EXAMPLES IN ORAL AND PARABOLIC STYLE.

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From the Sermon on the Mount.-Matthew VI.

V. 1. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 2. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. 3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; 4. That thine alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly.

5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. 6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. 7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. 9. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.. 11. Give us this day our daily bread. 12. And forgive us. our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. kingdom, and the power, and the glory, 14. For, if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15. But, if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your tres

passes.

For thine is the forever. Amen.

16. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of

a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. 17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; 18. That thou appear not unto men, to fast, but unto thy Father, which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

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19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. 21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

:

24. 'No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26. Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; 29. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need

of all these things. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.'

Additional Examples.-The Parable of the Sower, Matthew xiii. 1— 43; The Parable of the Talents, Matthew xxv. 14-46; Rebuke of Covetousness, Luke xii. 13-40; Regeneration, John iii. 1-21; Parting Words of Jesus to his Disciples, John, xiv.

EXAMPLES FROM THE EPISTLES.

Equality of Jew and Gentile.-Rom. III.

V. 1. What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2. Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. 3. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4. God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, "That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." 5. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man,) 6. God forbid for then how shall God judge the world? 7. For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 8. And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. 9. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. 15. Their

feet are swift to shed blood. 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17. And the way of peace have they not known. 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus : 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. 28. Therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30. Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. 31. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Additional Examples.-Justification by Faith, Rom. v.; The carnal State and the spiritual, Rom. viii.; Charity, 1 Cor. xiii.; The Resurrection, 1 Cor. xv.

PASSAGES FROM THE PROPHETIC WRITINGS.

The prophets are distinguished, among the sacred writers, for poetic beauty and grandeur of thought, and for graphic and dramatic effect of style. The prophetic books imbody

more descriptive power and vivid expression, than any other writings whatever. They require, accordingly, more intensity and variety of tone, in reading,-a nobler majesty of utterance a fuller, deeper, stronger, character of voice,—a perfect'orotund quality?'

The oriental fervour of emotion, and the poetic and imaginative language which characterize the prophets, taken in connection with their sublime force of thought, naturally call for a higher degree of energy in the voice, than is required for ordinary reading, or even for the style of the other writers of the sacred volume. The appropriate reading of most portions of the prophetic books, requires, likewise, a more marked and peculiar 'stress,' than occurs in forms of writing less expressive and peculiar. The style of prophetic language, in the sacred Scriptures, is not less striking in regard to its effect on the pitch of the voice. It abounds in the solemn and majestic tones of the epic, in the transports of joy and the bursts of grief peculiar to the lyric ode, and in the abrupt conversational turns of dramatic dialogue. Its variety and range of pitch, therefore, are remarkable; and to the same causes are owing its frequent use of special inflections,' as the 'wave,' the 'monotone,' the bold 'downward slide of exclamation and command, and the acute rising inflection' of eager and stern interrogation. The 'movement of the voice, too, in the appropriate reading of passages from the prophets, is strikingly marked in every degree required by intense and varied emotion, from the slowest style of awe, gloom, and horror; to the rapid rate of haste, joy, and triumph. The whole style of elocution, in this department of Scripture reading, is marked by the peculiar force of its emphasis, the occasional brevity, and the occasional impressive length, of its pauses, the intensity of its 'expression,' and the abruptness and extent of its variation.'

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The Doom of Babylon.-Isaiah XIII.

V. 1. The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of