And in all the generations that have passed since then, suffering souls have been sustained by the testimony of John’s life. In the dungeon, on the scaffold, in the flames, men and women through centuries of darkness have been strengthened by the memory of him of whom Christ declared, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater.”[249] * * * * * “And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, ... and Samuel, and of the prophets; who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. [Sidenote: “_Through Faith_”] “Women received their dead raised to life again; and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”[250] _Poetry and Song_ “THY STATUTES HAVE BEEN MY SONGS IN THE HOUSE OF MY PILGRIMAGE” [Sidenote: _Poetry of the Bible_] The earliest as well as the most sublime of poetic utterances known to man are found in the Scriptures. Before the oldest of the world’s poets had sung, the shepherd of Midian recorded those words of God to Job,—in their majesty unequaled, unapproached, by the loftiest productions of human genius:— “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Or who shut up the sea with doors, When it brake forth; ... When I made the cloud the garment thereof, And thick darkness a swaddling-band for it, And prescribed for it My decree, And set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; And here shall thy proud waves be stayed? “Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days began, And caused the dayspring to know its place?... “Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or hast thou walked in the recesses of the deep? [Sidenote: _The Earliest Poem_] Have the gates of death been revealed unto thee? Or hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of death? Hast thou comprehended the breadth of the earth? Declare, if thou knowest it all.