The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-05-14

but it is the wisest, the profoundest
the richest, the most original the
most important. 1t is more import
ant than all the other books of the
world in all ages combined. 1t is the
most splendid body of literature
known to the children of men. It's
poetry is of the highest possible kind.
1t is history, philosophy, biography
prophecy fulflment. poetry all COM
bined. Ii is the only work in all the
Universe of God that tells US of
whence we came and whittier we go.
Tt is the sole Revelation of the AL
mightys will to the human family.
Let all that Gods Book of books
teaches be obliterated completely
from the memories of mankind, and
lost forever, and this little world on
which the human race has dwelt from
Adam, and upon which it must con-
tinue to dwell until the last syllable of
recorded time, will be enveloped in
darkness deeper than that of Egypt,
and an eternal Night will rest upon
it until it is consumed amid the re-
novating fires of the last day.
Perhaps the benignant and great
authority exerted by the Bible over
the nations of the earth can not be
more distinctly traced than in their
literature. That Book which has call
ed forth the highest praise from the
most gifted minds on earth; which
has furnished themes and bestowed
inspiration upon the grandest singers
of the earth's highest choir; which
so abounds in poetry of the sublimest
character, eloQuence of the most en-
trancing power, and pathos as tender
as beautiful has really done more in
purifying and elevating the intellectu-
al aspirations, and in directing the
noble rivalry of authors than all other
ic "a
great Luminary which the Mighty
God of the universe has hung out in
the heavens, in whose light the rich
est minds of earth have delighted to
dwell The influence of that most
wonderful and enhancing of Books,
whose every line is marked with the
seal of high divinity, and whose
every leaf is believed with the drops
of love" can no more be blotted out
and its hallowed truths forgotten,
without changing the whole current
and character of modern life and lit
erature, and completely denuding
them of their most princely apparel,
than can the light of the material
sun be dispensed with without
enshrouding the earth we live on with
darkness. Whilst the regal minds of
Milton, and Dante. and Shakespeare
have dlighted to draw their highest
inspiration from this great source.
and the first two have made some of
Its most impressive teachings the
themes of their noblest song. men of
dlm1nutiVe intellectual mould have
Missed their soothing insults into the
very face of its omniscient Author.
and thrown their Venomous slime
upon upon its spotless pages. Aside
then from its incalculable importance
as containing the only chart of life,
and the only historic records of the
Il l1ea
Bible is worthy of our most patient
study, as its Author merits our pro-
foundest gratitude and thanksgiving,
because ii has been SO instrumental In
promoting among the masses of men
spirit of intelligence, and has so
improved the taste of the age that the
gross immoralities and concealed vi
ciousness of the works of other times
are not tolerated now, and writer's
whose works were once SO popular
are now never read by the refined or
religious save i'm expurgated editions,
and because it has furnished the
most inspiring themes and the noblest
images, and the best examples of the
sublime and beautiful to be found
among the contributions which glorify
the languages of earth.
Great, beneficent results flowing
from the supremacy and moral inf1u-
ence of the Bible may be seen in the
life of the great men in Greece and
Rome, and among later nations and
the pest types OF manhood within the
last two hundred years The modern
Muse has created much more noble
and elevated specimens of manhood
than can be found among the poets
or a more SenSuous, ignoble and
idolatrous kind living in an age b1t
little Influenced, if any, by the Bible.
Even Byron, a great poet, was the in
SEPARATION of much of his very best Of
poems to the Book of books For his
noblest images and sublimest passag es
he was indebted to the Word of God
1t is the inexhaustible fountain of
poetic beauty, sublimity and insnira-
ton at which bards of MANY ages
have drunk most freely The infiu-
ence of the Bible has been SO signallv
Ieit by the masters of modern litera-
ture that their works are far SUPERIOR
to all that have preceded them in
correctness of morals, purity of
thought, gentleness of spirit-in a
broad, full-hearted, humanitarian.
loving sympathy
And now let us move out upon an
other line. A large number of
opinions by distinguished men who
have lived in different centuries and
countries as to the value and power
of the Holy Bible, might be given
thors not often drawn upon concern
ing the Book of Jehovah. That great
English critic in the first quarter of
the last century, William Hazlitt, a
vigorous thinker and eloquent writer
says of 1.-The historical parts of the
Old Testament" and ''the moral SEN
timents of the New" that "there is
nothing like them in the power of ex-
citing awe and admiration, or of
riveting sympathy" I must make one
quotation of some length, for Hazlitt
was not a believer in Christ possibly.
as his father was an Unitarian min
lister and he was himself educated for
that profession. He writes:
"Or what is there equal Tin the
romantic interest and patriarchal
simplicity which goes to the heart of
a country, and rouses it, as it were.
from its lair in wastes and wilder
ness) to the story of Joseph and his
Brethren, of Rachel and Laban, of
Jacobs Dream, of Ruth and Boaz,
the descriptions in the Book of Job,
the deliverance of the Jews out of
fI,n