Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end. Amen." In the reading of the first of the "Sentences" of Daily Prayer, if the reader is to utter the words as actually in the Lord's presence, and is to impress his fellow-worshipers that the Lord is with them of a truth, then he must by necessity give that gravity and solemnity to the movement which alone can correspond with the thought. 6. "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”—Hab. ii., 20. 7. From the Burial Service.-" Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay. "In the midst of life we are in death of whom may we seek for succor but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins are justly displeased? "Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death. 8. "I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the Lord : even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labors.". Rev. xiv., 13. The majesty of the theme in the first chapter of Genesis demands the "slow" movement to fitly give the character of the narrative. And God said, 9. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Let there light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.”— Gen. i., 1-13. : An emphatically slow movement, when rightly employed, giving deliberation to the expression of the thought, and weighing the words of solemn import, increases the solemnity of expression to a marked degree, if it be not continued too long. And a still deeper impression is produced in the utterance of awe and similar feelings. Indeed, there can be no proper expression of awe when there is any approach to a quick, or even moderate movement. "Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. O let thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint. If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? For there is mercy with thee; therefore shalt thou be feared. I look for the Lord; my soul doth wait for him ; in his word is my trust. My soul fleeth unto the Lord before the morning watch; I say, before the morning watch. O Israel, trust in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his sins." Lively Movement.-This element of expression has two distinct uses-one for the natural increase in the rapidity of the movement for enlivened feeling, such as might be classed under the head of animation, and, secondly, that degree of rapidity which energetic and excited feeling in all divisions would require. We may easily mark five natural distinctions of rate or movement of the voice in the divisions for exercise-slowest, slow, moderate, animated, quick. It should be observed that these are natural, not arbitrary, distinctions, and the speaker who confines himself to one undeviating movement, by such use of his voice, impedes his own power in the vocal expression of his thought or feeling. These distinctions, from their simplicity, would appear to be the veriest truisms. Indeed, they are so obvious that they would find no mention here were it not for the fact that many speakers, who admit them in theory, utterly disregard them in practice. They acknowledge the propriety and absolute necessity of adapting the measurement of the voice to the sentiment, in every case, yet hold to a sameness of expression that seriously weakens their power of delivery. As we could not endure the incessant repetition of the same thought in language, so we can not more easily accept the continued use of the same movement. It is dull, soporific, and stupefying to the greatest degree. Rapid Movement. 1. How they brought the Good News.-Browning. "Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, And into the midnight we galloped abreast. "Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace Neck by neck, stride for stride, never changing our place; I turned in my saddle and made its girth tight, The following selection, from its mental vivacity, will serve as an excellent illustration of quick movement: 2. To a Skylark.—Shelley. Hail to thee, blithe spirit, Bird thou never wert, That from heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher, From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The deep blue thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. 3. "Every difficulty, and every trial, that occurs in your path is a fresh opportunity presented by his kindness of improving the happiness after which he hath taught you to aspire. By every hardship which you sustain in the wilderness you secure an additional portion of the promised land. What though the combat be severe ? A kingdom, an everlasting kingdom, is the prize of victory. Look forward to the triumph which awaits you, and your courage will revive. Fight the good fight, finish your course, keep the faith there is laid up for you a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give unto you at that day. What though, in the navigation of life, you have sometimes to encounter the war of elements? What though the winds rage, though the waters roar, and danger threatens around? Behold at a distance the mountains appear. Your friends are impatient for your arrival; already the feast is prepared, and the rage of the storm shall serve only to waft you sooner to the haven of rest. No tempests assail those blissful regions which approach to view all is peaceful and serene; there you shall enjoy eternal comfort, and the recollection of the hardships which you now encounter shall heighten the felicity of better days." CHAPTER XI. PAUSES. ONE means of separating the various divisions of thought in a sentence or paragraph is by proper rests, or pauses. Words which express one idea are thus set apart by themselves, and the ear instinctively associates this classification of language with the relations of a single thought. The length of the pause is decided by the impressiveness of the thought we are striving to convey, or the emphasis we would give to one expression over another, by resting in` preparation, or pausing after the emphatic idea, in order that it may be duly received. All impressive and emphatic effect is especially dependent upon this element of expression. This may be seen by observing closely the natural result of pausing when a teacher would impress the memory, or emphasize a thought, or when a parent would give explanatory instruction or administer earnest rebuke to his child. To run the words together, without these natural separations by pausing, is very much like the old style of printing without spacing between the words. There are few things in utterance which render the effect so puerile and expressionless as the disregard of these natural cessations of voice at the appropriate intervals. For this implies that the mind is not working consciously |