Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1859-06-29


dren as her jcwels-and happy is the mother who
can do so with an honest pride and joy; but for
long ages the mothers Of Israeli as they pressed to
the temple to dedicate their offspring to the living
God could point to theirs also the fortunate re-
cipents of rites to which the pagan was stranger,
and which dated from the times when God thun-
dered on Sinai, or spoke in the "sti small voice
on the rock of Horeb. The men and women OF the
Bible superior to those of the surrounding nations,
walked in the light of the countenance of God. The
faithfulness of Abraham; the blended meekness,
learning, and courage of Moses the lofty and sacred
enthusiasm of the prophecies, Miriam; the valor,
the magnanimity, and the poetic fire of David; the
proverbial philosophy of Solomon; the prophetic
strains of Isaiah swelling in majesty above the
everlasting hills, and ripping in quiet beauty
among the roses and lilies of Sharon; the firmness
and integrity of Daniel the intrepid courage OF Ju
dth who slew in his tent the Assyrian captain and
saved her country; the simplicity in narrative OF
the four evangelists; the logic, the comprehensive
ness, and the commanding eloquence of Paul; the
low, sweet tones of John; the fiery ardor and rug
ged strength of Peter and the wonderful revelations
of the exile of Patmos have found elsewhere in pro-
fame history no adequate parallel
We are accustomed to think of the universally OF
Homer, Virgil Shakespeare, and Milton; but the
psalms of David have been read and chanted in
thousands of places and by thousands of tongues
where their language is unknown.
In the broad high spaces of the Jewish temple
in the halls of Zion-by the waters of Babylon
on the Mount of Olives-by the brook Kedron-by
the river Jordan, rolling its sacred waters to the
sea-on the plains of Bethlehem, where the shep-
herds watched, and where, one balmy night, most
glorious in the record of perpetual years. the voices
of the angelic hosts were heard announcing the
birth of the Redeemer, and the landscape and the
faces of the watchers were irradiatcd by the flash
ing crowns of heaven, as their wearers, shedding
music from their wings, swept Throughout Pal
estne and over all Asia-in the seven churches,
whose affairs have vanished and whose candlestcks
have been removed-in the armies of the crusaders,
mingling with the heroic shouts of innumerable
warrior-pi lgrims-upon the submits and in the val
leys of the Aps-amd the forests Of Germany
among the followers of Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wes-
ley, and Whtfeld-by the Scottish Covenanters,
the English Dissenters, and the English Church
the Roman Catholic Church-beneath the frescoed.
temples of Tuscany and France-upon the Danube,
the Rhine, the Ganges, the Nile, and the Amazon
in the balmy islands of the Southern and amid
the eternal glaciers of the Northern seas-in the
depths of Australia-in the wilds of America
chrystal, and pouring in beauty from the heaven
touched lips of the royal singer along the harp of
ages, in every land and beneath every sky, have
these glorious heart-reviving canticles been said
and sung.
In touching tenderness of narrative in its tenden-
cy to enlarge the ideas and elevate the mind in Its
porrayals of the human heart with its weaknesses,
its passions, its hopes, and its vanties in subimity
of STYLE and in the events of which it treats, there
is no such book in the world. How tender, how
sublime, how touching the music of its words of
hope and salvation! What more tender language,
for example, than that of Christ, "Come unto me,
all ye that labor, and heavy laden, and l will
give you resty' And what picture like that, glow
ing on the forefront of the eternal ages of the nl
personation of God himself, bending towards Jeru-
salem and exclaming 80 Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets and stonest them
which are sent unto thee, how often would l have
gathered thy children together, even as hen gath
ereth her chickens under her wings; ard ye would
not" And what scene, since the world began, since
the universe was fashioned, has surpassed in awful
sublmity and binding terror, that scene of which
Mount Calvary was the centre ?-when the sun was
darkened, and the stars went out and the earth
quaked and shivered as it sped on in space and
when the dead got up from their leaden slumbers,
and stalked into the presence of living men!
But aside from the divine spirit which inspires it,
its beauty and sublimity of STYLE and the great
events which glow upon its pages the Bible furnish
lessons in faith, fortitude, sagacty, humility,
thoughtfulness, cheerulness courage, patience and
charity, which no other book contains. In the lam
guage of the wise young man in Esdras GAS FOR
THE TRUTH ENDURETH, AND IS ALWAYS STRONG; IT
L1vErH AND coNouERETH FOR EvERMoRE." And truth,
pure truth, is in this holy book 1t is book which
shines with equal lustre and carries with it equal
consolation, in the cottage of the laborcr and the
palace of the King. 1t knows distinction be-
tween men or races, but it is the same Word in all
places and at all times world without end. It is
the foundation of the common and the statute law,
the conservator of all the domestic relations, and
the basis of all truly civilized society 1t is the
source to which woman owes her present exaltation
in the domestic sphere Other jewels perish beneath
the touch of time but this is jewel which uni
fire would not destroy, and which all chaos,
piled upon it from the upper frontiers of mmensi
ty to the nethermos margin of endlessy descending
darkness, would not tarnsh or obscure. Read this
Werd drink it into your spirits, enshrine it in your
hearts. You will find it now and hereafter nal-
ble teacher your dearest companion and best friend
If you will read it. and think of it. and practice its
precepts you may safely leave all things else not to
chance but to that Providence who careth for all his
children and whose sustaining hand is equally be-
meath the sparrow that perishes and those mighty
worlds that proclaim his power and glory to the