The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-03-16
POETRY OF THE BIBLE.
REV. DIR. VAss SERMON AT TIE
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Verse the Eandmaid of all Rel G.
ions-The Poetry of the Hebrews the
Result of Their SurroundipRs-Form
of Hebrew Poetry and Some Ex-
amples Of It.
Rev. L. C. Vass, d. D., delivered the
first of a series of three sermons at the First
Presbyterian church last night, on the
poetry of the Bible. His subject was,
Hebrew Poetry"
One-third OF the Old Testament is poetry,
said the preacher Many people are not
aware Of this, because our translation ap-
pears in the form of prose, and because our
idea of poetry is associated with rhymes or
blank verse. How would Milton. Shakes
peare or Scott read if translated literally
into French or German? There
was fully organized system of
poetic service in the Jewish church,
and the Lord taught His servants to COM
pose epic songs for Israel. This is seen by
reference to Psalm 1877. verses and 4,
The songs Of Zion; Chronicles /, verses
., 81 The service Of song in the house of
the Lord" and Deuteronomy 81, 16, "And
the Lord said unto Moses, q write you
this song and teach it."
God taught His prophets to speak in
harmonious hunters and His angels speak
| in poetic measures Our devotions, inspired
by the majesty and goodness of God, flow
naturally in radiant numbers. All
religions have made poetry their handmade:
| the Scandinavian before his Wooden
and Thor; the AsIatic devotee of Brahma
and Vishnu, and the fiery followers of Mo-
! manned. Even from Atheism did Luz
cretius draw wild and splendid music All
faiths fad poetry an agency for expression
| III az
unitarian philosophy.
EARLY IMAGINATION.
1t was natural for the premature man to
respond to the play Of imagination. Nat
ure's charms were inwoven with the
| Creators glories. Whatever is clothed in
rich poetic diction lives in memory. Poetry
alone gives fitting expression to the loftiest
thoughts men can have about loftiest
themes. Troubled souls, yearning for bet
ter things, must unfold their wings for COM
| munion with the unseen and spiritual.
They must win, under sunlit skies, some
satisfying visions of unfading truths and
| glorles revealed to the clear eyes OF quick
ened imagination aud the firm grasp of an
intelligent faith. So it Us that "as imagina~
ton bVdles forth the form OF things I'M
known, the poets pen frames them to
shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local
habitation and a name"
Holy men OF old, taught by Godsand de-
Tended from vain faneies, brought unseen
realities near in immortal ballads which ex-
erclse universal sway over human hearts.
The music of Zion is the light of the soul.
The surroundings of the Hebrews were
| poetic, and nowhere else were such ele-
waiting influences. Beauty aud power glowed
Ia the sublime revelations of creation amid
circles of celestial song; the measured sing
| ing OF tathomess seas from chaos; the sud
| den starry sweep of the infinite vault of
| burning glories. How wondrous the ro-
mantle histories of that past; the thunders
OF trembling Sinai; the mysteries of
the tabernacle; the challenge of
miracles; the unique revelations
of the supreme Jehovah; tine compositions
of God; the gehenna of the wicked; the
immortality of the soul, and the cleaning
land Of bliss for the redeemed Remarka-
Bile were the surroundings of climate and
scenery. DR.. Vass here traced the wonder
full sympathy between the sensitive soul of
genius and the speech of nature. Impas.
stoned Orientals caught a gorgeous Ian
guage, deeply dyed in the coloTS of the
sun" that einbrowned their cheek.
The Hebrew language was not rich aud
flexible like the Greek, nor strong and
stately like the Latin. But its abyss OF
verbs, its verbal adjectives and its descrip-
tive words made it more than any other
tongue voice from the heart.
| FORMS OF HEBREW POETRY.
Hebrew p, ry has nole OF the modern
rednemenGs Of rhyme and meter. Its dis
tinguishing popularity is parallelism, pre-
senting ideas by comparison, contrast and
| antlthesis. Through q free intermingling
Of these constructions arises a wonderful
life and variety which convey an immortal
rythm of thought that cannot be destroyed
by translation. while the metrical arraT ge-
ment and artificial beauty Of other ancient
and modern poetry are utterly lost by
translation. Homer ceases and Shake
speare dies
DR.. Vass gave examples from the Bible
of these antithetic, synonymous and syn.
thetic parallelisms Among these he quoted
Jobs lament Tin chapter 81, in that
curdlng hour of agony, when spoil, confia-
grafton and death hurled him, blasted
tree, into beggary.t Ia their dreary grandeur
these bitter words were never equaled in
their solitude of darkness.
Let the day perish wherein was born;
And the night in which it was said, there is q
man child conceived.
Let that day be darkness;
Let not God regard it from above,
Neither let the light shine upon 1t: etc
Next was quoted the most perfect elegiac
poem in literature, Dayid's "Song of the
Bow, a lament over the death of Saul and
Jonathan III. Samuel l., 191. Its rythm diff
fers entirely from Jobs cry. This is seen
The beauty OF Israel is slain upon thy high
places;
How are the mighty fallen!
Tell it not in Gath;
Publish it not in the streets of Askelon.
The Prophet Habakkuk shows the power
OF these parallelisms in a sublime descript-
I've ode or the majesty and conquering
might Of Jehovah, beginning:
Jehovah is in his holy temple
Be silent before him all the earth
AN UNEQUALED ODE.
Looking over thousand years of stirri ng
and symbolic history of the Jewish people,
the prophet, trembling, seizes its wondrous
imagery: Rambling earthquakes and
stormy seas; waterspouts aud echoing
thunders; whirl inds and the music OF
symphonious spheres; burning ragged edges
of rent clouds, and raven winged pesli-
lence, rushing-half revealed the
tempest. All combine to create an un-
equaled ode:
God came from Teman,
And the holy one from Mount Paran
His glory covered the heaven,
And the earth was full or his praise. .
Before him went the pastiIanca