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September 13, 1911 ] T H E J
NAPOLEON ON CHRIST,
Dr. Geike, in his "Life and "Words of Christ,"
says that no one will accuse the first Napoleon
of being either a pietist or weak-minded. He
strode the world in his diay like a Colossus, a
man of gigantic intellect, however worthless and
depraved in moral sense. The same author collects
a number of the sayings of this great military
genius and emperor with regard to o\ir
Saviour, which are quite sagacious, and which
it may be well to recall and reprint.
Conversing one day at St. Helema, as his custom
was, about the great men of antiquity, and
comparing himself with them, this remarkable
"~mn turned suddenly to one of his suit and askyou
tell me who Jesus Christ was?"
*wered that he had not yet taken
imiflii h matters. "Well, then,"
said NnprtjtA will tell yon." He then
compared Christ With himself, and with the heroes
of antiquity, and pointed out how vastly he
surpassed them all. "I think T understand
something of human nature," said he, "and I
tell you all these were men. and I am man, hut
no one is like Him. Jesus Christ was more than
man. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemange, and myself
founded great empires; hut upon what did
the creations of our genius depend? Upon force
Jesus founded His empire on love, and to this
very day millions would die for Him. "
"The Gosnel is nn mere W>r?lr " Un o*
another time, "but a living creature, with a
vigor, a power, which conquers all that opposes
it Here lies the book of books upon the table
("touching it reverently); T do not tire of reading
it. and do so daily with equal pleasure. The soul,
charmed with the beauty of the Gospel, is no
longer its own ; God possesses it entirely: He has
hut one aim?the spiritual perfection of the individual,
purification of his conscience, his
union with what is true, the salvation of his
soul. Men wonder at the conquests of Alexander,
but here is a eonnuerer who draws men to
Himself for their highest good; who unites to
Himself, incorporates into Himself, not a nation,
hut the whole human race!"
On another occasion Napoleon said: "From
first to last Jesus is the same?majestic and
simnle, infinitely severe and infinitely gentle.
Throughout a life nassed under the public eye.
He never gives occasion to find fault. Thp nm
dence of his conduct compels our admiration
by its union of force and gentleness. Alike in
speech and action, He is enlightened, consistent
and calm. Sublimity is said to he an attribute of
divinfity; what name then, shall we give Him
in whose character were united every element of
the sublime?
"I know mten; and I tell you that Jesus is not
a man. Everything in Him amazes me. Comparison
is impossible between Him and any other
being in the world. He is truly a being by himself.
Hie ideas and His sentiments; the truth
that He announces; His manner of convincing
arc beyond humanity and the natural order of
things.
His birth, and the story of His life; the profoundness
of His doctrine, which overturn all
difficulties, and is their most complete solution;
His Gospel; the singularity of His mysterious
being; His appearance; His empire; His progress
through tall centuries and Kingdoms?
all this is to me a prodigy, and unfathmomable
mystery.
"I see nothing here of a man. Near as I may
approach, closely as I may examine, all remains
above my comprehension?great with a
greatness that crushes me. It is vain that I
reflect?all remains unaccountable!
"I defy you to recite another life like that
of Christ."
? R E S B Y TER1AN OF THE S <
THE BIBLE IN LITERATURE.
(Continued from page 3.)
As out of Abraham's tent young Ishmael wandered
with Hagar."
"Down sank the great red sun, and in golden,
glimmering vapors,
Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet,
descending from Sinai."
"Like unto ship-wrecked Paul on Melita's desolate
sea-shore."
"Over her head the stars the thoughts of God
in the heavens,
Shone on the eyes of man, who had ceased to
marvel and worship,
Save when a blazing comet was seen on the walls
of that temple,
As if a hand had appeared, and written upon
them 'Upharsin'."
"As if life, like the Hebrew, with blood had
besprinkled its portals,
That the Angel of Death might see the sign,
and pass over."
In addition to these references, the tone of
the poem is religious throughout. Among his
shorter poems, which show the same influence,
are his "Resignation," "Christmas Bells,"
"Sand of the Desert in an Hour-glass," and
others which might be mentioned.
The poems of Whittier are pervaded by the
Bible. If all Scripture references were removed,
there would be but little left. Some of the more
striking examples are the poems called "Palestine,"
"Chirst in the Tempest," "The Watcher,"
which is the Bible story of Rizpah; "The
Cities of the Plain," which refers to the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah; "The Crucifixion,"
"The City of Refuge," "The Missionary,"
"The Call of the Christian," "Knowest
Thou the Ordinances of Heaven." hnaefl nn .Tr?V?
38: 33. His poems on Slavery are full of the
Bible.
Bryant's poems show also the influence of
the Bible. Here are two quotations: In "The
Crowded Street" are these lines,?
"Each where his tasks or his pleasures call,
They pass, and heed each other not.
There is Who heeds, Who holds them all
In His large love and boundless thought."
In "To a Waterfowl" are these lines,?
"There is a power whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,
The desert, and illimitable air
Lone wandering, but not lost.
He who from zone to zone,
Guides, through the boundless sky, thy certain
flight,
In the long way that I must tread alone,
Will lead my steps aright."
Other prominent American poets might also
be mentioned, as showing the influence of the
Bible.
I have, thus far, only considered poetry, but
prose literature shows, also, the Bible's influence.
In some instances their letters are bore
- TIM ' ? -*
.uncu xi(Jin me DiDie, even n tneir contents do
not show its spirit. Bacon's Essays are of a
moral and religious tone throughout, and contain
many Scriptural allusions. The essay, "Of
Truth," begins, "What is truth? said jesting
Pilate; and would not stay for an answer."
Later, in the same essay, he says, "The first
creature of God, in the work of the days, was
the light of the sense; the last was the light of
reason; and his Sabbath work ever since is the
illumination of the Spirit."The essay on Gardens
begins, "God Almighty first planted a
) O T a V " (869) 5
Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress"' ranks first
among English allegories, and without the Bible
it could not have been written.
Dickens' Christmas Stories, for example, "The
Christmas Carol," "The Chimes," and "The
Haunted Man," all show its influence. Such
a character as Jeanne Deanes in Scott's Heart
of Midlothian, could not have been drawn without
the Bible.
"Ben Hur," Lew "Wallace's powerful and popular
book, is based entirely on the Bible. The
same is true of Joshua, by Geo. Ebers. Hall
i? ^ xi i * " - - - -
xuuua tne oasis or tne plots of his novels
in the Bible. "The Cloister and the Hearth,"
by Charles Reade, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which
did so much to bring about the abolition of
slavery, Helen Hunt Jackson's "Ramona," all
show its influence.
Tn Burke's essays on "The Sublime and
Beautiful" are found a number of quotations
from the Psalms and the book of Job, and references
to other parts of Scripture, and to the
Christian religion as revealing the love of God.
Tn William Black's "McLeod of Dare," the
dependency and despair of the hero are very
effectively emphasized by using, printed in
larger type than the context, and separate from
it, those words of Job, "Wherefore is light given
to mm ttiat is in misery and life unto the bitter
in soul; which long for death, hut it cometh not:
and dip for it more than for hid treasures;
which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when
they can find the grave t"
In Macaulay's essay on Horace "Walpole, he
says, '' The literature of France has been to ours
what Aaron was to Moses, the expositor of great
truths which would else have perished for want
of a voice to utter them with distinctness."
In his essay on Bacon, he compares Bacon, as
he appears in the first book of the Novum Organum,
to Moses on Mount Pisgah, with behind
him the wilderness, with its dreary sands and
bitter waters, its ceaseless wandering without
advancing; and before him the land of promise,
a land flowing with milk and honey, which the
multitude, on the plain below, could not see as
he saw it. Macaulay refers to a poem of Cowley,
in which the same comparison is used.
In Webster's celebrated eulogy on Alexander
Hamilton, is the oft-quoted expression, "He
smote the rock of the national resources, and
abundant strpnmo "
guou^u iui tii) mi auusion xo
the bringing of water out of a rock, during the
journeyings of the Israelites in the wilderness.
In the writings of humorists, the influence of
the Bible is seen, as well as in other classes of
literature. For example, in the books of " Josiah
Allen's "Wife," there is, in many cases, a
serious, religious undercurrent, which shows
plainly a Scripture influence. This is especially
true of "Samantha Among the Colored People."
The Reformation stories of Mrs. Charles, some
of which are classic, the writings of Ralph Connor,
with their pictures of the wild life of the
frontier, and the works of many others who
might be mentioned, all show the influence of
the Bible to a marked degree.
The foregoing list of quotations and authors
might be very greatly extended. But enough
have been given to show that a knowledge of
the Bible is valuable not only from a relitrimis
standpoint, but that such knowledge is a necessary
part of a liberal education, as well. Enough
have been given to indicate, in some measure,
the extent of its influence which is felt in all
kinds of literature, prose and poetry, humor and
tragedy. Enough have been given to lead to
the conclusion that if the Bible and its influence
were suddenly taken out of the world, there
would be left a very much mutilated English
literature.