The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-28

comparison, sing to him the 14lth
psalm:
He giveth snow like wool;
He scattereth the hoar-frost Ike ashes;
he casteth forth his ice like morsels;
Who can stand before his cold?
He sendeth forth his wind and meiteth
them:
He causeth his wind to blow and the
waters flow.
" Always This he" said one of the
young soldiers to another.
Yes he replied and it was 50 in
the beginning Of the evening, when We
were above there
There is strange difference be
tween the two mel, though the one
plays as we'll as the other. and the
Greek speaks with quite as little for
eign accent as the Jew, and their sub
Jecta are the same
Yes said the young Philistine
harper; if the Greek WOULD sing one Of
the Hebrews songs you would know he
had borrowed IL in a moment
and 50 if Il were the other way
OF course, said their old captain,
Joining in the conversation. Homer, if
you call him 50, sings the thing made;
David sings the maker; or, rather. Ho-
mer thinks Of the thing made; David
thinks CT the maker, whatever they
gng
I was going to say that Homer
would sing Of cities and David Of the
: life in them.
It is not SO much what they say
/ as the way they look at It. The Greek
sees the Outside-the beauty OF the
thing. He paints the picture David
! sings the life Of the picture"
/ If my readers viii carry this cbseTva-
ton Of the Philiatine harper into their
reading Of the poetry Of the Old Tesla
ment, they will find that it is justified
| in almost all the important poems.
/ Sooner or later the singer or the poet
comes around to speak of the Power Of
/ powers, the Life Of lives or the King
/ OF kings. And he is writing or singing
/ because he wants TO do this thing. 1t
/ is not as Lord SOmerviIle wrote a poem
/ upon hunting 1t is not as Thomson
l wrote a poem upon the seasons: it is
/ not as Byron wrote the poem of Ma
/ zeppa-in each case because they want
/ ed to describe certain actions or move
ments Of men. 1t is that the singer or
/ Uhe writer had in mind the living GOGs
and that ne wanted to make those who
/ heard or read feel that ''in him we live
/ and move and have our being"
The Psalms.
The great German poet, Herder, more
/ than hundred years ago wrote some
very valuable essays on Hebrew poetry
| which have a great interest for persons
. who really want to read the Old Tesla
/ ment in the spirit of those who wrote
it and with an understanding Of the
/ customs of the time in which it was
written and the people for whom it was
| written.
This book, I Will say in passing
would be Of great value for people who
| are conducting Sunday classes in
church and trying to interest young
people in the books Of the Old Tesla
ment
HeTdeT says again and again in the
course of these essays that whoever
wants really TO get at the life and
movement Of the poetical books of the
Hebrews had better study the book OF
4 Psalms first Make that the center OF
the whole Of the Old Testament, he
says He says that the historical
/ psalms, written perhaps long after the
1 events referred TO. are the interpreters
Of the historical books. For instance
I a person understands the narrative OF
/ the crossing of the Red sea better after
! he has acquainted himself with the tri-
umphant songs in which, hundreds OF
years after, the Israelites thanked Coo
for his goodness on the occasions there
described.
Their Authors and Aims
Remember. then, that the book o.