The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-02-02
THE SONG OF NARY.
A Short Sermon on tho Poetry
Of the Bible.
EPics ALMosT WITHOUT RIVAL.
Why ~ sssAy ~ ths Bshls h Mes Msas
Msrs Asssarsivs - -
Cultured.

WY ~ sssAy AZ sAs Bssis h Mes MsAe
hero Atsraesive - ~
Cultured.
Herbert D. ward In Philadelphia PfeR
AagnifcAt anima mea Dominum."
Like incense. the song Of Mary rises in
vibratOry columns, chanted BY ten thousand
chcsrs. and re-schoed BY the tn millions
of devout Roman Catholics who assemble
IN this country q their Sunday vespers.
When The Browning erase first bscams
The tad of ttterateurs. and occult America
resolved itself into . faahionable club
whereby to decipsr the inscriptions Of the
great and hiarogiyphic poet-but now gone
from 10 to world where poetry. We sur
mise, does not need . lexicon-one Of our
hrst scholars in English literature used to
say. with gentle manly expletive, Poetry
to b good must Be interesting"
Il seems to rs that the study Of the
Bible, 70 b valuable. must Be. what 4 gen
orally = not, interesting. Any gwen quo
tatiOn contains its secondary and it, neces-
sary-what Goethe called the inevitable
impressions, and our weeks canto sug-
The first Il the "suprems literary" quail
ity OF the Bible.
Begin It the forty-sixth verse Of the first
chapter Of Luke. Prefer the Revised Yer
sion, and read carefully. What do you
fnd? Poetry Of high order or you are
no critic. But We are not al critics.
Poetry Classics pseple quickly and
sharply. You have your Shakespearian
and your Miltonian, your Tennysonian and
your Emersonian. There are the Clough
paJtisans and the Burns followers. And to
the mind cultivated on down Went Nc
Ginty," there il no denying it. the leap
from jingle to sacred apostrophe is some
thing athletic.
Now. the Bible Is more than plateau Of
barren and scraggly aphorisms. II is to
literature what the Himalaya range is to
the uplands of this globe-it comprises
within its boundaries the highest elevations
of human thought.
We hSAe no less than the authority Of
Max Muller himself. the greatest student
Of comparative religion, that the Christian
scriptures are superior to all other sacred
books. Christians are not the only readers
who have found this fact out. The wonder
Is that anybody has found it ont, the pres
ent system of Biblical study ID 80 ponder
Gus. so disjointed and 80 dreary.
II Is an old rhetorical Law that, other
things being equal, the greatest literature
II that which deals with the greatest topic.
This is the s'raison d'etre" of Bunysn's
Pilgrim allegory. This preserves the stilted
dialogues Of Paradise Lost TO immortality
WRITINGS or An IxPAsMosED RACE.
r. - =
ments, but which might well be called the
Books Of Israel. We have the deepest and
the highest Jewish "motif, !" viri6ed by the
Hebrew tongue. This Language admits Of
. higher coloring than any other
philoiogists have discovered. The Jews
are passionate fanatics and had no other
literature than this. Herein lay the
nations strength and its weakness. Ali
power, artistic, aesthetic and moral, went
toward the perfection Of one volume Of col
lected and connected passion plays The
nation breathed one breath. It's lungs
were net polluted By Asretical histories
or immoral novels. Its imaginative life
was bounded by It's law, Its hymns, its love
songs and its prophecies. ill rolled in one
scroll. This book of theirs went through
thousand hands and became correspon-
dinghy polished and perfect.
Herein Is the reason that the first part of
the Bible commands the respect of oil
candid scholars. because il Is the sole. the
slow, the sure, the imprisoned outcome
of the most persistent and morally intel
lectual race the world had produced. Now,
add the fact that this book embraces be-
tween its covers the only plausible, the
only possible and today the most popular
solution of those problems which lie deep
est in what might be called the racial heart,
nd you see We have the Book OF Books,
not dry wade mecum," but the exciting
record of the evolution OF human philoso-
ply and Of human hope, written in the
style OF classic.
THE NEW TEsTAMENT.
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 ire
mendous conviction that they were pro-
mitigating the truth destined to save .
world, gave to the writers Of this book .
private force. the impetus OF an unchecked
planet. Now We deal today with the first
poetical extract in the lessons Of the year
II this poem had been found in the We
das. the Zena-avesta or in the Theosophic
scriptures, the dilletante world, languidly
looking for the latest cult. would have paid
FIVE dollars for q course OF lectures to hear
this remarkable song elucidated by . sleek
enthusiast; ten dollars If il were trans
lated into French. Did they not as much
by Omar Khayyam?
Let us suppose that . much beiectured
community IL invited to attend new and
mystical course under the most recherche"
auspices The rusuing company fill the
drawingrooms. and many an astigmatic
eyeglass turns critically upon the professor
of the day. The topic OF the morning is an
ancient poem discovered by the lecturer in
an antique sacred collection. By some in
adyertence he omits to inform the audience
what was the mstrix in which this jewel
was found. As the instructor reads and
comments, murmurs of appreciation APP
piaud him. The poetic taste of his hearers
puts the hymn upon par with The Cry
10 yaruna, and deems it worthy Of the
Upanishada.
Has the gentleman another cops? ?
Where can We procure this literary treat ?
Marvellous. Has il been lately deciphereds
How perfectly divine, Do repeat il. pro-
lessor, IL has quite Buddhist favor-or
Is il Q little Persian? or even Assyrian
IL cant be Egyptian. Double your terms.
professor, and give IL At my house."
The catering group Surround the en-
harrassed man