The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-12
GRANDER THAN "VEDAS."
HERBERT D. WARDS TALK ON
THE SONG OF MANY"

son AttractlVely Discussed - Why
Bible STUDY Eas Not Been Made
More Palstable to thu Cultured.
An Epic That is Finer Than Amyar
Khayyam, Nobler Than Hilton, and
Sweeter Than All the Cults of the
Ancients.
(CoDyriaht)
! NEW YoRK, Jan. L-Mdgntfcdt ANNA
naeG dominion.
Like incense, the song of Mary rises in
| vlbratory columns, chanted by 10000 choirs,
and re-echoed by the ten millions of devoUt
Roman Catholics who assemble in this
country at their Sunday vespers.
When the Browning craze first became
the fad Of litterateurs, and occult America
resolved itself into fashionable clue where
| by TO decipher the inscriptions of the great
and hieroglyphic poet-but now gone from
US to a world where poetry, we surmise.
does not need lexicon-one of our first
scholars in English Ii erature used to say.
with gentle, manly expletive. Poetry to
be good must be intere ,tingl"
! 1t seems to us that the study of the Bible,
| to be valuable, must be, what it generally
is not, interesting. Any given quotation
contains its secondary aud its necessary
what Goethe called ''the inevitable"
pressions, aud our weeks canto suggests
two things
The first is the supreme literary" quality
of the Bible
Begin at the 10th verse of the first chap
! ter OF Luke. Prefer the revised version,
and read candily. What do you find2 Po-
etry of high order or you are no critic.
| But we are not all critics.
| ! Poetry classiies people quickly and
| sharply. You have your ShakeSpearean
aud your Miltonau, your Tennysonian and
| your Emerso ial. There are the Clough
| partisans and the Burns followers.
A ID to the mind cultivated on "Down
| Went McGlnty," there is no denyingit. the
| leap from jingle to sacred apostrophe is
somethi g athletic.
Now the Bible is more than plateau OF
| barren and scraggy aphorisms. lt is TO
literature what the Himalay is to
the uplands of this globe-it COM
prises within its boundaries the
highest elevations of human thought
Sacred literature of all kinds has mad
tremendous push in 10 popular interest.
Max Muller has given the Vedas to common
misunderstanding. Sir Edwin Arnold has
| reflected 1.-The Light of Asiln upon two
continents, and people rush from their
| shopping or their clubs to attain Nirvana
in a luxuriously upholstered drawing
| Asiatic tea thrown in as further induce
ment to ecstasy. Layard and Rawlinson
astounded us with discoveries at Babylon
| and Nineveh; secrets which have been
engulfed and forgottel in burning sand for
| 1000 years or more; and that
| noble epic: "The Descent of
| Isntar," gives US new standard
of the age and value of sacred literature.
Miss Amelia B. Edwards is devoting Ameri-
can audiences not only to the Egyptian
dynasties and architecture, but she carries US
| on a great roller of enthusiasm into the
| hie attic worship of the tomos and the mys-
teries of Ra and Isis. Even the Zuli, mes
merized by that interchangeable religion
hunter, Lieut.. Cushing, will eventually
give to the wo' Id the few dull secrets their
worship posses 5es.
We have no less than the authority of
Max Muller himself, the greatest STUDENT of
| comparative religion, tpat the christian
scriptures are superior to all other sacred
books. ristians are not the only readers
who have found this fact out. The wonder
| is that anybody has found it out, the
present system of Biblical study is SO pom
derous SO disjointe1, and so dreary.
1t is an old rhetorical law that, other
things being equal. t1e grea est literature is
| tn It which deals with the greatest topic
| This is the raison d'etre of Bunyan's
Pilgrim allegory. This preserves the stilted
| dialogues of Paradise Lost" to immor-
tally.
| In the writings known as the Old Testa-
| ment, but which might well be called the
| Books of Israel we have the deepest and
the highest Jewish motif, vivifed by the
! Hebrew tongue This language admits of
a higher coloring than any other philol-
oglsts have, discovered. Thu Jews are
passionate fanatics, and had no other
| literature than this. Herein lay the
nations strength and its weakness.
All power, artistic, esthetic and moral,
went toward the perfection of one volume
| Of collected and connected passion plays
! The naJion breathed one breath. It's lungs
were not polluted by hereical histories or
immor Il novels. Its imaginative life was
| bounded by its law, its hymns, its love
songs, and its prophecies, all rolled In one
scroll This book of theirs went through a
thousand ha Ids, and became correspond
ingly polished and perfect. Herein is the
reason that the first part of the Bible
commands the respect of all candid
scholars, because it is the sole, the slow, the
sure, Q impas ionet outcome of the most
persistent and morally intellectual race the
world had produced. Now, add the fact
| that this book embraces between its covers
the only plausible, the only poss bic, and to-
| day the most popular solution of those
problems which lie deepest in what might
be called the racial heart, and you see we
have the Book OF Doks, not dry vade
nlecunl, but the exciting record of the
evolution of human philosophy, and of
human hope, written ia the style of a
| classic.
The New Testament is the biography of
Jesus Christ This sacred biography
springs from the fervor of the Hebrew
| heart into the majesty Of the Greek tongue.
| The tremendous conviction that they were
promulgating the truth destined to save a
! world, gave to tne writers of this book
prmeval force, t1e impetus of an I'M
| checked planet.
| Now we deal to-day with the first poeti-
| cal extract in the lessons of the year. If
this poe had been found in the Vedas the
| Zend-AVesta or in theosophic scrip the
dilletante world, languidly looking for the
latest cult, would have paid S. for a course
! of lectures to hear this remarkable song
elucidated by sleek enthusiast, $40 if it
were translated into French Did they not
as much by Omar Khayyams
Not long ago ne Plus ultra young ladies
of one of our great cities, which is always
I'D to the hub in the latest religio-co tor
zionist entertainment, focked to the house
of society leader to listel to some plain
Bible talks These they voluntarily and
urgently sought.
"We can find plenty Of people," they
said, ''to lecture to us about Browning and
Shelley and art. We can't find anybody to
teach us spiritual truth. We want to be
cold hluntIv how NOT to fiji in society We