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keen, and in good temper. Perhaps the most interesting of all Wesley's religious writings are his defenses of his movement. These are fine in style and in spirit. They leave nothing to be desired. Wesley wrote several formal theological treatises, notably his great book on original sin, and tracts on sanctification.

Some of the most delightful of his writings are his letters. They are the wise and sagacious counsels and ideas of a man of remarkable prudence, insight, and spiritual discernment. They are one of the most precious legacies of the eighteenth century. The candor and fearlessness of Wesley are well illustrated by his political writings-those dealing with Ireland, the position of the Catholics, and contemporary European events, and especially those treating of America. He was a Tory, but a reasonable and liberal one, and he thought rebellion was justified only as a last resort under extreme provocation. That provocation he did not believe America had received. These writings were unfortunate to the infant Methodism of this land, but given a man of Wesley's intense interest in affairs, his clear and cool judgment, his frankness of expression, and his earnest patriotism, and he was bound to write whatever he felt the day demanded. However mistaken in judgment, he acted and wrote under the stress of conscience. "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day." Last, but first, are the JournalsWesley's diary kept from the beginning of his voyage to Georgia to near the close of his life. How fresh, how living, how interesting! The whole life of the eighteenth century is in the Journals of John Wesley. They are full of comments on men and things and events-the panorama of a great century, a great movement, a great land. No man can understand either Wesley, England, Methodism, or the history of the last three centuries unless he has read Wesley's Journals. They are the most wonderful record ever penned of human activity.

Two things must be added in closing: First, Wesley's style is always clear, concise, direct. He hated verbiage

mere words, long, involved sentences, a diffuse style. For him life was too short and too busy. Second, there ought to be a revival of interest in Wesley's writings. On the strength of the centennial of Emerson's birth this year our Unitarian friends are advising the purchase and reading through of his works-an Emerson revival. With more right have we to urge a Wesley revival. Every minister ought to have his works complete; and ought to read them through from beginning to end, and with notebook and lead pencil in hand. And every layman ought to have the Rev. Herbert Welch's Selections from the Writings of John Wesley (Methodist Book Concern, 1901), or the Rev. James H. Potts's Living Thoughts of John Wesley (same, 1891); and as to his Journals they ought to have at least the Rev. Edwin Janes's Wesley His Own Historian (same, 1871), or the Heart of Wesley's Journals, edited by Percy Livingston Parker, with an introduction by Hugh Price Hughes, and an appreciation by Augustine Birrell (Revell, 1903), or, better still, Wesley His Own Biographer: selections from the Journals, with numerous illustrations and the original account of his death (London, Wesleyan Conference Office, 1891). And as to the numerous Wesley's Lives every layman ought to read at least one brief one, say Telford's, or Rigg's, or Lelièvre's, or the latest and one of the most interesting, "by a Methodist Preacher," John Wesley the Methodist (London, Wesleyan Conference Office; New York, Methodist Book Concern, 1903).

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ART. VIII.-A BIT OF BYZANTINE.

THE people of the New World are acquiring a Sistine Chapel of their own. The second part of the mural decoration of the Boston Public Library by John Singer Sargent makes that evident. The completed apses hush the visitor into reverence. It will certainly be a holy place when these apses are joined by the glories yet to be spread upon the intervening walls and ceiling. No one knows but the artist what the themes of the remaining parts are to be. Perhaps it can be safely affirmed from the nature of the spaces that the themes will be subordinate and connective. Sides and roof of the narrow hall do not admit of subjects of first importance. Range of vision in such an instance is too short for their proper display. But the work done on either apse is set in view conspicuously by the whole length of the corridor. So the "Dogma of Redemption" just uncovered is naturally the climax of the whole scheme. In point of fact Byzantine art which purposely dominates the place could not without sense of discord and anachronism be carried to subjects of later date than the "Dogma." The motif of the whole seems to be the portrayal of the evolution of religion out of the chaos of crude and conflicting faiths of antiquity through the monotheism of the Hebrews to the atonement in Christ. Whether it was the theology or the art of the epoch which dominated the artist, it must be admitted he has been splendidly true to both. Subject and style in this instance are no caprice of genius. Sargent's birth under Italian skies, his haunting of Byzantine cathedrals from St. Mark's in Venice to Cefalu in Sicily, so steeped him in the glorious art of the Eastern Empire that he can reproduce it at will. His scheme of color, spacing, and subject, the wealth of elaborate puzzling detail, carries one back to the art of a millennium and a half ago. It is, some one has said, as if he had in mind the jeweled architecture of India, the lacquers of Japan, and the polychromaic temples of Egypt.

It is to be regretted since one gets any peep of Sargent's decoration from the staircase that the whole is not revealed at once, as Kaulbach's "Era of the Reformation" is upon the grand staircase of the Museum in Berlin. It would be more effective if one could enter the room upon a level approach. However, this is a minor matter.

The spacing in the two apses is similar, consisting as it does of friezes and lunettes. Across the western frieze in most effective grouping stand the prophets of Israel-imposing figures already made widely familiar by popular reproduction. Matching these, in the eastern frieze, is the line of tall and fascinating-faced angels, two of whom support the great golden cross, the base of which overlaps from the lunette into which the others display the frieze and various instruments of the crucifixion. The central figure of the western apse, Moses, is matched by Christ in the east. The former holds the stony tables. This latter is on the As explicitly as if written stand out the words, on the one side Law, and on the other Atonement. In this antithesis, however, Moses stands in the frieze with the prophets, while Christ, on the other hand, is in the lunette above the angels. There is not only a theological significance here, but an artistic effect which avoids too exact opposition.

cross.

There is all the wealth of symbolical detail characteristic of the Byzantine school. One is always finding something curiously new and is lured on as by the device of a puzzle picture. For example, the "Dogma of Redemption" just uncovered represents Christ on the cross, the crouching figures of Adam and Eve are directly under the outstretched arms and the three figures are swathed in the same band, signifying one flesh and one suffering. Adam and Eve hold golden chalices beneath the pierced hands to catch the sacramental blood. Adam's face is ugly to signify the ugliness of sin; Eve's is beautiful, to indicate humanity as being worth saving. Behind and above the cross the Holy Trinity is represented by three heroic figures, wrapped in the ample folds of the same robe of incomparable color. These majes

tic forms are seated on one throne. A hand of each is uplifted in the Greek blessing. Each head wears a different style of crown, suggestive of different attributes. Seven doves, each with cruciform nimbus, make an arch above all. The countenances of all the figures in the lunettes are designedly expressionless, so that attention shall not be diverted from the wholeness of the theme. A serpent winds his coils about the feet of Adam and of Christ. At the foot of the cross is a pelican feeding her young in the nest. A curious mistake of early ornithology, which supposed from the crimson spot on the bill of the pelican that she fed her young with her own blood, made her the ecclesiastical symbol of the atonement. The lettering also is effective. The word Sanctus is woven repeatedly into the golden hem which enfolds the persons of the Trinity. On the band between the frieze and the lunette occurs the impressive sentiment adapted from the cathedral of Cefalu: "The sins of the world have been remitted: Maker of man made man and his Redeemer. Incarnate I redeem the body. God I redeem the soul." It is worth remarking that this is the reproduction of Byzantine art by twentieth century methods. For example, it is no longer necessary for the artist to climb dizzy scaffolding and lie in painful positions in order to pencil walls, ceilings, and domes. In his own country, in his own studio, with its quiet and convenience, upon canvas easily rolled and unrolled at his pleasure by mechanical devices, he lays on his colors without danger of intrusion of the curious. This may be less romantic, but it is certainly the saving of the artist. Again, this saves the picture from being marred by climatic conditions. In case of fire it can be detached from the wall and rescued. Another innovation is the blending of plastic art with painting. Whenever effect can be heightened by it Sargent daringly introduces bas-relief.

Sargent is such a towering figure in the art world of today that some personal mention cannot well be omitted. He is a cosmopolitan, of American parentage but Italian birth;

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