ding them out to pasture thru the narrow defiles of the mountains,
amidst many dangers, yet guarding them diligently against all. And
this sight gave rise to reflections on the divine providence that found
expression in that sublime and beautiful Twenty-third Psalm:

"The Lord is _my_ shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside still waters;
He restoreth my soul."

What is there in all the world's literature more inspired and more
inspiring than this? And yet it is no more miraculous nor supernatural
in its origin than the shepherd caring for his sheep.

Inspiration is simply a condition or state of mind. It is purely
psychological in its nature, and may be produced by a great variety of
causes; but is not supernatural. To some extent, and in some degree,
but by no means always equal, it has been common among all peoples of
the past; and at all periods of their history. Specimens of it have
come down to us in this age, enshrined and preserved in the literature,
music and art of these peoples. It is as common among men today as it
ever was in any past age. It is embodied in some degree, in most, if
not all the literature, art and music of all ages; but by no means to
the same extent in all. There are passages in Dante, Goethe,
Shakespeare, Milton, Browning, Emerson, Carlyle, Bryant, Longfellow,
Lowell, and a thousand others, ancient and modern, that are just as
much the products of inspiration as the Twenty-third Psalm or the
Sermon on the Mount. But no one would pretend to say that _all_ that
these men wrote was equally inspired, or of equal value.

What then is to be the test of inspiration? How are we to know what is
inspired from what is not? There is no absolute and infallible test.
The rule I have generally followed is what may be termed, the test of
reproduction. The test of the perfect life of an oak is the production
of an acorn that will produce another oak. The test of all complete
and perfect animal life is its power to reproduce itself in the
perpetuation of its own species. The test of inspiration is whether or
not it reproduces its kind:--Does it inspire? Who can read the
Twenty-third Psalm, or the Sermon on the Mount, the parable of the Lost
Sheep, or the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians without feeling
the spirit of inspiration in his own soul? Therefore these must be
inspired, because they inspire others. Who can read E