St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-21
Worship of Some Kind Is an
Essential to Human
Beings.
A Discussion Of Some Of the
Many Definitions Of
Beauty.
The Chiefest Motive to Re-
ligion as 1t Is Pre-
Sented to Us.

preme Beauty" and the text was,
worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness: Dr.. Smith said:
Some sort of worship is essential to
man. All achievement and progress
rest upon the recognition of something
better, which deserves our reverence.
The, soul of man seeks alliance with
kindred strength. 1t is this which lends
dignity to Scientific pursuits. The
meaning of science is simply knowl-
edge, and it is not the outward forms of
life that interest men, but is the idea
universal and imperishable which is
manifested in them. So when Jesus
said. Consider the lilies how they
grow" He pointed out the richness, and
II we may so say, a SpontaneOuSnesS of
beauty which comes bursting upon us
out OF every crevice in nature.
The worship of ideas seeks not only
knowledge but achievement and it is
this which drives men forward to the
betterment of society, and to labor for
higher forms of political and individual
life. Force also has its worShipers.
The practical workman asks of material,
what it is good for. And of power, what
it can do. But the inventors work is
essentially ideal. First of all. he
breaches the gospel of optimism; he
thinks that the good in nature has not
all been found out. He believes also
that men are intended for more easy
and peaceful living, and so because of
his faith, though he himself may not
know the reason why. he seeks to har-
ness ideas and force to new chariotS of
human power. The noblest of men have
also had in them sentiment of worship
of
of the race.
That despicable audacity which
ignores the achievements of the past and
which belittles all the endeavors of the
present except its own, lawfully ends in
defeat and overthrow.
Caesar never had greater admirer
than in Napoleon. Shakespeare, vigor-
GUS honey bee that he was. sucked the
sweets from the poetry of every age.
Luther was no rude icOnoclast seeking
simply the destruction of the things
about him; for whatever he might think
of Leo n, he owed reyerent allegiance
to Peter and Paul. All greatness in
human action commences first of all
with the worship of men. But when we
come to see that nature is but
THE GARMENT OF GOD,
that her ideas are but copies of His
thought, that all her manifold forces lose
themselves in the deeps of His power,
that men have lived and wrought and
even suffered truly, only as they were
GOdlike, then do we see that all forms
of reverence whatsoever are simply
guide boards in the journey of the soul,
that point with unerring finger to a
lowly place before the affairs of the
great God. The worship of God ex-
plains the philosophy of life; it brings
to us the best Inspirations; it is
the highest duty as well as the suprem-
est privilege of every man.
AS we have seen, all achievement is a
kind of dumb worship. Religion there
fore makes life consistent and intelli-
gent. Since nature is the expression of
God, and everything permanent must be
builded in harmony with His law, we
only ally ourselves to the true and the
abiding as we ally ourselves to Him.
1t is well that religion has always had
its poets as well as its apostles and
prophets. Duty may seem to us a stern
conception: sacrifice a thing difficult
and repeIlant, but this poet singing out
of the temple of religion calls the ser
vice of God the beauty of holiness.
Beauty is rhythmic intelligence; it is
power in forms of grace; it is intelli-
gence in harmony and in proportion.
Beauty ascends according to the ideas
which it expresses and the material
with which it works. Artists will say
that the human form is the most beautf-
full of all objects. This is true because
it expresses life as well as outline; but
ii is supremely true because the human
body is the symbol of the soul. 1t is the
most visible and authentic expression of
the spiritual which this world holds.
The advancement of the human ideals
of art measures the advancement of the
world. As far as Apollo is superior to
Hercules, so much is the spiritual and
civilized man superior simply to the
man of strength; and as far as the Ma
donna is superior to the Apollo, so far
is the religious man superior to the
merely civilized.
But let us practically consider how
holiness may be regarded as thing of
beauty. The average man says: Il do
not believe this. Holiness is a thing
austere and repellant. 1t calls for hard
and, it seems to me, unnecessary Sacri-
fees. l can not see that holiness is a
thing OF beauty, for beauty is always a
thing of delight" But let US ask what
can undertannd what it may mean to
man. Holiness in God is simply the
DIVINE HARMONY WITH HIMSELF.
1t is the divine keeping within the
bounds of His own moral law. 1t is a
self-control, which is the noblest posi-
BILE attribute of absolute power. The
holiness of God is the moral safeguard
of the universe; it is the perpetual
guarantee of the abiding character OF
His government. Were it possible fol
God to swerve in thought or act from
His own allegiance to the highest and
best, the heart of man might well grow
sick within him. His shining garments
would blacken into doom and devils in
hell would hold jubilee over the desOla-
tions of heaven. Now, as holiness il
God is self-control, so precisely in MAJ
it is living within the boundaries of his
highest destiny.
The beauty of holiness is thus pre-
seuted to us as the chief motive of re
ligion, though it is far from being the
powerful one. Some object to fear as
source of religious feeling, but the Bible
does not think so, and so the apostle
SAYS, knowing the terrors of the Lord
we persuade men," The Christian re
ligiOn is eminently practical; it come:
to men where they are. To those whose
eyes are blinded, whose lives are coarse
and brutal, whose spiritual perception:
are dead, there are no voices but those
of threatening and warning. The phil
osophy of religious history is founC
in the fact that i'll every age Goo
has Bonded to human thoughts an(
achievements. Through the swamps O.
human sin and shame he had bull
whatever road were easiest and best
determined at every cost to reach MAJ
and help him. Some people object tt
gratitude as a reason for religion, hold
ing that religion thus becomes selfisl
and mercenary, but not so the apostles
who urges men Shy the mercieS of Cod
to present themselves living sacrifice
1t may be that the beauty of holiness il
something which is only clearly seen a
we come near to God. In the north o
Italy the word flies from quivering lips
1.-THE CHOLERA Is GOMEZ