The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-03-30
FozraY OF THE aEBRE US.

music was a special feature. There were no
5aoorations. The sermon was on "Incou>
plete Lives"
The third and concluding sermon on
"Hebrew poetry" was preached last night
nv Rev. L. c. Vass, ID. ID. A direct com
carlson was made between sacred and secu-
lar poetry by selections Of celebrated ex-
cerpts. Dr. Vass said:
Daring the Peloponesian war the Atbe-
man army was defeated in Sicily. The
nrIsoners were condemned to death, but all
Who could repeat any verses of Euripides
we're spared. Such was the Greeks adrnira-
ton for poetic beauty. Everywhere and
always does the human soul respond to the
mystic touch Of rythm, glowing with the
vGrmpth of the rapt poets electric
feryor. Our holy Bible is invested with
mightier compelling and serving power
than the most thrilling words Of Greek
tragedIans. Some of thess elements Of power
have been pointed out in the preceding dis
courses.
Epic and dramatic poety are the highest
and most difficult styles, born of scheming
art and active invention. The Epic de-
scribes action, and lives in undying bril-
lance in such works as Virgilis 1Enied.
Homer's Had, Millions Paradise Lost or the
Niebelungen Lied.
Dramatic poetry represents action. It
was first employed to excite reverence for
the gods. In times of pestilence the Romans
resOrted to the theaters to appease the
offended deities. All this required much
machinery. We have dramas 10 tragedies
and plays of Eschylus and Sophocles.
Shakespeare. miracle plays or the Ober-
Ammergau passion play.
The Hebrew muse, too truthful to intro
duce such machinery, has no long epics or
elaborate dramas. Yet the Bible abounds
in epic and dramatic poetry, which is the
germ of all since born. Daniel Webster
regarded the book of Job as the most mag
nifcent epic in literature. But Job is more
properly sublime drama, almost Eurip-
idean in form, fl ON its prologue, through
scenes of mystery, shifting from heaven to
earth and earth to heaven; while its grand
hero wrestles with misfortune and despair,
end grasps dying hope with victorious
faith. Cheerfully we lay it beside noblest
works of earth's noblest dramatists, and
claim the crown of perfection.
soLoMoN's SONG.
Solomon's song is a complete drama, even
10 its brilliant, classic chorus. AS the
drama borrows from the epic its material
and from the lyric its method. so we find
herein beauties Of both lyric and pastoral
composition. Other illustrations of noble
epic or heroic poems are psalms rs and 81,
Moses touching Farewell, and Deborah's
thrilling Battle Song.
But while all this is justly claimed for
Hebrew poetry, its highest triumphs are
won chiefly in the domain of the lyric and
didactic, embracing proverbial, descriptive,
pastoral and elegiac productions. DIR. Vass
said that his chief care now was to make
some selections from inspired poetry and
compare them with most exquisite gems CT
uninspired poets upon similar the es He
then quoted Homer's celebrated description
of storm raised by Neptune:
He spoke aud high the forky trident hurled,
Rolls clouds on clouds. and stirs the watery
world;
At once the face of earth and sea deforms,
Swells all the winds and raises all the storms
Down rushed the night; east. west, together
roar:
And south and north roll mountains to the
shore.
Shakespeare, in "The Tempest" makes
''Prospero" say:
have called forth the mutinous winds,
And twixt the green sea and the aZured vault
Set roaring war; to the dread rafting thunder
Have given fire, and rifted JoVes stout oak
With his own bolt.
Browning's storm in "Pippo Passes, !"
Shelley's, Montgomery's and Virgil's were
also noted: and Byron's storm in "The
Alps" where he graphically says:
Far along
From peak to peak. the rating crags among
Leaps thu live thunder
Then was quoted at length David's Psalm
xxx, beginning:
The voice of the Lord is upon the waters,
The God of glory thundereth.
Also Psalm xviii, beginning:
He bowed the heavens also. and came down,
ANA darkness was under his feet
ANA ne rode upon a cheruh, and did fly:
Aea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind
In all human literature there are no such
poetic lines as these, binding in vivid words
the swltt-paced, destroying tempest, and
giving 1t life, awe, power, glory, unsur-
passed save by the roaring storm itself.
THE SUPERNATURAL.
1t is difficult to paint, in words, the SUPER
natural Without great skill it becomes a
burlesque Here DR.. Vass quoted Virgil,s
description of the appearance of
the shade of Creusa, wife of
-Eneas; Ossian's account of the apparition
OF the Spirit of Loda to Fingal, King of
horVen: and Southey's picture OF that mar
Heious aoparition of Avaron to Kailgal
but he said these specters, clad in steel. a d
whose eyes and teeth and hair and dress are
al SO clearly described, lack that SUPER
natural horror and vagueness of terror and
strange power that are given by Job
Who is the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea
OF mystery this was illustrated from Job
XIV. Where shadow of q shade was felt
10 pass In silent motion and outline of living
mist. Then were presented the vivid de-
scription of the warhorse by Virgil and by
JOB; and the exquisite pastoral, the seventh
Psalms.
-, luese comparisons, he said, must cease.
lhey. give an intimation of the pleasures
and beauties of Gods word as literature,
and show how the hidden soul of harmony
pours out exultant strains of immortal
melodies. In dull, aching hours of heart
grlefs, comforts increase through these IN
iettered experiences of human souls under
holy guidance. Stars thus thicken and
brighten with deepening darkness. JOYS
gather richest zest from these choral pas
toFals and pious idyls of field aud sky, aud
cross; just as with opening day are born
song and freshened life. Radiant laughter
and loving psalms will thus float upward in
more aud more perfect strains from imm r.
tai souls. pilgrims redeemed from sin for
unfadine glory.