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Amoz did see.-2. Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 3. I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. 4. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. 5. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

6. Howl ye: for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: 8. And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. 9. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate : and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 10. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 11. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 12. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. 13. Therefore I will shake the heavens; and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. 14. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land. 15. Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. 16. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. 17. Behold, I will stir

READING OF THE SCRIPTURES.

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up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 18. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

19. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 21. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. 22. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.'

Additional Examples.-Israel's Triumph over Babylon, Isaiah xiv.; the Restoration of Jerusalem, Isaiah xl. ; the Restoration of the Holy City and Temple, Isaiah xliv.; the Exaltation of Cyrus, and the Restoration of Israel, Isaiah xlv. 1-23; the Promise of a Redeemer, Isaiah liii.; Assurance of the Return of Divine Favour to Israel, Isaiah liv, lv.; the Debasement and Self-reproach of Israel, Isaiah lix. 1-15; Assurances of Divine Favour to Israel, Isaiah lx, lxi.; Earnest Entreaty, Isaiah Ixiv.; Divine Retribution, Isaiah lxv.; Denunciations against Israel, Jeremiah iv, vi, vii, viii.; Grief and Prostration of Judah, Jeremiah xiv.; Denunciation against the King of Judah, Jeremiah xxii.; Denunciations against False Prophets, Jeremiah xxiii. 9-40; the Restoration of Israel, Jeremiah xxxi, xxxiii.; Denunciation against Babylon, Jeremiah 1, li. ; Calamities of Judah and Jerusalem, Lamentations i, ii, iv. 1—20.

LYRIC PASSAGES.

The Book of Psalms, and the devotional strains interspersed with the narratives of the sacred volume, may be conveniently classified for the purposes of elocution, according to the character of their predominant emotions, as indicating their prevalent tones of expression in reading, in the following

manner.

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1. Examples of Solemnity, Sublimity, and Awe.

*Psalm lxxvii. 11—20; lxxxix. 2-14; xc, civ, cxxxix. 1-18.

2. Grandeur, Majesty, and Power.

Psalm xviii, xix, xxix, lxv, xcvii.

3. Tranquillity and Serenity.

Psalm viii, xxiii.

4. Joy, Praise, and Triumph.

Psalm xxx, lxiii, lxv, lxvi, lxvii, lxviii, xcv, xcvi, xcvii, xcviii, c, ciii, civ, cvii, cxiii, cxiv, cxlv, cxlvi, cxlvii, cxlviii, cl.

5. Pathos, Entreaty, and Supplication.

Psalm vi, xxxviii, xxxix, lxxxviii, cxlii, cxliii.

6. Varied Expression.

Psalm xxii, xxxi, xxxvi, xl, xli, xlii, xliii, li, lxix, lxxi, lxxxix, cii, cxxx.

7. Didactic Sentiment.

Psalm i, xxxvii.

THE READING OF HYMNS.

This department of pulpit elocution is one which requires, more than any other, the closest attention of the student. Our existing modes of education are so generally imperfect, as regards the early training of the voice, that habit is, in most cases, formed to defective and erroneous modes of reading, long before an individual has arrived at maturity. Few per

* Examples extracted from the above and similar passages, have been presented as exercises under various emotions, and need not, therefore, be repeated here. They may be repeated orally if necessary, by referring to the pages in which they occur.

sons, comparatively, seem to possess the power of uttering the words of a lyric stanza, in the spirit of poetic feeling; and few, indeed, seem capable of reading verse without a false intonation, which, when applied to the beautiful language of the poet, makes it fall on the ear

'Like sweet bells jangled,—out of tune and harsh.'

Many pulpit readers are actually so little moulded, either by nature or art, for the exercise of devotional reading, that the loftiest inspirations of the sacred muse, become, in their hands, absolute doggerel to the ear. The associations of devotion are thus thrust out of the mind of the hearer, to make room for those of ludicrous incongruity.-No reformation in the modes of public or or private life, is more urgently demanded by general sentiment, than a change, as regards the power of the Christian ministry to render the services of the pulpit appropriate and impressive in manner. In no respect is present deficiency so deeply and so generally felt, as in the preparatory act of reading the hymn, which should be,-in the reading not less than the singing of it,—the living voice of assembled hearts lifted to the throne of Infinite Majesty. The reading of the hymn should be the prelude by which both congregation and choir have their souls attuned to the sentiment of the sacred song, before entering on the performance of the accompanying strains of music. The best security for the appropriate and truly expressive singing of a psalm or hymn, is that just and impressive reading of it, which imparts its spirit to heart and ear. But to fulfil the apostolic injunction of 'making melody in the heart,' after a dull, cold, prosaic, or see-saw reading of the hymn, is a task next to impracticable. An attentive eye may, in fact, see that, in such circumstances, the youthful and the thoughtless among a congregation, have, sometimes, as much as they can do, to preserve decorum.

The situation of the student of theology, is by no means favourable to the acquisition of a command over the voice, such as the appropriate utterance of poetic sentiment, and, especially, in the lyric form, necessarily requires. He shares, in

early years, in all the common disadvantages of imperfect cultivation of the vocal organs; and the sedentary and secluded life of his boyhood and youth, tends directly to reduce his power of organic action and expression. His daily life is one of intense cerebral action, in which the vital energies are withdrawn, to a great extent, from the muscular and nervous systems, which are the special apparatus of expressive action. As a student, he loses energy, and vivacity, and susceptibility, which are the necessary measures of his expressive power. The passive capacity of impression, which he has acquired by reading and contemplation, might, under a judicious system of proportioned culture, have been an element of vast effect; but its excess actually renders it an obstacle to expression. The receptive sensibility of the soul not being balanced by the power of utterance, oppresses rather than enlivens feeling, and quells rather than inspires the voice. Habit, and culture, and skill are all required to render feeling tributary to expression. Passion and imagination are not less important to the reader than to the poet; and the discipline of these much neglected parts of man's constitution, is as valuable to the former as to the latter. Hence the great moment of personal cultivation and self-education in elocution, to him who would worthily occupy the pulpit, as the leader of an assembly met for the purposes of devotion.

The power over human feeling which lies in a hymn appropriately read, is indescribable. It is difficult, indeed, for the most indifferent heart to escape from the appointed influence of the sanctuary, when the minister yields his whole soul to the sentiment and spirit of a hymn, and gives these forth in tones that come fresh from the great fount of feeling, and hallow the imagination with the presence of devotional associations. Add to such effects that of the well-tuned voice which breathes life and music into sound, and thus gives presence and audible beauty to the spirit of poetry'; and the result becomes a combination which no man can resist, whose heart is not seared to every good influence.*

* 'If I have ever been of any use, as an instrument of spiritual good,

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