" But a few hundred
years ago, it might have cost a throne. To-day we may have either
Testament printed in our daily newspaper and put upon our table before
breakfast. So free is the word of God that only the mere wish to have it
is necessary to secure at once the greatest of spiritual boons and the
most perfect piece of writing in our language, or in any other tongue.
The beauties of the Bible have charmed the critical of all ages. The
young have departed from its simplicity of speech only to return in
riper years for rapt tuition. The wise have lingered over its perfect
sentences, striving to catch the art which was showered upon those
unassuming translators who gave its pages to the English-speaking world.
One of the brightest wits of his time was Sidney Smith. His love of the
Bible, not only as his guide and his strength, but as the greatest of
all literary works, was passionate. He once impressed a circle of
friends very deeply with this noble veneration: "What," said he, "is so
beautiful as
THE STYLE OF THE BIBLE?
what poetry in its language and ideas!" and taking it down from the
book-case he read, with his clear, manly voice, and in his most
affecting manner, several of his favorite passages; among others: "Thou
shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of an old man;"
and part of that most beautiful of Psalms, the 139th: "O Lord, thou hast
searched me, and known me.
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