HEATHEN BEAUTY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 964, 14 March 1917, Page 4

HEATHEN BEAUTY.

A woman who lias been a missionary in India for thirty years says in an article on her experiences that people who are taking Christianity to the Hindu, the Chinaman and other Orientals make a great mistake in not recognising how essential a part beauty plays iu the religions of these people. Nothing could he more pitiful, she says, than the contrast between the Ugly little chapel put up by some missionary and the simple beauty of the heathen shrine near by. Wonderful carving, rich draperies, loveliness of line and shape, are a part of the worship of the Easterner. Austerity and ugliness are aspects inevitably associated with Christianity in mission lands. Why not, she suggests, train our missiouaries in the rudiments of good taste in architecture and other types of art? Would it not make their task easier, their appeal more direct and convincing, their scope wider'? For surely beauty is as essential a part of Christianity as of a heathen religion. Beauty in every form, in ideals and beliefs as well as in the outward and visible signs of these, the expression of them, never fails to make its rightful appeal.