SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

By the late REV.

A. H. COLLINS

“THE LAW OF BEAUTY IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.” “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, wha.tso.ever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think of these things.” Philippians, 4 ;,8. Saint Paul said that—Paul the Pharisee, the flaming evangelist; Paul the traveller, the pastor; Paul the author, the martyr, the mystic. Spoken under any circumstances, these words would arrest attention, for these are brave, wise, strong and catholic words,’ but when you remember that the writer was lodged amid the squalid confines and fetid air of a Roman dungeon, through whose bars no glint of beauty, ever fell, the words shine with unusual lustre. They mark tl?e triumph of the soul over the unfriendly environment ofthe flesh. Other men have suffered imprisonment in narrow, uncongenial spheres and been stunted and dwarfed thereby, but as “the prisoner of the Lord” looked inward, the walls of his prison house seemed to melt, the bare walls dissolved, and he found himself abroad amid the glories of departed days, and looked into the face of the Lord who was his joy and his strength. Since then, and largely as the- result of this man’s shining example, other great sufferers have “seen visions and dreamed dreams,” in circumstances thqt made life a prison. It was through the dim grey of Bedford gaol that Bunyan watched, the progress, of his pilgrim, until there flashed on his astonished gaze the glories of Emmanuel’s land. One of the most popular beliefs of the hour is that environment is the determining factor in life. Man is made by his surroundings. One is born in China and so is a Buddhist; another is. born in New Zealand, and so -is, at least nominally,'' Christian. One is reared in a refined, Christian home, and therefore grows up refined and Christian; another springs from an ungodly parentage and is apprenticed to vice in a slum, and thsrefore develops into a larrikin, and, of course,, there is some truth in the contention;, perhaps more than we have recognised. ; MAN HAS POWER TO CHOOSE. ■ f But man is not made by heredity and environment. He can choose. Man is lord of his life; and ever and anon God sends a man .who bursts' through imprisoning circumstances and,rises above them. The true environment of a man is not the world of sense and sound. The health of the soul depends not so much on the place where the body dwells, as on the inner world of thoughts, desires and beliefs. If a man makes his home in God, if he feed his mind and heart on the beautiful and the. true, he will expand amid, circumstances*, that make life a prison. If a man make his home in material -things, and allow his mind to rest on trivial and. inconsequential thoughts, desires, beliefs, his surroundings may be ample and elegant, but life will shrink into the dimensions of a mouse trap. Hence the wisdom of Saint PauFs words, which constitute a personal appeal and supply a philosophy of life.

The beautiful mind is not beautiful by chance; it becomes beautiful by the images which people imagination. The beauty, of the outward face and form are not ours -to choose, though even here we have some power, for no face is wholly devoid of comeliness when illuminated by noble and generous sentiments. But the soul’s beauty is determined by certain, definite, divine laws, one of which the Apostle bids us obey. For as in the natural world certain insects take the colour of the things on which they feed, so the soul is toned by the objects on which we set our affection.

“Whatsoever things are . . . think on these things. That ie the secret. Some of the Philippian Christians had only just escaped out of paganism, where the chamber of memory and imagination had been busy around with pictures of vices and human deformity which made the mind “a chamber of horrors,” and the apostles’ method is to crowd these evil things out by bringing in “things lovely and of good report.” We cannot make the mind a blank; and it is useless saying, “Don’t think of these gone things.” The wise way is Paul’s way of introducing a corrective in the form of things not foul but fair until the mind rejects the common, the vulgar, the evil by an instinct as sure as that which leads the cattle to reject the poisonous weeds, that are impregnated

with disease and death, and crop the tender, luscious grass that nourishes and satisfies.

THINKING OF THE BEAUTIFUL.

‘“Think on these things.” What things? Personally I should not hesitate to give the widest interpretation to this law of beauty in the Christian life. “Whatsoever things arc lovely” must surely include flowers and pictures and music. There is no virtue in ugliness. Dullness is not holy, and solemn stupidity is no sign of grace. ■ Things and thoughts that are- sprightly, vivacious, and beautiful are not therefore wrong. Uy heart says “Amen” to Wesley's view when he could not see why the devil should have all the best tunes. But though Saint .Paul does not rule these-.things out he does not lay chief stress Upon them. - The lovely things on which he would have us fasten the mind-a.re things that-belong to human life arid-relations. Just.look a moment at-the company of fair guests you may welcome, to the hospitality of your heart .and.-.mind. ■ '“Whatsoever . things are true.” Let vqur mind be braced, lifted, filled with truth, and'specially the highest forms of truth;-truth related to God and His wavs. Why allow your mind to rest so much on trifles light as air, juieeless as chaff. What have they to do with you or you with them? Seek truth-, ponder truth, love truth. “Whatsoever things are honest,” that is “noble,” or .perhaps a better n ord is “venerable.” Let grave,'serious, solemn thoughts, thoughts, of .“life, death, and the vast forever,’! and pot,.merely frivolities, occupy your mind. You have the cup of' life in- youi; hand and you can - press into it the, clusters of ripe grapes and make mell.ow. wine, or you' can squeeze into'it . the ' wormwood, thegall pud the hemlock, and as you brew you' must drink. Choose the- wine and reject 'the poison. • You have the canvas and the pigments and.. -you can paint -angels dr ‘devils.- Paint angels. “Whatsoever things are just,” the great, serious, grave'.thoughts of duty, obligation, responsibilities, what I ought to be, and ought to. .do, let these be familiar rather than the thought of my rights, my pleasure, my advantage. “Whatsoever things 'are pure.” Let tl.e white-robed angels haunt the mind, for in proportion as-you do this there will be a shuddering; recoil from the low and lewd and lustful: . ■ r' “Whatsoever things are . lovely,” graceful in form, appealing in 1 colour, beautiful in spirit..-“ Whatsoever things are. of good 1 report,” the things good men speak well of, and grow good in loving l and praising. Dwell on such thing's, bring the'-mind- back to contemplate them. Then he gathers all up in two words. “Ii there be any virtue”: that includes the true, the venerable, the just, the pure; “and if there be any praise,” which includes the last two, “things lovely and of good report.” Now that may seem vague and shadowy. Can we give it the touch' of the' actual? 1 think we can; for the New Testament never gives truth in a vacuum. Put it this way: Whatsoever things are true, venerable, lovely in men; dwell on that. That is not the way of the world, or the way of the Pharisee, but it is the. right way. Paul would say, .“Think of, men at. their best, for that is the truest you. kn,6w, (-about': them.' 5 THE BEST THERE. ( .IS IN MAN. Treasure the good you know, and “if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.” This was Christ’s way. We say, and say rightly, that He revealed the world’s sin, but He also discovered the world’s virtues. He picked up the coin in the cutter and instead of spurning it He showed it to be pure metal inside; the crime was superficial, the silver was essential. He thought-of. Peter, not as the man who denied his Lord, but as, the man who made the great confes-. i<sion, “Thou are the Christ.” He thought of Thomas, not as the sceptic but .as the brave soul who said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” That is how He thinks of you and me. He fastens -on the best there is hi us. Thinks of that. Appeals to that, and the one way in which we shall best fulfil our text is that our miinds rest on Him, “the chiefest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely,” until beholding as in a .glass the glory, of the Lord, we are changed into His likeness.” . „• '

But “think on these things.” For. growth in -grace is not -according to. magic, but according to law, Thouglit moulds action, deeds make character, and character determines destiny, here and hereafter. “Think, think, think often and long on these things.’