that the finest subjects for historic painting within the entire circle of the Fine Arts have been selected from the Scriptures? Such are Lot and his two daughters hastened by the angels out of Sodom, and the Finding of Moses on the Nile, by Rembrant Moses striking the Rock, by Poussin the Deluge, by Trumbull-Belshazzar's Feast, by Martin-the Transfiguration and the Madonna, by Raphael-Moses receiving the Law —Abraham and Isaac, at the foot of the mountain-Paul's Shipwreck Christ Rejected-Death on the Pale Horse, by West the Last Supper, by Davinci-Christ in the Garden, by Guido-the Fall of the Damned-and the Resurrection of the Just, by Rubens. Raphael, the first painter in the world, and who was employed so extensively by Leo X, painted chiefly scriptural subjects. His famous Cartoons are all scriptural themes. Nor may it be denied, that these and other similar subjects have been selected with inimitable judgment and taste. None knew better how to make or prize the selection than these illustrious artists; for none brought to the selection minds better furnished, or more intensely devoted to the object. I look upon it as no unmeaning compliment to the Bible, that the best artists have awarded to it this distinguished honour; and one reason why they have done so obviously is, that profane history furnishes no such themes.

Nor do I know any thing to equal the didactic and argumentative parts of the Scriptures, especially as they are presented in some of the Prophets; in the discourses of our Saviour, and the epistles of Paul. Read the instructions of the greatest of all teachers to Nicodemus: advert to his conversation with the woman of Samaria: study his argument to the complaining Jews in the temple, and to the deceived multitude that followed him across the sea to Capernaum: turn to his discourse to the people at Nazareth: and then read his farewell address to his disciples. Where will you find so rich a vein of thought, argument, and alternate rebuke and tenderness? There is nothing in the compositions of Addison, the most neat and nervous of all the English classics, to be compared with these, or with the Sermon on the mount. Nor is there anything in the finest orations and treatises of the most celebrated masters of anti

quity, so eloquent as the glowing prediction of the great apostle of the restoration of his countrymen, or his triumphant argument for the resurrection, or his bold and exquisitely wrought description of the privileges of the people of God. You recollect how he closes the first. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again! For of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever!" I cannot do justice to his illustration and argument relative to the second, without rehearsing a part of it. "All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass that is written, death is

swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting! 0 grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" When this author first presented these epistles to the world, I have no doubt they produced impressions of the deepest interest, if not of high astonishment. Some of you can recollect the emotions with which you read them more than twenty years ago; and they excite the same emotions still, except that they are more enlightened and vigorous. You well recollect also the close of his description of the privileges of the children of God: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who shall be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created existence shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There is a noble specimen of lofty argument and expostulation also in one of the early books of the Old Testament which I may not pass over I will de in silence. "Gird up thy loins now like a man. mand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

Wilt thou also dis

annul my judgments? Wilt thou condemn me that thou mayst be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency, and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath, and behold every one that is proud and abase him. Look on every one that is proud and bring him low, and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, bind their faces in secret. Then will I also confess unto thee, that thine own right hand hath saved thee!" There are several fine points in this passage, but none more exquisitely fine than this,- "Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath, and behold every one that is proud, and abase him! Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low!" It is a lofty challenge from God to the arrogance and power of man. O how impotent compared with the Almighty One! There needs but a look from God to level the proudest worm. I know not where to find passages of equal force, sublimity, and simplicity out of the Bible. And they are but specimens from almost innumerable passages equally brilliant. There is no vapidness in such passages as these, which palls on the taste. Their flowers do not fade, nor does their fruit lose its freshness. The sacred writers differ in this respect from all others. These dissertations have long been published to the world; but they have lost none of their power, none of' their grandeur and beauty. They are always new, and more and more deeply interest a classical mind the oftener they are read and the better they are known. No matter how often you read them, the last perusal leaves the highest relish behind it.

One of the most eminent critics has said, that "devotional poetry cannot please." If it be so, then has the Bible "carried the dominion of poetry into regions that are inaccessible, to worldly ambition." It has "crossed the enchanted circle," and by the beauty, boldness, and originality of its conceptions, has given to devotional poetry a glow, a richness, a tenderness, in vain sought for in Shakspere or Cowper, in Scott or Byron. Where is there poetry that can be compared with the song of Moses at his victory over Pharaoh; with the Psalms of David; with the Song of Solomon, and with the Prophecies of Isaiah?

Where is there an elegiac ode to be compared with the song of David upon the death of Saul and Jonathan, or the Lamentations of Jeremiah? Where in ancient or modern poetry is there a passage like this? "In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face: the hair of my flesh stood up.It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof. An image was before mine eyes. There was silence. And I heard a voice saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God; shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold he putteth no trust in his servants, and his angels he chargeth with folly. How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, and who are crushed before the moth!" Men who have felt the power of poetry, when they have marked the "deep working passion of Danté,” and observed the elevation of Milton as he "combined image with image in lofty gradation," have thought that they discovered the indebtedness of these writers to the poetry of the Old Testament. But how much more sublime is Isaiah than Milton! How much more enkindling than Danté is David! How much more picturesque than Homer is Solomon, or Job! Like the rapid, glowing argumentations of Paul, the poetic parts of the Bible may be read a thousand times, and they have all the freshness and glow of the first perusal. Where, in the compass of human language, is there a paragraph, which, for boldness and variety of metaphor, delicacy and majesty of thought, strength and invention, elegance and refinement, equals the passage in which "God answers Job out of the whirlwind"? What merely human imagination, in the natural progress of a single discourse, and apparently without effort, ever thus went down to "the foundations of the earth"-stood at "the doors of the ocean"-visited "the place where the day-spring from on high takes hold of the uttermost parts of the earth”—entered into "the treasures of the snow and the hail"—traced the path of the thunder-bolt—and, penetrating the retired chambers of nature, demanded, “Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of the dew?" And how bold its