Connecticut western news., 1904-09-01

leg by the day, the week, the month and the year. because" said the great Italian master, q consider that piece of stone the most perfect formation of physical anatomy ever carved by the chisel of man." So symmetrically per feet may the lines ana the curves of a great group of statuary be that when you look at some of the best ex- amples of sculpture in the Louvre, the Vatican or the British museum the figures almost seem as though their lungs are breathing and their lips are ready to speak.
 Now, the symmetrical laws observed in true sculpture are also found to ex- ist In true architecture. A great build CT like Christopher Wren did not start in to erect St. Paul's cathedral at hap hazard. Every part of the walls, the dome and the capstone were carefully and harmoniously designed and prop erly proportioned before one spadeful of dirt was dug out of the heart of mother earth to excavate the cellars of London's architectural pride. And the wonderful part of the masterfully de signed buildings of Europe Is how de- captive they are as to their size when first seen by the human eye. When one sees the dome of St. Peters at Rome lifting itself toward the skies, or the spires of the Cologne cathedral like the uplifted forefnger of an ora tor pointing heavenward, or the roof of the Milan cathedral peopled with myriads of saints and apostles carved in stone, the lengths and the breadths and the heights of those structures rarely impress the tourist at first. Why? Because all are in perfect sym metrical proportion. A truly great building is "multitudes of stones ar ranged in unity" It Is thought ex- thought expressed in colors, or as mu- sic is thought expressed in sound.
 Now, as true architecture Is beautiful thought expressed In the curves and lines of the roof and the walls and the foundation stones of building, would go one step further in my sub Ject. I would say to the designers of the great Episcopalian cathedral now being built in New York city: "Oh, architects, of what material are you building these walls? Where are to be found the mighty beams to hold up wonder roof?' Then these architects take me down into the quarries, and amid the dust and the dirt I see the mighty rocks being hewed out. Then they take me to the foundries where the steel beams are being molded. Then they take me out into the forests where the great tree trunks are being dragged to the sawmills. Then they say: "Oh, preacher, we are making this beautiful Cathedral of St. John the Divine out of such materials as these. All these rocks and steel beams and tree trunks, multitude of different clements, shall blend together in beau tiful architectural unity" Then I turn to the architects, and say: "Oh, design CTS, if you can make yonder stone beau tiful by placing it in symmetrical har- mony with other stones, cannot my Lord and my God make redeemed man beautiful when he becomes part of the heavenly temple by union with Jesus Christ? For I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and
 
 apostle says, 'Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house. Is the one achievement from an earthly stand point any more wonderful than the second achievement from a heavenly standpoint?" Yes. I see today, by the beautiful in architecture, analogies that show that God has made and God Is now making and will continue to make redeemed man beautiful in his time.
 Let us loiter for little while in the poets corner" of Westminster abbey. As we listen the sweet bards of the English language seem to lift their heads from their pillows of dust and begin to sing, and we find mans spir- itual beauty In the analogies of poetry as well as in painting and music and sculpture and architecture. For as painting is rhythm In color and music Is rhythm in sound and sculpture and architecture are rhythm in stone, so poetry Is rhythm in words. Aye, poetry Is more than mere rhythm. An Eng fish writer once well said, Poetry in the flower garden of human language is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions and emotions" It is mans most transcendent hopes and no blest ambitions, with the highest peak of the Mount of Ascension for a foot stool, or it is mans vail of eternal despair when, as the results of his sins, he Is heading toward a Dante's Inferno" or he is compelled to join in the moans of a Milton's Paradise Lost"
 The Beauty of Words.
 But though poetry Is rhythm in words, yet words themselves, as in- dividuals, are not poetry. Many years ago in the old village of Ayr nigh un- to the banks of the Bonnie Doon," 1 heard an old Scotchman recite John Anderson, My Jo, John," and other poems of the great lyric poet until the tears rained down his cheeks, and I thought those poems were the sweet est words ever composed by man. But the words Burns used in his poems, and William Shakespeare used In his poems, and Longfellow used In his poems, and Whittier and Holmes and Lowell and Bayard Taylor used in I their poems, were for the most part only the simple words we use In ev- eryday life by our own firesides. The beauty of these poets words are en- tirely due to their juxtaposition with their surrounding words. The words which express our thoughts, our pas sions, our emotions, may not be beau tiful in themselves, but If they are brought into rhythm with Gods words they not only become poetry, but they become beautiful, for then our thoughts as words are in symmetry with Gods thoughts.
 But perhaps we have fingered al- ready too long among the artists and the musicians and the sculptors and the architects and the poets to find mans spiritual beauty by being in IA T@Ip