"all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and walls salvation, and thy gates praise." These pasis profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Our Saviour himself expressly and repeatedly recognizes them as the pure word of God, and of undoubted divine authority. (Consult Mathew, iv. c., 4-11 v. Mark, vii. c., 19 v. Luke, iv. c., 23-27 v. John, v. c., 39-47 v.) The Bible has been styled, by St. Paul, "the sword of the Spirit." The reasons why the Word of God is thus named, must be very obvious.

First. The spirit of God is its author-the maker of this sword. It was he, who constructed and polished it. It was he, who testified in the prophets and apostles. It was he, who moved them to write and to speak, and taught them what to say and record.

sages and many others that might be quoted, when compared with the most admired productions of uninspired men, will appear sublime and beautiful without a parallel. We shall cite a passage from the Spectator, a work justly admired by every reader. "The present seldom affords sufficient employment to the mind of man. Objects of praise or pleasure, love or admiration, do not lie thick enough together in life, to keep the soul in constant action, and supply an immediate exercise to its faculties. In order, therefore, to remedy this defect, that the mind may not want business, but always have materials for thinking, she is endowed with certain powers that can recall what is past, and anticipate what is to come. That wonderful faculty, which we call memory, is perpetually looking back, when we have nothing present to enterSecond. It is the sword of the spirit, because tain us. It is like those repositories in certain it is his agency that makes it effectual, and because, animals that are filled with stores of their former by it, as an instrument, his agency is brought to food, on which they may ruminate when their presbear upon the soul. It is the ministration of the ent pasture fails. Our actual enjoyments are so spirit, it is ever accompanied by his Almighty few and transient, that man would be a very mispower: hence, it has been called "quick and powerable being, were he not endowed with this paserful"" spirit and life." For these important sion, which gives him a taste of those good things purposes, then,—even for repelling Satan's temptations, and for destroying his works in ourselves and others—are we to take this weapon, and all other weapons of the Christian warfare; and so fight the good fight of faith, as ultimately to lay hold of eternal life.

that may possibly come into his possession." "We should hope for every thing that is good," says the old Poet Linus, "because there is nothing which may not be hoped for, and nothing but what the gods are able to give us." "Hope quickens the still parts of life, and keeps the mind awake in her most remiss and indolent hours. It gives habitual serenity and good humor. It is a kind of vital heat in the soul, that cheers and gladdens her when she does not attend to it. It makes pain easy, and labor pleasant."

To a mind suitably affected, the page of the finest poet or novelist unfolds insipid ideas, and furnishes but a paltry satisfaction, when brought in comparison with those sublimities and excellencies which glow on the sacred pages of divine revela

6. The Bible is a book of thought. In its disclosures of mercy and salvation, are not only "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn," but a careful perusal of its sacred pages is well calculated to awaken, enlarge and ennoble the intellect. The inspired page contains some of the sublimest thoughts, clothed in the most simple and impressive words, that are to be found in any language. "Truth is in its nature charming, and when clothed with genuine sublimity of thought, and chaste simplicity of language, it becomes doubly interesting." tion. Here, the most fastidious taste may find To one fond of magnificent description, there is ample gratification. Here, truth and virtue are nothing more captivating than the passage where held up to view, in all their native simplicity and the Psalmist describes the august appearance of beauty. "Whatever is exalted in sentiment, whatthe Mighty Jehovah: "He bowed the heavens ever is sublime in thought and expression, and whatalso and came down, and darkness was under his ever is noble in action, may be found in the Bible: feet; and he rode upon a cherub and did fly: yea, it combines all excellencies; it condenses all beauhe did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made ties; it concentrates all delights. It is the grand darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about ultimatum, without which all other knowledge is him were dark waters and thick clouds of the sky." utterly vain and worthless." Why, then, should Look likewise at the genuine sublimity of the any one fly for pleasure and entertainment to the prophet, Habbakkuk: "He stood and measured regions of romance, when truth is here presented the earth; he beheld and drove asunder the na- to the mind unmixed with error or doubt? Why tions; the everlasting mountains were scattered; should the writings of Walter Scott, of Lord By. the perpetual hills did bow; his ways are everlast-ron, and of Washington Irving, elicit the praises and ing." The evangelical prophet, when describing admiration of men, whilst those of the Prophets the future glory of the Church, says, "Violence and Apostles are thrown aside and considered unshall no more be heard in our land, waste and de-worthy of a perusal ? Perverted indeed must be struction in thy borders; but thou shalt call thy' the taste, that can prefer the gilded page of fiction

to that of inspiration. Dark is that mind, which | soul, should, therefore, be the grand concern of every can see no beauties in the book of God-no thoughts reader of the Scriptures. Here, the immortality of sublime and beautiful-no words of power and wis-the soul is clearly brought to light, and arrayed in dom but the natural man is averse to the things unquestionable evidence. Here, are life and salvaof God, neither can he know them because they tion offered to all, and free for all. And surely, it are spiritually discerned.

is an awful responsibility which they incur, who wilfully neglect the Bible and devote all their time and the energies of their minds to earthly and sub

"This lamp, from off the everlasting throne,
Mercy took down, and in the night of time
Stood casting on the dark her gracious bow;
And evermore beseeching men, with tears,
And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live."

how he may move off in triumph from a contracted and temporary scene, and grasp destinies of unbounded splendor, eternity his lifetime, and infinity his home. What, then, would be the condition of the world if it were suddenly withdrawn, and every

7. The Bible is a book of power. This idea will appear obvious from an examination of its contents. "The law of the Lord is perfect, conver-ordinate objects; for, ting the soul." "The enterance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." "Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?" "Thou, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine enemies; for they are ever with me." "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God The Bible is the noblest and most precious boon, unto salvation to every one that believeth." "But that God has ever bestowed upon our apostate and whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and orphaned race. It is the development of man's continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, immortality; the unerring guide which informs him but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." "Sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth." "And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." In the preceding quotations, remembrance of it swept away? We should then the Scriptures are said to possess power sufficient, arrive at some faint conception of the worth of this not only to enlighten the benighted understanding; wondrous volume. "Take from Christendom the to soften the obdurate heart; to melt down the Bible," says the Rev. Mr. Melville, " and you have stubborn will; and excite in the soul" repentance to- taken the moral chart by which alone its population ward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ;" can be guided. Ignorant of the nature of God, but to convert the soul, sanctify the affections, and and only guessing at their own immortality, the strengthen the spirit, with "might by faith in the tens of thousands of men, would be as mariners, inner man," and finally to prepare the soul for a tossed on a wide ocean without a pole-star, and seat in heaven. Who, then, would live without the without a compass. The blue lights of the stormHoly Scriptures? They restrain men from the fiend would burn ever in the shrouds; and when commission of crime, point out the path of duty, the tornado of death rolled across the waters, there and urge them on in the pursuit of individual and would be heard nothing but the shriek of the tersocial happiness. They inculcate the fear of God, rified and the groan of the despairing. It were to and of his holy law, and hurl the thunderbolts of mantle the earth with more than Egyptian darkhis insulted justice against every incorrigible of-ness; it were to dry up the fountains of human fender. Did shame restrain Alcibiades from the happiness; it were to take the tides from our wacommission of a base action in the presence of ters and leave them stagnant, and the stars from Socrates? This holy book repeatedly declares, our heavens and clothe them in sackcloth; and the there is a God, who knoweth the secret thoughts verdure from our valleys and leave them all barand intents of the heart, and there is nothing hid renness: it were to make the present all recklessfrom his all-seeing eye. The fear of death alone, ness and the future all hopelessness, the maniac's often deters men from excess in sin: the Bible adds revelry and the fiend's imprisonment, if you could infinite horrors to that fear; it warns them of a annihilate that precious volume which tells of God death both of soul and body. The peculiar pur- and of Christ, and unveils immortality, and inpose of the whole is, to turn men from darkness structs to duty, and woos to glory. Such is the to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; Bible. Reader! have you in possession this Book! to raise them from the degredation and wretch- Prize it, and study it more and more. Prize it, as edness of the fall, and put them in possession of you are an immortal being, for it guides to the New the inestimable blessings of redemption; to lead Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Prize it, as them from a state of trial and conflict on earth, to you are an intellectual being-" for it giveth una state of rest and felicity in heaven. And so to derstanding to the simple." "Read, mark, learn, assist and direct them in all conditions in life, that and inwardly digest”—“ for it is able to make thee they may not fail of these great ends, except by wise unto salvation." their own wilful neglect of the counsel of God against themselves. The salvation of his own

Georgetown, S. C.

P. A. M. W.

Bacchus, for the destruction of Thebes, the city of

THE GREEK SYMPOSIUM, his nativity. Add to this the nature of their re

AND ITS MATERIALS.

Οτ ̓ ἐγω πίω τὸν οἶνον,

τότε μεν ἰανθὲν ἦτορ

Μούσας λιγαίνειν άρχεται.

[Anacreon.

ligious rites; the libation over the victim, the feast after the sacrifice, and the bowls drunk in honor of the gods, at the commencement and conclusion of each repast, and which it was held disrespectful not to fill high and drain deep.† and we shall see ample cause for the unbounded use of wine, in which the laughter-loving Greeks indulged.

Nor was it only the more idle and unthinking There was a native elegance and refinement in the social manners of the Greeks, that we look who sought pleasure and forgetfulness in the bowl. for in vain among moderns. The wreaths of vio-The wisest statesmen, the most successful Genelets and roses, the rose suspended in the midst, rals, the most profound philosophers, and the greatand the lyre and myrtle branch, were emanations est poets, were all the ardent devotees of Bacchus, which could spring only from minds full of poetry, and all join with fervor in the praises of the grape. and which put to shame the tipsy revellers of the The latter class especially, seem on that subject present day. True, their taste in potables may to have a unanimity but rarely observable among not have been so refined as our own, and we con- the followers of Apollo, and we find very few who fess that we should prefer a glass of good cham- are willing to subscribe themselves as believers in pagne, or unadulterated southside Madeira, to the Pindar's 'ápicτóv pev'idup. Even the grave and senstrange compounds of seawater, rosin, turpentine, tentious Euripides does not disdain to say and grape juice, which delighted the palates of Athenian epicures. But these inaccuracies of taste were well compensated for, by the accompaniments of a Grecian feast, where the gratification of all the senses was sought for, and where the creations of Apelles and Praxiteles, the perfumes of Athens, the dancing girls of Ionia, the Achaian flutes, and the inspired numbers of Anacreon, were called in, to aid the violet crown and the vintage of Chios.*

Τὴν παυσίλυπον ἁμπελον δοῦναι βροτοῖς.
Οίνου δὴ μηκέτι όντος οὐκ ἐστὶν Κύπρις,
Οὐ δ' ἄλλο τερπνὸν οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις ἔτι.

To mortals then he gave the grape that drives
Away all earthly cares. Oh! without wine,
Nor love, nor pleasure, would remain to man.

Sophocles remarks, “ τὸ μεθύειν πημονής λυτήριον "drunkenness is the best remedy for grief;" and, to complete the homage of the three great masters Of course, among a people so lively and impas- of Tragedy, we find from Athenæus, that Æschysioned, the juice of the grape was in great request. lus was in the habit of composing his deathless They knew not the utility of Washingtonian Tee- works under the influence of intoxication! We totalism; and the few sumptuary laws of Am-pass by Anacreon's devotion to wine, as a mere phyction and Solon, were either regarded as a matter of course; but it seems strange to modern mere dead letter, or threw restraints so light over the free use of the bowl, that they served rather as a whet, or stimulus, than as a curb to the universal appetite. And indeed, when we consider the nature of their religion, we could scarcely expect otherwise. Bacchus was a deity, held in supreme adoration, not only from the grape over which he presided, but also from the relentless severity with which he punished those who despised his power. We may smile with contempt at the old mythic traditions of Pentheus, Lycabas, Lycurgus, Agave, and others; but they were devoutly believed by some of the firmest minds of antiquity, and met with universal credence from the great mass of the unthinking. Even the death of Alexander was attributed to the resentment of

* Antiphanes (Athenæus, Lib. I.) affords hospitable din

ner-givers a list of the most desirable sources for their
various delicacies.

Thy cook should be of Elis; utensils
Let Argus furnish; have Phliasian wine;
Couches from Corinth, fish from Sicyon bring,-
Have Ægian flute-players, Sicilian cheese;
With Attic perfumes and Baotian eels.

VOL. XI-79

eyes, to meet exhortations in favor of the bowl among the grave and moral sententiæ of Theognis, the Megarean. But of all lovers of the grape, Alcæus, the master of the lyre, would seem to be the most eminent. Unfortunately, we possess but a few inconsiderable fragments of this poet, whose fiery genius seems to have bent itself upon the themes of war and wine, and who must have been one of the foremost of the lyric nine, to judge from the warm eulogies of all antiquity, and from Horace's utmost ambition having been to imitate him successfully. The few disjointed fragments which remain, nearly all relate to the enjoyment of wine. Some of them are quoted by that charming old gossip, Athenæus, (Lib. IX.) as peculiarly evincing his passion for the grape.

In the fierceness of winter, the poet seems to find good reasons for not neglecting the gifts of

Bacchus.

This was so regularly understood to be a debauch, that Aristotle derives μεθύειν from μετὰ τὸ θύειν.

+ Aristophanes introduces a character, boasting of having honored various deities with no less than six hundred glasses, emptied in their names!

After this, it would be hardly worth while to quote any of the rhapsodies of Aristophanes, whose devotion to the grape is sufficiently proved by his habit of writing while under the influence of the Αφροδίτης γάλα, as he terms it. Neither would it

suit our purpose to recount further the homage paid to Bacchus, which we meet on almost every page of the bards of old, and we will quit this part of our

Nor, in summer, is he in want of an excuse for subject with a little fragment of Amphis, on acthe full indulgence of his favorite pleasure.

He can endure no flower, that will not minister osition is unanimously carried, and maintained for to his darling indulgence.

well as the sword or lyre, was a means of procu- stituted games over the tomb of Calanus, the ring a niche in the Temple of Fame. Athenæus Gymnosophist or Brahmin, who followed him from records the names of many whose exploits would India, and who finally committed suicide, by burnastonish a modern bacchanalian. Diotimus, the ing himself to death. Among the contests was one Athenian, who obtained the soubriquet of Xovn,- of drinking; the prize of which was a magnificent "funnel," from a power which he possessed of cup of gold, of the value of a talent, which was putting that utensil to his mouth, and drinking won by Promachus, after drinking some fourteen through it indefinitely; Ion, the poet; Scopas; quarts. Unfortunately for the competitors, the Xenarchus, the Rhodian, surnamed Mérperes" the weather which followed was unusually cold, and no Barrel," from his capacity; Alcetas, the Macedo- less than forty of them were taken off. nian; and Hermeias, the Methymnian, are a few But this excessive drunkenness went somewhat of many whose names are preserved by the inde- beyond the approbation of the more careful epifatigable Athenæus, as men whose diligence in the cures. Among a people so lively and so excitable cause of drinking deserves much honor. The as the Greeks, it is not to be wondered at, if wine stories told concerning the drinkers of that day, should frequently carry them beyond all bounds, are many of them almost beyond credibility. Ac- and induce them to commit excesses to be repented cording to Aristotle, Dionysius the Younger, be- of afterwards. Chameleon Heracleotes expresses came totally blind from the effects of a nine days much indignation at the practice of immoderate continued debauch. The account given by Ephip- drinking, which was much in vogue in his time, and pus, of the death of Alexander the Great is, that he attributes the fierceness and cruelty of the hehe called for a cup containing two congii, (about roes of ancient Greece, to their excessive use of seven quarts,) and drank it off to Proteas, one of wine, and to their enormously large goblets. Hothe hardy boon companions, whom his excesses mer exhausts himself in describing the drinking cup assembled round him. Proteas immediately re- of Nestor, so large, that a young man could turned the compliment, and, soon after, filling the scarcely raise it. Plato, though he is belied if he same bowl, emptied it again, and sent it to the loved not a cup of good Chian or Lesbian, is king. Alexander took it, and boldly endeavored to drain it, but before it was exhausted, fell back senseless on his couch. From this condition, he never entirely recovered, and died in the course of a few days.

severe against the abuse of wine in his Republic, and his Essays De Legibus. In the latter, he wishes to limit the use of wine by all under the age of thirty. Eubulus, too, no mean authority in such cases, prescribes three cups as the maximum in in which a prudent man should indulge himself. Bacchus loquitur.

Three cups of good wine are enough for the wise,

And this is the way that I send them.
The first for good health and digestion men prize;
To the second, for love, I commend them.
The third may be taken sweet slumbers to bring,

And here will a sober man cease.

He will turn from the board, ere his senses take wing,
And wend his way homeward in peace.

O'er the fourth cup of wine, I've no longer control,
For 'tis ruled by dissension and strife;
Then noise and contention come with the fifth bowl,
And the sixth with fierce riot is rife.

Not only individuals, but even cities and countries enjoyed celebrity on account of their wineloving propensities. Elis was equally remarkable for the number of the liars and drunkards enrolled among her citizens; the Thracians were well known for their prowess at the bowl; the Argives and Tyrinthians were notorious for their enjoyment of the gifts of Bacchus; while Bæton tells us, that the Tapyrians were so fond of wine, that they used it for every purpose, and even in anointing, preferred it to all other unguents, or perfumes. Springing naturally from these habits, were the contests of drinking, which were frequently held in public, similar to the Ayves, or games of running, wrestling, and the like. That these open drinking bouts were considered honorable, may be deduced from the fact, that philosophers did not disdain to enter into them. A pointless bon mot is! related of Anacharsis, which illustrates this. He Those who prized wine so highly, and used it in was engaged in one of these matches before Peri- such large quantities, we may readily suppose, were ander, of Corinth, in which, though he yielded to particularly nice in their choice and discrimination, the power of the wine-god before his competitors, and paid great attention to it, not only in its prepanotwithstanding his Scythian extraction, he de- ration, but also in soils best suited for it, and the manded the prize, remarking, that in a race, he is localities most favorable to its full perfection. victor who first reaches the goal. Some idea may Accordingly, we find almost innumerable varieties be had of the quantity of wine swallowed at these and growths mentioned by the Greek writers, and contests, from an anecdote related by Plutarch in distinguished by every conceivable shade of differhis life of Alexander the Great. That prince in-ence-some exalted to a comparison with the beve

From the seventh spring quarrels and terrible blows,

Which the eighth one inflames more and more;
Till the ninth will make sots of the valorous foes,
And the tenth strew them round on the floor.