Art and Beauty

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  “But the voice of our age seems by no means favorable to art, at all events to that kind of art to which my inquiry is directed. The course of events has given a direction to the genius of the time that threatens to remove it continually further from the ideal of art. For art has to leave reality, it has to raise itself bodily above necessity and neediness; for art is the daughter of freedom, and it requires its prescriptions and rules to be furnished by the necessity of spirits and not by that of matter. But in our day it is necessity, neediness, that prevails, and bends a degraded humanity under its iron yoke.” —J. C. Friedrich von Schiller. “Letters upon the Æsthetic Education of Man.” (1795)

"He sees, but does not understand"

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"The Bible alone explains the state of things that we see in the world around us. There are many things on earth which a natural man cannot explain . . . the amazing inequality of conditions, the poverty and distress, the oppression and persecution, the shakings and tumults, the constant existence of uncured evils and abuses--all these things are often puzzling to him. He sees, but does not understand. But the Bible makes it all clear. The Bible can tell him that the whole world lies in wickedness--that the prince of the world, the devil, is everywhere--and that it is vain to look for perfection in the present order of things. The Bible will tell him that neither laws nor education can ever change men's hearts, and that no man will do much good in the world, unless he always remembers that human nature is fallen, and that the world he lives in, is full of sin."

(J.C. Ryle, "Inspiration" 1877)

See also "Ministerial Confessions" by Horatio Bonar.

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