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earnestness, in the reader, it deadens the sympathy of the hearer.

Another error in the style of reading, is that of loading the words of Scripture with a formal, unwieldly, and unmeaning tone, which aims at a certain solemn dignity of effect, but only reaches a very unmusical song.

Sometimes, a third fault is incurred, by a desire to break through the trammels of conventional restraint, and produce a lively impression on the mind, by familiar and vivid tone, which savors too much of ordinary talk by the fireside. But coldness and familiarity are alike forbidden, on subjects which appeal to the deepest susceptibilities of the heart.

The monotonous solemnity of tone, which is exemplified by many readers of the sacred volume, defeats its own purpose, by a dull uniformity of effect; as a painter would spoil a picture by the exclusive use of one sombre tint, applied indiscriminately to scenes of evening, morning, and midday. The cold, indifferent reader seems to forget the vivid interest which appropriately belongs to every subject introduced in the pages of Scripture; the lively reader seems, by his familiar and anecdotic style, to overlook the majesty of the sacred volume; but the formal reader seems blind to all the varied beauties of language, and the natural and simple expression, which pervade, and so peculiarly characterize, both the Old Testament and the New.

The dignity of the subject, the sublimity of the style, the simplicity of the language, demand, in every passage of Scripture, the mingling effects of grave, full, and vivid expression. To the reading of the sacred page should be brought every aid arising from the deepest impressions on the heart, the most vivid effects of poetic imagination, the most refining influences of the highest intellectual culture. All the treasures of knowledge, gathered by excursive thought from the fields of science and literature, all the richer and truer wealth of life and experience,

which an individual possesses, and which never fails to modify the qualities and expression of the voice,should be made tributary to the exercise of reading the sacred Scriptures, in the offices of devotion. The spiritual and the intellectual nature of man is then, if ever, at its maximum of experience and of power, when permitted to mingle its workings with those of the Divine mind in revelation.

The defectiveness and poverty of our modes of education, together with the deadening effects of habit and routine, convert the reading of the most impressive of all books into an ineffectual ceremony. A living and a genuine culture in early life, a culture which should cherish the expressive powers of man, would effectually prevent these and similar results. That such would be the general issue, no one can doubt, who has observed the effects of faithful self-culture, in a single instance. Who can ever forget the impressions left on his mind by hearing, even once, a passage of Scripture read by the late Dr. Nettleton, with that characteristic depth and vividness of effect, which seemed to bespeak a soul communing, face to face, with the Invisible? Who, that was ever present on such an occasion, can forget the hushed and profound attention with which a congregation would listen to the deep and quiet, but thrilling tones of Channing, in the exercise of reading the sacred volume?

The mindless and heartless style in which the Bible is read, at school, when it is made a part of the requisite exercises for acquiring a merely mechanical facility in the process of reading, fastens itself upon the ear, as an unconscious standard of manner, for life; so much so, that the majority of readers in the pulpit, seem never to imagine, that they can ever so far identify themselves with what they read, as to render it the common justice of a single true or natural tone of the voice.*

* The weekly reading of the Bible, as a Saturday exercise, in the parish schools of Scotland, is usually accompanied by oral explanations

Could we, for a moment, divest ourselves of the induence of association, and,—standing aloof from “things as they are," in the "second nature" of habit, — fastep our minds on the great thought, that the world contains a volume stamped with the legible impress of Revelation, would not our just expectation be that those whose duty it is to minister at the altar, would covet, above all acquisitions, the ability to read it worthily and impressively? At present, the thing is not even thought of. The very idea startles the theological student, as something odd. But when you come to inquire into the case, you find that he has, all along, had his mind on a certain shabby, dingy-looking, much worn volume, out of which, in common with others of his age, he had, in the days of his boyhood, to learn to read, at school; or from which he had to read a single detached verse, in the daily routine of family devotion; or which, in the long, weary, warm, summer sabbaths, he used to hear droned over in the pulpit.

Mere animation, or a rhetorical style, in reading the Scriptures, is unquestionably offensive, both to just sentiment and good taste, and to be as carefully avoided as the other faults which have been enumerated. But while all artificial and fancied excellence, is, in the utterance of the words of sacred truth, a thing that only disgusts or shocks a sober mind, it is not less true, that genuine cultivation and diligent practice, are as successful in this, as in any other form of human effort, and that when the occupants of our pulpits shall have acquitted themselves in this as in other parts of their public duties, the power and authority, and the daily influence of the sacred volume, will penetrate society to an extent corresponding to the difference between a dormant and an active life, tent and an operative power.

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from the teacher, and thus rendered an aid to good reading as well as to religious instruction

Classification of the Parts of Scripture.

The Bible, regarded for the moment, as a volume which may be used for the purposes of audible reading, may be classified, in rhetorical arrangement, as follows:

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1. Narrative passages, varying in style, with their subjects, from the familiar to the sublime, as in the historical books of the Old Testament, and the Gospels, in the New.

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2. Didactic and doctrinal passages, as in the Epistles, which, being addressed to the understanding and the reason, require modifications of voice in the forms, chiefly, of inflection, emphasis, and pause, the intellectual instru

ments of effect in elocution.

3. Prophetic and Descriptive passages,-marked by the language of strong epic and dramatic emotion, and . requiring a bold, vivid, and expressive style of voice.

4. Lyric passages, - requiring intense expression, in strains of joy, pathos, triumph, grief, adoration, supplication.

NARRATIVE PASSAGES.

The ancient rhetorical arrangement of "low," or familiar, “middle,” and “sublime," or elevated styles, may be. practically serviceable in arranging the narrative portions of Scripture, for the purposes of elocution. The first division, ("the low,") would comprise all simple and familiar narrations; the last, ("the sublime,") narrative passages of great elevation of style; the second, ("the middle,") would include whatever forms of narrative were neither so familiar as the first, nor so elevated as the third.

Passages which exemplify the style of familiar narration, demand attention to the due observance of two opposite principles of expression in elocution, grandeur and simplicity; the former being inseparable from sacred

subjects, the latter, from the peculiar style of language, in the Scriptures. The former mode of expression in elocution, unmodified by the latter, would assume the form of deep "pectoral," and full “orotund” utterance, a grave, round, ample, and swelling effect of voice. The latter mode of expression, on the contrary, would incline to "oral" quality, a higher, thinner, and softer utterance, approaching to that of colloquial style. The mild effect of this style of utterance, blending with that of "orotund" grandeur, softens and chastens it to a gentle expression, but does not impair its dignity. The effect on the ear is similar to that produced on the eye and the mind, by a noble deportment softened by condescension.

The common faults in the style of reading the familiar narrative passages of Scripture, are dry monotony, undue vivacity, pompous solemnity, rhetorical and forced variation. The analysis of the appropriate tone for such passages, would suggest that the familiar narratives of the books of Scripture, should be read with a deeper, softer, and slower voice, than similar compositions in other works; the whole style vivid, earnest, but subdued,- indicating, at the same time, the interest awakened by the events which are related, and the chastening effect of the reverence due to the sacred volume.

EXAMPLES IN FAMILIAR STYLE.

Abraham offering up Isaac.-- Gen. xxii. 1—13.

V. 1. "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham:' And he said, 'Behold, here I am.' 2. And he said, ⚫ Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.'

3. "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him,

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