By James H. Snowden
hough
surcharged with such tremendous meaning, carrying a heavier
burden of news than was ever before committed to human language, yet the
simplicity with which the story is told is one of the literary marvels
of the gospels. This event has inspired poets and painters and has been
embroidered and illuminated with an immense amount of ornamentation.
Genius has poured its splendors upon it and tried to give us some worthy
conception of the scene. But the evangelists had no such purpose or
thought, and their story is told with that charming artlessness that is
perfect art. They were not men of genius, but plain men, mostly tax
collectors and fishermen untrained in the schools, with no thought of
skill or literary art. Yet all the stylists and artists of the world
stand in wonder before their unconscious effort and supreme
achievement. No attempt at rhetoric disfigures their record, not a word
is written for effect, but the simple facts are allowed to tell their
own eloquent and marvelous tale. The inspired writers mixed no
imagination with their verities, for they had no other thought than to
tell the plain truth; and this gives us confidence in the
trustworthiness of their narrative. These men did not follow cunningly
devised fables when they made known unto us the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, for they were eye-witnesses of his glory.
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