And worship Thee.^
» W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, 117. ' Frances Bevan, Eymns of Ter Sicegen, 36.
Strength and Beauty.
«B9
Literature.
Goodwin (H.), Parish Sermons, iv. 95.
Holden (J. S.), Lif^s Flood-Tide, 172.
Kirkpatrick (A. F.), The Boole of Psalms (Cambridge Bible), 577.
Machiren (A.), The Book of Psalms (Expositor's Bible), iii. 55,
Purves (Q. T.), Faith and Life, 177.
Simpson (A. L.), The Near and the Far View, 219.
Wilson (F. R.), The Supreme Service, 15.
Wirgnian (A. T.), The Spirit of Liberty, 104.
Christian Wwld Pulpit, xlviii. 180 (F. L. Goodspeed) ; liii. 157 (C. S.
Home) ; Ixii. 238 (W. J. K. Little) ; Ixx. 23 (J. Waddell) ; Ixxiv.
147 (F. Tite). Churchman's Pulpit : Harvest Thanksgiving and Choir Festivals, Ft.
99, p. 399 (G. A. Foole).
•sa
Strength and Beauty.
Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.— Ps. xcvi. 6.
The Psalmist, in that lyrical outburst of adoration from which the text is taken, professes to have discovered two qualities which are revealed in combination in the character of God, and which, such is the suggestion. He will Himself communicate to devout, worshipful, and aspiring souls. These two qualities are strength and beauty. Neither quality is of itself uncommon ; it is their combination that is so rare. Somehow in this world the strong is not usually the beautiful, and the beautiful is not the strong. We think of the beautiful in nature as the fragile, the delicate, the evanescent. We think of the strong, and with its massive solidity it is difficult to associate any thought of grace and loveli- ness. But this psalm was a hymn for the Temple ; and if it be true, as we suppose, that there yet remained many of the glorious pillars which adorned that magnificent structure, it is conceivable that they suggested to the Psalmist's mind this rare combination of qualities. For these pillars of the Temple were of radiant marble, stately and splendid in themselves, and with the added decoration of capitals nobly carved in all manners of exquisite device. And not the pillars alone, but the whole majestic pile itself, was it not the standing witness to the truth that the God whom it represented to men was at once strong and beautiful ? For its durability and solidity was equalled only by its magnifi- cence ; the strength of its stone by the beauty of its colouring and the glory of its decoration. The architects of that ancient cathedral seem to have derived their ideas from nature ; and to have seen that He who laid the enduring foundations of the earth decorated the world which He made with the gold of the crocus, the crimson of the field-lily, or the blue of the gentian and the harebell ; and they built for Him a fane which, like the world He built for fehem, PS. xxv.-cxix. — 17
258 STRENGTH AND BEAUTY
was strong and beautiful, massive, but full of delicate colour. As was this temple of their God, so was the God of the Temple — in His Divine Being they felt there must be this glorious com- bination of strength and beauty.
^ If it was Solomon's temple of which the Hebrew writer of this psalm spoke, we can imagine some of the features which he must have had in mind. The immense blocks of stone, of which the foundation was composed, and the great Lebanon cedars which were brought by Hiram, king of Tyre, explain the reference to the strength of the building. Though not large, it was a solid, massive structure, built to last through ages, while the foundations them- selves rested on imperishable rock. And then the resources of art were exhausted to make it beautiful as well as strong. The interior was overlaid with pure gold, on which were carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and flowers. All the utensils of worship were of the same costly metal and elaborately orna- mented ; while precious stones gleamed amid the gold and Tyrian tapestries hung on every side. The wealthiest of kings lavished his riches; the most skilled artificers taxed their art; the ad- venturous mariners laid tribute upon distant lands to make beautiful the Temple of Jehovah, It thus seemed to combine the two elements of architectural perfection — strength and beauty.^
Strength.
1. It is better that a building should be strong than that it should be ornamental. And the same is true of characteV also. Ornament, moreover, ought to accompany strength. It is not good art to put into a building a useless feature merely because it is beautiful. The true artist will beautify the useful. The practical purpose will be first. So a character which aims only to be beautiful is not to be admired. It merely becomes bric-a- brac. It has the taint of cosmetics. The man who is absorbed in the mere adornment of his character is not much beyond the man who is absorbed in the adornment of his body. No, beauty must be superimposed upon strength. The practical usefulness and moral power of life are to be the first things sought. Then you
1 G. T. Purvcs, Fnifh and TAfe, 177.
PSALM xcvi. 6 259
have something worth adorning. It is the hard stone that takes the best polish. It is the strong, earnest character that may be made the most beautiful.