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BEAUTY

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · April 8, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 15

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BEAUTY

By Eliza H. Morton

BY ELIZA H. MORTON.
The beautiful still exists and ever will exist; for the great source of beauty is eternal. The beauty of earth is broken by the breath of God's displeasure, but the germs remain, and will yet spring up in happy brightness.
The most beautiful spots of earth are the most remote from the dwellings of men. Hidden deep in the tangled wilds of tropical forests are nooks resplendent with beauty. The mountain and the wildwood, unsoiled by the foot of man, show forth the highest type of earthly loveliness.
Art vainly strives to equal nature. Trees, flowers, clouds, and birds grow and glow beneath the brush of the painter; but the trees wave not their leaves and toss not their branches, the flowers yield no fragrance, the birds are motionless and songless, and the clouds change not on the dull canvas. The sculptor hews a form of rare loveliness, but the white eyes return not the glance of love, the marble lips are mute, the chiseled hand has no warmth, and all is cold. The chisel cannot fashion a beating heart. Life and love are beauty, and where these exist not, all is chill.
Dark clouds may hide the light of heaven, and the din of the world's busy tumult drown the song of bird and the sweeter song wafted from above, yet beauty is not dead.
The natural world reveals but little of the loveliness of Him whose name is Love. “Nature is but the echo of his voice.” The echo is beautiful, but the voice is eternal beauty. The melody of Inspiration is louder and grander far than nature's anthem. The pages of the word glow with a brighter light than the orbs above, and gleam with a clearer luster than the waters below; for they shadow forth and faintly portray a coming life of full-developed beauty, a day of songs and joy, and a home made lovely by the presence of Jesus.
Between us and the beauty of the higher life lies a work of preparation, a heart-work, a thorough work. Evils must be uprooted, and wrongs righted. The toil is now, the rest is to come. Gentleness, goodness, purity, and love must be woven into life's web, and spotless characters must be formed.
Soul-beauty will secure the loveliness that never dies.