St. Paul daily globe., 1895-09-16
REV. s. G. SMITH GLoRIES IN
THE BEAUTY OF SEA AND
SIX
LOCAL POINTS OF VANTAGE.
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ON THE
HIGH BRIDGE UNSURPASSED
IN THE WORLD.
THE MORAL USES OF ART.
Cultivated Taste Il IL DeIivernnce
From the Numerous Forms
of Vice.

The subject of Rev. S. G. Smiths
sermon in the Peoples church yes
terday morning was ''The Discipline
of Beauty" The discourse, Of which
the following is an abstract, was
unusually interesting. DR.. Smith
took as his text, ST have seen the
travail which God hath given the
sons of men to be exercised there
with. He hath made everything
beautiful in its time" Ecclesiastes,
ill.,, IL.
''The love and joy of beauty" said
DR.. Smith, "are perhaps commonly
supposed to be the vocation of
few great souls-our poets, artists,
dreamers. But there is no human
being, unless an intellectual mon
ster, who is not stirred at some
phase of harmony-it may be only
by that wonderful artistic revela-
ton, the laugh of a little child gush-
ing from an uncorrupted fountain
of gladness.
Then it is thought that artistic
OppOI ID ll1llllCu " 'lilOSS w 1lO
have wealth or leisure. But surely
for all of US the gracious curves of
a birds fight, the glorious dropping
Of the branches of a tree, or the
moving brightness and music of
flowing waters. We can go some
times at sunset and stand on the
high bridge and watch the kaleido-
scope Of an evening sky, and see
spread out an ever-changing pam
| Drama Of color from deep green to
violet, while the setting sun, the
king of color, reverses the process
of Elijah and ruSheS down beyond
the Wood-Skirted horizon in a chariot
of fire bedecked with parti-colored
banners of flame. Then it is perhaps
even more wonderful to see the play
of the shadows among the green's,
the browns and blues, of wood, of
| field, and in the bosky dells between
the sharp curves of the hills. Mean
While the crimSon-leaved vines still
| cl1nging among the dark green
of the oak or the poplar leaves al
| ready touched with yellow are slow
ly lost in the misty folds of nights
mantle, and earth yields interest
to the silver-starred heavens, eter-
| nal symbol Of majesty and calm.
1T may be thought that such OBJ
| Servat1onS are the occupation of an
idle hour and are for those who care
for them, but have no universal mean
ing. Such is not the case 1t is in
the knowledge and love of local color
that the sources of patriotic feeling
lie. If Minneapolis has $4,000 more peo-
pie than we have in st. Paul it is not
| worth while to prove them frauds. il
is enough to say that we have
school of education on the high bridge
unsurpassed in all the world, and be-
| cause of its natural beauty, no cultt-
! waited person would live in Minneap-
Oils If he had a chance to live in st.
Paul. Swedes and Nerwegians go
crazy on the plains of North Dakota
because they miss the waterfalls and
hlllsides of their own country. and
pine and sigh themselves into melan-
| cholia without knowing what is the
matter with them.
MORAL USES OF ART.
Schiller, the great German, was so
much of poet, that it is almost for
gotten that he was a great historian.
! ana he was so great a historian that
Few remember that he was profound
! philosophical eSsayiSt. In one of his
essays he deals with the moral uses
| OF art, and In his plea for the stage he
asserts that its concrete pictures of life
| should make 1t the greatest of puIpits.
| 80 also the writer of EccleSiastes
| teaches us that beauty is not for the
| rev and that culture must not be
| casual. There is a labor which God
hath given to exercise the sons of
! men in that He hath made everything
beautiful in its time. The Joy of beam
ty to those who care for it, is familiar.
but we are taught a needed, if unfa
| miliar lesson, of the toll of beauty as
moral discipline which is imposed
upon US all.
Most forms of spiritual culture that
are urged are essentially one sided
This man has a, theory of spiritual de-
Veiopment which he organizes into
dogma and makes the rallying point of
a sect; that one has another remedy
which he embodies in a psycholosv
and forms a party for its propa ga tion
But the fact is that human nature
needs all the supports it can get. We
need to trust God alone as though there
were no other help. We need to work
Tor our own salvation as though there
were no God. We need the supnort of
truth as though there were no help in
association. We need to trust the
church as though there were no other
refuge. And when we have used all
helps, still the unattained ideal Of per
fectness Will shine alluring above us.
1t is In this spirit that 1 would point
out the moral discipline of beauty
not as panacea for evil, but as an
aid to virtue. There are two ways of
conquering the devil The one is To
give to Michael. the archangel, an ALL
conquering sword; the other. is to
weaken the devil SO that any pilgrim,
of earth shall be more than a matob
in a fight We may strengthen tba
man or rob the temptation of its faso,
nation. -
The old aseetic morality of Hebrew
religion is not inviting, and leaves the
allurements of life to the powers of
evil. The Greek sensuousness lent the
charm OF beauty to all things and
made race strong in body and clean
in morals when compared with the
Asiatic life which it mastered. The
Greeks freed and elevated thei,. neonle
by means of beauty.
HISTORY IS A PICTURE.
Art is essentially a gospel of free
dom. Nature shows hints of beautv
amid much incompieteness, Paint;ng