Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-03-18
THE Bible AS LITERATURE
CONTINUED From First Page.

emotions of those who hear or read.
Thus the orator sways mis- audience to
laughter or to tears, thrills them to
their very hearts, or lifts them to sub
limest heights. In this, as well as in
literature of knowledge. the Bible is
without peer.
One way by which literature becomes
powerful in moving the emotions is by
pathos. BY this hard hearts are brok-
en- up, and dry eyes are filled with
tears. Probably one of the strongest
pathOs is in Byron's: Prisoner of Chill
lon." No man with a heart can read 1t,
and fail to be moved Three brothers
are chained in a damp and loathsome
dungeon. One of them sees his older
brother fade and perish by his side; he
sees his younger brother-his pet
perish away day by day, calling for
help and finding none. He sees that
boy at last sink down to deaths en-
brace, while he himself cannot so much
as touch with his hand the death damp
on his brow; while all the time the
rusting, rOtting chains are cutting
deeply into his own tired flesh and he
longs for death in vain. Or we read
the. death of Dickens Little Nell"
while They watched her breathing
through the night. Her breathing soft
and low" or we weep at the deep pathos
of Tiny Tins contentment. But point
you to another scene more deeply pa
thetc than any of these. poet
has tried to describe the quietness OF
the scene which was broken into by
this SORROW
The waters slept; nights silvery veil
hung low
Ger Jordan. and the eddies Curled their
CLASSY rings beneath it,
Like the STILL unbroken beating of
the sleeper's pulse"
but the author Of this Word mas said
that there was a great battle, and after
the battle, the king anXiously awaited
tidings of his son. And while he sat
between the gates, one man came with
tidings and said, "All is WELL" but an
other came, and the king said rs
the young man Absalom safe?" But
the man told of AbSaloms death, and
the king went up to the chambers over
the gate and wept; and as he wept
there, he said, "Oh. my son Absalom;
my son, my son Absalom: would God
| had died for thee. o Absalom, my
son, my SOM"
Another way by which men in their
writings strive to move the emotions,
is by the descriptive that
form of the descriptive by which an ef-
fort is made to thrill Any one who
reads Headley's description of Aus
terlitz-the rising sun, the still form OF
the emperor as he listens to the tramp
of the opposing army, the marshals of
the empire hurrying to their posts-any
man must be moved as he reads. or
Hugo's Waterloo with its sunken road
of Ohain and the quick command Up
guards, and at them," will call the spir-
it of battle into the gentlest heart. But
what about that mighty description in
Kings, when Ben Hadad, King of Sy-
ria and Ahab. King of Israel, warred
against each other, while the Lord God
Himself took part in the fray? Why
the coolest blood runs hot, and the
hands clinch for battle as We read of
those who pitched before them like
two little flocks of kids, but the Sy-
rians filled the country"
Still another form taken by the liter
ature of power is that known as the de-
scription of pastoral scenes. BY these
the naughty spirits are caused to bow.
the struggling souls are made to rest,
and man ceases from his toll, and thinks
of the beauties in God. Henry Grady
once spoke of the quiet godliness of a
country home, and the man who reads
that is carried back to lowing COWS, and
singing birds and near to natures
heart is resting. Or he opens copy
of Burns and reads the Cotters Satur-
day Night and his tired soul comes back
to it's God and seeks its rest. But in
the story of Ruth, read you pastoral
and a poem of love in one-richer,
sweeter, better than was penned by the
hand of man. The widowed bride
cleaving to the widowed mother, the
cleaning in the barley fields, the drink |
ing Of the sour wine the love of Boaz,
the casting of the shoe. and the widow
ed bride of the barley fields become
the bride again and the ancestreSs of
David and of David's mishtiest Son.
And then, with a turn of the pen, the
ready writer changes the theme and
we have the literature that Is sublime. |
This is the kind that lifts a man above
the world and makes him forget that
he is only man. Some one says that
the subimest sentence ever penned by |
the hand of a mere man is this:
Red Battle stamps his foot,
And nations trembie at the shock
but John. in Apocalyptic vision de-
ScribeS a scene far more sublime, when !
he pictures Jesus on the white horse Of
victory, followed by the armies of heav-
en- clothed in fine linen, white and |
clean: while the voice of the mighty |
multitude cried "Alleluia, for the Lord |
God Omnipotent rcigneth."
So. in pathOs when the tears may |
flow. or in the descriptive, when multi |
tudes are thrilled, or I'm the pastoral |
when the many are beckoned to rest, |
or in the sublime when men become as
gods. the Bible finds no superior and |
no equal among the letters Of men, |
Wei may we give attendance to read |
ing it and we'll may we send ii to those
who have ii not. |
PAST AND PRESENT.
! remember, | remember
The house where | was born.