Weekly Trinity journal., 1859-01-01
Literature of the Bible.

Whether inspired by Divinity or not, these wri-
tings possess a venerable antiquity and an indes-
tructible existence, which strengthened in in
creasing age, and rooted deeper in the ruins of
empires and graves Of nations. Trodden to dust,
each particle seemed to propagate on the wind
burned to ashes, each fake fell on distant fallow
ground and grew to a stately tree of life Pro-
claimed against by Infdel sovereign this imper-
ishable book fed from the royal library and
found security in the peasants cottage. Tenn
pies, cities and thrones crumbled, and were ap-
portioned to contending winds, but, like an in
tangible spirit, this mysterious book gided from
some fssure in the sinking wall, and in self exis
tence defed annihlation.
1t is an undeniabe fact that the most splendid
productions of modern poets and orators have
borrowed strength and beauty from the Bible
Milton founded the most magnificent epic of the
language on the drama of Creation preserved in
the Penteteucb, and the grandest orations ever
pronounced by Saxon or Norman tongues have
gathered strength and beauty by addition OF
some familiar passage from the Scriptures. Re-
viewing the speeches Of Patrick Henry when bis
mighty oratory shook the sceptre of continent
from the British throne, we find frequent appeals
TO the God of battles and recourse to the stately
phraseology OF the Hebrew poets. Read atten-
lively the productions Of the most celebrated of
modern orators, and you will discover that like
the ancientq, their migbtest armor is borrowed
from the gods. When every arrow in the culver
of human logic has been spent ; when every syl-
ogsm has been exhausted in vain, the plcader
discovering indecisiOn in the umpire, invokes the
terrible dcnuncations Of the threatening proph-
et or the touching lamentation Of the Israelitsb
exile The poet, orator, dramatist and painter,
have all found SUI jects for sublimest illustration
in that book which has escaped the widespread
ing fires Of Pagan and lnfidel ages.
The Bible abounds in expressions Of the ten
derrst sentiment and loftiest metaphor. We
have nowhere read a passage so simply and clo-
auentIy expressing wOman's fidelity, as did the
petition of Ruth to Naomi, her mother-in-law.-
Naomi and Elmelecb, her husband, with their
two sons had been driven to the land of Moab by
famine and there the sons took wives Of the Moab
ties ughters-Orpah and Ruth. After while
father and sons died and the three women were
widows. Then Naomi, preparing to return home,
advised her daughters-n-law to remain with their
people, while she iourncyed alone TO the land of
Juda. Orpah returned to her fathers house, but
Ruth clave to Naomi and said" Whittier
thou goest, will go and where thou lodgest,
will lodge thy people shall be my people, and
thy God my GOd-where thou diest will die.
and there will be buried the Lord do so to
me- and mine, also, if aught but death part thee
and me-" Then the two women iourneyed on
together-the widowed and childless Naomi,
stricken of God, and deserted by all her kind
red, save the eloquent Moabite girl, who kissed
the tear-forrowed cheek of the aged daughter of
Israel, and, folding her brown arms about the
wasting form, took Heaven 10 witness that
" nought but death shall divide thee and me-"
Beautiful Illustration of woman's ndestructi-
Bile truth to an object Of heart affection Let
the electric finger of love once touch the citadel
Of the soul, and the batteries of the universe may
thunder before it in vain. Whether it be aflec-
tion for an aged parent, deformed offspring, or
a counseling friend in time Of trouble, that one
imperishabc sentiment is superior to time. But
there is deeper, higher, still more enduring
faith--the free will Offering of maiden's heart.
Be the idol Of her affection never so unlOvey so
lowly in life, so dispsed by the world, so mocked
at by fortune so tortured by the prosecutions of
creditors or the law, she clings to him through
evil and good report, and as fragments fall from
the crumblng altar of their home she breathes
the breath Of purity and love on the scattered
embcrs and reswears the oath of fidelity AS
God liyetb, nought but death shall part thee
and me-"