Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/30

ledges a power which is not in her, and observes a deep and sublime emotion excited which she cannot, unassisted, produce or maintain in the souls of her listeners. When she becomes the handmaid of piety, she finds herself adorned and enriched (in another sense than Virgil's) with a beauty and a wealth that are not her own—

The glowing language and harmonious numbers of poetry exert a powerful influence over the human mind, both in elevating the thoughts and warming the feelings. This power can never be so legitimately employed as in contributing to the purposes of religion, the paramount importance of which demands that every endeavour should be bestowed to recommend it to the understanding and the heart. Convinced of this truth, and encouraged by the example of the inspired poets of the Old Testament and by the injunction of the Apostle Paul, to teach and admonish one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, many eminent Christians in modern times have exercised their talents in composing hymns in honour of the great events recorded in Holy Writ, or in giving a poetical dress to some of the remarkable passages with which it abounds, and thereby adapting them for storing the memory with sublime and holy thoughts, or for forming a part in the hallowed praises of the sanctuary.—Rev. H. Stebbing.