of our re.igion. We love and advocate the church schools of every grade, from the parochial to the theological seminary. We are friendly, also, to schools supported by private enterprise. Let all do what they can. There is room enough and work enough for all. But we cannot lose sight of the fact, that, with all these in the field, there will still remain millions of children, whom no private, no denominational, and none but a state, or municipal free school, can ever, reach. Whilst, therefore, as Christians, we establish, and, with all the resources within our power, sustain our own denominational institutions, we have no desire or intention to segregate ourselves or our churches from the common interests of our fellow-citizens, and the common schools of our country. No; Protestants have a state to cherish as well as a church; we are citizens and patriots, not less than Christians. With our fellow-Christians of all evangelical orders, we take a wider range, we repudiate that narrow churchism, which walls itself round with a fortress of fanaticism, and wages an implacable war against every interest but its own; we stand, where we have ever stood-and where our fathers stood-by the country and its institutions-ITS COMMON SCHOOL AND ITS BIBLE. X.- -CONCLUDING REMARKS. And now, as we shall be able to travel with you over the pages of this wonderful book, sketching its deversified scenes and characters, noting its chief points of beauty and sublimity, unfolding its historical, biographical, literary and scientific attractions, we trust you will bear in mind one thing: and that is, we must not expect to understand everything, nor to find everything beautiful and sublime, any more than we do in the world of nature. The world is worth seeing, and worth travelling over, although it may not be all attractive, or equally instructive. And so it is with the Bible. Let us ponder the striking and appropriate remarks of McCheyne : He would be a sorry student of this world who should forever confine his gaze to the fruitful fields and well-watered gardens of this cultivated earth. He could have no true idea of what the world was, unless he had stood upon the rocks of our mountains, and seen the bleak muirs and mosses of our barren land; unless he had paced the quarter-deck, when the vessel was out of sight of land, and seen the waste of waters without any shore upon the horizon. "Just so, he would be a sorry student of the Bible who would not know all that God has inspired; who would not examine into the most barren chapters, to collect the good for which they were intended; who would not strive to understand all the bloody battles which are chronicled, that he might find oread out of the eater and honey out of the lion." We must also bear in mind another thing, if we would rightly appreciate the Bible; and that is the remarkable manner in which its utterances contain the undeveloped elements of all subsequent progress, even as the nut contains the kernel, or the seed the germ of life. This is one of the clearest marks of its Divine inspiration. There is everywhere a wisdom, wider and deeper than the words seem at first to convey—a wisdom often profound in exact proportion to the simplicity of the words This is strikingly illustrated in all the New Testament writers; but especially in the words of Christ, of whom in this, as in all other respects, it was most true, that never man spake like this man." Says the learned Neander : "Jesus would not have been Son of God and Son of Man, had not his words, like his works, with all their adaption to the circumstances of the times, contained some things that are inexplicable -had they not borne concealed within them the germ of an infinite development, reserved for future ages to unfold. It is this feature and all the evangelists concur in their representa tions of it-which distinguishes Christ from all other teachers of men. Advance as they may, they can never reach him." Indeed this profound, and far-reaching wisdom, which anticipates all subsequent advancement, and reveals a mind in harmony with truth and nature, is the truest test by which we can measure the greatness of our fellow-men. Lord Bacon could confidently appeal to the future and calmly commend his writings to the judgment of posterity. John Milton could do the same, not fearing that the world would suffer his immortal verse to die. The sententious wisdom of Shakspeare, not less than his dramatic genius, has made his utterances now for centuries the familiar household words of all who speak the English tongue The same wisdom may be seen in Burke, in Dr. Johnson, in our own Franklin and Webster, indeed in all great thinkers. Living not alone for one age or generation, they are often in advance of their times, and are enabled so to speak and write that their words become the chosen vehicles of thought for all other men,. But, in this respect, how do all the great master. minds of ancient and modern times fall into the background compared with Christ and the sacred writers! From Socrates and Plato to the present hour, many memorable sayings have been uttered, many eloquent passages recorded, which can never die. But where shall we find words so pregnant with meaning, and so incorporated into the thoughts of other men, as those brief words of the Prayer, the Parables, the Conversations, and the public Discourses, of Jesus Christ? Amongst all the memorable things spoken by Napoleon Bonaparte, none is, perhaps, more remarkable than the following tribute to the gospel of Christ, given in a conversation with General Bertrand at St. Helena: The gospel possesses a secret virtue of indescribable efficacy, a warmth which influences the understanding and softens the heart; in meditating upon it you feel as you do in contemplating the heavens. The gospel is more than a book; it is a living thing, active, powerful, overcoming every obstacle in its way. See, upon this table, this book of books (and here the Emperor touched it reverently); I never cease reading it, and always with new delight. Christ never hesitates, never varies in his instructions, and the least of his assertions is stamped with a sincerity and a depth, which captivate the ignorant and the learned if they give it their attention." If such words of praise from the world's most wonderful man be deemed worthy of attention, how much more the words themselves whose divine attractions he seemed to feel! LIBRARY CHAPTER II. POETRY AND THE BARDS OF THE BIBLE. Nature and Uses of Poetry in the Bible-Difference between Hebrew Prose and Poetry. -Style of Hebrew Poetry, Parallelism-Spirit of Hebrew Poetry-Departments of Hebrew Poetry-Influence of Hebrew Poetry-Writers of Poetry in the Bible-The Seven Greater Bards-The Argument from Poetry-Concluding Remarks. I. THE NATURE AND USES OF POETRY IN THE BIBLE. To a mind capable of appreciating the sublime and the beautiful, one of the highest literary attractions which the Bible presents, is its poetry. And as all educated persons are presumed to have a taste sufficiently cultivated to admire what is grand or beautiful, both in nature and in art, we could not easily find a theme, in the whole circle of sacred literature, whose announcement ought to be more popular and inviting than this-The Poetry and the Bards of the Bible. Poetry is the highest style of human speech; just as speech is the noblest vehicle of thought and feeling. Poetry is the language of human nature when it has found the sublime and beautiful-and not only found, but felt it, and sought to embody and express in numbers, those swelling conceptions which are too big for common words. It is the language of the soul, by which it seeks to rise above itself, to hold sympathetic and congeniai brotherhood with all that is true and great, all that |