THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 55 



Beauty is its own excuse for being. It is a 

 ministry to the higher longings of human 

 hearts. God is and forever must be the Per- 

 sonification of Beauty, not alone the infinitely 

 intellectual and ethical being. Hence the 

 aesthetical faculty is as actual and valid a part 

 of man's nature as his reason. Without this 

 faculty or power he must be an alien in this 

 universe of beauty. God's creations are an in- 

 finite art gallery; Heaven must be infinitely 

 beautiful as well as infinitely holy. When God 

 created man He placed him in a garden, the 

 very masterpiece of beauty — a paradise. The 

 characteristics of beauty in creation are God- 

 spelling characteristics ; hence we have a Gospel 

 of natural beauty, not inconsistent with that 

 other and higher Gospel in which may be found 

 rich inspirations for highest delight and cul- 

 ture. 



Great poets like David, Dante and Brown- 

 ing, great artists like Phidias, Michael Angelo 

 and Millet, great musicians like Gregory, Mo- 

 zart and Wagner, are its prophets and psalm- 

 ists. What sublime utterances they give ; what 

 wondrous revelations declare; what tones and 

 values and qualities proclaim. Its incense 

 floats upward from innumerable golden cen- 

 sers in garden and field. Its shrines are by 



