Page:God Manifest.djvu/174

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164
GOD SPEAKING.

quoted or referred to. The majority of all the books ever published have been in connection with it. The Fathers commented upon it, and the sUbtle divines of the middle ages refined upon its doctrines. It sustained Origen's scholarship and Chrysostom's rhetoric; it whetted the penetration of Abelard, and exercised the keen ingenuity of Aquinas. It gave life to the revival of letters, and Dante and Petrarch reveled in its imagery. It augmented the erudition of Erasmus, and roused and blessed the intrepidity of Luther. Its temples are the finest specimens of architecture; and the brightest triumphs of music are associated with its poetry. The text of no ancient author has summoned into operation such an amount of labor and learning, and it has furnished occasion for the most masterly examples of criticism and comment, grammatical investigation, and logical analysis. It has inspired the English muse with her loftiest strains. Its beams gladdened Milton in his darkness, and cheered the song of Cowper in his sadness. It was the star which guided Columbus in the discovery of the New World. It furnished the panoply of that Puritan valor, which shivered tyranny in days gone by. It is the Magna Charta of the world's regeneration and liberties. Such benefactors as Francke, Neff, Schwartz, and Howard, were cast in the mould of the Bible.—Among the Christian classics, it loaded the treasures of Owen, charged the fulness of Hooker, barbed the point of Baxter, gave colors to the palette and sweep to the pencil of Bunyan, enriched the fragrant fancy of Taylor, sustained the loftiness of Howe, and strung the plummet of Edwards. In short, this collection of artless