nate
to, some human interest.]

79. You will find, on the other hand, that the language of the Bible is
specifically distinguished from all other early literature, by its
delight in natural imagery; and that the dealings of God with His people
are calculated peculiarly to awaken this sensibility within them. Out of
the monotonous valley of Egypt they are instantly taken into the midst
of the mightiest mountain scenery in the peninsula of Arabia; and that
scenery is associated in their minds with the immediate manifestation
and presence of the Divine Power; so that mountains forever afterwards
become invested with a peculiar sacredness in their minds: while their
descendants being placed in what was then one of the loveliest districts
upon the earth, full of glorious vegetation, bounded on one side by the
sea, on the north by "that goodly mountain" Lebanon, on the south and
east by deserts, whose barrenness enhanced by their contrast the sense
of the perfection of beauty in their own land, they became, by these
means, and by the touch of God's own hand upon their hearts, sensible to
the appeal of natural scenery in a way in which no other people were at
the time. And their literature is full of expressions, not only
testifying a vivid sense of the power of nature over man, but showing
that _sympathy with natural things themselves_, as if they had human
souls, which is the especial characteristic of true love of the works of
God. I intended to have insisted on this sympathy at greater length, but
I found, only two or three days ago, much of what I had to say to you
anticipated in a little book, unpretending, but full of interest, "The
Lamp and the Lantern," by Dr. James Hamilton; and I will therefore only
ask you to consider such expressions as that tender and glorious verse
in Isaiah, speaking of the cedars on the mountains as rejoicing over the
fall of the king of Assyria: "Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and
the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since _thou_ art gone down to the grave,
no feller is come up against us." See what sympathy there is here, as if
with the very hearts of the trees themselves. So also in the words of
Christ, in His personification of the lilies: "They toil not, neither do
they spin." Consider such expressions as, "The sea saw that, and fled.
Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams; and the little
hills like lambs." Try to find anything in profane writing like this;
and note farthe