The Law of Christian Art [pp. 398-402]

THE LA W oF CHRISTIAN ART. -R
THE LAW OF CHRISTIAN ART.
SPEAKING in accordance with the faith which satisfies the
first need of humanity, the faith by whose title alone can man
claim the sovereignty of creation, let us consider what is art and
its true intention.
We know God is the only Source of truth, goodness, and
beauty-co-ordinate elements, whose expression by man can,
therefore, be only by grace of divine inspiration. Man is independent, by his free will, in the use of his organs of expression,
and by the fall his nature is made debatable ground in the war
between eternal good and that eternal evil whose superlative is
denial of the existence of God. By our faith in God we know
we must choose good rather than evil, and that art should ever
be witness of that choice.
We are wont to say, when a man prostitutes his powers to the
expression of evil, that his art is false, debased-in short, human;
and sadly true is the imprecation involved in that saying, for
" we are born children of wrath." Yes, denying the better
elements within us, made triumphant by the grace of baptism,
working in proud self-reliance, and with subjective intention
alone, we make art too grievously human. For it is the highest
and holiest truth of our faith that we owe every good to God,
and therefore all the efforts of our life must be made to witness
our belief in him, our hope in him, and our love of him; not only
by unmeasured heart-throbs, but also by constant and intelligent
obedience to law. Therefore, by our choice of good, we make
the broad definition that art-that is, man's inherent power of
producing "creations of a second order"-is true art in exact
proportion as its productions confess God; in exact proportion
as they show, immediately or remotely, their author's acknowledgment of the Spirit's dominion over matter.
Natural law is expression of the will of God; therefore any
form or combination of forms, or sounds, or colors which, actually or by implication, contradict natural law, in so far as they
do so are false. But it is a law of the highest order that man
shall work not for his own but for God's glory. Erected only
with a human intention, a work in whose technique every subordinate law is obeyed is yet false in such a sense that it were better if it had never been produced. Dare we not say that the art
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