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Imperial edict for the delivery and burning of Luther's books. This was practically a condemnation in advance, and seemed to render Luther's presence unnecessary; but the Emperor tried to steer between the two parties by saying that Luther was summoned only for the purpose of having him recant. At Weimar this edict reached him, and its intention was immediately seen. The Imperial herald, who was favourably disposed to Luther, asked whether he would proceed. Only for a brief moment did he tremble ; but quickly regaining his self-possession, he answered : " Yes. I will proceed, and entrust myself to the Emperor's protection," thus foiling the plan of his adversaries to have him condemned for contumacy in disobeying the summons. Worn out and sick, he wrote to Spalatin from Frankfort : " Christ lives ; and we shall enter Worms, though all the gates of Hell and powers of the air be unwilling." ^
XL
Beauty. ■
1. The next thing is beauty. Some Christians are content with the strength, and care little for the beauty, of the Christian life. They are stern in their adhesion to principle, careless of the lesser charities of life, apt to be harsh in their condemnation of error and sin. Every one knows their worth, believes in their honesty, would trust implicitly to their integrity. But they do not win love by their gracious bearing, their kind words, their charitable construction of men and things. In a word, they have the strength, but they lack something of the beauty of the Christian character. We have always the practical, hard-headed people with us (like Dickens' " Mr. Gradgrind "), who say, " Never mind about the beautiful, give us the useful, the durable," and who would re- gard all ornamentation as useless and extravagant. But God has a ministry both for strength and for beauty. He made not only things great but things beautiful. " 0, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness," says the Psalmist, and we must remember there is also a holiness of beauty. In the fabric and services of the sanctuary nothing is too beautiful or too good for God. " Jerry-building " and cheap fittings are out of place hera God ' H. E. Jacobs, Martin Luther, 184.
262 STRENGTH AND BEAUTY
should have the best of workmanship, the loveliest of music, and the perfection of reverence and order.
^ If you beliold the sky with its peerless blue, the meadow with its emerald green, the grain-field with its yellow gold, the lake' with its silver white, you will see that beauty has been wrought into all the patterns of nature. What skilled artist can put another touch upon the rainbow, or mix colours that will heighten the beauty of the transfigured cloud-land ? The spring in its fresh green, the winter in its robes of pearl, the cataract, the crystal spray, the pearly dew, the ocean all aglow with phosphorescence, every wavelet flashing and sparkling as it caps and breaks, the towering mountains, with their ceaseless lights and shadows, the jewelled sphere of night, the glorious trans- parency of day, the sunset glories God has hidden beneath the surface of the roughest shell — all these declare with a thousand voices that God loves beauty as well as strength.*
2. We must have the strength first, and beauty afterward. It is disaster to reverse this order — to try to get beauty and then have strength. The magnificent Brooklyn Bridge, when viewed at a distance, is a beautiful poem. But the beauty is dependent on the strength of mighty abutments which reach down far below the river bed and take hold of the foundations of the earth. In everything, both artistic and moral, strength is the stalk ; beauty is the flower that blooms on it.
^ The great porch of Solomon's temple was upheld by two famous pillars of bronze, cast and adorned by the most skilful workmen of the day. Those massive pillars, called Jachin and Boaz, have been described and discussed in a thousand books, and have been the cause of endless speculation. The Biblical descrip- tion closes with this suggestive sentence, "on the top of the pillars was lily work." The columns that supported ended in tracery that adorned. The strength that upheld blossomed out into grace and beauty at the top. In our day there is a great desire for the lily work without the pillars, a vain longing for the graces of life and the beauties of character without the supporting power of truth and duty. There are thousands of men who would like the virtues of the fathers, but who do not want the faith which made them virtuous. They would like to have reproduced in their life the qualities of soul which marked the early Christians, the Reformers, and the Puritans ; but not their sturdy
' F. L. Goodspeed.
PSALM xcvi. 6 263
faith, not their tenacity of conviction, not their majestic con- science or their tremendous hold on things unseen. They want the simplicity and affection of the Waldenses, but not their faith in God ; the audacity and fearlessness of John Knox and Oliver Cromwell, without their vivid sense of the Divine Presence ; the morality of John Eobinson and Miles Standish, without their heroic creed ; the integrity of Washington and Lincoln, without their trust in a sustaining and overruling God. Mothers are anxious that their daughters should shine in every social accomplishment; that their sons should be men of talent and of skill; that their homes should be beautiful with music and art and all kindly grace. But they are not so soKcitous about the solid foundations of character.