The Irish standard., 1917-12-15
ing, it would still occupy a position
absolutely unique.

ing, it would still occupy a position
absolutely unique.
In theme and treatment, in original
ity, power and beauty, in unity and
variety, in simplicity and sublimity;
by it's startling contrasts all blending
into the stern inflexibility of it's one
single purpose, by the marked indi-
viduality yet universally of it's ap-
peal, by it's epic grandeur and tragic
'catastrophes, in mailing pathos and
idyllic charm, it is without peer or
a rival, it will never be surpassed In
perfection of form the classic litera-
ture of Greece and Rome may be SUI
periOr to that of the Hebrew writer's.
Among the giants who shed an indy
ing luster on the little tribe locked
in the fastness of Palestine, there
were no great tragic writer's like So
phocles, whose "Edipus Rex" is per-
haps the most tremendously planned
and most faultlessly executed work
the world has seen.
But the thought is more than the
SHE'LL" and in substance, in depth, in
the hold which it has over the human
heart in every race and cline, the
Bible surpasses every other book. It
dwells in region and an atmosphere
peculiarly it's own and to which others
may not aspire. .
The Bible is the true universal his
tory. The book is as wide as the
world, as deep as the heart, as sub
lime as the heavens. In it's pages are
to be found the destiny and the an
nails of mankind, the very thoughts
and secrets of God. OF all books, it
alone authoritatively records the birth
of time, when the new earth in virgin
beauty clad wheeled into space and
the stars sang their morning hymn
Alone of all the records Of men it
has dared to describe the hour when
scroll and the Angel of Judgment will
swear by the living God that time
shall be no more. Genesis is the story
of the birth of a world; the Apoca-
lypse is mournful threnody over the
end of all created things. In the for
mer Moses writes with the freshness
and innocence of childhood marvel
ing over the loneliness of a fairy tale,
yet unconsciously carried into the re-
gions of the sublime by the very
beauty of the story.
In the latter, John, the eagle-eyed,
chronicles the closing act, the tragic
catastrophe of the world drama and
then is swept to the heights of vision
and song as he describes the new
Jerusalem coming in her bridal garb
to meet her Lord. The idyl and the
dirge, fact and prophecy, the old and
the new, time and eternity, meet in
the first and last syllables of this mar
velous book.
Between Genesis and the Apoca-
lypse are all the emotions, all the
passions, and joys and sorrows, all
the virtues, all the sanctities, all the
vices and crimes which can stir or
move, defile or ennoble the human
heart. There Moses sings his hymn
of triumph as the horse and it's rider
and the chariots of Pharoah roll
weltering in the waves; and David
mourns over Saul and Jonathan slain
on the high places, the two dread war
riors swifter than eagles, stronger
than lions. There Virgin exults in
spirit and magnifies her Lord because
she is to become the Mother of her
God. Gather together all the thoughts
and feelings which can agitate human
ity. They are all in the Bible. God,
Nature, Man-these are its themes.
That book, says Goethe, lis not the
book Of nation, but the book of ma
tions, because it places before us the
fortunes of one nation as symbol
unto all the rest, because it connects
the history of this one people with
the origin of the world, and by Sc.
ries of earthly and spiritual develop
ments, of facts necessary and acct.
dental. continues it unto the remotest
regions of the farthest eternities.'
The Bible is written practically in its
entirety by men of Jewish blood. On
every page, even when the language is
Greek, there is an unmistakable He
brew color. Every thought has been
fused in the Hebrew mold. Language
| customs, manners, religion, traditions