Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1867-09-06
From the Friends Intelligencer.
The Poetry of the Bible.


writing ever scars to the highest
realms of poetry. This may be SO as
a general rule, though am incllned
to doubt it; but surely it must be re-
ceived, if received as law at all, with
limitations and exceptions. | cannot
but think that they who lay down
this law, critics though they be, wise
and learned, have not duly appreci-
ated the poetry Of the Bible. Com
pared with the Psalms of David, and
the Prophecies of Isaiah, the noblest
lights of Milton and Shakespeare, beau
tiful and sublime as they are, sink
into insigniicance.
Read the Song of Moses, ere he
babe his last sorrowful adieu to his
people; observe the earnestness, the
deep feeling in which he speaks.
"Give ear, O We Heavens, and will
speak, and hear, o Earth, the words
of my mouth. My doctrines shall
drop as the rain; my speech shall
distil as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender grass" And again
For the Lords portion is his people
Jacob is the lot of his Inheritance.
He found him in desert land aud
in the waste bowling wilderness; he
led him about: he instructed him; he
kept him as the apple of his eye. As
an eagle stirreth up her nest, futter-
eth over her young, spreadeth abroad
her wings, taketh them and beareth
them up on her wings, so the Lord
alone did lead him and there was no
strange God with him.
Where is any song of triumph that
surpasses in harmony and exultant
joy the song of the prophecies, when
she praised the Lord for the avenging
of Israel, the discontinue of the
mighty host of the CanaaniteS on the
plain of Megiddo, when thousands
were slain and their dead bodies were
swept away by that ancient river,
the river Kishon."
Can any elegy compare with that
deeply touching lament of David over
liS beloved Jonathan-"Ye noun
aims of Gilboa, let there be no dew,
neither let there be rain upon you
nor fields of offering; for there the
shield Of the mighty is vilely cast
away-the shield of Saul, as though
it had not been anointed with oil
How are the mighty fallen and the
weapons of war persisted" Or, his
neart broken moan over the erring
but beloved Absalom-"Oh! my sol
Absalom, would God | had died fol
thee, o Absalom, my son, my son =
Where shall we find a more fitting
, | illustration of the sublime than in the
inspired words of the "5weet singer
of Israel" especially in the descrip
ton of the Almighty: "He bowed the
heavens also and came down anC
darkness was under his feet; he rod,
upon cherub and did fly; yea, HI
, did fly upon the wings Of the wind
he made the darkness his secre
place; his pavilion about him wer,
dark waters and thick clouds of tn,
sky" Where any higher flight 0
, real posey than is found in the 1O4tl
Psalm, beginning with q description
! of the might and majesty of Hin
"who covereth himself with light a
with a garment, who stretchest on
t the heavens like a curtain; who re
: bukest the waters and they flee.
lie proceeds to show forth not onl
his mighty power, but also his beneN
! olence, to all that his holy hands hav
created, in that he causeth the "gras
8 to grow for the cattle" and tn
cedars OF lofty Lebanon, where tn
birds make their nests" the hig
hills which are refuge for the will
> goats, and the rocks for the comics
! he appOinteth the moon for th
seasons, and the sun knoweth hi
: going down." All these. togethe
- with man and the jewellers in til
4 great deep-"all these wait upo
Thee; thou openest thy hand, the
! are filled with good thou hidest tn
. face, they are troubled; thou takes
away their breath, they die and retur
TO the dust; thou Sendest forth tn
b spirit, they are created, -gracior
!, words which can never grow oil,
words which have issued from man
a lip as a song of praise and thanks
giving to God, for his mercy an
gOodness-words which many a trie
and wayworn pilgrim has repeate,
!, finding them powerful cordial /
!, sustain and strengthen, a balm t
+ neal the hearts bleeding wounds.
Time and space will not sufic
u even to glance at the high finish, til
beauty OF the metaphors that pervad
4, almost every line of the prophecit
:. Of Isaiah, or to delineate the Patio
: the tender melancholy, that flow
through the sorrowful lamentatioI
of Jeremiah, who, bowed down wit
sorrow, wept "day and night for tt
slain of the daughters of his people
4 Who that delights in the wonde
d full can forget the visions that Ezekit
"a saw, when he sat among the captive
by the river of Chebar, or those o
9 Daniel, the "man greatly beloved
who in the visions of the night caugl
70 glimpses of the eternal world-thins
. not lawful for him to reveal. If hi
70 tory, rather than merely sacred son
o the highest flights of posey please
~ where can we find an epic poem mo
n fraught with instruction more full {
,o deep, unwearying interest, than tt
% brief narratives of the patriarchs-
70 their errors and their chastisement
a their triumphs and their sorrows
~ Follow the wanderings of the chos,