546                   A. M. E. REVIEW.

is to paint what one does not see.  On one occasion, says one
who knew him well, he put before a friend a canvas he had
just finished. "What does that tell you?" he asked. It was
only the edge of a country lane, with a few dandelions and four-
o'clocks growing amid the grass. The friend who was also a
artist, stood for a few moments silent before this simple scene.
Presently he said: "I dont know what I see, but I hear the
nightingale."  Andit was, in truth, the song of the nightingale
that Millet had painted. We use this as a fitting analogy of
our Lord's command when he said: "Let your light so shine
before men that, they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven."
  The late Archbishop Ryan writing on, "No Religion Possible
Without Dogmatic Truth," has this radiant paragraph, which
is lofty in tone, and lucid in exposition: "Christianity is a fact
in the history of the human race, the most mysterious in its
nature, the most stupendous and universal in its effects; a fact
which philosophy cannot ignore nor infidelity deny, nor skepti-
cism doubt, which has influenced religion, arts, arms, sciences,
literature, social life, politics, human happiness, human suf-
fering, human progress, more than any other fact in the his-
tory of our race. The unbeliever who regards it lightly as
one of the many false religions embraced by man at various
periods of his history; who thinks that its influences were simply
and exclusively confined to the secret intercourse between the
Creator and the creature, such an one can never adequately
understand the philosophy of human history. Christianity
refashioned the whole being of man, politically and socially,
as well as religiously. It formed not only the Christian saint,
but the Christian statesman, the Christian warrior, the Chris-
tian citizen, the Christian artist, the Christian soldier and the
Christian philanthropist. Christian civilization is based on
and motived by great Christian doctrines, which if weakened
or denied will weaken or ruin the great super-structure itself
and send us back not merely to pagan civilization, but much
farther.  For even paganism taught great conservative truths,
such as the existence of a Supreme Being and his providence




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 2

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  02
Date:  10/1911