Loudon free press. (Loudon, Tenn.) 1852-1855, 1853-09-30

| The Poetry of the Bt6te-AS the universe,
with its swelling orbs and radiant beams OF
brightness, its mystery, aud harmony. and beau
ty Is to the external organ OF sense, so is the
inspired volume to the soul. While the heart
drinks deep and intoxicating delights at nature S
cool and delicious fountains, the soul with lofty
grandeur and intellectual power, struggles thro'
its own ideal mp to the whole purity of the inf
mite.
Throwing aside its divine precepts-its plan
of salvation to lost and erring race; viewing
it simply as a poem the Bible commands the
admiration Of world. 1t is, and ever must be
considered a sublime, Godinspired poem
full of grandeur, pathos, simplicity and truth
comprehensive and eternal. The poetry of the
Bible first opens creations dawn. God crea
ted the heavens ard the earth, aud saw that
thew were good; but darkness vet covered the
unborn world. Had mortal eye existed, It's dim
and sohtless orbs would have gazed on chaos
and impenetrable gloom. The imasinatiOn,
with air-wrDught visions, can picture the vivid
darkness the awful submity of that hour. A
vast and glorious universe, sleeping in the sol
emn shadow of a rayless night, beneath the
hand OF Omnipotence.
God said, "Let there be light, and there was
lieht." Full of poetry and sublmity was that
moment when light, flashing like meteor, shot
from the Eternafs throne, struggled through
the azure realms Of ininity, and showered its
beauty on the newborn armament; each scat
tered ray gem; each sparkling gem world,
now clittering in the diadem of nj Iht Its
quivering beams threw triple heat on lndia's
spicy Groves, the fowery plains Of Arabia and
Hindostan; the bright sands of Africa; then
traced its golden pathway, with track Of brill
iants. across the mighty deep, and rolled its
purple food of grandeur onward to the frozen
regions of eternal snow.
God said, "Let There be light, and there was
light.'' The morning STARS pealed their first
anthem through a joyous creation-Paradise
Law bgeathing in this new eAfulgence; the distant
mountains caught the wonderous element of
ALMIGHTY power, and shining valleys, and the
crystal lake, and all the smiling and expansive
universe of God, with its millions of starry and
vet unknown worlds was bathed in the soft
ineffable loveliness of light. Thick wavy shad
ows of the lustrOus element hoated across the
trackless billows, lighting up its thousand dia-
mond crests with a food of emerald beauty,
which trembled in the SUMS first beams; the
coral deep echoed its unwrten poetry, through
the azure vault of Heaven,
"And felt the first flash of the newborn fame,
Back from its depths in softer brightness flung"
Thus rosy light, Gods air-winged messenger.
the first pilgrim from the ark of Heaven, traver
sed illimitable regions of space, and heralded,
with dazzling brightness, its sublime mission of
omnipotent goodness
The past is poetry. and the sacred records of
antiquity, from the remotest ages of time, bear
upon their illuminated pages the loftiest ele-
ments of poetic inspiration. The literature of
each age is marked by the distinctive character
of the poetry The great volume before us,
as it does, history Of more than
six thousand years, with its types and symbols;
its significant figures, prophecies and miracles;
the divine commands of Gods chosen and Pc
culiar people illustrated in the burning bush
the mania in the desert-the scourges of Egypt
the parting Of the Red Sea, and the ascen-
sion of Elijah into Heaven,is repete will. the fin
est essence of true poetry, and is stamped with
the divine impress of Gods own hand. Moth
ing can be more lovely or exquisitely touching
han the melodious breathing of the singer of
Israel or more tender than the plaintive songs
Of Saul for his friend Jonathan; or more deep
y affecting than the lamentations Of David
,ver his beautiful his unfortunate, but lost Abb
,alom. The stars are the poetry of Heaven,
but the Bible is the poetry of God.