The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-08-15


poetry of all languages furnishes
nothing more spirited or pleasing.
Before the mountains were settled,
and the hills brought forth; when
there were no fountains and no
depths; when as yet the earth and
the fields and the armament we're
not; "then," says Wisdom, 81 was
with the Almighty as one brought
up with him; and l was daily his de-
light, rejoicing always before him.
Rejoicing in the habitable part of the
earth, and my delights were with the
sons of men," In this most animated
description there is one sentiment
too beautiful to lie concealed in an
imperfect translation. 1t occurs in
that word which represents Wisdom
as rejoicing in the presence of the
Creator and throughout the world
which he has made. In the original
the image is that of child playing
in excess of glee and sportiveness, in
the company of its own parent.
That is the word-playing! Some
translators aiming at great exactness,
have rendered it dancing" and
"Iaughing;" but the authors of our
English version, deeming the literal
translation unsuited to the dignity of
the personifcation, have contented
themselves with the more quiet word
rejoicing; but the image which the
word presents is that of child, the
object of parental delight, leaping
and running in exuberance of spirits,
unable to express all its OVERLOOKING
pleasure. And this is the figure
which represents the creative power
by which the world was made; the
pleasure of the Almighty when he
swept the graceful curves of the
globe, sloped the swell of the hills,
wove the tresses of the woods, and
gave to the sea its easy swing. This
is the form which descends also to
the habitable parts of the earth, as
if it could not find room enough for
its illimitable delights, playing
must retain the word-like the sweet
flowings of the air all over the world
it would bless, and making express
sions, in every way, of its own bound
less pleasure. The only living and
true God is not like Brahma, cold,
Indifferent, and passionless, sleeping
upon the stars; the ocean is not so
full of currents as is the heart of our
Maker with delight, in the contem-
plation of his own works.
DIR. Paley has constructed an ad
mirable argument in proof of the
goodness of God, from the evident
design of what he has made. Excel
lent for its own purposes as the
treatise is, its only defect is that it is
set to key too low. 1t is necessa-
rily scholastic, and, to certain de-
gree, frigid. 1t might have had
more of poetic fervor without impair
ing its logic, or diluting its sound
and wholesome sense. The lenses of
the eye and the articulations of the
bones furnish, indeed, resistless
proof of the Divine goodness; but
mere utility does not describe the
principles on which the Almighty
has employed his creative skill. De-
light was in his own mind, and how
much has he done to confer delight
upon others. He has transcribed
all the conditions of bare and frigid
necessity. Ten thousand things has
he made, ten thousand things has he
given, which were never necessary at
all, the expression of his own super
abundance, and the proof that he
seeks our special pleasure. The
genius of Jeremy Taylor, exubersnt
as a vine spreading all over the courts
of the Lord, was better suited to dis
course on such a theme than was
William Paley, even though the ex-
cellent Dean was the embodiment of
all cheerfulness and good humor.
Mr.. Carlyle has somewhere said,
that a man should put himself at
zero, and then reckon every degree
ascending from that point as an oc-
casion for thanks. Precisely on this
scale do the Scriptures compute our
mercies. Demerit places us at the
very nadir. Every step we take from
the point where conscious unworthi-
ness would consign us, should call
for an offering of gratitude, whatever
envied heights may tower, unreached,
above us. 1T is of the Lords mercies
that we are not consumed" "Why
should living man complaint" So
begins the anthem of thanks, at it's
lowest note of all, "We are alive-we
are not consumed" We are all of
us far, far above the EXTREMIST point;
therefore, let each, from the place