Creating Beauty

Men learn of God through Beauty. We Builders who hold beauty in our fingers have the key. We could create it only if we loved it enough. Eloise Lownsbery, Boy Knight of Reims

Stained-Glass Beauty

Seen from the outside, the stained-glass windows in a church look dull and dark; but when you enter the church and can see the same windows illumined by the rays of the sun, you discover their incredible beauty. The light of the sun can transform stained-glass windows into magnificent works of art. Likewise, you can……

The Able Housekeeper

The house had been clean under my care; under Betsie’s it glowed. She saw beauty in wood, in pattern, in color, and helped us to see it, too. The soup kettle and the coffee pot on the back of the stove, which I never seemed to find time for, were simmering again the first week……

The Beauty of a Song

The other day as I was taking my pleasure along a river called “The River of Gold,” from which one can faintly see the enormous mountains which shut off Spain from Europe, as I walked, I say, along the Mail, or ordered and planted quay of the town, I heard, a long way off, a……

Night

BY ROBERT SOUTHEY How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain, Breaks the serene of heaven: In full-orb’d glory yonder Moon divine Rolls through the dark-blue depths. Beneath her steady ray The desert-circle spreads, Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky. How……

Cottage of the Woodcarver

Just outside the village stood the cottage of a woodcarver. The woodcarver and his wife took me in, and I became their foster child. I learned to carve. A poet in wood-carving was my foster father. How proud everyone was of his work! How carefully he planned and cut designs in his wooden pieces! My……

The Sound of the Northern Lights

I do not remember to have met with any travelers into high Northern latitudes, who remarked their having heard the Northern Lights make any noise in the air as they vary their color or position; which may probably be owing to the want of perfect silence at the time they made their observations on these……

The Eyes of a Child

The child’s little world enlarged itself with the unfolding years. His soul expanded as the valley became touched with beauty. His growth reflected both his outward environment and the inner dignity of a soul maturing in the crisp, clean air of high places. His body was sturdiness itself but supple and responsive. His eyes were……

A Beautiful Old Street

Beyond the Close a steep street wound uphill and here lived those people referred to by Grandfather as God’s Poor. This part of the city had a fascination for the children because in its own way it was beautiful. The street knew, as the streams knew, that it looks ugly to come down a hill……

On His Blindness (When I consider how my light is spent)

BY JOHN MILTON When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide, “Doth God……