THE LITERARY ASPECTS OF THE BIBLE.

MR. FRAZER, one of the Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, has made a selection of passages from our Bible with the intention of showing the literary beauty and interest of Scripture,* but great as has been his success, we do not feel sure that he has always kept to his single purpose. In his preface he intimates his belief that very few English readers read the Bible for its purely literary beauty. We could almost wish there were fewer, not because we regard its literary beauty as at all adequately recognised, but because we are not at all sure that the adequate appreci- ation of its literary beauty is likely to increase the chance of its being consulted for spiritual guidance and consolation. The exquisite beauty of a great number of its traditions, of all its lyrics, of the noblest of its prophecies, and of a great number of its appeals to the fainting heart of man in the sickness of

• London : Adam and Charles Black.

deferred hope, is not only admitted by those who do not accept its guidance, but almost more readily admitted by those who do not accept it than by those who do. There is a kind of gratification in patronising the beauty of the Bible at the same time that its guidance is implicitly questioned or disparaged. The solemnity of its hopes, the exquisite reserve of its passion, the depth of its pathos, the sublimity of its anticipations, are all often magnified at the expense of its inspiration. Do not the enthusiasts for its literary grandeur dwell much more on the Old Testament than on the New ? Would not Mr. Frazer himself probably admit,—ind admit quite truly,—that he has been more successful in his quotations from the traditions of the Jewish history and prophecy, than in his quotations from the story of the fulfil- ment of its promises and the confirmation of its hopes ? Indeed, there are not a few passages, and these, passages of the highest interest and theological significance, which we should have thought it better to omit as specimens of the mere literary beauty of the Bible. For example, does Mr. Frazer really think that John vi. 26-35, on the Bread of Life, full as it is of a high theological sig- nificance, is a good specimen of the literary beauty of the Bible, or that the exhortation addressed to Timothy on Contentment (1. Timothy vi. 6-16) which includes the re- mark, so great a stumbling-block to our economists, that the love of money is the root of all evil, will vie for a moment in literary style or beauty with the psalm of Creation, or the story of Isaac's wooing of Rebecca, or the death of the Shunamite woman's son, or the ode to Saul and Jonathan, who were "lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their deaths were not divided," or the lament of the exiles beside the waters of Babylon ? There is, indeed, some reason for thinking that the most explicit teaching of the Bible is hardly ever likely to contain its loftiest poetry. It is on the human side of our nature that it is most easy to touch the depths of our ideal cravings. The reply to a Pharisee's cavils or to a Saddncee's doubts, or the exposition of the ground of the sacramental relation between the influence of the body over the mind, and of the mind over the body, can never vie in literary effect with the solemnity of a passionate grief, or the gratitude of a penitent's recovered peace. It is not by any means true that the greatest and deepest teaching of the Bible need always be expressed in the words which go most directly to the heart of man. "The Bible," says Mr. Frazer, "is an epic if not a history of the world ; or, to change the metaphor, it unrolls a vast panorama in which the ages of the world move before us in a long train of solemn imagery, from the creation of the earth and the heavens to the final passing away of all this material universe, and the coming of a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein shall dwell righteousness. Against this gorgeous background, this ever-shifting scenery, now bright with the lines of Heaven, now lurid with the glare of Hell, we see mankind strutting and playing their little part on the stage of history." Surely it would be more true to say that the Bible contains this epic than that it is this epic. If it were such an epic, Mr. Frazer would have had no occasion to select, to omit so much that only expounds and connects and impresses and illustrates the teaching of the great drama of human history itself. Is all Leviticus part of the epic ? Is all Nehemiah part of the epic ? Nay, is all the Epistle to the Galatians or to the Hebrews or to Titus or to Timothy part of it ? No revela- tion can be all epic, or all poetry of any sort. The poetry is a great part of the revelation, for it is the part which shows the wants of man, and the love of man, and the penitence of man. But a great part of the specific teaching of revelation is not poetry, is not even, in the highest sense, literature. The literary side of the Bible is the side which, though indirectly it teaches much, is not directly either the didactic or dogmatic side. Yet direct teaching or direct dogma is a true part, and an essential part, of revelation.

Let us see how far the greater literary characteristics of the Bible agree with those characteristics which best fulfil its functions as a book revealing the higher mind and pur- poses of God. In the first place, one of the highest of the literary qualities of the Bible is the great and noble reserve which marks the spirit of its most typical writers and characters. What can be more striking in its reserve than the psalm of Creation, or the revelation to Abraham of the true spirit of sacrifice when he declared his willingness to give up even his beloved son to God, or the story of Jacob's dream, or that of the Shunamite woman's journey to Elisha when her son lay dead in the prophet's chamber :—

" And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. And be said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to-day ? it is neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward ; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee. So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gebazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite : run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee ? is it well with thy husband ? is it well with the child ? And she answered, It is well. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet : but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her : and the Lord hath hid it from me, and bath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord ? did I not say, Do not deceive me ? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go thy way; if thou meet any man, salute him not ; and if any salute thee, answer him not again : and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her."

What can be more striking in the sense it gives of true literary power than this reserve of the woman towards her husband when her child was dead but she still hoped for its restoration by the same power which had bestowed it upon her, or than her reserve to the prophet's servant when she answers his inquiries whether all was well with the child by the simple declaration, " It is well," expressing the depth of her trust at least as well as her refusal to say more expressed the depth of her dread P Yet such reserve, great as it is as a characteristic of literary power, is not the characteristic of divine revelation. Reserve in the presence of God is the highest expression of human reverence, but it is not the highest fruit of the glad and satisfied heart which comes of a divine unveiling.

Again, what quality of literary excellence can be more impressive than that "lyrical cry," as Matthew Arnold called it, which, like a vibrating chord, awakens the chords of every heart in tune with that of the poet. Is there a poem in any language which gives us this "lyrical cry" more perfectly, more pathetically, than the great psalm De propndis ?- "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, 0 Lord.

Lord, hear my voice : Let thine ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.

If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand ?

But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul (loth wait, And in his word do I hope.

My soul waiteth for the Lord More than they that watch for the morning; I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Let Israel hope in the Lord : For with the Lord there is mercy, And with him is plenteous redemption.

And he shall redeem Israel From all his iniquities."

Yet that is hardly the full language of revelation. It is rather the language of yearning, of hope, with which revelation is approached. Compared with a lyric such as this, the language of pure Revelation has far less of literary effect, even when it is couched in an imaginative form like that of the Epistle to the Hebrews :-

" For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words ; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not he spoken to them any more : but ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel."

No one could say that, as regards its mere literary charm, such language as this could compare with the De profandis. There is a pathos in passionate yearning which finds echoes such beings as we are, that it is not easy for the language of divine assurance, however welcome, to awaken.

Again, nothing is more impressive as a literary gift than the power of true vision, but such power is just as great when it is a power of vision employed in holding up to us a prospect of terror, as it is when employed in holding up to us a great deliverance. The vision which Elisha's prayer opened to the eyes of his servant, is full of literary charm in the highest sense as well as of spiritual consolation :- " And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master ! how shall we do P And he answered, Fear not : for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may ace. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man ; and he saw : and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

But will even that compare in fascination to the literary charm of Joel's vision of the march of the locusts, which was a vision of terror, and of nothing but terror ?— " Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain : let all the inhabitants of the land tremble : for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a clay of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains : a great people and a strong; there bath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them ; and behind them a flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses ; and as horse- men, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained : all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men ; they shall climb the wall like men of war ; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks : neither shall one thrust another ; they shall walk every one in his path : and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses ; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them ; the heavens shall tremble : the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining : and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army : for his camp is very great : for he is strong that executeth his word : for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible ; and who can abide it P "

We hold, then, that the literary grace and grandeur of the Bible is by no means commensurate with its spiritual power and wealth. Most of the latter is to be found in the New Testament, most of the former in the Old. And it by no means follows that he who is attracted to the Bible mainly by its literary charm, may not go on his way weeping " bearing precious seed," and yet never " come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him."