Editorial September 10, 1910 Issue

THE TRUE SETTING

John B. Willis

A favored visitor in a beautiful home was moved with a sense of gratitude that his noble friends could have such an attractive place in which to dwell and dispense their gracious hospitality, and as he went his way he mused much upon how fitting it would be if every fine, high, unselfish thought had the native and legitimate setting for all that is true and good. The sunset's glory and the jeweled night; the lavish splendors of tropical forest and crystal-studded cave; the refinement of form and texture, of color and fragrance, with which nature ever surrounds herself,—all these give hint of the necessary and eternal fact that Truth's every idea and expression is framed in beauty, and that to man, the highest divine idea, belongs the fairest and holiest habitation.

Describing the beauty and strength with which God would surround even the prodigals of human sense, the prophet has said, "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones." Surely He who dispenses the good and the beautiful with the plenitude of light, wills that aspiring men be clothed with the abundance of His perfectness and His joy, and the fact that in all times many of the noblest and worthiest among men have been subject to the limitations of poverty no more argues for the divine arrangement of these circumstances than does humanity's subjection to sickness and suffering argue for their heaven-designed place and provision. All thoughtful people are practically at-one today in their recognition that it is the sin and selfishness of men, and not the providences of God, which are responsible for the human destitution and wretchedness that dishonor Christian civilization.

The imperative condition on which all may merit ideal human possessions is clearly defined in the Scripture statement, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," and it is apparent that its fulfilment would be in keeping with the highest good. If the chief and abiding interest of every Christian is centered upon the dwelling of the nobler man, the spiritual enrichment and adornment of thought, the resulting "hundredfold now in this time," while apprehended and expressed in spiritual terms, will answer to and supply his earthly need.

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