104 ARCHITECTURE AND PAINTING

79. You will find, on the other hand, that the language of the Bible is specifically distinguished from all other early literature, by its delight in natural imagery;¹ and that the dealings of God with His people are calculated peculiarly to awaken this sensibility within them. Out of the monotonous valley of Egypt they are instantly taken into the midst of the mightiest mountain scenery in the peninsula of Arabia; and that scenery is associated in their minds with the immediate manifestation and presence of the Divine Power; so that mountains for ever afterwards become invested with a peculiar sacredness in their minds: while their descendants being placed in what was then one of the loveliest districts upon the earth, full of glorious vegetation, bounded on one side by the sea, on the north by “that goodly mountain” Lebanon,² on the south and east by deserts, whose barrenness enhanced by their contrast the sense of the perfection of beauty in their own land, they became, by these means, and by the touch of God’s own hand upon their hearts, sensible to the appeal of natural scenery in a way in which no other people were at the time. And their literature is full of expressions, not only testifying a vivid sense of the power of nature over man, but showing that sympathy with natural things themselves, as if they had human souls, which is the especial characteristic of true love of the works of God. I intended to have insisted on this sympathy at greater length, but I found, only two or three days ago, much of what I had to say to you anticipated in a little book, unpretending, but full of interest, The Lamp and the Lantern, by Dr. James Hamilton;³ and I will therefore only ask you to consider such expressions as that tender

¹ [Ruskin discussed this aspect of the Bible further in Modern Painters, vol. iv. ch. xx. §§ 46-49.]

² [Deuteronomy iii. 25.]

³ [The Lamp and the Lantern; or, Light for the Tent and the Traveller, by James Hamilton, D.D., 1853; a small volume of lectures on the Bible. The landscape of the Bible is discussed at pp. 36-43. The author (1814-1867) was for many years minister of the National Scottish Church, Regent Square, London, and his Book of Psalms and Hymns has been widely adopted in Presbyterian churches.]

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