As in Beethoven's matchless music there runs one idea, worked out through all the changes of measure and of key, now almost hidden, now breaking out in rich natural melody, whispered in the treble, murmured in the bass, dimly suggested in the prelude, but growing clearer and clearer, as the work proceeds, winding gradually back until it ends in the key in which it began, and closes in triumphant harmony; so throughout the whole Bible, there runs one great idea—man's ruin by sin, and his redemption by grace; in a word, Jesus Christ, the Saviour. This runs through the Old Testament, that prelude to the New, dimly promised at the fall, and more clearly to Abraham; typified in the ceremonies of the law; all the events of sacred history paving the genealogies of Ruth and Chronicles; spoken of as Shiloh, by Jacob, as the Star, by Balaam, as the Prophet, by Moses; the David of the Psalms; the Redeemer looked for, by Job; the Beloved of the Song of Songs. We find them in the sublime strains of the lofty Isaiah; in the writing of the tender Jeremiah; in the mysteries of the contemplative Ezekiel; in the visions of the beloved Daniel; the great idea growing clearer and clearer, as the time drew on. Then the full harmony broke out in the song of the angels, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace, good-will toward men." And Evangelists and Apostles taking up the theme, the strain closes in the same key in which it began; the Devil, who troubled the first paradise, forever excluded from the second; man restored to the favor of God; Jesus Christ the key-note of the whole.—American Messenger.