The language of reverence and awe, demands space for feeling and imagination, in every characteristic sound. A single devotional exclamation ought, sometimes, to convey the whole heart and soul of the speaker, in one element of sound. "Slowest Movement." Awe. Immortality. Young. “Thou! whose all-providential eye surveys, Of two eternities amazing Lord! One past, ere man's or angel's had begun; A theme forever, and for all, of weight, "As yet 't is midnight deep. The weary clouds, Now, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep, "Father of light and life, thou Good supreme! With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; Reverence and Awe. Stanzas.-Needham. V. 2. 66 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 3. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. 4. For a thousand years, in thy sight, are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. 5. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep; in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.” Pathos and Sublimity. Address of the pastor La Roche.- M'Kenzie. "You behold the mourner of his only child! the last earthly stay and blessing of his declining years! Such a child, too! — It becomes not me to speak of her virtues! yet it is but gratitude to mention them, because they were exerted towards myself! Not many days ago, you saw her young, beautiful, virtuous and happy! Ye who are parents will judge of my affliction now! But I look towards Him who struck me! I see the hand of a father, amidst the chastenings of my God! Oh! could I make you feel what it is to pour out the heart, when it is pressed down with many sorrows! to pour it out, with confidence, to Him in whose hands are life and death! on whose power awaits all that the former enjoys, and in contemplation of whom disappears all that the latter can inflict! - For we are not as those who die without hope! We know that our Redeemer liveth! 66 Go, then mourn not for me! I have not lost my child! But a little while, and we shall meet again, never to be separated!" Slow Movement.” This style is exemplified in the ordinary forms of solemn and pathetic language, in description, narration, and sentiment. It pervades the elocution of the more impressive passages of Scripture, generally, of most hymns, and of all discourses adapted to the excitement of profound emotion. The main object of practice in this mode of voice, is to preserve it from a lagging, drawling, formal, or heavy effect, on the one hand, and from a tone too dry and unimpressive, on the other. Solemnity. Extract from the Thanatopsis.-Bryant. "All that tread The globe are but a handful to the tribes Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce, Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Save his own dashings; — yet—the dead are there; And millions in those solitudes, since first The flight of years began, have laid them down To their last sleep:- the dead reign there alone. So shalt thou rest; - and what if thou withdraw The youth, in life's green spring, and he who goes Shall, one by one, be gathered to thy side By those who, in their turn, shall follow them. "So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, that moves To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch Solemnity and Sublimity. Extract from the Hymn of the Seasons.— Thomson. "Nature, attend! join, every living soul: Beneath the spacious temple of the sky, In adoration join; and, ardent, raise One general song! To Him, ye vocal gales, Breathe soft; whose Spirit in your freshness breathes: Oh! talk of Him in solitary glooms, Where o'er the rock, the scarcely waving pine Fills the brown shade with a religious awe. 1 And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar, Who shake the astonished world, lift high to heaven Ye headlong torrents, rapid, and profound; Sound His stupendous praise; whose greater voice Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers, From world to world, the vital ocean round; "One adequate support For the calamities of mortal life one only; an assured belief Exists, |