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September 13, 1911 ] THE
NAPOLEON ON CHRIST.
Dr. Geike, in his "Life and Words of Christ,M
says that no one will accuse the first Napoleon
of being either a pietist or weak-minded. He
strode the world in his day 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 our
Saviour, which are quite sagacious, and which
it may be well to recall and reprint.
Conversing one day at St. Helena, as his custom
was, about the great men of antinuitv. and
comparing himself with them, this remarkable
*^an turned suddenly to one of his suit and ask'"'sn
you tell me who .Tosus Christ was?"
-"ered that ho had not yet taken
mueii h matters. "Well, then,"
said Napou^ will tell you." TTo then
compared Christ With himself, and with the heroes
of antiquity, and pointed out how vastly he
surpassed them all. "T think T understand
something of human nature," said he, "and T
tell you all these were men. and T am man. hut
no one is like TTim. Jesus Christ was more than
man. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemange. and myself
founded great empires: but upon what did
the creations of our genius depend? Upon force
Jesus founded TTis empire ori love. and to this
vorv day millions would dip for TTim. "
"The Gospel is no morn hook." said lio at
another time, "but a living creature, with a
vigor, a power, which conquers all that opposes
it TTere lies the hook 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: TTe has
but 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 conqueror who draws men to
TTimself for their highest good : who unites to
Himself, incorporates into Himself, not a nation,
but 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 fife nasscd under the public eye.
TTe never gives occasion to find fault. The prudence
of his conduct compels our admiration
by its union of force and gentleness. Alike in
speech and action. He is pnlightened, consistent,
and calm. Sublimity is said to be an attribute of
divinfity; what name then, shall we give Him
in whose character were united every element of
the sublime?
< < T 1 ? 1 -r . it
i kiiiiw men; ana 1 ion you mat Jesus is not
a man. Everything in TTim amazes me. Comparison
is impossible between Him and any other
being in the world. He is truly a being by himself.
His ideas and His sentiments; the truth
that He announces; His manner of convincing
arc beyond humanity and the natural order of
things.
11 is birth, and the story of Ilis life; the profoundness
of His doctrine, which overturn all
difficulties, and is their most complete solution ;
His Gospel; the singularity of His mysterious
being; TTis appearance; His empire; His progress
through "all centuries and Kingdoms?
all this is to me a prodigy, and unfathmomable
mystery.
"I see nothing here of a man. Near as T may
approach, closely "as T may examine, all remains
above my comprehension?great with a
greatness that crushes me. Tt, is vain that T
reflect?all remains unaccountable!
"I defv von to recite another life lik-p tfim*
lOf Christ."
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S <
TUB BIBLE IN LITERATURE.
(Continued from page 3.)
As out ?>l' Abraham's tent young Ishmael wandered
with 11 agar."
"Down sank the great red sun, and in golden,
glimmering vapors,
Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet,
descending from Sinai."
"lake 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 ' Upliarsin \ "
" if lif? Kl.n TT..1 -A.1- 11-11 "
.... .. ..... .ii\< inr iiniri'h, Willi OlOOU ll.Kl
besprinkled its portals,
That t ho An pel of Death ln'ipht see the sipn,
and pass over."
In addition to these references, the tone of
the poem is relipious 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 he mentioned.
The poems of Whittier are pervaded hy the
Bible. If all Scripture references were removed,
there would ho hut little loft. 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 Ilcaven," based on Job
38:38. 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 Ilis 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.
Ho 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
he mentioned, as showing the influence of the
Bible.
I have, thus far, only considered poetry, hut
prose literature shows, also, the Bible's influence.
In some instances their letters are borrowed
from the Bible, even if their 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 Snirit."The essav nn fJ.ir.
dens begins, "God Almighty first planted a
garden."
)UTfl . (809) 5
Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress"' ranks first
among English allegories, and without the Biblu
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 TTur." "Lew "Wallace's powerful and popular
hook, is based entirely on the Bible. The
same is true of Joshua, by Geo. Ebers. Hall
Cainc found the basis of the plots of his novels
in the Bible. "The Cloister and the Hearth,"
by Charles TJeade. "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which
did so mn r>li tn livim? nli""* 4-V.?
tw .f. Illh CIIM'tll (III' (IIMIIIIIHII |)|
slavery. Helen TTunt 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 "MeLeod of Dare," the
dependency and despair of the hero are very
offeetively emphasized by using, printed in
larger type than the context, and separate from
it. those words of Job. ""Wherefore is light given
to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter
in soul: which long for death, hut it eometh not:
and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when
they ean find the grave?"
Tn Macaulay's essay on TTorace "Walpole, he
says, "The literature of Pranee 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."
Tn his essay on Bacon, he compares Bacon, as
he appears in the first, hook of the Novum Organum,
to Moses on Mount Pisgah, with behind
him the wilderness, with its dreary sands and
hitter waters, its ceaseless wandering without
advancing; and before him the land of promise,
a land flowing with milk and honey, which the
milltitilrln An nlnJr, U~l?? 1 j ?
.... hie |' ici in uciuw, cud HI II oc spg as
he saw it. Macanlay refers to a poem of Cowley,
in which the same comparison is used.
Tn "Webster's celebrated eulogy on Alexander
Hamilton, is the oft-quoted expression, "Tie
smote the rock of the national resources, and
abundant streams gushed forth," an allusion to
the bringing of water out of a rock, during the
journeyings of the Israelites in the wilderness.
Tn 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 he 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 religious
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
4 -- 1
mifccuy. iwiougn nave 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.