of true poetry, the language of Scripture (neither irreverently nor inappropriately) may be extended; the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.' For those objects which, by near contact, strongly affect the senses, are the realities of mortal life; which either perish in the using, or from which we ourselves must perish, and see, know, suffer, or enjoy them no more for ever. Yet the same objects, when removed to that due distance which clothes them with picturesque or poetical beauty, by being thus made ideal, are made immortal, and of the nature of the thinking principle itself."* That the secular poet of modern times should have sung of sublime and heavenly things, is not surprising; for he, with society at large, has shared in the influence of Christianity. But we find that even in the earlier ages, witness was borne by the poet to some of the great truths which revelation has since clearly made known. The few traditions of truth which lingered among men, were welcomed by him, and introduced, though often in a very distorted form, into his works. It is true, indeed, that the poet generally adopted the popular superstitions, and even assisted in riveting on the multitude the chains of ignorance, by gilding them with his genius and so ridiculous, even, were the fables in which he involved the truth, that the philosopher began to think that it would be an advantage to the commonwealth, if poets were expelled from it altogether. Thus, to a certain extent, "the poets were," as Bishop Sherlock observes, "the Papists of antiquity, who corrupted the genuine sentiments of nature, and obscured the light of reason, by introducing the wild conceits of folly and superstition." Yet, nevertheless, every now and then a voice, as if from heaven, speaks from their works: and in the relics of the heathen poetry we have an evidence of the Apostle's statement that "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." The ancient poet taught (but oh, how imperfectly!) the majesty of God: and hence St. Paul was able to shew the Athenians the absurdity of their image-worship from the words of one of their own poets. Thus Homer, notwithstanding the degrading position in which he places his gods, sometimes describes the superiority of Jupiter in terms of great sublimity. Xenophanes boldly protested against the popular idolatry, and expressly taught that "there was but one God, greatest among gods and men, and resembling mortals neither in body nor in mind."+ And so Callimachus rebukes the Cretans who boasted that they possessed the sepulchre of Jupiter: "Cretans are always liars: they for thee, From the Greek dramatists striking passages might be quoted, declaring the power of God, the harmony and eternity of his laws, and the sure punishment attendant on transgression. Though accustomed to a worship which continually appealed to the senses, the contemplative mind sometimes forced its way to loftier notions: the undignified attire in which superstition had arrayed the Deity was cast aside for a moment; and before the favoured bard came dim visions of the majesty of God. The ancient poet taught, also, the immortality of the soul, and even the resurrection of the body. Thus, in the poem attributed to Phocylides, it is said: "We hope, the relics of the dead From earth will rise to light: and be as gods." * Lectures on Poetry, p. 66. † See Lewes's Hist. of Philos. Vol i. p. 74. He also told of hell: the gloomy abode where, according to Pindar, "The foul spirits of the guilty dead, In chambers dark and dread, Of nether earth abide, and penal flame." And there may even be traced in parts of the old poetry some very faint traits of the character of a Mediator-a divine friend of man: as in the Apollo of Callimachus, "who sits at the right hand of Jove," and whose "locks distil not ointment, but a healing for every woe: since, in whatever city those droppings fall to the the earth, all things become free from disease:" or in the Prometheus of Eschylus, who is suspended between heaven and earth on account of his love to man, and, amidst his sufferings, is taunted with being a physician unable to heal himself. Nor was it alone in the more polished communities, whose literary remains have come down to us, that this witness was borne. The mitred Magian, when he had offered his sacrifice on the mountain-top, chanted a hymn concerning divine things; and the Druid, in his consecrated grove, taught his disciples a great number of verses, and the chief subject of his instructions was the immortality of the soul. The early poets "saw the natural world in the theological one; they confounded life and death, and that, not as mere abstractions; they lived with the dead; they heard the voices of spirits; they conversed with the inhabitants of the sky.* Thus a constant witness was borne against the meanness and frivolity of every-day life: it was continually being asserted that there was something beyond the surface of external things. Even to the horrors of battle they added a sublimity, by making it the working out of the councils of a God; and a high value and importance became attached to human actions, while they were represented as being performed under the eye of invisible beings. In all this-the faint reminiscence of man's early knowledge of truth and the prophecy of a restoration to come-there is evidently the mark of a supernatural power. The poetical images which natural objects awaken, are not necessarily attached to those objects. The worldly-minded man may gaze on the sun or the rose, * Ugo Foscolo. and find no ideas of majesty or beaut arise within him; and on minds dried up by the heats and cares of life, the freshening influence of nature, like rain on the molten lava, falls in vain. It must be considered then, as a special arrangement of Divine goodness, at there should ever have been some to whom creation was vocal with a thousand sounds, who, in a world which to many seemed a wilderness, barren of future hopes, were yet able to cultivate the flower "That on the steep of life aye overpeereth even, the flower of poetry; and who, But the ancient poet also bears a clear testimony to the Scriptural doctrine of human depravity. If we, at one moment, are elevated by the sublimity of the heathen poets, we are, the next, startled by some monstrous sentiment, telling too plainly of human imperfection and sinfulness. Though in the garden of their genius beautiful flowers scatter odours, and stately trees point to heaven; yet there also adders lurk and poison-plants grow. No, it is not in uninspired writers, however gifted, that we must look for pure truth; in thy pages alone, O book of God, are shrined the mysteries on which the humble soul may confidently gaze, certain that behind them lie no delusive falsehoods, but, on the contrary, stores of wisdom ever unfolding more and more to the anxious eye! Such were the imperfect guesses of fallen men at truth; such were the few relics which tradition had handed down of the true nature and destiny of man. And now the words of inspiration have been heard, separating these great truths from the heap of falsehood under which they were hid, and confirming them by its sanction; and more, the Son of God himself, by his teachings, his death, and resurrection, "hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." In the glorious splendour of completed revelation, the dim radiance of poetry becomes merged, and it is found that the utmost efforts of human genius have been able to go but a little way in setting forth those things which " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered in into the heart of man." Faint and far between were the notes of song, breathed over the troublous surface of life's sea, which told of a haven lying in some undiscovered spot; but this passing melody has now been exchanged for the song of angels announcing in clear accents, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” and for the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with which believers make melody in their hearts to the Lord. And as the religious teachings of the secular poet have been surpassed by the ineffable realities that breathe and burn in the gospel-page, so have his boldest pictures of creation been surpassed by the new revelations of nature with which providence has rewarded modern research. As his hints respecting divine things have but given obscure and incoherent sketches of the truths brought to light by the Gospel, so have his delineations of nature proved indistinct and meagre now, when some part of the veil, hiding the mysteries of creation, has been raised. To affix a moral significance to outward things and to bring them in connexion with the heart, is still his task; but, as an expounder of the visible universe, he is, at present distanced by the teachers of pure science. These are the persons whom Providence has admitted into nature's chosen secrets; these are the instructors to whom, on such subjects, we must betake ourselves. And when we now hear the gifted masters of science discoursing of the heavens or of the earth, we find that the utterance of the poet is theirs; the secrets to which they have gained access are told in language heightened by the theme; or, at all events, they enable the thoughtful listener to become a poet to himself. They shew us, in what seems to have been the past condition of our earth, realities which "scarcely any freak of the imagination, however wild or vague,”* has surpassed. They shew us in the starry worlds, startling wonders of a creative might; change midst the fixed lights of heaven; movements in the realms where eternal silence appeared to dwell. "They become, (to use the words of Sir John Herschel,) if I may venture on such a figure without irreverence, the messengers from heaven to earth of such stupendous announcements as must strike every one, who hears them, with almost awful admiration," and they thus are permitted to eclipse the poet's descriptions of natural scenery, as his annunciations of spiritural things have been eclipsed by revelation. But though poetry has thus lost much of its influence, the time of its greatest triumphs may yet be to come. When the secrets of science shall have become household words; when the materials of the poet shall be taken not merely from the natural phenomena patent to every eye, but from their recondite connexions and endless varieties; not merely from the surfaces of the heavens and the earth, but from the rich stores laid up behind them, how sublime a hymn will he be able to raise, with these things for his metaphors and Redemption for his theme! Let us for a moment dwell on this great idea. Let us hastily glance at the vast extent of the material universe even now laid open to us; let us think of masses of glory of stupendous magnitudes and various coloursof systems whose years are reckoned by terms of hundreds or thousands of years each-of animated dust whose organized particles reason attempts in vain to count-of the manifold combinations, groupings, andarrangements which pervade every part of the wide field of creation-and then try to conceive the anthem of praise which might be raised with such materials for its imagery, should all the families of the earth meet with one accord to sing boldly, in the face of day, "a hymn to Christ as to their God." And surely, hereafter, when the happy multitudes of the redeemed, assembled in their Father's house, shall unite in an endless song of gratitude and victory, they will mingle with their thanksgivings some notes of acknowledgment for the revelations made to them concerning the outward creation, of which they knew a very little on earth, but of which they will probably know far more in heaven. For, if believers shall there "see Him as he is," surely they will have a larger acquaintance with his works. From the extended outlying territories of the universe, from the distant firmaments which circulate in apparent infinity, and yet are linked to the throne of God; from the splendid dwelling-places of mysterious inhabitants, which, we may conceive, stud, like brilliant islands, the sea of space, may the glorified saint be perhaps, ever gathering new proofs of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. But not all the august array of worlds upon worlds, not all the splendour of the more favoured spots of creation, not all the far-reaching circuit of marvels, round which the beatified immortal may be led, will sweep from his heart the memory of this lowly earth, and the little dim spot upon it, where he first became conscious of a Saviour's love, where the Comforter first shewed him "things to come,” where he wept tears of penitence and affection, where he glowed with faith, where he knelt in prayer, and where he first learned to sing, albeit in trembling notes, that spiritual song, which, swelling into richer poetry and fuller cadence as the ages of eternity roll along, will bear an everlasting witness to the truths of Revelation. M. N. WORLDLY VANITIES. "THE pomps and vanities of this wicked world," is a phrase familiar to our ears, and often referred to; but what is its specific meaning? It seems a sort of undefinable expression, which may signify a great deal, or almost nothing. What is pomp, and what is vanity? The words are not altogether obsolete in modern language, but, in practice, it is difficult to fix their precise import. When we are called to "renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world," we must at least suppose that there is a "wicked world," and that it has its "pomps and its vanity," and that these are displayed and made manifest on particular occasions. Now, suppose that we were to name some particular occasions when these would be most likely to be exhibited, and were to warn our hearers, for instance, against balls, theatres, and race-courses, what would be the sensation excited? Oh, it would be said, we can see no harm in these things, kept within due bounds. They are only innocent amusements, and are tolerated within the pale of the church, and baptised persons frequent them without rebuke, and without apprehension of inconsistency or evil. Where, then, shall we look for anything to answer precisely to the terms, "pomps and vanity?" If balls, races, and theatres are not proscribed things, but may be consistently followed by persons pledged to renounce the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, why then it is only a libel to call the world about us "wicked," and it is an aspersion on the character of Christian society to suppose that "pomps and vanity" obtain a footing in it. The wicked world alluded to is, we presume, a world afar off, in some distant unchristianised land, where heathenism still reigns, and where Satan is avowedly worshipped, and even the sign of the cross is unknown. Is this the conclusion which we are driven to? Or is it true that Christianity, though professed among us, is, in fact, unknown in principle, and set at defiance in practice by the majority of those who call themselves by the name of Christ? Be this matter of reflection; let the balance of the sanctuary be employed in weighing the opinions that prevail on the subject, and then mark the result. Are the things alluded to suitable for Christian believers? or are they inconsistent with true religion? Are they, in a word, sanctioned or condemned by the word of God? ON CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIP. Он! blessed bond! all bonds above! But, Christian Friendship, formed in God, Made one in Christ, they 're one for ever! |