Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, February 1885Various
Religion
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, February 1885
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
everlasting life, of which he who drinks shall never thirst. Then he
proceeds thus:—
“No doubt the social sympathies, the feeling for
Beauty, the pleasure of Art, if left merely by
themselves, if untouched by what is the deepest
thing in human life—religion—are apt to become
ineffectual and superficial. The art which Mr.
Barnett has done his best to make known to the
people here, the art of men like Mr. Watts, the art
manifested in works such as that which has just now
been unveiled upon the walls of St. Jude’s Church,
has a deep and powerful connection with religion. You
have seen the mosaic, and have read, perhaps, the
scroll which is attached to it. There is the
figure of Time, a strong young man, full of hope,
energy, daring, and adventure, moving on to take
possession of life; and opposite to him there is
that beautiful figure of Death, representing the
breakings-off, the cuttings short, the baffling
disappointments, the heart-piercing separations from
which the fullest life and the most fiery energy
cannot exempt us. Look at that strong and bold young
man, that mournful figure must go hand in hand with
him for ever. And those two figures, let us admit if
you like, belong to Art. But who is that third figure
whose scale weighs deserts, and who carries a sword
of fire? We are told again by the text printed on the
scroll, ‘The Eternal [the scroll, however, has ‘the
Lord’] is a God of Judgment; blessed are they that
wait for him.’ It is the figure of Judgment, and that
figure, I say, belongs to religion. The text which
explains the figure is taken from one of the Hebrew
Prophets; but an even more striking text is furnished
us from that saying of the Founder of Christianity
when he was about to leave the world, and to leave
behind him his Disciples, who, so long as he lived,
had him always to cling to, and to do all their
thinking for them. He told them that when he was gone
they should find a new source of thought and feeling
opening itself within them, and that this new source
of thought and feeling should be a comforter to them,
and that it should convince, he said, the world of
many things. Amongst other things, he said, it should
convince the world that Judgment comes, and that the
Prince of this world is judged. That is a text which
we shall do well to lay to heart, considering it with
and alongside that text from the Prophet. More and
more it is becoming manifest that the Prince of this
world is really judged, that that Prince who is the
perpetual ideal of selfishly possessing and enjoying,
and of the worlds fashioned under the inspiration of
this ideal, is judged. One world and another have
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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