of the learned arts which
may still be read afford incontestable proof of his
desire to extend a higher education throughout the
E mpire What e ffects on literature his r emoval of
the seat of government to By z antium may have ex
e r c i s e d i s a poin t about which historians di ffer nor
needs it that we enter on the question What we
are concerned with IS the fact that the first C hris
tian emperor proved himself a patron of polite let
ters and that his C hristian subj ects now for the
first time relieved from their political disabilities
were not slow to prosecute those s tudies in which
hitherto their more favored heathen cotemporaries
had been greater pr o fici e n t s
T he new era so auspiciously inaug urated by C on
s t an t i n e fixes the date from which it would be fair
to begin to reckon the services of early C hristianity
to the ancient arts and literature which were n ow
”
“
so much in their decline
F rom this time ob
“
serves M osheim the C hristians applied themselves
with more z eal and dilige nce to the study of philos
e n c o ur
T
he
emperors
o h y and of the liberal arts
p
aged this taste for le arning and left no means un
employed to excite and maintain a spirit of literary
emulation among the professors of C hristianity F or
this purpose schools were es tablished in many cities
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L ITERARY
3 22
AC H IEVEM EN TS
OF THE
B IB LE
.
criminate between t h e uses and abuses of the arts
and gave proofs that they were at least not i n i mi
cal to them If more than this can scar cely with
truth be said we deem it in the circumstances no
small praise ; for in t roublous times with earnest
men first impressions or early prej udices are not
speedily removed
T hey migh t be compared t o
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 lit tle or no causal connection When C hris
t i a n i t y rose the heathen arts fell
H ere were co
temporaneous events Y et were they not cau sally
connecte d ; for it was not t h e rise of the S tar of
Bethlehem which occasi o ned the eclipse o f the fine
ar ts T hese w ould have sunk had that star n ever
risen T hey had begun to sink as we have seen
before its light had yet S kirted the Italian shores
But for the influence of extr aneous ca uses it is not
d i fficult to conj ecture what the e ffect of C hristianity
would have been on the progress of the arts It
could not have patroni z ed them in their heathen
forms since it forbade bowing to gods of s tone
and wood and brass and proclaimed it imposs i ble
to grave o r mold any s imilitude of the Divine
Being whom no man hath seen at any time But
this would have purified art rather than crushed it
”
“
P ainting and sculpture to use the words of Al
“
lan C unningham taking a n e w direction and i n
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LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORED
3 23
.
sp i red with a truer inspiration would have wrought
”
miracles worthy of th e days of Phidi as and A pelles
H ow then it may be asked did C hristianity not
achieve this for heathen art ? T o have accomplished
it must have req uir ed consi derable time It coul d
be the work only of peaceful centuries — a slow r e
formation which resembles the l abors of the horti
c ulturist in rear i ng the forest trees and n o t that
of the woodman who might cut down any one of
them in a few hours But time w as not affor d ed
C hri stian ity to w ork the change which j ud ging from
l
i ts a ccomplished e ffec t s in afte r centuries we fee
confident it would have achieved for ancient art
T he provinces of Germany which the Romans had
not subdued and the more remote regions of the
North of E urope and North W est of A sia swarmed
with barbarous tribes who partly co mpelled by
their ama z ing fecundity to migrate and partly fired
with a love for warlike adventure and the hope of
conquest poured forth an u n summed and unknown
race toward the plains of the sun to contend with
those who called them barbarians for the vineyards
and cor n field s of Italy and Greece T heir terrible
march was as that of the locust swarms described
—
by the prophet J oel innumerable and devouring
E ven before the Christ ian era these Northern na
tions had given indications of their resolution to
move so uthward ; and In the days of the apos tles
their barbaric armies were on the mar ch T hus it
happened that wh i le the messengers of the cross
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LITE RARY ACHIEVEMENTS
324
OE
THE BIBLE
.
were approaching Rome from the E ast 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
H ad 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 s w ept over the
E mpire F or a time the warlike spirit of the early
emperors and the discipli ne of the legions retarded
or repulsed these ruthless invaders But each r e
turning tide rolled further on with increased s well
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 fierces t of the
hordes which had alrea dy appeared equal in ferocity
those hordes which followed for in savage barbaris m
the Goths were exceeded by the H uns O nward
swept the wasteful flood the decaying barriers of
the E mpire giving way before it ; till at t h e Opening
of the sixth century no country of S outhern E urope
remained unoccupied by some Northern tribe It
was a flood of absolute devastation L iberty fled
before it but could find no A rarat T he ancient
glory o f the C aesars was quenched in blood S cience
and letters were all but extingui shed on the earth
T he reig n of barbarism was reproduced ; for though
the serpent tribes are known to be fascinat ed by
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L ITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS
326
OE
THE BIB LE
.
—
Shelter
could not find a peaceful
for peace was
—
then unknown yet were they protected fro m irre
T he breath of i ts undyi ng
t r i e v able destruction
life was that which kept them in an y measure
alive
But C hristianity had more than a preservative
ower
T
he
salt
w
hich
retards
putrefaction
c an not
p
Vivify the dead carcass T he balms and un guents
which preserve the flesh and even t he features o f
the co ffin e d corpse through thousands of years c a n
never restor e to it the breath of life ; for unwind
ing the swathed linen it is only a mummy y ou im
cover But C hristianity has more than an a n ti
septic i n fl uen ce It has a Vital restorative Vir t ue ;
and now we are prepared to make good by a simple
appeal to the history of th e times the great fact
which forms the headin g of this chapter namely
that the Bible or— what in e ffect is the same
Christianity restored literatu re and the arts to
E urope when it had relapsed i nto a military despot
i sm and lay with its crush e d he ad under the iron
feet of the barbarians
T he restoration of literature and the arts was not
to be e ffected by the repulsion of the conquerors
and t he reinstatement of the Romans into their
former seats of empire T his was now indeed i m
possible ; for the latter had been ex terminated in a
lo n g succession of ravage and war ; and wh at scanty
remnants were S pared had either been compelled to
seek for shelt er in some other soil or been mi x ed
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LETTERS AND ARTS RESTORE D
327
.
up with the invadi n g mass If then civili z ation
Was to be restored to E urope the barbarous con
ero rs who now pos ses sed it m ust be civili z ed
u
q
It was C hristianity which achieved this T he
fierce conquerors who had remained unsoftened b y
all that w as civili z ed and elegant were not un
touched by the preaching of the dauntless succes
sors of the apostles S eated among the rui n s of
te mples and cities they would hold their wassail
fe as ts amid the gr i m a ccompaniments of barbaric
revelry ; th eir swords still in hand the wine cup
perhaps some human S kull th eir footstool s some
broken statu
e— A pollo or V enu s A nd thus d uring
the pauses of runic song an d revel merriment the
rude and fierce chiefs who ruled the Gothi c tribes
would give a sort of surly audience to the preachers
of the C ross who came to tempt them with the j oys
of heaven or alarm them with th e horrors of hell
Nor did they lis t en without emotion T here was
that about the preac hers which was fi tted to disar m
hostility ; they came neither as rivals nor as ene
mies Th ere was also about them much which was
fitted to command respect from warriors of a bo ld
and independent spirit ; they stood before them
n o r as
n either as mercenaries , nor as suppliants
fl at t e r e r s ; while in the doctrines they proclaimed
more especially in the glory or the woe of a future
state there w as something which suited the i mag
i n at i o n s and in some measure , accorded with the
natural belief of the Goths and fitted their minds
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LITERARY A CH IEVEME NTS OF THE BIB LE
328
.
to receive the divine truths of the Gospel While
the C hristian besides these secondary causes will
not deem it credulity to ascribe the almost mi r ac u
lous success of these early pre achers to a power
beyond their o wn which employed them as the
human instruments in achieving its o wn divine pur
poses
It h as been said and we can find no r e ason to
doubt the assertion that painting and sculpture
aided largely in bri n ging about t he conversion of
the barbarians A ccording to A llan C unningham
“
the first m i ssi oii ar i es speaking the classic lan
guages of Greece or Rome were not understood
by their Northern audiences till they called in the
works of the pencil and chisel as auxiliaries A
C hrist on the C ross a V irgin M other a S t J ohn in
the Wilderness the Raising of L a z arus the A s een
sion together with relics of the early saints all
helped to relate the history and the hopes of C hris
t i an i ty and impress it on their rude unders ta nd
ings Nor were the barbarians reluctant hearers :
so anxiously did they look and listen that when the
first preacher of the S criptures 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 for t itude from a belie f that it was a
sample of the truths which the other came to
”
teach
We h ave here two remarks to o ffer : T he first
that if the fine arts did some good service to the
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
330
CH
THE
AP
T
ER VIII
.
.
B IB LE THE RE S TORER OF IN TELLECTUAL L IFE
W H E N EURO P E HAD SU N K IN TO AN E F
F EM INATING S U P ER S T IT IO N
.
IT
were both a foul and a wearisome task to
wade through that slough of ignorance and super
s t i t i o n which had collected d uring the M iddle A ges
and which lay a s a mental dead weight on the
nations of E urope up till nearly the time of the
Reformation
S till our subj ect requires that we
shall take some notice of it T he corruptions by
which the C hristian religion w as universally dis
figured a t 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 Super st i
tion and religious imposture in the grosses t forms
were wielded with a high hand by the clergy who
by such m eans had attained to an exorbitant degree
of Opulence and power A s a natural consequence
what small learning might then be found was sedu
lo usly kept from the laity
Intellectual culture if
n o t positively interdicted
w as even more effectually
checked by being stigmati z ed with tending to skep
t i ci sm or heresy while ignorance receiv e d the co m
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INTELLECTUAL LIFE RESTORED
33 1
.
men d a t i on
of being the mother of devotion T o be
ignorant and to be devout were accounted much
the same thing T hen it might be said as if the
earth must needs have its mental as of old it had
“
darkness was upon the
i ts material chaos that
”
face of the deep
F or ignorance mingled with
superstition spread a vail over the nations blacker
than the shades of E rebus
A s invariably is the cas e with an ignorant age
this w as also an age of servile bondage A nd it
w as the minds and consciences of men which were
enslaved F etters were then worn such as h ad
and drudge work was
n ever been forged of iron
then done such as blind S amson had n o t to do
when he ground at the mill the spor t of P hilistia s
nobles When the soul that is in a man holds out
its thoughts to be put in thrall and bends its un
d e r s t an d i n g 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
bondage ? no Pharos d uri n g these dismal centuries
of ignoran c e ? T here were ; but we are not to seek
for that ark at Rome nor for this P har os in the
C loistered cell
T he rise and history of the Waldenses or V au
dois must be familiar to the reader T his inter
esting sect was S ingular during these times of
mental serfdom in asserting the right of private
j udgment and in claiming liberty of con science for
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3 32
L ITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS
OR
THE BIB LE
.
the individual to worship God according to the
prescriptions of his Word A s might be supposed
the standard of religious liberty which they reared
w as obnoxious in the eyes of a do m i nant priesthood
who had conspired to trample all liberty in the
dust T he princes of E urope were inflamed against
them and they were chased by fierce persecutions
fro m place to place till only a small remnant was
left who found a retreat fortified by nature in the
valleys of Western P iedmont where they founded
a distinct C hurch which continued to keep alive
the S piri t of liberty till the trumpet of emancipa
tion was sounded at the Reformation It was not
then at Ro m
e but among the mountains of P ied
mont that the ark of freedom rested on its A rarat ;
an d not till it had been tossed by the floods of
cruel persecution An d the remarkable fact which
in connection with our subj ect fal ls chiefly to be
note d by us is tha t 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 h ave said that during these di smal centuries of
ignoran ce the Pharos of literature w as never e u
t i re ly 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 Reformation post d ate it by
more than a century F or Dante whose marvelous
poem so took the world by surp r ise and h as by his
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L ITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS OF THE BIB LE
3 34
.
“
tive style which S penser ter ms the pure well of
”
E nglish un d e file d formed a standard of compo
sitiou
We are therefore free to admit what i s some
times overlooked by those who have written on the
supposed total darkness of the M iddle A ges tha t
the revival of letters preceded the Reformation by
at least a century B ut 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 c er
Nor did this alto
t ai n ly find but few C hurchmen
gether arise from the want of natural talent but
because the general studies of ecclesiastics an d of
monks so far from being favorable were averse to
polite literature T he monastery seldom sent forth
any other light than what w as shed by the gloomy
bale fire s of superstition and rarely was there any
other light Visible within it except the sickly
smoke flam e of an idle impracticable erudition In
these so called retreats of learning the li terature
was monkish legends and the philosophy the unin
t e lli g i ble j argon a n d logom achy of the S choolmen
T here were written and read the lives of saints who
h ad never existed and the authority of A ristotle
w as advanced while his pages were left unopened
and as to any acquaintance with the learned
to ngues if we excep t the L atin this was dispense d
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INTELLECTUAL LIF E RESTORED
33 5
.
with not only amo n g the lower clergy but even
among the hierarchy of the Romish C hurch E x
amples of the total ignorance of Greek not to Speak
of H ebrew among the priesthood might be cited
which would be utte rly ludicrous were the subj ect
not so grave
T he great event which must be regarded as the
chief impulse which assisted the revival of litera
ture in the centuries preceding the Reformation
“
the resur
w as what has not inaptly been called
”
rection of the ancient cl as sics
T he noble pro
d uc t i on s of class ic antiquity might be said to have
been lost to modern E urope ; for though it still
possessed them it was as a hidden treasure piled
away among the l umber and cobwebs of the clois
ter T he priceless manuscripts which contained the
imperishable thoughts of a C icero and a Demos
t h e n es h ad for the sake of the mere parchment
been blurred over with some obliterating unguent
that the legends of saints and simi lar absurdities
might be written upon it or they lay rotting away
unread and unthought of on the shelves of the
sacristy H ow great a loss to literature was the
loss of these matchl ess produc tions it needs not that
we say But there is an immortality in the works
of true genius T hose therefore of Demosthenes
a n d Cicero of S ophocles and H orace of H erodotus
and T acitus though buried for a time could not
die A nd the time drew on when they were to be
disentombed O nce more the literary fir mam e n t of
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LITERARY ACHIEVEME NTS OF THE BIB LE
3 36
.
E urope was to be lighted up with the ancient lu
m i n ar i e s 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 de ad who could not see it
D an te whose original genius did so much to
awake anew a literary taste called V irgil his m as
ter ; while both P etrarch and Boccaccio co nfessed
their obligations to the authors of ancient Greece
A nd n o w the cry arose Where are the lost classics ?
P opes vied with princes and cardinals strove with
scholars to search them out ; so that in a very
short time the works of C icero Di o d or us Si culus
H omer S trabo P olybius X enophon Q uintilian
were restored to E urope T he cultiva t ion of the
Greek tongue now became the rage of the period
Not to know it was considered as a mark of i g n o
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
v e r si t i es inst i tuted for the cultivation of the classic
languages and lite rature While with the eagernes s
to res t ore the literary remains of classic antiquity
there kept pace a z eal to discover and collect the
monuments of its arts ; so that with revived letters
E urope witnessed a revival in the arts
But what was t h e e ffect of all this ? Did a men
tal revolution follow ? E urope had recovered C icer o
and Demosthenes V irgil and H omer ; but did these
set E urope free ? While the learned devoured the
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LITERARY ACHIEVEM ENTS OF THE BIBLE
338
.
mplexion to r vived literature and the arts M any
e
of those classical spirits were more conversant and
more at home in ancient Rome and A thens in the
manners history and politics of antiquity or even
in i ts mythology than in their o wn age in the ex
i st i n g relations of society or in the doctrines and
principles of C hristianity While therefore we must
freely own that the recovery of the ancient classics
led to a revival of letters we must repeat that i t
fai led entirely in producing an i n tellec t ual regenera
tion A ny thing like earnest practical thought or
original investigation w as entirely wanting among
the learned whose classical enthusiasm drawing
them after obj ects totally foreign made them eu
t i r ely regardless of the existing relations and wants
o f 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 e minently
needed their talents and learning to be devoted to
practical reform A nd while this w as the cas e with
the learned the co m
mon p eople were still the dupes
of superstition and the slaves of ignorance T he
resurrection of the lost classics then did not bring
intellectual life to the nations of E urope
T he Bible also h ad become as it were a lost book
F or buried in the crypt of the cathedral or stowed
away on the shelves of the s acristy or covered over
with he aps of leg e n d s on the tables of the scripto
r i um fe w even of the clergy kne w any thing about
it and fewer still ever thought of reading it But
co
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INTELLECTUAL LIEE RESTORE D
339
.
it too was immortal T hough buried it could not
die and the time of its disentombment also arrived
A s we had occasion to remark in a precedi n g par t
of this work the art of printing may be said to
h ave given wings to h uman thought ; and so far as
is known the first book that issued from the print
ing press was the Bible : S till it m ight be Said of
the S criptures which were n ow at length d i se n
tombed that like L a z arus they came forth bound
hand and foot with grave clothes ; for as yet with
scarcely an exception they were wrapped up in the
learned languag es and not for some time would
they be presented to the people in their own ver
A book which had been so long held back
n ac ular
needed a forerunner to pro claim It s 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 pri z e it as a
treasure invaluable T hat forerunner w as raised up
in the person of M artin L uther H e unquestion
ably w as the m odern Baptist of whom it might be
said that he was the voice of one crying in the
“
W i lderness P repare ye the way of the Word of
”
the Lo rd make his paths straight
In the year 150 1 there arrived at the Un iversity
of Erfurt h a poor scholar who having tasted the
sweets of literature burned with a desire of knowl
ed ge and longed to slake his thirst for letters at
one of the academic fountains of learning T he
y ou n g student showed a si n gular aptitude was
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3 40
L ITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS
THE BIB LE
or
.
endowed with a fine genius, and with indomitable
perseverance set himself to peruse the writings of
C icero V irgil and other classic authors H e had
evidently caught the enthusiasm of the age which
as we have seen still reveled with a sort of i n t ox i
cation among the newly recovered masterpieces of
antiquity But if these studies fired the genius and
gratified the literary tastes of young L uther they
failed to reach the inmost depths of his being
T here slumbered in him a power which they could
not wake ; and which going out from him was yet
to awake the world
”
“
T he young student to quote the words of
“
passed in the U niversity library all
D Aubi g n é
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 t h e treasures brought
—
together in this vast collection O ne day h e had
then been two years at Er fur th and w as twenty
years old— h e Opens many books in the library one
after another to learn their writers names O ne
volume that he comes to attracts his attention H e
has never till this hour seen its like H e reads
the title— i t is a Bible ! a rare book unkn o wn in
those times H is interest i s greatly excited ; he is
filled with astonishment at finding other matters
than those fragments of the Gospels and E pistles
that the C hurch has selected to be read to the peo
ple durin g public worship every S unday throughout
the year T i ll this day he had imagined that the y
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LITERARY A C H IEVE MENTS OF THE BIB LE
3 42
.
more T he first glimmerings of a n e w truth were
there beginning to dawn upon his mind
“
T hus had God led him to the discovery of his
W ord of that book of which he was one day to
give his fellow countrymen that admirable t ran sla
tion in which Germany has for three centuries
perused the oracles of God P erhaps for the first
time this precious volume has now been taken down
from the place it occupied in the library of Er
furth
T his 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
”
Reformation lay hid
T hat Bible in the U niversity library at Erfur th
and afterward the chained Bible which he found in
the convent of the hermit of S t A ugustine accom
assics
in
L
uther
what
the
ancient
cl
for
l
i
sh e d
p
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 ! E ur eka ! the solitary monk exclaims I have
found it : the key of knowledge the sword of truth
—
the watchword of liberty A nd now his time hav
—
ing come with that key at his girdle that sword
in his han d and tha t watch w ord o n his lips this
God sent man goes forth to instruct to reform to
liberate the world H e proclaims freedom i n the
name of that book which has made himself free
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INTELLE C TUAL LIF E RESTORE D
34 3
.
a trump of j ub ilee to his
mouth and sounds over E urope the redemption
year of literature as well as theology
A nd n ow let the fact be pondered : the finding
of the Bible d i d lead to a mental revolution— the
revival of Biblical learning w a s an emancipation
the classic of Palestine ha s proved the key which
at a touch w as to open the locked stores of knowl
edge to the people A nd since these glorious days
of L uther on and still on has rolled the tide of lib
e r t y 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 mod ern ar ts 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 w as the Bible which procured its
fr eedom
H e puts the Bible
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
3 44
CH
AP
N FL U E N CE
T HE I
OF
T
ER
THE
IX
B IB LE
.
.
0
N
SC IE N CE
.
ALTH OU G H it does not fall within the strict t i tle
of this vol ume yet it i s so congruous with its de
sign that I can n ot allo w myself to pass over with
out some remark the influence which the Bible has
exerted on science
T he obj ection may be heard that the S criptures
have not made any contributions to the physica
l
sciences B ut this is surely most frivolous S up
pose an infidel who is ad d icted t o natural ph i loso
phy to take up the In sti tutes of C alvin ; 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 O r suppose
an infidel who has a preference for mathemati cal
studies to complain of H umboldt s Cosm os that it
contains n o pure geometry and does not expound
the di fferential calculus O r suppose a third infidel
who is fond of natural history to take exception to
H erschel s treatises on as tronomy that they are
wanting in z o ology and botany O r we shall sup
pose that a fourth who is a distinguished chemist
faults Brewster s Op ti cs beca use they do n o t de
scribe the atomic theory ; or that a fifth who is an
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3 46
L ITERARY ACHIEVEME NTS
THE BIB LE
or
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the earth or of its annual revolution If it w as t o
teach science it could only do so by commencing
with its first elements : in other words it must have
been an elementary treatise on as tronomy botany
chemistry geology etc A nd if thus a popular
digest of the sciences it must have been a Very
voluminous affair indeed
A nd one might be
tempted to ask if the masses were to master i ts
scientific portions what time would they have left
to study its theology or its subj ect proper ?
S o me reputable writers have expressed the opin
i o n 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
modern
iscoveries
which
though
d
r e n un ci a t i n
g
p
not intelligible in those unscientific ages do n ow
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
s o called S criptural prelusions of science before i ts
age We apprehend that the Divine A uthor of the
Bible intended to leave it to man himself to write
his own books on physical science A nd in this he
has acted in accordance with a fu n damental prin
c i le in his providence ; which is n o t to proclai m
p
by a voice from heaven truths which are discover
able by the due exercise of man s own re ason No
doub t it has t aken a long time for man to discover
true science T he Baconian philosophy dates only
from the sixth millennium in the world s history ;
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MO D E RN SCIENCE
347
.
s Novum
Org an um
Newton s Pr i n cip i a and L a Place s
”
“
Mitcha n i gue 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 A ccordingly it
was given and its canon closed many centuries
before the first of these appeared ; whereas H e who
”
“
knoweth the end from the beginning foreseeing
that Bacon Newton and L a P lace 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 h as had i ts
martyrs and that the C hurch kindled the pyre
With pious indignation and eloquent invective the
F athers of the C hristian C hurch condemned the
theory of the A ntipodes as being opposed to S crip
ture With equal indignation but employing tor
ture instead of invective P ope Z achary treated
Vi r gi li us as a heretic for broaching this same
theory T he council of S alamanca indignantly de
n o un c e d the notion of the earth bei n g a sphere ;
and the d octors of the inquisition consigned to their
dungeons the illustrious F lorentine who proclaimed
Nor was it only
t h e theory of the earth s rotation
the Papacy which by an appeal to S cripture at
tempted to lay an arrest on modern science O ur
earlier P rote stant divines arrayed themselves against
the thr ee
m ag n a Op er a
—
science Bacon
on
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LITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS O F THE BIB LE
348
.
the
system of C opernicus ; and one of t h e most
learned and eloquent of them set himself to prove
from S cripture as if it were a very article of or
t h o d ox C hristianity that the earth is stationary
while the sun with the entire host of stars are the
only pilgrim orbs in the fir mam e n t A mong our
later divines not a few have se t an anti Biblical
brand upon the researches of the geologists
We can not j ustify either the scientific opinions
of the theologian s or the means which they took to
defend them S till so far in apology we may ple ad
that principle of conservatism in our nature which
makes us S low to give up old beliefs and which
though often no better than a mental vi s i n er ti es is
yet useful as a counteraction to that love of novelty
w hich unless met by an opposing immobility would
in its efforts at reformation produce rather a revo
Doubtless the theologi a ns ought not to have
lut i on
been so alarmed and their fears only betrayed their
ignorance alike of S cripture and of science S till
some allowance is to be m a de for the tenacity even
of needless al arm when what it cli n gs to as with a
death gripe are as it believes the very foundations
of sacred truth An d 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 indi fference as to the
e ffect which scientific d iscovery might have on the
credibility of the S criptures
But we may not content ourselves with being the
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3 50
L ITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS OF THE BIBLE
.
theologians will be found to occupy a foremost rank
for example P eacock C resswell Bland Wood
as
and many others In astronomy we find the names
of Bradley to w hom 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 S amuel C lark to whom i n chief measure is due
the honor of introducing the Newtonian philosophy
into the U niversity of C ambridge ; of Abbe P icard
who under the direction of the A cademy of S ci
e n c e s made the first measurement of a d egree of the
meridian on which perfect reliance could be placed
In pneumatic chemistry the name of P riestly will
always be ranked high E lectricity owes its first
impulse and one of its greatest discoveries to a the
of
C
omo
In
mineralogy
the
most
olo i an V olta
g
celebrated name i s also that of a theologian Abbe
H auy M echani ca l science ranks among its great
est promoters the Rev Dr C arpenter the inventor
In the philosophy of z oology
o f the power loom
the name of the late Dr F leming stands deservedly
high and the celebrated work of the Re v William
K irby his M on og r ap hi a Ap i um An g li ce may clai m
the merit of first originating the analytic method
of investigating nature
In general science few
names in recen t times will compete with that of
Whewell ; while in political science one of the
greatest maste rs though his views have n o t re
c e i v e d the attention they deserve is in our Opinion
Dr C halmers In geology— the science which more
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MO D ERN SC IE NCE
3 51
.
than any other the theologians have been bl amed
—
with obstructing i t happens that at once its most
profound and most popular defenders are clergy
men— Dr Pye S mith Dr C halmers Dr Buck
land Dr Whewell P rofessor S edgwick Dr H arris
Dr A nderson Dr K ing and P rofessor H itchcock
A mon g theologians who have not writ t en e xpressly
on
science yet who Sho w an intimate acquaint
ance with it as also a thorough appreciation of
its importance we might instance Derham in his
As tr o TheOlogy and his Physi co T heology C halmers
in his A stronomical Discourses P aley in his Natu
ral T heology S umner in his Record of C rea tion
and M Cosh in his M ethod of the Divi ne 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 j udgment that they have retarded t h e progress
of physical science O n the contrary by bringing
to its investigation the truth lovi n gness of sanctified
intellect they have m ad e it instinct with a higher
life an d have haloed it with a bri ghter glory
T his much on the i n fid el s calumny against the
theologians that as a class they have obstructed
science A nd now as to the Bible itself we fear
lessly challenge the infidel to show how it could pos
s i bl
obstruct
science
O
n
which
of
its
page
d
s
it
s
oe
y
interdict scientific pursuits ? Where d oes it breathe
a spirit in the slightest degree inimical to physical
research ? Does it unfit the mind for the investi
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3 52
LITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
.
of
natural
phenomena
?
O
n
contrary
it
t
h
e
g
peculiarly prepares it by presenting the material
universe in all its departments as the work of that
same Infinite Wisdom to which we owe Revelation
itself ; and the laws and processes in nature as the
one part of the same stupendous scheme of Provi
dence o f w h i ch the other part are the operations
of grace T he Bible knows but one God its own
author who i s also the architect of the heavens
A nd therefore when rightly inter
an d the earth
it
must
necessarily
c
r e t ed
o ncord with the d i scov
p
eries of science while it holds out one of the
stro n gest stimulants to the s tudents of nature as
the works of God to strive to enlarge our knowl
edge of it
A nd 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
—
S criptures are most widely circulated whether
amo n g its pioneers and promoters the sacred vol
um e h as not occupied a foremost place British
i n fid e ls at least might well pause before closing
the issue against the Bible F or if our island owns
the proud pre eminence of being the birthplace of
i nductive philosophy it is matter of history that
before Bacon the father of that philosophy was
born the Bible had found its way to E ngland and
the art of printing had already put many copies of
it in circulation H ow far these two events—the
antecedent spread of Biblical knowledge and the
at i o n
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L ITERARY A C HIEVEMENTS
3 54
abo ve i ts
so great ?
priests of
a Ga lileo
THE BIB LE
OE
.
temple gates ? Is their number after all
or will they once compare with the high
the temple ? S hall we find among them
a K epler a Bacon a Newton — those i n
t elle c t ual giants taller by the shoulders than any
who are living now— men of inventive genius pos
sessed of mo re than the merely logical or mathe
ma t i cal faculty being gifted besides w ith those
penetrative and sublime intuitions which come near
est to the divine Y et these men believed the B i
ble and were not ashamed to confess their obli
a t i o n s to it
T
oo
many
of
u
r
philosophers
have
o
g
been i n fid els ; but Philosophy herself in the person
of these her most gifted sons h as set her seal to
the inspiration of the S criptures
T he infidel will have it that the Bible has oh
structed true science by teaching a science which
is false We S imply deny it Whenever such an
as sertion h as been made and an instance specified
—
e
of
two
results
has
happ
ned
either the allege d
n
o e
instance has been satisfactorily dispo sed of or it has
been shown to be one of those residual d i fli culti es
which must l i e over till science further ad vances
being in the mean while manifestly not an ac tu al
but only an appare nt discrepa ncy T he history of
modern S cience abundantly carries us out in mak
ing thi s a ffirmation T he time was when i t was
in fas hion to trump up a whole host of S criptural
inaccuracies in geography chronology and astr on
But no infidel of an y int elligence will be
omy
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MO D E RN SCIENC E;
355
found
bold enough to press those obj ections now
It is mainly on the field o f paleontology the battle
is now being fought and we have no misgivings as
to the result T he facts of the science itself in so
far as they conflict with the M osaic account of
creation are but partially investigated ; some of
them but ill generali z ed and many of them not
yet v er ified Physical theories have been woven
o ut of v er y S
lender materials C osmogonies have
b ee n more hurriedly got te n up than there were
scientific data with which to build them We
as sured
c an calmly wait the advance o f science
that as it advances it will do what it h as done
—
b efore supply the answer to its own objections ;
while in the mean time it is gratifying to know
that step by step the frien ds alike of S cripture
and scien ce have walked abreast of the i nfidel
furnishing methods of conciliation at every stage
of the controversy betwe en the geologic and the
M osa ic cosmogonies
A nd one thing the infidel
him self must admit that no chapter in any book
has pr ovoked more sci entific investigation and spe c
ulat i o n none h as done more to stimulate on e of our
mos t recent sciences tha n the first chapter in that
so ancient book which w as written before the birth
of science or even lite rature und er the sh adows of
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS
3 56
CH
AP
T
or
ER
CO N CL U S IO N
X
THE BIB LE
.
.
.
ON
a review of the subj ect which has Occupied
us on these pages some practica l reflections suggest
themselves with which we may appropriately con
,
clud e
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 h as
stimulated the intellect refined t he taste improved
the literature sanctified the arts Vi vi fie d the phi
lOSOph y and given an impulse to the industry of
every people among whom it has found a footing
T he question which we would press upon the con
sideration of the reader is C an this book be other
than Divine ? E v en other evidence apart migh t
n ot
its literary characteristics and its literary
achievements be held as proof conclusive of its
divi nity ? F or on what kno wn or conceivable law
of me n tal d evelopment shall we otherwise account
for i t ? T he Bible exists ; how came it to be at all ?
how to be what it is ? T he simple principle of
causation which necessitates the human mind to seek
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LITERARY ACHIEVEM ENTS OF THE BIB LE
3 58
.
style its poetry i ts histor y its delinea tions of
Or
n ature and i ts analysi s of hu man character
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 his t ory of mental development itself
receiving no additions sin ce the sacred canon was
closed yet constantl y adding to the stock of human
knowledge in al most every line of inve stigation If
w e take these two together it appears to us alto
gether impossible to acco unt for the existen ce of
such a book except on the admission that it has
proceeded from God T he invariable equation of
Cause and e ffec t se ems to shut us up to this conclu
sion F or disp ute about the Bible as men will
there it is a great fact ; and like eve ry fact has in
A pplying the fun
some way to be accounted for
d am e n t al maxim in causality to the Bible simply
as an e ffect it seems to us S imply impossible to find
fli c i e n t explanation of its existence except
an y s u
one that it is the Book of God or in oth e r words
that he w ho is the Grea t F irst C aus e of all great
e ffects i s the author of this great book Beyond
this of cour se we need not go ; but shor t of this
we can not stop in seeking to ac count for the bare
existence of a book whose co ntents an d whose his
tory are alike so entirely unique
I have alre ady taken occasion on these pages t o
avow my belief in the literal theop n eusti a of t he
Bible A nd in reavowing that be lief in this con
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CONCLUSION
359
.
cluding chapter the reader wi ll allow me to observ e
that in applying the term inspiration to the S crip
tures I do not define it in the l oose sense of many
of our philosophers when they tell us that every
great poet and orator i s a man inspired— that the
writings of a P lato a H omer or a M ilton are
divine writings or inspirations caught from God
Were it only meant by this way of speaking the
more strongly to co nfess that genius is a divine gift,
a n d that therefore the prod uctions of genius ar e to
be ascribed to him who has endowed it with its i n
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
T
hey
make
no
distinction
in
apply
o h e r s mean
p
ing the term to the writings of men and to the
S criptures of God
A ccordi n g to them Pl ato
Sha k spear e H omer M il t on were inspired in the
same way in which M oses David Isaiah and the
othe r sacred wri te rs were inspired
—
I sh all grant to avoid a discussion about m ere
—
words that there is a lower or non literal inspira
tion to whi ch are owing the works of human genius
But then let it be carefully discri minat ed wherein
th i s differs from the true literal inspiration which
the S criptures lay claim to
T he difference i s not one of mere degree ; as if
M oses had o n ly a h igher measure of the same divine
a fl at u
s than Plato or S en ec a
B ut the di fference is
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LITERARY ACH IEVEMENTS
36 0
OE
THE BIBLE
.
one in kind ; the divine Operation in the two cases
being essentially di fferent If the man of geni us
—
the poet the philosopher the orator is inspired it
is by a certa i n di vine action upon his mind which
may be said to energi z e elevate and clarify it ; i n
which condition it is enabled to perceive and appr e
hend ideas which otherwise it might not have pier
Ce i v e d 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
T hus 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 min d by which i t
is raised above more common minds and in a sense
carried beyond itself ; so as i n a higher region to see
what befo re was unseen to hear wha t before w as i n
audible to comprehend what before was i n com pre
h e n si ble and to articulate what till n o w had been
unspoken
B ut now let the phenomena and conditions of this
sor t of inspiration be distin c tly noted F irst the
ideas are ex tr a n eous till the mind as best it may
has sei z ed upon them S econdly the mind f or
i ts elf h as to bring them into the sphere of its
consciousness T hirdly there is no such infallible
guidance or supervision but that the mind m ay
miss the tr ues t form s and mistake the truest ex
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LITERARY A C HIE VEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
36 2
.
L et me here recapitul ate the characteristi cs an d
conditions of this lower or non literal inspiration
F irst the ideas are presented as ex traneous to the
consciousness S econd the mind for itself as best
it may has to bring them within the sphere of its
consciousness T hird there is no such supervision
as would g u
arantee against mistakes F ourth there
is therefore fallibility ; either actual or at least pos
sible error F ifth there can not then be absolute
authoritativeness S ixth there lies Open an appeal
to another canon or standard of certitude
W e have now to mark the total di fference in that
divine afflat us which we call inspiration proper
which the Bible claims for itself and which we
are entirely disposed to award to it
H ere we have predicated an operation on the
minds of the writers not merely of an energi z ing
or elevating effect which left them to sei z e upon
the ide as and if equal to the e ffor t to express
the m in the fitting words i f such they could find
But here is an Operation conveying the ideas i n to
their minds and shaping these ideas within their
consciousness into the exact form and phrase in
which the Divine S pirit intended them to go forth
as fr om Hi mself N ow there is infallible certitude
here since the persons thus inspired were not left
to select to sei z e upon and to find expression for
the ideas but the infallible S pirit did this for them
T hese ideas with the clothing language had to
pass through a h uman ch an n el ; but then a part of
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C ONCLUSION
36 3
.
the inspiration was to se e that they should not con
tract the slightest tincture of error or mistake in
the pas sage It hence follows that the Bible being
in this sense inspired it is an authoritative standard
of faith and morals If I receive i t at all as divine
it must be to bow with implicit submission to its
teachings A nd 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 standar d of all standards
But is reason then to become a blind cr ed uli st ?
M ust it abnegate its pec ul iar function to sift to
weigh to decide on evidence ? F ar fro m this ; of
all books the Bible most entirely acknowledges the
prerogatives of reason It a sks not nor will it ao
cept a blind credence What it demands is a belief
which is founded on evidence S upers tition holds
in her hand a mystic scroll which her devotees
without having examined its credibility or eve n
read its contents are expected to believe But i t
is not so with C hristianity What she presents t o
us is no folded scroll but an open book T his Sh e
invites us to read ; and challe n ges us to test it
S he claims for it a Divine inspiration ; but not that
we shall receive it as inspired till we have rigor
o usly tested it by the acknowledged proofs or c r i t e
ria of i n spiration H ere then is th e function of
reason Revelation owns it and appeals to it as
the arbiter of inspiration so far as the investigation
of the fact i s involved T hat is to say reason has
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LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BIB LE
3 64
.
to weigh si ft and test t h e eviden ces which the
Bible o ffers of i ts inspiration
But now let the limits of reason be defined
S uppose t h e eviden ce bei n g S ifted w eighed and
tested has been found s ufii ci e n t S ay that reason
is n ow 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 wh at it actually says an d what
is the meaning of its sayings F or n ow what Rev
elation demands is implicit faith It a llowed reason
full liberty to put the proofs of inspiration i n to the
crucible but if these have come out approved fro m
the ordeal then reason is not left at liberty to deal
otherwise with the contents of Inspiration than i m
”
“
l
i
l
a
to
receive
them
for
thus
s
ith
the
L
ord
t
i
c
y
p
is voucher suffi cient for reason as well as faith
Nor could I pardon myself w ere 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 thi ng
of life and quickens whatsoever it comes in contact
with S o has it illumi n ated adorned quickened
literature and the arts Im agination h as felt
power and new visions have r isen to its raptured
eye T aste has felt its power and become more r e
fined Intellect has felt its power a n d its thoughts
have gathered greatness Genius has felt its power
and sc ar e d on a loftier wing It could not have
be en other wi se F or to say that it could w er e to
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LITERARY A C HIEVEME NTS
36 6
OP
THE BIB LE
.
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
v an Ce d on these pages of any disposition to under
value literature or art or science ; without the ir
humani z ing influences this earth had been a wilder
ness and man a savage T hrough means of them
the very humblest spo t — the peasant s patch of
ground the day laborer s thatch roofed cottage the
plowman s furrowed field may be m ade to smile as
a garden ; and the poorest so n of toil may take i n
—
rank
l
l
l
t e e c t ua
a rank which royal patent can not
—
create with t h e nobles of the land If the Bible
does not proclai m 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 meas ure of our
opportunity all useful literatures arts sciences
and philosophies A nd 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 H omer s page ; in art a purer sentiment
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CONCLUSION
36 7
.
than w as to be seen in the marbles of Phidias ; in
science a truer discovery and a more beneficial i n
v e n t i on than w as revealed to A rchimedes ; and in
philosophy a profounder insight tha n S ocrates a t
t ai n e d we will be c areful 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 H ave we nothing more
than this to praise it for ? It is the book of c eles
tial wisdom wherein alone can be learned the way
of salvation T he only book which tell s 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 i s eternal where we must Spend our
immortality It declares to us how that i mmor
tality may be endless bliss and not endless woe
I can picture to mysel f a youth wreathing his
self complacent soul wit h t h e flowers of literature
and saying all is well ; but h as this youth thought
of it how this book of truth tells him that he is a
S inful creature in the eyes of a holy God ? O r I
picture another youth as he ga z es on the fair crea
tions of art who like the former also says it is
enough : but h as this on e considered that the book
of God t ells him that unless his soul is created anew
by the Divine S pirit he m ust per i sh everlas tingly ?
O r I picture to myself yet another youth who hav
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L ITERARY ACH IEVEME NTS
36 8
OE THE
B IB LE
.
i n g penetrated into
oph y, is ready to
the depths of science or philos
exclaim that h e has found the
E ur eka of his life ; but does this one reflect t hat
the Book o f books declares to him th at life can not
be his in any sense worth his possessing it unless
his death doom is canceled by the blood of the
L amb ?
M ay I not then witho ut seeming to be pre sumpt
uo us close these pages with a charge t o t hese
youths and to all that they seek till they find t h e
sacred literature of Z ion ; that they search till they
have learned th e science of C alva ry ; that they
study patiently and prayerfully till they have
mastered the philosophy of redemptio n ?
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THE END
.