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But it is to divine revelation that we are indebted for the sublimest strains of devotional poetry. Without supernatural aid the human mind would never have attained to those pure and elevated ideas of the Deity which give the Psalms their surpassing beauty and sublimity. The Hebrew prophets, besides being the religious instructers of mankind, stand apart and on high in the literature of the world. Like the pyramids of Egypt, they are the imperishable monuments of another age, constituting not only the wonder of all time, but the inexhaustible treasure from which their successors have drawn their richest materials, as those vast structures of Egyptian art might serve as quarries from which half a score of modern cities might be built. As they were the brightest emanations of poetic and divine inspiration united, so has their power over the human mind and heart been unapproached. In them the soul in all ages has found the most adequate expression of its highest conceptions of the Invisible, the Infinite, the Eternal, of whose greatness and glory all human language is but a whisper and a breath. Take, for instance, a description of a thunder storm by David, and you imme

diately find yourself in regions of sublimity far above the flight of any profane poet.

"Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,

Give unto the Lord glory and strength.

Give unto the Lord, the glory due unto him;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

"The voice of the Lord is upon the waters:
The God of glory thundereth;

The Lord is upon many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful ;

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars;

Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
He maketh them also to skip like a calf;
Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

"The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness;

The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
The Lord sitteth upon the flood;

Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever.

"The Lord will give strength unto his people; The Lord will bless his people with peace."

How congenial the Psalms are to the deep and universal devotional sentiments of the heart, every well read, and well worn Bible is a witness. Next to the precious pages which

contain the words of eternal life, those will bear the marks of having been most often resorted to for light, and strength, and comfort, which are written over with the sublime and fervid aspirations of the sacred poets of Judea. And they have served as models for piety in all succeeding times, as has been well said by a living poet:

"Sweet harp of Judah! shall thy sound No more be heard on earthly ground, Nor mortal raise the lay again,

That rung through Judah's sainted reign?

"Yet harp of Judah! rung thy strain,

And woke thy glories not in vain;

Yet, though in dust thy frame be hurl'd,
Thy spirit rules a wider world.

"Though faintly swell thy notes sublime;
Far distant down the stream of time;
Yet, to our ears the sounds are given;
And even thy echo tells of heaven.

"Through worlds remote-the old—the new ; Through realms nor Rome nor Israel knew; The Christian hears and by thy tone,

Sweet harp of Judah, tunes his own."

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early demonstrated by the rise of the consciousness, on doing certain actions; "This is right; I am justified and meritorious in doing it." And on another occasion, "This is wrong, I am guilty if I do it, and I cannot look on my own conduct with approbation." This power of distinguishing right and wrong, and its involuntary exercise is one of the elementary principles of the human mind. Wherever there is a perfect human soul, there this faculty is developed. The child, the first time that it tells a falsehood, feels compunction, feels that it has done wrong, it cannot tell why. What account is to be given of this fact? Does it see the reasons why it is wrong? By no means. It has had no experience of the evils which the violation of truth brings upon society, and finally upon the fabricator himself. All we can say of it is, that it is the will of the Creator, that such a feeling should spring up in the human mind as soon as the faculty of speech is developed, as a guard against the abuse of that faculty. We can truly say then, that it is a moral instinct implanted by God in the human soul. I know no reason why we should withhold from it this appellation. It

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