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September 13, 1911 ] T H E J
THE BIBLE IN LITERATURE.
BV MARGARET H. BARNETT.
( Continued from page 845.)
Of the little Princess Elizabeth it is said,?
"In her days every man shall eat in safety
Under his own vine what he plants, and sing
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbors,"
making use of a proverbial expression, "Under
his own vine," which is used several times in
the Bible to give the idea of peace and safety.
Though put into the mouth of one of the charters
in Anthony and Cleopatra, the following
" gives a very Biblical idea of prayer,?
'We, ignorant of ourselves,
btb / harms, which the wise powers
Deny us iv. good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers."
All these quotations would have to be explained
to one ignorant of the Bible. And the
number of such nnntatinna tn Ho
writings of the great dramatist might be largely
increased.
Lord Byron is not at all a religious writer,
yet among his poems is a collection of '' Hebrew
Melodies," which are very beautiful. Among
them are, "The Harp the Monarch Minstrel
Swept;" "If That High World;" "The Wild
Gazelle on Judah's Hills;" "Oh! Weep for
Those That Wept by Babel's Stream;" "On
Jordan's Banks;" "Jephtha's Daughter;"
"Song of Saul Before His Last Battle;"
"Saul," a description of his visit to the witch
of Endor; *' All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher;''
"The Vision of Belshazzar;" "On the Day of
the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus;" "By
the Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept;"
"The Destruction of Sennacherib;" "A Spirit
Passed Before Me," from the passage in the
book of Job.
To give only a few more quotations from this
poet, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage are found
these lines,?
'' The Psalmist numbered out the years of man;
rn.?-.r 1- J -e Al- All
a xik^j aic cuuu^u j iiuu 11 iuy iaie De true,
Thou who didst grudge him even that fleeting
span,
More than enough, thou fatal "Waterloo."
In reference to a young mother with her infant,
are these lines in the same poem,?
'4 She sees her little bud put forth its leaves?
What may the fruit be yet? I know not?
Cain was Eve's."
And later in the same poem,
"But thou, of temples old, or altars new,
Standest alone?with nothing like to thee?
Worthiest of God, the holy and the true,
Since Zion's desolation, when that He
Forsook His former city, what could be,
Of earthly structure in His honor piled,
Of a sublimer aspect!
Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not;
And why! it is not lessen'd; but thy mind,
Expanded by the genius of the spot,
Has grown colossal, and can only find
A fit abode wherein appear enshrined
Thy hopes of immortality; and thou
Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined,
See thy God face to face, as thou dost now
His Holy of Holies, nor he blasted by his brow."
The Scripture references in these quotations
are so evident as to need no comment.
Pollock's "Course of Time," and Bicker
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
steth's "Yesterday, Today, and Forever," both
long poems, and both inspired entirely by the
Bible. Thomson's "Seasons" is pervaded by
its spirit. Both the Brownings show its influence.
A few examples from the writings of Mrs.
Browning may be given. In "Aurora Leigh"
are found the lines,?
"Earth's crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes."
What would this quotation mean to one who
did not know that it was an allusion to God's
appearance to Moses in a flame of fire in a bush ?
In the same poem are two allusions to our first
parents. In speaking of a child, she says,?
"Before the Adaan in him has foregone
All privilege of Eden."
And again,?
I
'' True. After Adam, work was curse;
The natural creature labours, sweats and frets.
But after Christ, work turns to privilege,
And henceforth one with our humanity,
The Six-day Worker, working still in us,
Has called us freely to work on with Him
In high companionship."
From Moore, many illustrations of Bible influence
might be given. Here are two from
Lalla Rookh, the first a reference to the destruction
of Sannacherib's army,?
"Oh, for a sweep of that dark Angel's wing,
Who brushed the thousands of the Assyrian king
To darkness in a moment."
And these lines,?
I
" 'Poor race of men', said the pitying spirit,
Dearly ye pay for your primal fall?
Some flow'rets of Eden ye still inherit,
But the trail of the serpent is o'er them all."
His "Sound the Loud Timbrel," Miriam's
song after the escape of the Israelites from the
Egyptians at the Red Sea, might also be mentioned.
The influence tof the Bible in Tpnnvsnn'a
poems is very marked. He verified the Parable
of the Ten Virgins, and his "Crossing the Bar"
is used as a hymn. His "In Memoriam" begins,?
"Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Who we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone embrace
Believing, where we cannot prove.
Thou seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest manhood thou;
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Uur wills are ours to make them thine."
A little later in the same poem, four stanzas
are given to the subject of the raising of Lazarus.
In Enoch Arden are these lines,?
"Or, if you fear
Cast all your cares on God; that anchor holds.
Is he not yonder in those uttermost
Parts of the morning f If I flee to those,
r* T * tt- ' - ?
Y^ivii x go xroin mm 7 ivna tne sea is His,
The sea is His; He made it."
In his "Passing of Arthur" there are some
beautiful lines on the power of prayer.
"The End of the Play," by Thackeray, Kipling's
"Recessional," "The Burial of Moses,"
by Mrs. Alexander, "Rebecca's Hymn," by Sir
"Walter Scott, all show the influence a? the Scrip
OTB (816) 3
tures. Scott paraphrased "Dies Irae," as did
also several other writers.
To mention only one other English poet, in
Owen Meredith's "Lucile,' there are a number
of Scripture references. Here are some of
them,?
"Oh, better, no doubt, is a dinner of herbs
When seasoned by love, which no rancour disturbs,
And sweetened by all that is sweetest in life,
Than turbot, bisque, ortolans, eaten in strife "
Compare this with those words in Proverbs,
"Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than
a stalled ox and hatred therewith." A little
later in the poem, we read,?
"Sir Ridley was one of those wise men, who, so
far
As their power of saying it goes, say with
Zophar,
'We, no doubt, are the people, and wisdom shall
die with us',"?
a quotation only to be understood by an acquaintance
with the book of Job. Later we read,?
"Ah, that yet! fatal word! 'tis the moral of all
Thought and felt, seen or done, in this world
since the Fall."
"But Heaven forgive me, if cautious I am on
The score of such men as with both God and
mammon
Seem so shrewdly familiar."
"Like the whisper Eve heard, when she paused
by the root
Of the sad tree of knowledge, and gazed on the
fruit. '
The following lines from the same poem are
a paraphrase of Job 38:28, and some of the
following verses,?
"Have the wild rains of heaven a father? and
who
I lath in pity begotten the drops of the dew?
Orion, Arcturus, who pilots them both?
What leads forth in his season the bright
Mazaroth?"
Later, we find these lines,
uue s sorrows still fluctuate; God's love does
not.
And His love is unchanged, when it changes
our lot."
And near the close,?
"Ilush; the sevenfold heavens to the voice of
the Spirit
Echo: He that o'ercometh shall all tMngs inherit."
Turning to our American poets, in the writings
of Longfellow the influence of the Bible
i-, vwj cieariy seen. Tiie poem, "The Children
of the Lord's Supper," is inspired wholly by
the Bible. Many of the "Tales of a Wayside
Inn" show its influence, as an example might
be mentioned "The Legend Beautiful," one of
the most beautiful of the "Tales." In his
"Evangeline" are found these Scriptural references,?
"And there, in his feathered Seragio,
Strutted the lordly turkey, and crowed the cock,
with the selfsame - v
Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent
Peter." ^jP\0\
"And, as she gazed from the window she saw-p^^rserenely
the moon pass ' , ^
Forth from the folds of a cloud, and one stsfollow
her footsteps, )
(Continued on page 5.)
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