he Hebrew, and those of the New
Testament the Greek language ready at hand, each of them so singularly
adapted to the high office assigned to it. The stately majesty, the
noble simplicity, and the graphic vividness of the Hebrew fitted it
admirably for the _historical_ portions of the Old Testament, in which,
under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the direct intuition of God's
purposes and of the deep springs of human action superseded the
necessity of philosophical argument and deduction. The historians of the
Old Testament did not pause to argue concerning their statements of
men's motives and God's designs. They saw both with wonderful clearness
of vision; and they found in the simplicity and directness of the Hebrew
syntax, so far removed from all that is involved and complex, a suitable
vehicle for their simple and direct statements of truth. How congenial
the Hebrew language is to _poetic_ composition, as well in its rugged
and sublime forms as in its tender and pathetic strains, every reader of
the Old Testament in the original understands. The soul is not more at
home in the body than is sacred poetry in the language of the covenant
people. As the living spirit of the cherubim animated and directed the
wheels of the chariot in Ezekiel's vision, so does the spirit of
inspired poesy animate and direct the words and sentences of the Hebrew
language: "When the cherubim went, the wheels went by them; and when the
cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same
wheels also turned not from beside them. When they stood, these stood;
and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also: for the
spirit of the living creatures was in them." Ezek. 10:16, 17. The same
characteristics fitted the Hebrew language most perfectly for
_prophetic_ vision, in which the poetic element so largely prevails.

2. Turning now from the Hebrew of the Old Testament to the Greek of the
New, we have a language very different in its structure; elaborate in
its inflections and syntax, delicate and subtle in its distinctions,
rich in its vocabulary, highly cultivated in every department of
writing, and flexible in an eminent degree; being thus equally adapted
to every variety of style--plain unadorned narrative, impassioned
oratory, poetry of every form, philosophical discussion, and severe
logical reasoning: in a word, a language every way fitted to the wants
of the gospel, which is given not for the infancy of th