The Washington herald., 1916-07-08
Hidden Masterpieces.
BY oRIsON SWEET MARDEN

Rubens masterpiece, "The Martyrdom Of
Hadun and Natalie" was found in pawnshop
in Paris, where it had lain for many years. Ex-
perts in the Louvre gallery say this painting,
which was pawned for three hundred dollars by
an old woman, who had inherited it from her
uncle, is worth fortune
How often we find by mere accident, a
splendid possible human masterpiece of untold
value covered with the dust Of ignorance, SCARED
and marred by dissipation The work of re-
claiming, cleansing, brings to light the mark of
the Master Painter which is written within.
Time and again great master paintings have
been found in garrets. in cellars, in junk shops
in Europe, oftentimes unrecognizable from dirt
and dust. Perhaps even the name of the artist
is found only after scraping away the paint Of
some amateur dauber with which it had been
covered.
Oftentimes human masterpieces are found in
the slums OF great cities, so covered with filth
and CRIME and disease as to be unrecognizablc.
These are often found by what mere
accident-the reading of an inspiring book, the
hearing of mastery sermon the touch of a
kind hand, or bit of friendly advice from some
real lover of his kind.
The thing that mars ruins many a possible
masterpiece is Encouragement. That thwarts and
otghts more careers than almost anything else.
Many OF us cannot understand why in middle
life, or at fiticth mile stone, we find that
we have hardly advanced at ALL that we are just
about where we were young men and young
women. As We review lives, say we
have been honest; we have been dead-in-earnest
hard workers; have tried to make as few
mistakes as possible, and yet we have not sue
ceeded But we find, too, that our course in
lie has been zigzag one, like some rivers
IN very hllly or mountainous countries which
flow back on themselves perhaps many times be-
fore they finally reach the lake or the ocean.
Every advance in lives has been followed
by flow-back which ncutraized previous cf-
forts
Now VIC arc discovering that this accounts for
mulutudcs of broken and disappointed lives We
are also locating the cause of this zgzag life
course, this continual back-flowing on ourselves
1t is the turning our backs mentally on our goal
We 60 in the direction of our thought When
we are the victims OF moods; when we give
way to discouraged, dcspondcnt thoughts we are
flowing backward, doubling back on tn. forward
tracks which made in our more hopeful, ex-
pectant, constructive moments
II we would make one continuous progression
on our life path, matter what obstacles we
meet how thick the fog or threatening the storm,
we must continue to face goal mentally.
Every time we change thought we change
the direction OF lives. When we face men
tally toward Our fears, our doubts, our dis
couragements and dependency we are drawing
the things we fear to us, just as when we face
toward our hopes, expectations of good
things to come to us, draw these things to us
The law Of Cod is progress. We were made
to go ever forward, never backward The con-
scousness that are working with Him keeps
us the right track.
The consciousness of your divinity, of your
oneness with God, is the first step to master
ship. As long as you believe you arc separate
from the Creator, that there is no vital concc-
ton between you and the parent vine, you will
cease to get the life flow OF sap from the vine
As long you think you are 4 separate unit,
struggling like a lone atom in the universe, at
the mercy Of all sorts of misfortunes YOU will
never make much hcadway toward mastcrship.
1t is your vital connection with God which
makes you a power. Without this YOU are a
weakling. While you have a sense of your life
and being in Him you will feel your sense of
mastership; you will be master
1t Christ who gave us this new thought
of God. 1t is reflected in the Golden Rule in the
Sermon the Mount. All through His teach