the fourth gospel; the incidents are signs, selected and treated with a view to bring out the bearing of each on the Divine character of the Worker. Similarly, the words of Jesus which St. John relates are those which most clearly witness to his claims of Divinity. The thought of the prologue having been kept clear through every section of the narrative is once more formulated in its closing words:

Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing ye may have life in his name.

CHAPTER VII

LYRIC POETRY OF THE BIBLE

OF creative literature the three natural divisions are Epic, Lyric, Drama. Epic poetry, illustrated by such works as The Iliad or Paradise Lost, is the poetry which relates or describes; it is the author who speaks throughout. In Drama, on the contrary, the author nowhere appears; it is the actual personages of the story who speak, and by their words and acts the incidents are presented. Between these two forms stands Lyric poetry as poetic meditation: the poet now speaks for himself, now identifies himself with other personages, or for a time, is relating and describing. Lyric poetry is made up of songs, odes, sonnets, elegies, meditations, monologues; as the name implies, it lends itself readily to musical accompaniment, and even without this is in spirit closely akin to music.

Three main sources may be recognised for the lyric poetry of Scripture. The first of these is the dance. Before literature commits itself to writing there is a long and important period of spoken poetry, and in this spoken stage it is natural for poetry to associate itself alike with musical accompaniment and with bodily movement and gesticulation. Indeed, these external motions of the body may be looked upon as a sort of scaffolding, with the aid of which is being gradually built up a mental sense of rhythm; in process of time

the dance movements, and even the musical accompaniment, drop away, and metrical rhythm is strong enough to stand by itself. But in the case of biblical literature, just where, by natural evolution, dance movement was falling into decay, another influence was encountered of an opposite tendency: an elaborate Temple service was instituted, and the processionary character of sacred ritual restored to later lyrics much of what the dance had contributed to poetry in its earliest stage. It is thus convenient, to indicate three landmarks in the development of biblical lyrics. One is the Processionary Ode. The second is the Anthem, in which, without the full procession, there is some suggestion of elaborate performance, such (for example) as provision for two or more performers. There is, thirdly, the Song or Meditation, which is nothing more than the musical outpouring of a single performer.

Of the full processional ode the Bible contains two magnificent examples. One is the triumphal song put into the mouth of Israel in the moment of its deliverance at the Red Sea; here the text distinctly states how Miriam "took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances."1 The structure of this Song of Moses and Miriam is very simple: the Men, in successive stanzas, celebrate the fact of the deliverance itself, the mystic manner in which it has been brought about, the panic falling upon all the foes who guard the approach to Canaan; between the stanzas the Women dance and sing the refrain:

Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously;
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

1 Exodus xv. 20.

The other is the similar Song of Deborah in triumph over the fall of Sisera. We have already seen1 how the performance of this is in the hands of a Chorus of Men, led by Barak, and a Chorus of Women, led by Deborah; how, in tumultuous ecstasy, the two choruses rouse one another to their task, interrupt one another with snatches of song, play into one another's hands in depicting different phases of the incident, unite finally in a climax of triumph. The two odes are supreme examples of early lyric poetry. And they can be fully appreciated only by reading them with the same antiphonal rendering with which they were originally performed.

2

As an interesting link connecting the processional ode with the anthems of Temple service we may study the Anthems for the Inauguration of Jerusalem. It will be remembered that Jerusalem was originally a Jebusite city, deemed an impregnable fortress; its capture was the greatest achievement of David as a military man. He resolved to transform the heathen fortress into a metropolis for the sacred monarchy of Israel; by way of ceremonious inauguration he would convey to Jerusalem the ark, as symbol of Divine presence. But this enterprise at its outset received a tragic check. The ark had been discovered in the woodlands of Ephraim; drawn in a cart, it was being escorted with military pomp, when one of the attendants touched the ark as the oxen stumbled, and he fell dead. Pomp was converted into panic: the ark was hastily conveyed into the house of Obed-Edom by the roadside, and for three months

1 Above, page 3.

2 For the general narrative of this incident, compare II Samuel vi with I Chronicles xiii and xv-xvi.

David laboured under a sense of the Divine displeasure. The death of Uzzah was interpreted as a judgment upon the neglect of the ceremonies ordained for the escort of the ark in the wilderness journeys. Accordingly, David reorganised a priestly and levitical service, and a second time set out to bring the ark to Jerusalem, with a procession in which priestly ritual and military pomp were to intermingle. In connection with this day of inauguration five anthems may be traced.

enough to show - the procession

David entered upon the ceremonies of the day with trepidation of spirit. Hence, as soon as the Levites with the ark had moved forward six pacesthat the Divine ban had been removed halted for a sacrifice of thanksgiving. At this point the anthem seems to have been the thirtieth psalm. breathes a sense of sudden deliverance, the lifting of a weight of oppression.

For his anger is but for a moment;

His favour is for a life time:
Weeping may tarry for the night,

But joy cometh in the morning.

It

In no obscure terms comes the suggestion of the shock which, three months before, had clouded the hour of military triumph with sudden withdrawal of the Divine favour: :

As for me, I said in my prosperity,

I shall never be moved,

Thou, LORD, of thy favour hadst made my mountain to stand strong:

Thou didst hide thy face; I was troubled,

I cried to thee, O LORD;

And unto the LORD I made supplication.