that smell strong of the cheap stage and set them to "pious" words is an offense against Christian propriety that no sincere worshiper can condone. The effect of this degrading of the idea of worship upon future generations will be most lamentable. When the Church enters the lists with the cheap theater to amuse an irreverent crowd the time will speedily come when people will have no idea of what the distinctive purpose of public worship is. The theater on its own ground can outbid the church every time. Better ten reverent souls who come to church to worship God than a multitude who flock to be amused or entertained. It has been truly said that in worship there must be a double activity-God's as well as man's. Praise and prayer are our acts, but the creative inspiration is his. ... And so worship is not made perfect by a sensuous harmony that knows no discord, but by soul and conscience so open to God that spiritual, moral, evangelical, eternal truth shall come from him out of heaven into our hearts, to make us fit for living and capable of dying. The Christian idea of worship takes it out of the hands of a professional priesthood and lays it upon the enlightened conscience of every believer as a joyful privilege as well as a duty to "offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of lips which make confession to his name." Aughd. Atchison ART. VIII.-GOVERNMENTAL RECOGNITION OF RELIGION. THE Library of Congress building at the national capital is interesting not only to students of architecture, painting, sculpture, and literature, but also to those interested in political ethics. That the storehouse of books can and will be a tremendous educational and moral force in the capital and in the nation is beyond doubt; but the moral influence of the building itself as it stands in all its gorgeous beauty, delighting the tastes of the most fastidious lovers of the beautiful, and reminding the visitor of the progress of civilization and its debt to moral law and Christianity, we have never known to be mentioned in print. The architects of this building and the celebrated artists who decorated it have everywhere emphasized the position of religion and Christianity in history and their potency in civilization. The strangest thing about the recognition of religion in this the most attractive of the government buildings is that very few visitors have ever noticed it, possibly because the fact that religion is an important factor in civilization is universally known, and the propriety of the presence of symbols of it in this historical building is taken for granted. The real value of the illustrations of the interweaving influence of religion in our national life is the fact that the government which in law and by law divorces a recognition of religion from the state is compelled to recognize it after all when it undertakes to write her history and the history of literature. At the entrance of the building is the cross of Christ. Who has seen it? Very few, we suspect. Warner's three massive bronze doors at the termination of the entrance porch are worthy of closer scrutiny than they usually get from the visitor who is in a hurry to inspect the interior of the building. The southern door represents the history of Writing. In the tympanum of the door a female figure in a sitting posture, holding a pen in her hand, writing on a scroll, is teaching two little children to read and write. She is surrounded by four figures "representing the people who have had the most influence on the world through their written memorials and literature." On her right are the Egyptian and the Jew, the former with a stylus in his hand, the latter holding a patriarchal staff. On her left are the Greek and the Christian, the former grasping a lyre as a representation of Poetry, and the latter embracing a cross. The Jew and the Christian are kneeling, "in allusion to the religious influence which they have exerted." Thus on the front of this great government building is the cross of Christ. Enter the central pavilion, lift your eyes to the vaulted ceiling, and read the names of the illustrious authors of the world, and prominent among them you will read the name of the great Jewish lawgiver and prophet, Moses. Hereabouts you will see also Mr. Frederick C. Martin's group of symbolic representations, a pair of Pan's pipes, a shepherd's crook and pipes, a bundle of books, etc. Among them is a censer representing Religion. In the left hand (north) corridor on the first floor of the entrance hall are Mr. Charles Sprague Pearce's decorative paintings representing the Family, Religion, Labor, Study, Recreation, and Rest, "the main phases of a pleasant and well-ordered life." Religion is represented by the figures of a young man and a girl kneeling before a stone altar on which fire is burning. Their attitude and countenance are impressive. Their hearts evidently are on that altar, an offering to Deity. But this is not all, although it is all the ordinary visitor sees. On each panel framing this lovely picture is a cross painted in blood red: on the left a Roman cross, on the right a triple cross surmounting a circle, always a symbol of the universal reign of the Crucified One. In the east corridor are six tympanums by Mr. John W. Alexander, illustrative of The Evolution of the Book, and giving a brief pictorial history of the progress of the race toward the perfect methods of historical chronicles now in vogue. After one representing Picture Writing, and before the representation of the Printing Press, is a beautiful painting of The Manuscript Book. There in a convent cell a monk is seated, "laboriously illuminating in bright colors the pages of a great folio book." The debt of literature to this class of Christian toilers is graciously recognized in this wonderfully lifelike picture. In the vaulted ceiling of the east corridor we see in mosaic the names of the distinguished men of the three socalled learned professions, Medicine, Theology, and Law. Here surrounded by the Celtic cross and the censer are the names of Brooks, Edwards, Mather, Channing, and Beecher. On this floor we find also a series of paintings by Mr. Elihu Vedder, illustrative of Government. The series showing the evils of Corrupt Legislation ends with Anarchy, which is represented by a female figure "raving upon the ruins of the civilization she has destroyed." In her left hand is the wine cup, in her right the flaming torch formed of the "scroll of learning." Serpents are in her hair. Her left foot is upon the loosened parts of a stone arch, her right trampling upon a scroll, a lyre, a Bible, and an uninscribed book, that is, Learning, Art, Religion, and Law. Other figures representing Ignorance and Violence are assisting in the work of destroying the foundations of good government. Here we have not only the wine cup as the symbol of madness and an ally of Anarchy, but the recognition of the Holy Bible and religion as foundation stones of good civil government. What more can we ask of the artist? Ascending the main staircase to the upper gallery, we will find numerous evidences of the recognition of God and of religion. For example, on the walls we find, among other choice selections of the best thoughts of the ages, the following: The first creature of God was the light of sense; The Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth not. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.-Pope. -John i, 5. There is but one temple in the Universe, and that is the Body of Man.-Novalis, Nature is the art of God.-Sir Thomas Browne. The true Shekinah is Man.-Chrysostom. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.-Prov. iv, 7. Ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.-2 Henry IV. As you enter the west gallery of the rotunda you see the statue of Religion modeled by Mr. Theodore Baur, one of the eight representations of the "characteristic features of civilized life and thought." Higher up in the dome of the rotunda is a series of inscriptions in gold letters, selected by President Eliot of Harvard University, each one appropriate to the statue below it. It is remarkable how aptly religious thought is applied to secular and intellectual movements. Above the figure of Religion are the words of Micah (chap. vi, verse 8): What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Above the figure of History are the immortal words of Alfred Tennyson: One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event, To which the whole creation moves. The most surprising inscription is that over the allegorical figure of Science. It is a quotation from the psalmist (Psa. xix, 1): The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. It is not probable that Congress will ever order the erasure of this governmental declaration that God is the Creator of all things, and that Science is in perfect accord with the word of God. There is no agnosticism, pantheism, atheistic evolution, or infidelity here. For this we are thankful. "The sixteen bronze statues set along the balustrades of the galleries," says Mr. Herbert Small, "represent men illustrious in the various forms of thought and activity typified in the figures just described" (that is, Commerce, Science, Philosophy, Religion, etc.). Under the head of Religion are colossal figures of Moses and St. Paul. Remember, this is a United States government building, and has been accepted |