SEEING THINGS
THE QUIET CORNER
(Written for THE SUN by the Rev. Charles Chandler, Assistant City Missioner.)
and philosophy, poetry, music and religion, have at least this one thing in common—they all represent ideas which are expressed in terms of the infinite. The sculpture of Michael Angelo, the philosophy of Plato, the poetry of Milton, the music of Wagner, and the religion of Jesus are for universal and eternal appreciation. It is far otherwise with science. What Isaac Newton knew about force and matter has been many times eclipsed by the merest schoolboy of to-day. What James Watt kneio about steam and locomotive engineering is known to-day by the youth in his second term at the technical school. This does not make Newton or Watt one whit the less useful in the march of human progress, but it goes to show wherein the difference chiefly lies between those ideas which have to do with our temporal advancement, and those which have to do with our eternal welfare. Having touched upon this great discrepancy between science and religion, art, music and philosophy, we will now consider wherein they are alike. An art master said to me the other day, that the hardest part of his work in the school, teas to train his students to see things as they really are. Once the student has mastered this the rest is fairly easy, and is largely a matter of technique. So it is with religion and the rest. A comprehensive view of material phenomena has to do with science; an appreciation of relative values, with philosophy; a seeing into the soul of things, with art; a peering into the very essence of life, with the finest poetry; an attunement of man’s highest faculties to the rhythm of the universe, with music; and with religion—a reaching out and up to higher and nobler forms of human development. It is all a matter of seeing things. A sunset can mean nothing to a pig, nor a painting of Rembrandt to a cannibal islander. It is through art that we learn to see the beauties of nature; and it is through religion that we learn to see the beauty of God. NEXT WEEK: MISSPENT LEISURE
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNAK19290504.2.75
Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 8
Word Count
370SEEING THINGS Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 8
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