converts careless as to things earthly, concerned only about the speedy coming of Christ. They are recalled to earth by the struggle between the two elements within their fellowship; from a tender toleration of Gentile brethren, who shrink from the full rigour of Mosaic law, we see gradually developed the conception of a righteousness by faith to which the dispensation of law was but a preparatory stage. Persecution from without, struggle and rivalry within, are seen as forces under the stress of which are gradually worked out principles of Christian truth and order. Three epistles (whatever their chronological dates may be) show us once more a church excited with the sense that the end of all things is at hand, and asserting the original faith against fiery persecution and paralysing corruption. At this point — with evangelisation carried to the Roman centre of the world, with the evangel itself developed into a theology and an ecclesiastical system - the history of Christianity passes out of canonical into secular literature.

PART SECOND

BIBLICAL POETRY AND PROSE

IV. POETRY AND PROSE IN THE BIBLE

V. OLD TESTAMENT WISDOM

VI. NEW TESTAMENT WISDOM

VII. LYRIC POETRY OF THE BIBLE

VIII. PROPHECY AS A BRANCH OF LITERATURE

IX. OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY

X. NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY

CHAPTER IV

POETRY AND PROSE IN THE BIBLE

We have reached a point at which it becomes necessary to form clear ideas as to certain literary terms, which are among the commonest words in our language, in reference to which, nevertheless, great confusion of thought prevails. I refer more particularly to the words 'poetry' and 'prose.' It is not difficult to see how the confusion has come about. The fluctuations of language have obliged the word 'prose' to do double duty: there is the prose which contrasts with poetry, and there is the prose which contrasts with verse. It is thus not unnatural that to many minds poetry and verse should suggest much the same thing. In reality, however, the terms 'poetry' and 'prose' convey the most fundamental of all distinctions in literary form; the terms 'prose' and verse' relate only to a difference of style that lies on the surface of literature.

For the meaning of the word 'poetry' etymology comes to our aid. 'Poet' is the Greek for 'maker'; and in Old English 'makers' was the regular name for poets. From the Latin come two more similar terms: 'creative' literature and 'fiction.' All four words imply the same idea: the poet, the maker, the author of creative literature or fiction, is one who makes, who creates something, who adds to the sum of existences. Shakespeare and Sophocles are poets in virtue of their having

created a Hamlet, an Edipus. It does not follow that in actual history a similar Hamlet and Edipus may not have existed. But the imaginative faculties to which poetry appeals have a wider range than that limited by past history; whether therefore it conceives entirely new persons and incidents, or whether it works up existing persons and incidents in a way that makes an independent appeal to our minds, in both cases poetry may be said to create. The poet is thus man's nearest approach to the Divine Maker and Creator of the universe; and this is perhaps St. Paul's thought when he says to the Ephesians, "We are God's-workmanship": so the English version has it; but the original Greek says, "We are God's poem." The medium in which the poet's conception is expressed is of secondary importance. Large parts of Shakespeare's plays - as a glance at the text will show - are in prose; yet obviously Shakespeare is as much a poet in his prose scenes as in the scenes which are written in verse. If it be true that we commonly describe by the term 'fiction' the creative literature which is expressed in prose, this is merely a matter of usage, and involves no difference of meaning.

In contradistinction to such creative poetry 'prose literature' is limited by matter of fact and actual existence. The historian, the philosopher, the orator, depart from their proper function if they allow imaginary matter to mingle in their discussion with matter of fact; the singer, the author of drama and epic, are poets just in proportion as they rise above the limitations of fact. To truth poetry and prose alike own allegiance; prose reaches truth by discussion, poetry by illustration. The philosopher argues what goodness