The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-04-23


of the spirit of things. Imagination
takes all created things as mere word
stuff. AS void chaos and old night
were used as material from which to
create the cosmos, so the ordered Co.'S
mos is taken as material for the new
creations of poetry. The activity of
mind builds without limit systems and
ideals that it neither cares to make con-
gruouS nor needs to make enduring.
1t can squander more worlds in an hour
than sober practicability can count in
a lifetime. It sees all essence of things;
all possibilities of hidden powers; all
perfectibility of what is or can be, and
enjoys it as much as if it really were.
The Bible is such poetry. The essence
of thingS!-we were taught it in our in
fancy. The possibilities of hidden
powers!-every miracle has come out
of the unseen, paraded moment to di-
vide rivers and seas; to call down fire
that burns water; to thrill all graves of
the saints till they start up and walk.
These possibilities and hidden powers
are displayed till men seek a city that
is out of sight, and endure as seeing
Him that is invisible. The perfectibil-
ity of all things that are or can bel
through every evil and imperfection
the Bible looks for perfect state, in
habited by the spirits of just men made
perfect. All earthly poets sink into in
| significance compared with the sweep
of thought and 1oftiness of ideals re-
vealed and promised in the Bible.
These ideas and ideals find fitting dress
of words and wings of music. The
Hebrew poets seem to sing nothing but
the most fundamental truths of the ma
ture of the material universe, of men,
and of God. His unity, infnity, spir-
itua1 nature, individual persona1a1ity,
creation and government of the world
is the one theme of their song. Homer
may sing of the wars of Greece through
the hates and jealousies of men; Virgil
may sing of arms and the man who
first came to Latirn; but it is all puer-
lie compared to the themes of the He
brew poets. If they touch upon human
themes it is to connect national events
and historical statements with Gods
watch-care and help, and so tune all
earthly life to the divine ideals.
Would that all our churches and places
of public assemblies might be resonant
with voices, symbols, psalteries, or
gans, and harps, connecting all human
events and national history with the
plans of God. But where are the poets
that voice these lofty thoughts? There
is nothing in all Greek, Latin, or En-
g1ish poetry that matches their mag
nificent sweep. Take for single ex-
ample the eighteenth Psalm. Spe-
cia1 Providence is asserted and set to a
music whereby
''The earth shook and tremb1ed,
| The foundations of the hills rocked
and were shaken;
The Lord also Numbered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered his voice
Amid hailstones and Goals of fire.
Then the Lord stretched forth his
hand from above
And drew me out of deep waters;
He delivered me from my strong
enemy,
From my adversaries, who were too
powerful for me- 4
The essence and the garb of poet
so inhere in the Bible that he who
it not hardly knows what n
1t gives all the incentive an
the material of such grea2
Dante,s ..Diyine Comedy;
Paradise Lost But IyVvM
merely weak limitations, 1eavin
greatest parts of the Bible untoucnS(
and their attempted magnificence iN
often only grotesqueness. He who has
this volume need never lack for poetry, |
though he never saw Shakespeare, Mil |
ton, and Browning; and he who had all
these and lacked the Bible never knew
poetry in it's highest form.
There is another kind of writing in
which the Bible is unique-it stands so
alone that there is hardly anywhere an
imitation or plagiarism. This unique !
writing is the parable This is a plain,
simple statement of some everyday |
fact or truth that any child can seem
to grasp, but in its unsounded depths
lie truths that no genius can fully
know. There is just one parable in the
Old Testament-thato of Nathan-by
which he exposed in lightning flash
the glaring iniquity of David. And
then we come to the perfect prodigality
of them in the utterances of our Lord.
For at some times without parable
spake he not unto the people. The
nearest approach men have been able
to make to these incompatible conpo-
sitions is in fables. These are made
up of extravaganza impossibilities-
talking wolves and reasoning sheep,
with the moral pointed out. But the
pdI dDlc Is d HdluI dl Oh what |
is possible or actual in real life, with
profound and infinite meaning at
tached. One prodigal becomes type
of the race.
One tender human father is the hint
of the fathomless depths of love in the
infinite Father. One woman's JOY
shared among all her neighbors at find
ing her lost bit of money becomes the
bit of float-ore far down the plains, sig
nificant of the boundless wealth of
mines in the distant hills. The Joy at
finding one lost lamb, sought in the
brought home on the Shout
ders, rejoiced over by friends and
broadens its meaning till
we see the joy of all heaven rejoicing
over that one saved lamb more than
over ninety and nine that went not as
tray. Nay, we are told thereby of the
will of our Father in heaven that not
one of these little ones should perish.
algebraic symbols there is a
figure eight laid horizontally. Itmeans
infinity of distance. The parallels
take the little events of daily life and