Editorial May 10, 1913 Issue

TRUTH AND BEAUTY

Annie M. Knott

A profound utterance by our revered Leader may be read on page 247 of Science and Health where she says, "Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal;" but she adds that "the beauty of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as mortal belief." Here it is well to remember that everything which stands for materiality passes away, even knowledge of that sort "shall vanish away," so says St. Paul. In view of this fact students of Christian Science sometimes feel that in order to be consistent they must declare promptly for the nothingness of every outward manifestation, no matter how beautiful it may appear, but it were better to ponder deeply this whole question as it is presented in the Scriptures and also in our Leader's writings, and wait for spiritual growth to unfold truth and beauty, expressed in symmetry of character, and then they can more wisely tell how to gather eternal lessons from the loveliness which whispers of God from sky and ocean, tree and flower.

There is little need to argue that the mortal sense of the beautiful is not the true, as many wrecked lives sadly tell, but this does not change the forever fact that the love of the beautiful is no less a quality of man's nature than is the desire for truth itself. In the Old Testament we read of many men and women famous for their beauty, notable among whom was Absalom, David's son, but in every instance this was but a mask which hid from view the divine idea whose beauty is that of Soul, not sense, and which exalts alike possessor and beholder. Yet all the while there stands that matchless declaration of the psalmist: "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined"! With this divine revealing there comes an uncovering of all the unlovely things in mortal mind, the falsity, the impurity, and the empty arrogance which would make the beautiful less than true, to which aggressive falsity God says, "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes?" Here as everywhere the Master's test, "By their fruits ye shall know them," must be the standard for all things,—for beauty, for art, for character more than all. Men talk easily of a creative faculty, as if beauty were a product of the human mind, when it is rather a quality of the divine Mind and can be truly expressed only as character is fashioned after the glorious pattern shown in the mount.

If any one is in doubt as to what constitutes real beauty, he cannot do better than to study Mrs. Eddy's words in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 86, 87), especially these in reference to all outward things. "I love your promise," she writes, "and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied." Then, too, we may remember that exquisite passage from Isaiah, which Jesus quoted when reading in the synagogue, and which begins, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; ... he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives;" and which goes on, "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

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