The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-11-11
The Psalms.

An Extract from an address on Hebrer Poet
ry, delirered By Hon. ROBERT P. DICK,
before the 6 FdyetteciUe Female High School,"
July 9Th. 1858. at
There is no poetry like the Psalms. They
have living beauty and depth of pathos
which can never be excelled, and will always
wake the highest and holiest harmonies of
the human heart. They indeed are inmor-
tai The niad and Odyssey, the Enead and
Odes of Horace, the Divina Commedia and
Paradise Lost, are as immortal as human
language, but when they perish, the Psalms
will be sung by the angels in Paradise for
they are the songs of God.
For more than thousand years they were
the joy of Zion--the glory of Jerusalem; and
how grandly did they rise in the magnificent
temple service to the sound of psaltery and
sons. Tbes fired the genius of the ancient
prophets asF they poured forth their sublime
rhapsodies to rebellious Israel and disobe-
dent Judah. They gladdened the solitude
of the simple Hebrew shepherd as he lead
his focks through "the green pastures and
beside the still waters" of his Heaven blest
home, and the dark-eyed daughters of Zion
knew no swceter minstrelsy than that which
the Royal Minstrel sung. They called up
sweet memories and bright hopes in the sad
heart of the captive Israelite, as weeping he
sat by the dark waters OF Babel and tuned
his splaintive harp to sing one OF the loved
songs of his fatherland.
When the great Macedonian Conqueror
came sweeping like besom of destruction
over the decaying empires Of the East, these
sacred songs were soon translated into the
beautifully poetic language of Greece, and
were scattered like precious gems over all
the nations of the Orient. They were the
admiration of the disbelieving GENTLE, and
reused the patriotic pride of the cxiled Jew
in the land of the Ptolemics, among the
classic groves of Greece, and amid the proud
palaces of the scven-hilled city of the Tiber.
The Psalms often engaged the thoughts of
Christ and his Apostles as they held holy
converse in the wilderness and on the noun
tains of Judea, and while wandering through
the blooming and fruitful valley of the Jor-
dan and while resting on the calm bosom of
Gennesaret, as it slept beneath the star lit
skies Of Galilee. They were the cradle songs
which soothed the infant church of Christ;
they were the vesper hymns of the pious
Waldenses in the quiet wales of the Piedmont;
they kindled the enthusiasm of the chivalric
Crusader as he pressed forward amid the ar
rows of the pestilence and the storm of battle
to the rescue of the Holy Land; they wele
the war-notes of the bold Reformer. while he
reused Europe from her spiritual lethargy
and defied the pealing thunders of the Vati-
can; in wild and thrilling cadence, they
echoed from the glens and cayerns of Scot
land, where the stern cOvenanter, fearing
nought but God, was preparing to die for
the freedom Of his faith; they were the fare
well strains of the Pilgrim Fathers. as they
left their kindred and country, and in holy
rapture they rose amid the whistling gale
from the deck of the Mayfower as Sue breas
ted the pillows of the stormy Atlantic, and
they broke the stiffness of the American will
derness and hallowed the land of our fathers.
Like thechoiring of the cherubim, they float
ed along the bloody Ganges, and triumph
antly did they swell from trusting hearts
| which quailed aot at the martyrs cry of
agony, and the Sepoy's vengeful shout.
The Psalms have been heard amid the icy
palaces of the frozen North, where the aurora
borealis is cleaning in the far distant isles
of the Southern seas, where the evergreen
woodlands bud and blossom beneath the
pathway Of the sun; like angel ysitants,
with glad music on their wings, they have
entered the stately homes OF the great, and
the humble cottages of the poor, and ilum-
ined with heavenly radiance the fading eye
of the dying saint; they have neryed the
heart of the suffering captive hero in his
lonely dungeon, and sustained the fainting
martyr at the fiery stake. .zl r.
The Psalms have been translated into more
than hundred different languages they
have added glory and beauty to all Christian
literature and they are the pure and holy
fountains from which the great bards of
modera times have drunk their waters of in
spiration which has made them immortal,
and given to their genius the magic touch
that thrills with ecstacy the mystic strings
of the human heart. ,t
Wherever the foot of civilized man has
trod, these olden songs have gone with their
consolation and joy. and although they have
passed thro' the revolutions and changes of
more than three thousand years, they have
the same vitality and freshness now as when
they first gushed from the fervid hearts of
the old Hebrew bards among the the beauti-
fuI hills and valleys of the Promised Land.
Thanks be unto him who rules the des-
TIMES of the world, that the time will come
when these songs of Zion shall be heard in
every land, and every tongue shall sing their
praises unto Israel's God.