t the religious life really is
will do better to pore over these pages than to dip into some
philosophical discussion. Here the best life is expressed rather than
analyzed, exhibited rather than explained. Mrs. Browning has well said,
"Plant a poet's word deep enough in any man's breast, looking presently
for offshoots, and you have done more for the man than if you dressed
him in a broadcloth coat and warmed his Sunday pottage at your fire." We
who, by preparing or circulating such volumes, aid the poets in finding
a larger circle to whom to give their message, may claim a part of the
blessing which comes to those who in any way aid humanity. George
Herbert has said,

"A verse may find him who a sermon flies,
And turn delight into a sacrifice."

He himself most excellently illustrated the sentiment by bequeathing to
the world many beautiful verses that are sermons of the most picturesque
sort.

One definition of poetry is "a record of the best thoughts and best
moments of the best and happiest minds." This in itself would almost be
sufficient to establish the connection between poetry and religion. It
is certain that the two have very close and vital relations. Dr.
Washington Gladden has admirably remarked, "Poetry is indebted to
religion for its largest and loftiest inspirations, and religion is
indebted to poetry for its subtlest and most luminous interpretations."
No doubt a man may be truly, deeply religious who has little or no
development on the aesthetic side, to whom poetry makes no special
appeal. But it is certain that he whose soul is deaf to the "concord of
sweet sounds" misses a mighty aid in the spiritual life. For a hymn is a
wing by which the spirit soars above earthly cares and trials into a
purer air and a clearer sunshine. Nothing can better scatter the devils
of melancholy and gloom or doubt and fear. When praise and prayer, trust
and love, faith and hope, and similar sentiments, have passed into and
through some poet's passionate soul, until he has become so charged with
them that he has been able to fix them in a form of expression where
beauty is united to strength, where concentration and ornamentation are
alike secured, then the deepest needs of great numbers are fully met.
What was vague and dim is brought into light. What was only half
conceived, and so but half felt, is made to grip the soul with power.
Poetry is of the very highest value for the inspiration and guidance of
life,