The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-13

As Moulton has said. The English of
the sixteenth century was lacking in
many of our commences. general words,
and as a result men used figures of
speech more naturally. Hence the mar
velously rich figures of the Bible"
Meanings. too, were more single and
direct than we find them today. 1t
was more concrete and immediate in
| its meaning.
Beat of Rhythm.
But it is not simply the words, clear
cut and simply direct, that hold the
great secret of the literary charm of
the Bible. In all art. rythm makes life
and feeling. The power of language to
express religious feeling is bound up
| inseparably with rich coloring of tone
and strong beat of rhythm With it
there is another element. The heart
| beat of that deep moral earnestness in
which the originals were written and
alike translated by the men who in
| that far fierce day felt as we cannot
a passionate need to echo TO their
time the heart of all the MSS. held, for
| they were facing the struggle with
/ Rome, and, as they weighed phrases
! in the scales of their rich culture, they
weighed also their souls.
We have referred to the Characters
! tic cOncreteness of the Hebrew. They
! had no abstract words. They there
/ fore enriched their literature with bold
| figures. Compare the figures of the
I English and the Hebrew, Gen. 1886
| Captain of guard" "Chief of slaugh-
termen;" Judges 1873, It'll the day de-
clined," Until afternoon" "Extortion-
er, ''Wringer," with one consent, with
one shoulder
I Much boI1neSe Of fcr,,,a -, ono
the Hebrew Fat of the land" wal
| ley of shadow of DEATH" END of all
/ flesh.' seed of eyildoers, A soft
! answer" Son of perdition."
And that same figurative note in
| sixteenth century English chimed in
| well, for there were then more figures
of speech and fewer abstract words.
A Source Of Power.
The quaint old world note that the
A. V. has, is one of the sources of its
! power. as also an element of its liter
airy value.
But that literary value lies not
| of course, in any quaintness or note OF
| the archaic, but because the concrete
/ and the figurative can alone fifty ex-
| press the deepest and nobleSt emotions
/ The very fact that the sixteenth cen
| fury was poor in abstract words has
/ enriched the book because of the richer
/ store of words fitted TO express the
| deep things of the heart.
/ Another note of high value i'm this
| literature is its simplicity. Compare
| the Bible with any other book in the
| English language and be impressed
/ with the simplicity of the vocabulary
! Even Pilgrims Progress seems learned
/ i'm vocabulary compared Herewith. And
/ yet the aptness and flexibility of style
! are wonderful. It's every chapter bears
! the mark of simplicity and power.
! Now there is no doubt that above
| all other books in our language the
| Bible has by its style, as we'll as its
| content, the power of men. For mer
! without religious belief the Bible has
a stimulus and uplift by its lofty liter
! airy worth.
! One has but to take even the lOfti-
ness of BrOwning's Saul" or the elab-
| crate moral epic of Millions Samson
| AgOnistes,'' and compare them with the
/ A. V and its simple stories of these
men to see the superior literary worth
| of the Bible.
| Take this from Job:
| "Canst thou bind the sweet influences
of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion
| Canst thou bring forth MazzarOth II
! his season? Or canst thou guide Arc