Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-11-14

beautiful III architecture. aualoUies
that show that God has made ana COD
IS now making ana will continue f.
make redeemed man beautiful in Ills
time.
Let US loiter for a little while in the
meets 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 ia tie anaioLies 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 ID 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 lancJts.'t
Is the blossom and the fragrance of
all human knowledge, human thoughts
human passions and emotions" 1t 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 wall 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 means of Millions 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 I'M
to the banks of the Bonnie Doom" |
heard an old Scotchman recite John
Anderson. My 10, john and other
poems Of the great lyric poet until the
tears rained down his cheeks, and |
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
their poems, were for the most part
only the simple words we use in ev-
eryday life by our own fresideS. 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
symmetry with Gods thoughts. Per
haps after all we can clinch the truth
of our text best by a short running
comment upon a few of the verses
which precede the words, He hath
made everything beautiful in its time. -
God says that man is beautiful when
he is born. Oh, yes. That means
when man is born for Christ. But is
man beautiful when he is born for sin!
Come with me, and | will show you
Robespierre gleefully sharpening the
ak of his guillotine. Z will show you
an Indian demon just for fun torturing
a victim at the stake whose scalp will
soon be hanging at the warriors belt.
l will show you men who for the price
of a drink are ready to sell their sons
and daughters into life of crime. Can
you see any beauty in the birth of
demoniac Frankenstein?
There is a time to die" which is
beautiful Death, if it comes in Gods
way. is beautiful, for then a dying
saint knows death is not humiliation,
but coronation, irradiatiOn and eternal
triumph. Like old Senator Foote
when dying he can look at the raptur
GUS glories ahead and cry: "Beauti
full! Beautiful! Beautiful"' But was
the death of Nero beautiful? Was the
death of Cleopatra beautiful? Was
the death of Thomas Paine beautiful
one moment in prayer, the next mo-
ment disappearing God, until his 'rela,
tons, in horror, placed their fingers
in their ears and ran from his bowling
blasphemous agonies?
The Redemption of John.
Are you and l ready to become part
! of Gods beautiful creation? Are we
ready to become beautiful in ourselves
by becoming beautiful in him? Even
the lowest and vilest, saved by his
| grace and redeemed by his blood, can
! become a true part Of Christs beauti-
! gul life. Many years ago when the
! yellow fever plague was raging il
Memphis. Tenn, d rough looking man
| applied to the city relief committee
and said. II wish to nurse It was
at time when most people who could
were fleeing from the stricken and des
olated homes. The death carts seemed
to be going everywhere. At first the
physician declined the rough mans
services, but as he could get no one
else to do the work this man was sent
to one of tie most filthy and danger
Gus wards Of the city. Wherever he
went he was a messenger of love. He
would not tell his name: he said sim