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There is often great sublimity in the images of the Holy Scriptures. Some of the conceptions of the old prophets are very grand, as the picture of the king of Babylon entering the realm of the dead, and the shades of those whom he dethroned rising to taunt him as he enters. A striking example of the sublime is found in the Book of Job. In the midnight hour, in solitude, darkness, and silence, a shade from the invisible world looms on the startled vision of Eliphaz. The shapeless and mystic form approaches nearer and stands still, without distinct outline. Terror-stricken, Eliphaz shivers with a cold chill of horror, and the hair of his flesh stands erect, and thus he describes it :-"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?"

This is considered a very sublime passage; as is the description of the war-horse, where the ordinary qualities of the horse are unseen and the terrible ones stand out in fearful prominence:-"Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.

He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting." (Job xxxix. 19-25.)

So the sublime in Scripture stands in connection with power, as in the wonderful description of the majesty of God in the 18th Psalm:-" In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was wroth. There went up a smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down and darkness was under His feet. And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His secret place; His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before Him His thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave His voice; hailstones and coals of fire. Yea, He sent out His arrows, and scattered them; and He shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations

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of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils."

Henry Kirke White thought that Sternhold and Hopkins had surpassed all others in the rendering of this magnificent Psalm. We quote two verses in illustration.

"The Lord descended from above,

And bowed the heavens high,
And underneath His feet He cast
The darkness of the sky.

"On cherub and on cherubim

Full royally He rode;

And on the wings of mighty winds
Came flying all abroad."

On sublime sounds we need not linger, further than to say that association has much to do with the impressions. Thunder is very terrible to many; to thousands it is the most alarming sound; but to a farmer, after a long drought, it is a most pleasant sound, for it is the majestic herald that his prayer for rain is heard, and he anticipates the fruitful showers on his parched meadows.

An ordinary bell is not particularly solemn; but a passing bell at midnight is very solemn, and may be (as when tolling for royalty), sublime. When the great bell of St. Paul's announced in the still night that the good Prince Albert was dead, it awakened solemn echoes in palace and cottage.

Under ordinary circumstances the sound of a trumpet is not sublime; but in a grand procession where princes and emperors join to commemorate a great event in Westminster Abbey, it is very

sublime as it echoes amid the tombs, monuments, and ashes of slumbering kings.

The loud, long shout of a great multitude is very impressive, it is almost overwhelming, and will bring tears to many eyes; as did the loud-sustained cheers of the citizens of London when the lovely Princess Alexandra received a welcome to our shores, and when, through falling snow, the rolling hurrahs greeted the fair Duchess of Edinburgh.

CHAPTER II.

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THE SUBLIME IN MORALS.

HE true effect of the sublime is, not terror, astonishment, or rapture, but the expansion and elevation of the soul. Sublime thoughts do not produce low, mean passions or base desires. Grand images tend to humble and elevate, and impress the soul with healthy feelings.

We must now contemplate moral power :-power which has its highest manifestations when originated and sustained by Christian principles. To those qualities which form the morally beautiful, must be added courage, decision, perseverance, reliance, strength of will, and lofty conceptions of duty. "The highest part of man's nature," says Dr. M'Cosh, "is not the sentient, but the moral and spiritual.”

"Those who would give the highest training to the mind, must furnish it to deeds of excellence and tales of heroism. There are characters brought under our notice in history and biography which transcend in grandeur the noblest objects of inanimate creation. The character of him who, in his infant years, was exposed at the river's edge, is an object more deserving of our contemplation than the Nile, with all the antiquities on its banks. The loveliest of the mountains of Judah is not so interesting an object as the shepherd-boy who there

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