isa-normaladvance-1909-00071

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE71is not affirmed, but His essence He also tellsus that they who worship Him must worshipHim in spirit and in truth. The fatal errorwith some of the great scholars today, is thatthey are trying to probe the mysteries of religion with a cold, prose logic, a logic thatsearches for God with a syllogism and destroysHim with a definition. Christs religion hasnot won its place in the world by the coldlogical creeds and doctrines of the theologians but through the poetry of the Bible and thepoetry of modern literature, it has sung its wayinto the hearts of humanity. Only throughthe imagination can we get a true conceptionof God and heaven, and imagination is the verysoul of poetry. Take away the poetic element take away our songs reduce our religion to acold formalism, and it will perish. Browningin his Rabbi Ben Ezra, says:Earth changes, but the soul of Godstands sure.So then, the cold formalism of earth cannotsatisfy because it is constantly changing. Butpoetry is for the soul it satisfies because, asMarkham says, When a poet has said a thing,he has said it for eternity.Religion and poetry, then, go hand in hand.The struggling soul of man seeking the highestideal of life, finds it in the poetic element ofreligion. The highest ideals of our religion areembodied in poetry. The prophets, filled witha poetic vision, teach us the great lesson ofrighteousness. Jesus with a true poetic vision,although a man of sorrows and acquaintedwith grief, saw beauty everywhere. He presented His great message to the world in telling metaphor and parable, made vivid by thesense of beauty in nature and life.Religion takes us out of the world of actualevents, and shows us the world of the ideal,filled with forms of beauty. This is her spiritual world. But in this world of actual eventsit is the mission of religion to draw down andembody in life some of these beauties to makethese spiritual visions a living, vital part ofman, and it is in this mission that poetry ismost helpful. As a writer has expressed it,Poetry is beauty made words religion isbeauty made flesh religion is poetry in action.All true poetry must deal with the beautifuland noble. As an artist, the poet should pointout and show us what to love, and as a Prophetor religious teacher he should hold up beforeus the highest ideals of life teach us the greatlesson of righteousness and make our religionreal. The world about us today is calling forfacts, cold facts. But poetry gives us something better and deeper than facts. Poetrygives us a noble emotion. Poetry, like music,elevates our soul, and this is the one thing inall the world to be most desired, because itbears the stamp of eternity.It is easy then, to see, why the Bible is thegreatest book in the world. It is because itwas written by the supreme poets of the world,and not only offers the highest standard ofmoral living, but expresses the highest andnoblest emotions the human race has everknown. Edwin Markham says, The Bible istrue to everlasting, because it is poetry.To Miss Margaret McDonaldFLORENCE L. HALLYes, my dear Margaret, by all means takethe work in composition as a part of yourcourse in the Normal School. I cant speakfrom experience for very much of it, as this isonly my second term of work in the subject,but Im sending you a catalogue so you cansee from it what the course consists of, andwhat is to be gained in a general way by takingit. But there are some things connected withit which are not evident to a person who merelyreads the catalogue, and it is of these I wishto write to you.It has been quite a long time since I had thework in first term, and the most vivid recol-
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34101
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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