Page images
PDF
EPUB

is readily granted; but from our more familiar concerns with extension on our horizon, and not being confined to a point on it, as it may be conceived we are on the perpendicular line, is perhaps the most probable reason which can be assigned, why we do not, even in speaking of boundless space, express horizontal extension by only those two terms of length and breadth, the same as we do when describing limited magnitude; although space is as immensely extensive in those directions, as perpendicularly upwards or downwards.

Ad

In addition to the foregoing remarks, we may observe, that there is one instance, (Rom. xi. 33.) where the apostle has employed the single term depth, to elucidate the subject of immensity, as applied to the perfections and attributes of Jehovah; and from every due consideration, it appears to be an allusion to that one part of universal space, on which we have been meditating; that which we locally conceive to be beneath us. mitting this, it is indeed, in what it represents, more than enough for the most exalted, the most sanctified human intellect to contemplate. For though in the glorious attributes of Jehovah, as manifested in a time, state to his people, there is to their experience a point, which is to them a beginning "of the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God;" yet the continuation of it, the extension of it, through time and to eternity, is an infinite, immeasurable line; an unfathomable

Where all our thoughts are drowned.'

------------ DEEP,

C. S.

BIBLICAL SUBLIMITY.

Of all writings, ancient or modern, the sacred Scriptures afford us the highest instances of the sublime. BLAIR.

NOVELTY is the source,whence a great part of our pleasure flows. It not only gives a relish to the pleasures of sense, but to those of a superior nature. It not only af

fects giddy youth, but even dotard age. The scientific sage is influenced by it, as well as the unlettered peasant. Hence the reason why an Indian discovers attractive qualities in an English pebble: hence also the anxiety for the daily nugae, and the success of modern and periodical publications. We do not say that novelty is inseparably connected with the sublime, but that it very much heightens it; and upon principles opposite to that of novelty do we account for many who have had a religious education, but who see little of the beauty, the harmony, the sublimity of the sacred Scriptures.

The subject of the sublime has employed many authors of bright genius, acute reason, lively imagination, correct taste, and profound learning: yet this should not discourage those who are not possessed of these talents. The stately oak, which adorns the mountain's brow, was

once an acorn.

The landscape is much beautified with the help of the bramble: and the eagle, which now scans the ethereal summits, was once unfledged.

The first instance of sublimity in the sacred writings, is, according to many authors, in Gen. i. 3; "And God said, let there be light, and there was light." Here our thoughts are led to the sublimity of the passage by an idea of the quickness of darkness vanishing, and light instantaneously supplying its place. The concise

ness and simplicity of the passage will appear to greater advantage, if we compare it with one from Milton's Paradise Lost:

"Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep, and from her native east
To journey through the airy gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud: for yet the sun
Was not."

Here the conciseness is lost in his description of light; the simplicity in the transposition of words to suit the

verse.

The song of Moses, in Exod. xv, furnishes us with some very sublime strokes. Let us select the 8th verse: "And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together." As God is frequently represented as having bodily powers; so Moses describes him as using the least effort to divide the waters. The sublimity would have been lost, had he said, "Thou didst blow with thy mouth;' because this would have been the greatest effort that could have been made in blowing.

Virgil represents the horses of the sun, as breathing day. But in one respect the sublimity of the passage is lost, inasmuch as his horses make their greatest effort in breathing, i. e. through their nostrils; as every one knows that horses breathe strongest through their nostrils.

"Postera vix summos spargebat lumine montes
Orta dies, cum primum alto se gurgite tollunt.
Solis equi, lucemque elatis naribus afflant.”

En. lib. 12.

We meet with a very bold mandate in Jesh. x. 12. ❝Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou moon, in the valley of Ajalon." What an idea does this give us of the confidence which Joshua had, of his being in a right cause! We might compare this with a passage which critics quote from Cesar: "Quid times? Cæsarem vehis." The pilot being afraid to put to sea in a storm, Cesar addresses him in these words: here we have the magnanimous sentiments of one relying "on his cause and fortune;" but no farther. Joshua's confidence in the cause which prompted him to summon nature to assist him, adds dignity to the expression.

CLIO.

JERUSALEM WHEAT.

"A SMALL sheaf of Jerusalem wheat, brought home by the servant who accompanied Mr. Whalley to Judea, and afterwards used as a sign at an obscure ale-house in Dublin, opened by his servant, by the merest chance attracted the notice of an experimental farmer. After so many years absence from its indigenous soil, and hanging above three, exposed to the weather, the sheaf was examined, and only three ears were found in a sound state. The grains of those were sown in the garden of the farmer, and their produce in the following year evinced the most astonishing prolificness. The culture has been carefully continued these last four years, and there are now some hundreds of Irish acres planted with this invaluable grain. The mode of culture is by drill and dibble. The straw is a strong reed; not hollow, but filled with a nutricious sap, or pith,

which renders it a provender for horses or neat cattle nearly equal to oats. This straw bears not, like European wheat, a single ear, but a clump of many ears; and the grain, large and full, yields an unusual quantity of the finest flour: and so much is the seed now in demand throughout Ireland, that the original cultivator has actually sold it at the rate of ten guineas a stone!”

TIMES.

Does not this illustrate John xii. 24, in which our Lord compares himself to a corn of wheat which bringeth forth much fruit?

ANECDOTE OF SIR J. E. WILMOT.

Mr. Editor,

THE following anecdote, which is to be met with in the Life of Sir John Eardley Wilmot, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, is a striking illustration of Prov. xxv. 11: "A word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."

"After Sir Eardley had retired from public business, he was frequently consulted both on political and legal subjects. A person who with the greatest honor to himself, and advantage to the nation, has filled many high stations in public life, told the writer of these sheets, that he was never in his company without feeling himself the happier and better for it. He mentioned, among other anecdotes, that he once went to Sir Eardley, under the impression of great wrath and indignation, at a real injury he had received from a person high in the political world, and which he was meditat ing how to resent in the most effectual manner. After VOL. III.

33

« PreviousContinue »