Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

I/O THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMdulness or neglect. For the divine wonders of heavenand the stars, of the sun and moon, of day and night,the many-voiced sounds of winds and forests andrvers an nd s ea, of tame and wild beasts, and thehuman voice itself so full of sweetness and of beauty,having power to give a name to every object of theintellect, these are the things in the midst of whichmen live, not far off nor outside " the Divine," so thatthey could not remain without understanding. Howthen could they be ignorant or have no conception oftheir own Sower and Planter, Preserver and Nourisher,filled as they were with the divine nature seengand hearing and every sense, living on the earth, buthaving light from heaven and food in abundance bythe gift and provision of their first father, God :This innate conception of God finds further a fourfoldexpression, in the poet, in the legislator, in theartist, and last of all, perhaps the truest and most perfect,in the philosopher. And 1 here we must excusethe necessity "/ under which the artist lies of expressing L Oby the human shape that intelligence and wisdomwhich neither painter nor sculptor can render as theyare in themselves. Thus the human body is put upon" the Divine " as a shape to express that reason whichhas no embodiment to the sight and no form in theconception. It is a symbol better than those forms ofanimals used, as is said, by some barbarians to expressthe Divine." It is better to have such a symbolthan to be without any visible representation, becauseof that strong love which is in all men to honour andworship, to touch " the Divine " : just as little children,torn away from father and mother, have an inexpressibleyearning in their dreams to stretch forth their1 Orat. xii. pp. 207-211.