Sacred.
A skilful guide into poetic ground,
The flowers would spring where'er she deigned to stray.
And every muse attend her on her way.
Cowper.
With holiness! oh, how divinely sweet
The tones of earthly harp, whose chords are touch'd
By the soft hand of Piety—and hung
Upon religion's shrine.
Wilson's Isle of Palms.
It is no trifling good to win the ear of children with verses which foster in them the seeds of humanity and tenderness and piety; awaken their fancy, and exercise pleasurably and wholesomely their imaginative and meditative powers. It is no trifling benefit to provide a ready mirror for the young, in which they may see their own best feelings reflected, and wherein "whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely," are presented to them in the most attractive form. It is no trifling benefit to send abroad strains which may assist in preparing the heart for its trials, and in supporting it under them.—Southey.
The poetry of devotion is the rarest of all poetry. It is sad to think
how few, of all the poets in the English language, have possessed or
exhibited the Christian character, or had the remembrance of their
names associated with the thoughts of Christ and His Cross, or the
feelings to which the great theme of redemption gives rise in the bosom
of a Christian. We may find plenty of the sentimentality of religion,
expressed too in beautiful language, but as cold as a winter night's
frost-work on our windows. A few beloved volumes, indeed, have their
place in the heart, but they are few; and of these the praise belongs
not exclusively to the genius of poetry, but to a far more precious and
elevated spirit—the spirit of the Bible. What bosom, that possesses
this, does not contain the germ of deep poetry? What poet has experienced
its influence, whose song did not breathe an echo of the
melodies of paradise? In the true minstrelsy of devotion, there is a
higher excellence than that of mere genius. Poetry herself acknow-
