The Sacredness of Art
“As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there; all my springs are in Thee.” — Psalm lxxxvii. 7.
Whether you take the Authorised or Revised Version, I hold the meaning to be the same — that in the good time coming art will be deemed a part of religion. The musicians will sit down among the saints because all our springs are religious springs. No music, no painting, no sculpture, no poetry, will any more be deemed secular. They will all be recognised as the inspiration of God. And are they not so! Is not the source of art the same as the source of religion! Do not both spring from the one feeling — the wish for something better! The saint and the artist both picture another world because to both the present is unsatisfactory. Each conceives a higher beauty.
Each imagines a fairer sky, a purer air, a lovelier life. Each matures from a sense of want, of dissatisfaction with things below. Each strives to erase the blots in the present system. Each aims at the building of a palace which will supply the omissions of the human architect. Each has one and the same motto, “We seek a better country,”
Teach me, O Lord, the sacrament ot art! Teach me Thy real presence in the efforts after earthly beauty! Reveal to me that my poetic moments, my musical moments, my artistic moments, are moments of unconscious prayer, expressions of my want of Thee! 1 need Thee in the temple of nature as much as I need Thee in the temple of grace. Why do I fancy other scenes than these before me? Why do I depict more perfect forms than life has yielded? Why do I sing more melodious songs than the brook, more stirring anthems than the sea? It is because I am not satisfied. It is because my heart cries out for more than Nature — for Thee. I should have no art if I had no religion. I consider the lily of the field, but it does not content me. I consider the song of the brook, but it does not fill me. I consider the joys of life, but they do not come up to me; I was made for Thee. Therefore I paint other fields, I weave other songs, I fancy other joys; and all the time I am in search of Thee. Thou art my picture, my poem, my song; my dream of beauty is a dream of Thee. It is because I have seen Thy face that I seek a new heaven and a new earth; it is because I have heard Ihy voice that I aspire to richer than Nature’s music. “All my springs are in Thee.”