The Pathos Of The Bible

An ancieut legend has it that a trraut of the East went forth to battle with the Grcoks. Gazing upon the mass of liviiig millions enlisted in liis cause, the monarch's heart was melted. He wept, he knew not why. The tears camc not, as he supposed, from any inferenoe of refleotion. Thcy rose spontaneously as thcy will at times aniid the bustlc of a crowded thoroughfare. Our own omotions are reflected back from other hearts. We feel the thiill of spiritual contact, the mighty presence of Hfe. Sueh is the pathos of the Bible, the underlyiug tenderness whieh makes the Book of books the book of human nature; sounding the depths of human sympathy, universal, indefinable, profound. Poetry and pathos in the Bible are subordinate. It nerer cortroverts its sacred office, nor makes effect a purposo. The tender and poetical are humble instruments to seal the truth upon the consciences of men. The child who cannot comprehend the love divine is melted as he hears from mother-lips the sweet story of Him who was Himself a babe at Bethlehem, who loved and blessed the little children. The man who, scarcely better than the child, can know the wonders of the same inexplicable love, is impressed by the simplicity and tenderness .which mark that strange, eventful life. - Prize Oration, by Hovmrd P. Ells.