Semi-weekly Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1851-1852, 1851-04-08
DISCOURSE DELIFERED, BEFORE
The HEGRADUAIINGC CLASS OF THE
COLLEGE, OF CHARLESTON-BY
RET III BIEES% .s

REI. j. W. HlLES.ss
We noticed this able and eloquent produc.
linn w!.eu delivered in tie College Chapel Its
inpa>>ioncd, and, occasionally, nervous and
glowing dic,ol is u,ade the vehicle of sound
opinions hleuded with jusiicious advice. The
theme which has been treated in the following
passage has been made over and over again the
subject of descant, in prose and verse; it has
lost the attraction of novelty, whether of thought
or language; yet there is something in the i'm
agery and diction of this extract, instinct with
eloquence, which will favoraby compare with
any similar exercise in rhetoric or composition.
We possess an instructor, whose claims it
would here he impertinent to discuss; hut to
whose moral value, permit me to direct your
serious attention. Let us seek it in contrast
with the hoary and venerable lore of ages;
and for this purpose, enter with, ME, in imagi
natiaA, some well stored library, and glance
around upon the stately array Of TONES, in which
the wisdom and the mighty thoughts of the
dead are garnered up. They are immortal
There they stand, so calm and solemn, as if
conscious of their mperishable glory. Dare
we hope, that We, too, will one day be number
ed among those ranks, and leave thoughts for
which the wise will barter their gold And,
vet, what matters ita Those creations, it is
true, are great, noble, deafness: the instruc-
ton, the incitement, the very echo, of the heart
of Humanity. But they can tell us nothing of
the mysteries most necessary to be known, and
which, cnrtaned by death, and dreadly palled
by iuturitYand retribution, agitate and oppress
the inquiring spirit. they can only inform US
that those mysteries have also darkened other
spirits, awakened fears, doubts, aud fruitless
speculatiohs; and the collected wisdom Of the
world, leaves US only more deeply conscious of
the,ignorance Of man.. But amidst the grand
array, the eye of the weary and unsatis6ed in.
quiTer, Turns to- one small and ANCIENT volume.
1t. has passed through, more fiery ordeal of
criticism, than all the writings collectively Of
India. Greece, aud Rome; and holds e.thrilled
the faith and homage Of the civilized world.
Strange, Venerable, Awful, Terrible book 1T
is folly to ndcule you; it is madness to reject
you! Z With all your hard sayings, and dark
riddles, and dim traditions, and bloody stories,
youhave triumphed over the literature Of Greece,
and, what is more, over the noblest intellects
and the finest hearts which have regalized hu-
manityss What a triumphant, though siientcon:
cession, have you extofted from your enemies
midable. elicit almost every thing which learn.
ing, assiduity, genius, .weariless research, and
the most polished intelleetpa .arnory, !. could
furnish to com5at You. One book. in barba:
rous dialects, against the glorious language aud
unrivaIled, genius of alibrary of Greciansl-
Yhe trde 0isinpian Eagle Of Song, the Fiery
Master Of the lyric torrent--the enthroned Iri'
ad ofaction and passion Lute.y voiced old
Chronirler--the Promethean Thief Of Clos
Stylus--the Pure-tongued Annals Of the In
mortal Retreat-the Thunderbolt ofwhiged ell
oquence -tbe, mighty genius OF that suble En-
cyclopedist the polished Censor and Panyge
rist of declining Athens--the genial Essayist
aud, Biograp. er--and even. the sublimely attu-
ned soul, whose tfoughtsand language roll on
like the everlasting harmony of the spheres, yes,
all-poet orator, historian, philosoph
must alltlof your starry, well-earned crowns,
before the awful diadeln of that authoritative
volume. Old Grecians, your glory is like the
glitter Of the starry ornament your majesty
likethat of !" the old rolling heavens" but the
Bible is like floods of Sunshine, and stormy
night, aud iurid FIRE, aud balmy morn, aud life
and death, and heaven and hell, in the rapidly
shifting scenes Of an universal panorama. Mas
tiers of the heart and intellect, as you Grecians
are, your pages have no such Pathos as the
story of JOSEPHINE psalms like tie strains Of
Dayid-no sublime conceptions of the Omnlpo-
tent Jehovah, like the Hebrew Prophets--no
grandeur like the empyrean.p piercing flights of
Pauline eloquence-an eloquence which neither
the intrica, les of bad Greek, nor the peculiar
method Of Rabbinic logic, can degrade or OBJ
scure !; your pages present nothing equal to the
magnificent book Of Job--nothing at all COM
parable to the wild sublimity of the Apocalyp.
tic epic and your loftiest and most brilliant
conceptions fade into insigni6cance and the
dimmest twilight, before the divine majesty of
tie simple Gospels. What is the sacrifice of a
raving Hercules, that he might speedily reach
the blessed abodes through the sharp, sel'-in.
tlicted agonies, which swallowed up in their
fiery haste the slow torments Of the gnawing
vest what is Agamemnon's touching compul-
sorry sacrifice of the self.devoted iphigenia:
what is the affecting sell-sacriIice Of Alcestis
for her husbanPste; what is the grand suffer.
ir.f Of Prometheus for the temporal benefit of
theshuman race; what all the voluntary sucri.
: fees of Grecian story, compared with the over.
whelming tenderness, the uuspeakable awe aud
sublimity, of the loving sacrifice of the Son #
God for the everlasting salvation Of siuf-l
world9 The genius aud learning of the centu-
ries have been kiudled by4and lavished upon
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