been laid down for the guidance of all social life. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you," said the great Master, "do ye even so to them.” 1 On another occasion Jesus emphasized this positive principle still more strongly. When a Pharisee, wishing to put him to confusion, inquired which was the greatest of all the commandments, Jesus answered: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 2

The tendency to substitute a religion of forms for a religion of righteousness has existed in every age. This tendency manifested itself among the ancient Hebrews as it is to be seen in many parts of the church to-day. It was this tendency which permitted a man at the same time to be religious and unjust in his social relations, that evoked some of the most eloquent denunciations of the Old Testament prophets. "Bring no more vain oblations," exclaims Isaiah, as he speaks in the name of Jehovah; "incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." 4

Literature. The literature of Europe and America may be fairly characterized as a Christian literature. The ethical and religious principles that pervade its warp and woof are drawn more or less directly from the Bible. The serious

1 Matt. 7: 12.

8 That is, put up with, or endure.

2 Matt. 22: 37-40.

4 Is. 1: 13-17.

intellectual activity of the Middle Ages—an activity characterized by rare acuteness was devoted chiefly to a

discussion of dogmas or truths originally derived from the Scriptures. At the present time a considerable part of our voluminous publications deals with historical, ethical, or theological questions started by the Bible.

It is notable that some of the greatest poems of modern times treat of biblical themes. Dante's "Divina Commedia” records the incidents of an imaginative visit to hell, purgatory, and heaven as these localities were conceived of in the fourteenth century. Milton's great epic, based on the opening chapters of Genesis, thus states its theme in the opening lines:

"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, heavenly Muse."

Likewise Goethe's great poem of "Faust sets forth Scriptural truth. It teaches, as does the book of Ecclesiastes, the insufficiency of knowledge, self-indulgence, power, and æsthetic culture, to satisfy the deep longings of our nature. It reaches the conclusion that only the spirit of love and of unselfish labor for others can bring deep-seated peace and joy. The great tragedies of Shakespeare - King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth are only illustrations of the biblical principle that "the wages of sin is death." 1

Lyrical Poetry. In addition to these long and celebrated poems, the number of which might be indefinitely extended, the Scriptures have inspired an incalculable quantity of lyrical verse. There is scarcely a prominent

1 Rom. 6:23.

poet of Europe or America who has not somewhere treated of biblical truth or biblical incident. The writers of religious lyrics, many of which find a place in our hymn-books, are literally to be numbered by the hundred. Even the less serious poets, like Thomas Moore and Lord Byron, sometimes turn aside from their mocking, satirical, or secular subjects to dwell on Scriptural truths. Thus Moore, expanding a passage from one of the psalms, beautifully sings:"Thou art, O God, the life and light •

Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night

Are but reflections caught from Thee.
Where'er we turn, Thy glories shine,

And all things fair and bright are Thine."1

In like manner Byron, in his "Hebrew Melodies," celebrates various themes drawn from the Old Testament. In "Saul" he describes the spectral visitation of the prophet Samuel; 2 in the "Vision of Belshazzar" he portrays the frightful apparition of a hand as it traced mysterious and ominous words on the palace wall; in "By the Rivers of Babylon" he paraphrases a psalm of the captivity; and in "The Destruction of Sennacherib" he versified an incident of Hebrew history in the wellknown lines beginning:

"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee." 5

-

Poets of Truth and Righteousness. It is hardly too much to claim that the great poets of the nineteenth century

1 Compare Ps. 74: 16, 17. See also Moore's paraphrase of Miriam's song in 21 Sam. 28:7-25.

Ex. 15:20, 21.

5 2 Kings, 18 and 19.

8 Dan. 5.

4 Ps. 137.

in England and America were, like the ancient Hebrew prophets, preachers of truth and righteousness. In the presence of a materialistic philosophy, which denied the high spiritual truths of God, and providence, and immortality, they steadfastly clung to the invisible and eternal. Wordsworth felt the mystery of that unseen Presence which pervades all things and which the psalmist of Israel had celebrated millenniums ago. In "Tintern Abbey" we read:

"And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts: a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things."1

In the closing stanzas of "The Ancient Mariner" Coleridge declares the supremacy of love. This is the truth which Paul, in the famous thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, had eloquently proclaimed many centuries before. Here are the words of the English poet :

"He prayeth best who loveth best

All things both great and small;

For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."

One of the precious truths of the Scriptures is the fact of divine providence. It was repeatedly and beautifully presented by Jesus Christ. "The very hairs of your head,"

He said, "are numbered."

Now listen to Robert Brown

1 Compare Ps. 139:7-10.

ing's expansion of this conception of the divine love and

care:

"God smiles as He has always smiled;

Ere suns and moons could wax and wane,
Ere stars were thundergirt, or piled

The heavens, God thought on me His child;
Ordained a life for me, arrayed

Its circumstances every one
To the minutest; ay, God said

This head this hand should rest upon

Thus, ere He fashioned star or sun." 1

Else

Nearly three thousand years ago David, "the sweet singer of Israel," celebrated the goodness of God.2 where in the Old Testament, as in the New, the same divine attribute is dwelt upon. In describing the divine nature John declares that "God is love." 3 Many of our modern poets have been inspired by the same exalted theme, and have found comfort and strength in its truth. Thus Whittier, as he thinks of death, gives admirable expression to his sense of trust:

"And so beside the Silent Sea

I wait the muffled oar;

No harm from Him can come to me

On ocean or on shore.

"I know not where His islands lift

Their fronded palms in air;

I only know I cannot drift

Beyond His love and care.”4

An endless life beyond the gates of death this is one of the great truths of Scripture. It is not clearly revealed in the Old Testament, but it is made prominent in the New. In comforting His disciples in view of His approach

1 Browning's "Johannes Agricola in Meditation."

4 Whittier's "The Eternal Goodness."

2 Ps 25.
31 John 4: 16.