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)

"I did not ask to be saved."

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Someone dropped me a line that said to the effect (I accidentally deleted it): "I did not ask to be saved. How absurd that God should go on a scape-goat blood-bath for me when I did not ask for it. I don't want to be saved. I love my sin."

Here's a thought from Charles Spurgeon:

"There is no other reason why God should save a man, but for his name's sake; there is nothing in a sinner which can entitle him to salvation, or recommend him to mercy; it must be God's own heart which must dictate the motive why men are to be saved. One person says, "God will save me, because I am so upright." Sir, he will do no such thing. Says another, "God will save me because I am so talented." Sir, he will not. Your talent! Why thou drivelling, self-conceited idiot, thy talent is nothing compared with that of the angel that once stood before the throne, and sinned, and who now is cast into the bottomless pit for ever! If he would save men for their talent, he would have saved Satan; for he had talents enough. As for thy morality and goodness, it is but filthy rags, and he will never save thee for aught thou doest. None of us would ever be saved, if God expected anything of us: we must be saved purely and solely for reasons connected with himself, and lying in his own bosom. Blessed be his name, he saves us for "his name's sake."

(Spurgeon, "Why Are Men Saved?" Sermon #115, Delivered on Sabbath Morning, February 1, 1857, by theREV. C. H. Spurgeonat the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.)

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