New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-01-08

love and not OF terror and that it exacts no impos
sbe renunciatons The world is beginning to dls-
cover that the poetry of Christianity Shou'u
appeal 10 the souls of men and not 10 theH 'hoo
logical predictions and should discard AZ once Ill"
forever the repusive and CORY imagery OF ou'Woi"
Hebrew rites 1t should refuse-at any rate, IL is
wise for it 10 rcfnse-to employ its energies or us
graces in rctclling episodes in the lie OF OIriS''
under the belief that they can be made more poo'-
zeal than they are In the Eyangellsts Ii one
see what some of these episodes nave oeco"' az
having been Transmitted into poetry, he shou.n .u,
IN tbe Scrinturol Poems OF tho late Mr. n. T. Wills,
which enjoyed a prodigious vogue sohe i'''S "
fifty wears ago, and which are as inherently laiso
and taw,lry aud meretr'ious as Lana hooAi'
What the ballet is to the Drama these Scrip,ur"i
noeu,s are TO Poetry and yet they are not without
merit of n certain sort for NJ. Willis was an accom-
plshcd gentleman He knew enough TO cast 'henn
in blank verse and when he introduced the Iyrlcai
element for poetical purposes, his measures were Ill
xecpinp with their setting. He never could nave
made the mistakes that have been made by Mt. VIZ
lam WHEREFORE Newton in The Voice ol ~. Jonn'
Mr. Newton narrates, in the person OF -. 'oi'n "'
Ephesus on the last Easter Day Of his life, before
tho members of his church by the river side, the
story of the first Easter Day. But how does lie re-
late It'll Not in blank verse, which alone Is worthy
of It. but in the most inappropriate measures posi-
ble-in the long line stanzaS OF TennySons LOCKS
ley Hall" in the easy hcXametcrs OF LoncieiioW
"Evangcline" and in the jumbled rhymes OF inc
old English baadis;s. Such balladiy as this might
have been written by Mr.. Calverly as modern
antique:
1--WE have been to the tomb very early.
With ointment and spkcnard, or fear ,....
urhOpcs should deceive MS hut. brothers believe NJ
The angels have dried every tear
And there is a "Reminiscences of Scott III TINS
stanza:
Hail 10 the brightness which heralds His glory!
Hail TO the coming of Christ among men!
Back from tie tomb He has come. ana the story
Is told us by angels again and again
There is one good thing In 1.-THE Voice OF ST.
John" but it is not the intellectual property OF Mr.
Newton Here il
"'Twas Salome say, my mother, who prepared
Tor this early adventure,
First at the tomb in the garden, last upon calvary
hilltop
And here is its original, by Eaton Stannard Bar
rert whose only claim to remembrance IS based
uTon the last line:
Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stunF
Not she denied Him with unholy tongue,
The while apostles shrank could danger grave
Last at His cross, and earliest at Ills grave
Besides the congeries of eighteen poemlets of
WI On he voice OF 81 Jbiu II N'llP'''" INV
are eight "other poems which, with one eXcep-
ton. are covered by the stereOtyped last century
description of tho parents of goody-goody heroes
they are poor but pious. The exception Is " Won
and Widowed; hut, unfortunately for Mr.. Newton,
il is not an exception that can be taken in his favor
for the pathetic incident upon which 1t is built-a
house Of sand upon foundation of rocks not OF
his invention. We are obliged 10 him for preserving
the prose version of it, for it has value which Is
not to be found in his poetic version, and which
some better poet than he will one day mint into
circulation.