o
 
 The Bible References 
 of John Ruskin
 
 The Bible References 
 
 in the Works of 
 
 John Ruskin 
 
 London: George Allen
 
 ARRANGED BY 
 Y AND ELLEN GIBBS 
 
 First Edition, 1898 
 
 Fifth Thotuand, March 1905 
 
 Ail rights reserved
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE compilers of this little volume desire, first of all, 
 to express their sincere thanks to the great author from 
 whose works and by whose permission the quotations 
 have been made. 
 
 They trust that the work will be found as exhaustive 
 of its subject and as accurate in detail as the immense 
 option of selection could allow. A short list of supple- 
 mentary references has been added ; and, for convenience, 
 a table giving in order the books of the Bible quoted 
 from. These will be found at the end of the volume. 
 
 It may interest readers to know how the root and 
 foundation of all Mr. Ruskin's Scripture knowledge was 
 laid. He says, in Prceterita, vol. i., p. 5 2 : 'I have with 
 deeper gratitude to chronicle what I owe to my mother 
 for the resolutely consistent lessons which so exercised 
 me in the Scriptures as to make every word of them 
 familiar to my ear in habitual music, yet in that 
 familiarity reverenced, as transcending all thought, and 
 ordaining all conduct.' 
 
 - lirr
 
 ABBREVIATIONS 
 
 The reference is always to the small edition of the work, 
 where such an edition exists; and to the paragraph, in the 
 case of all those works which are paragraphed continuously 
 throughout.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 SUBJECTS ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED 
 
 PAGES 
 
 AARON, DEATH OF BEAUTY OF HOLINESS . i 11 
 
 BEAUTY OF HOLINESS CHARITY. . . . 11 29 
 
 CHARITY DAVID 29 57 
 
 DAVID EARLY CHRISTIANITY .... 5767 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIANITY FAITH .... 6783 
 
 FAITH GARDEN OF EDEN, THE .... 8387 
 
 GARDEN OF EDEN, THE HAPPINESS . . . 87 104 
 
 HAPPINESS IDLENESS 104 121 
 
 IDLENESS JACOB'S LADDER 121 130 
 
 JACOB'S LADDER KINGDOM, THE . . . 130136 
 
 KINGDOM, THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE . 136138 
 
 LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE MADONNA, THE . 138153 
 
 MADONNA, THE 'NATIONS OF THE EARTH' . 153 167 
 
 'NATIONS OF THE EARTH' OBEDIENCE . . 167 169 
 
 OBEDIENCE PARABLES 169 177 
 
 PARABLES REFORMATION 177 195 
 
 REFORMATION SACRED CHORD OF COLOUR . 195 203 
 
 SACRED CHORD OF COLOUR TABERNACLE. . 203 228 
 
 TABERNACLE UNITY 228 244 
 
 UNITY VAINGLORY 244 245 
 
 VAINGLORY WEALTH 245 247 
 
 WEALTH ZEDEKIAH 247253
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 SAINTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BARBARA 257 
 
 BARNABAS AND MARK- 258 
 
 BENEDICT 258 
 
 BERNARD 260 
 
 CATHERINE 261 
 
 CECILIA 261 
 
 FIRMIN . . ' 262 
 
 GENEVIEVE ,s 263 
 
 GEOFFROY 265 
 
 GEORGE 266 
 
 JEROME 266 
 
 MARGARET 268 
 
 MARTIN 268 
 
 MATTHEW 271 
 
 SOPHIA 273 
 
 THEODORE 274 
 
 URSULA 275 
 
 ZITA .-.'.. 275 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 279 
 
 II. THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE AS QUOTED OR REFERRED 
 
 TO IN THIS VOLUME 288
 
 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 
 
 ' There is need, bitter need to bring back into men's minds, that 
 to live is nothing, unless to live be to know Him by whom we 
 live.' Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. i., 7. 
 
 Aaron, Death of. 
 
 Although the time of the deaths of Aaron and Moses 
 was hastened by God's displeasure, we have not, it 
 seems to me, the slightest warrant for concluding that 
 the manner of their deaths was intended to be grievous 
 or dishonourable to them. Far from this : it cannot, I 
 think, be doubted that in the denial of the permission 
 to enter the Promised Land, the whole punishment of 
 their sin was included; and that as far as regarded the 
 manner of their deaths, it must have been appointed 
 for them by their Master in all tenderness and love; 
 and with full purpose of ennobling the close of their 
 service upon the earth. It might have seemed to us 
 more honourable that both should have been permitted 
 to die beneath the shadow of the Tabernacle, the con- 
 gregation of Israel watching by their side ; and all whom 
 they loved gathered together to receive the last message 
 from the lips of the meek lawgiver, and the last blessing 
 from the prayer of the anointed priest. But it was not 
 thus they were permitted to die. Try to realize that 
 going forth of Aaron from the midst of the congregation. 
 He who had so often done sacrifice for their sin, going 
 
 A
 
 2 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 forth now to offer up his own spirit. He who had stood, 
 among them, between the dead and the living, and had 
 seen the eyes of all that great multitude turned to him, 
 that by his intercession their breath might yet be drawn 
 a moment more, going forth now to meet the Angel of 
 Death face to face, and deliver himself into his hand. 
 Num. Try if you cannot walk, in thought, with those 
 xx. 27. t wo brothers, and the son, as they passed the 
 outmost tents of Israel, and turned, while yet the dew 
 lay round about the camp, towards the slopes of Mount 
 Hor; talking together for the last time, as, step by 
 step, they felt the steeper rising of the rocks, and hour 
 after hour, beneath the ascending sun, the horizon grew 
 broader as they climbed, and all the folded hills of 
 Idumea, one by one subdued, showed amidst their 
 hollows in the haze of noon, the windings of that long 
 desert journey, now at last to close. But who shall 
 enter into the thoughts of the High Priest, as his eye 
 followed those paths of ancient pilgrimage ; and, through 
 the silence of the arid and endless hills, stretching even 
 to the dim peak of Sinai, the whole history of those 
 forty years was unfolded before him, and the mystery 
 of his own ministries revealed to him ; and that other 
 Holy of Holies, of which the mountain peaks were 
 the altars, and the mountain clouds the veil, the firma- 
 ment of his Father's dwelling, opened to him still more 
 brightly and infinitely as he drew nearer his death ; until 
 at last, on the shadeless summit, from him on whom 
 sin was to be laid no more from him, on whose heart 
 Num. ^e names of sinful nations were to press their 
 xx. as. graven fire no longer, the brother and the son 
 took breastplate and ephod, and left him to his rest ? 
 Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. xx., 46. 
 
 Abraham. 
 
 ' The word of God came to Abram.' Of course you 
 can't imagine such a thing as that the word of God 
 should ever come to you? Is that because you are
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN * 
 
 wofse, or better, than Abram ? because you are a 
 more, or less, civilized person than he ? I leave Gen 
 you to answer that question for yourself; only ** * 
 as I have told you often before, but cannot repeat too 
 often, find out first what the word is. . . . 
 
 On the Mount of the Afltorite. On the slope of it, 
 down to the vale of Eshcol, sat Abram, as the sun 
 ripened its grapes through the glowing day; the shadows 
 lengthening at last under the crags of Machpelah; 
 the golden tighT warm on Ephron's field, still Gen 
 Ephron's, wild with wood. c And" as the sun * v - " 
 went down, an horror of great "darkness fell upon 
 Abram.' Fors Clavigera, Letter LXV. 
 
 Adamite Fall. 
 
 There is not any part of our nature, nor can there be 
 through eternity, uninfluenced or unaffected by the fall, 
 and that not in any way of degradation, for the renewing 
 in the divinity of Christ is a nobler condition than that 
 of Paradise ; and yet throughout eternity it must imply 
 and refer to the disobedience, and the corrupt state of 
 sin and death, and the suffering of Christ Himself, which 
 can we conceive of any redeemed soul as for an instant 
 forgetting, or as remembering without sorrow ? . . . 
 There is a perfect ideal to be wrought out of Rev 
 every face around us that has on its forehead - " 
 the writing and the seal of the angel ascending from the 
 East. Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. xiv., n, 12. 
 
 Advent, The Second. 
 
 I find it written very distinctly that God loved the 
 world, and that Christ is the light of it. What John 
 the much-used words, therefore, mean, I cannot viii - " 
 tell. But this, I believe, they should mean. That there is, 
 indeed, one world which is full of care, and desire, and 
 hatred : a world of war, of which Christ is not 
 the light, which indeed is without light, and Gen> ' 3- 
 has never heard the great ' Let there be.' Which is,
 
 4 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 therefore, in truth, as yet no world; but chaos, on the 
 face of which, moving, the Spirit of God yet causes men 
 to hope that a world will come. The better one, they 
 call it : perhaps they might, more wisely, call it the real 
 one. Also, I hear them speak continually of going to it, 
 rather than of its coming to them ; which, again, is strange, 
 for in that prayer which they had straight from the lips of 
 the Light of the world, and which He apparently thought 
 sufficient prayer for them, there is not anything about 
 going to another world; only something of another govern- 
 ment coming into this ; or rather, not another, but the 
 only government, that government which will constitute 
 Rev. it a world indeed. New heavens and new earth. 
 ' I- Earth, no more without form and void, but 
 Gen. i. a. sown with fruit of righteousness. Firmament, 
 no more of passing cloud, but of cloud risen out of the 
 s. Matt, crystal sea cloud in which, as He was once 
 cxiv. 30. rece ived up, so He shall again come with power, 
 Rev. i. 7. and every eye shall see Him, and all kindreds 
 of the earth shall wail because of Him. Modern Painters, 
 vol. v., Pt. ix., ch. xii., 18, 19. 
 
 Alms-giving. 
 
 The tithe may, indeed, be set aside for some special 
 purpose for the maintenance of a priesthood for 
 distant labour, or any other purpose out of their own 
 immediate range of action. But to the Charity or Alms 
 of men to Love, and to the God of Love, all their 
 substance is due and all their strength and all their 
 
 5 Matt. ti me - That is the first commandment : Thou 
 xrii.37- shalt love the Lord with all thy strength and 
 S. Luke soul. Yea, says the false disciple but not 
 
 with all my money. And of these it is written, 
 after that thirty-third verse of Luke xiv. : ' Salt is good ; 
 s. Mark but if the salt have lost his savour, it is neither 
 "v. 9- fit for the land nor the dunghill. He that 
 hath ears to hear, let him hear.' Fors Clavigera, Letter 
 LIU.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 5 
 
 Ambassadors for God. 
 
 Ecclesiastical tyranny has, for the most part, founded 
 itself on the idea of Vicarianism, one of the most pestilent 
 of the Romanist theories, and most plainly denounced 
 in Scripture. Of this I have a word or two to say to 
 the modern 'Vicarian.' All powers that be R om> 
 are unquestionably ordained of God ; so that *"' I> 3< 
 they that resist the Power, resist the ordinance of God. 
 Therefore, say some in these offices, We, being ordained 
 of God, and having our credentials, and being in the 
 English Bible called ambassadors for God, do, in a sort, 
 represent God. We are Vicars of Christ, and stand 
 on earth in place of Christ. I have heard this said by 
 Protestant clergymen. 
 
 Now the word ambassador has a peculiar ambiguity 
 about it, owing to its use in modern political affairs; 
 and these clergymen assume that the word, as used by 
 St. Paul, means an Ambassador Plenipotentiary ; repre- 
 sentative of his King, and capable of acting for his 
 King. What right have they to assume that St. Paul 
 meant this ? St. Paul never uses the word ambassador 
 at all. He says, simply, 'We are in embassage from 
 Christ; and Christ beseeches you through us.' Most 
 true. And let it further be granted, that every word 
 that the clergyman speaks is literally dictated to him by 
 Christ ; that he can make no mistake in delivering his 
 message ; and that, therefore, it is indeed Christ Himself 
 who speaks to us the word of life through the messen- 
 ger's lips. Does, therefore, the messenger represent 
 Christ ? Does the channel which conveys the waters of 
 the Fountain represent the Fountain itself? Suppose, 
 when we went to draw water at a cistern, that all at 
 once the Leaden Spout should become animated, and 
 open its mouth and say to us, See, I am Vicarious 
 for the Fountain. Whatever respect you show to the 
 Fountain, show some part of it to me. Should we not 
 answer the Spout, and say, Spout, you were set there 
 for our service, and may be taken away and thrown
 
 6 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 aside 1 if anything goes wrong with you? But the 
 Fountain will flow for ever. 
 
 Observe, I do not deny a most solemn authority 
 vested in every Christian messenger from God to men. 
 I am prepared to grant this to the uttermost ; and all 
 that George Herbert says, in the end of ' The Church- 
 porch,' I would enforce, at another time than this, to 
 the uttermost. But the Authority is simply that of a 
 King's Messenger; not of a King's Representative, On 
 the Old Road, vol. ii., 208. 
 
 Amiens Cathedral. Its Theology. 
 
 Who built it, shall we ask? God, and Man, is the 
 first and most true answer. The stars in their courses 
 built it, and the Nations. Greek Athena labours here 
 and Roman Father Jove, and Guardian Mars. The 
 Gaul labours here, and the Frank : knightly Norman, 
 mighty Ostrogoth, and wasted anchorite of Idumea. 
 
 The actual Man who built it scarcely cared to tell you 
 he did so. ... 
 
 The northern porch is dedicated to St. Firmin, the 
 first Christian missionary to Amiens. The southern 
 porch, to the Virgin. But these are both treated as 
 withdrawn behind the great foundation of Christ and 
 the Prophets. What you have first to think of, and 
 read, is the scripture of the great central porch, and the 
 s. John facade itself. You have then in the centre of 
 the front, the image of Christ Himself, receiving 
 you : ' I am the Way, the truth and the life.' . . . 
 
 Throughout the Sermon on this Amiens Mount, Christ 
 never appears, or is for a moment thought of, as the 
 Crucified, nor as the Dead : but as the Incarnate Word 
 Isaiah as tne present Friend as the Prince of 
 * 6 - Peace on Earth, and as the Everlasting King 
 in Heaven. What His life is, what His commands are, 
 and what His judgment will be, are the things here 
 taught : not what He once did, nor what He once 
 1 ' By just judgment be deposed.' Art. 26.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 7 
 
 suffered, but what He is now doing and what He 
 requires us to do. That is the pure, joyful, beautiful 
 lesson of Christianity ; and the fall from that faith, 
 and all the corruptions of its abortive practice, may be 
 summed briefly as the habitual contemplation of Christ's 
 death instead of His Life, and the substitution of His 
 past suffering for our present duty. Then, secondly, 
 though Christ bears not His cross, the mourning prophets, 
 the persecuted apostles and the martyred disciples 
 do bear theirs. For just as it is well for you to re- 
 member what your undying Creator is doing for you 
 it is well for you to remember what your dying 
 fellow-creatures have done : the Creator you may at your 
 pleasure deny or defy the Martyr you can only forget ; 
 deny, you cannot. Every stone of this building is 
 cemented with his blood, and there is no furrow of its 
 pillars that was not ploughed by his pain. 
 
 Keeping, then, these things in your heart, look back 
 now to the central statue of Christ, and hear His message 
 with understanding. He holds the Book of the Eternal 
 Law in His left hand ; with His right He blesses, but 
 blesses on condition. ' This do, and thou shalt S- L^ 
 live ; ' nay, in stricter and more piercing sense, x - 28 - 
 This be, and thou shalt live : to show Mercy is nothing 
 thy soul must be full of mercy ; to be pure in act is 
 nothing thou shalt be pure in heart also. And with 
 this further word of the unabolished law ' This if thou 
 do not, this if thou art not, thou shalt die.' Die (what- 
 ever Death means) totally and irrevocably. There is 
 no word in thirteenth-century Theology of the pardon 
 (in our modern sense) of sins ; and there is none of the 
 Purgatory of them. Above that image of Christ with 
 us, our Friend, is set the image of Christ over us, our 
 Judge. For this present life here is His helpful 
 Presence. After this life there is His coming to take 
 account of our deeds, and of our desires in them ; and 
 the parting asunder of the Obedient from the Dis- 
 obedient, of the Loving from the Unkind, with no hope
 
 8 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 given to the last of recall or reconciliation. I do not know 
 what commenting or softening doctrines were written 
 in frightened minuscule by the Fathers, or hinted in 
 hesitating whispers by the prelates of the early Church. 
 But I know that the language of every graven stone 
 and every glowing window, of things daily seen and 
 universally understood by the people, was absolutely 
 and alone, this teaching of Moses from Sinai in the 
 beginning, and of St. John from Patmos in the end, of 
 the Revelation of God to Israel. Our Fathers Have 
 Told Us, ch. iv., 12, 28, 52. 
 
 Amorites. 
 
 We habitually speak of the Holy Land as the Land 
 Gen. of ' Canaan.' The ' promised ' land was in- 
 xv - l8 - deed that of Canaan, with others. But Israel 
 never got it. They got only the Mount of the Amorites ; 
 for the promise was only to be perfected on condition of 
 their perfect obedience. . . . For all the Canaanites were 
 left, to prove Israel, (Judges iii. 3,) and a good many of 
 the Amorites and Jebusites too, (Judges iii. 57,) but in 
 the main Israel subdued the last two races, and held the 
 hill country from Lebanon to Hebron, and the capital, 
 Jerusalem, for their own. . . . And above all, you will, 
 or may, understand that the Amorites had a great deal 
 of good in them : that they and the Jebusites were on 
 the whole a generous and courteous people, so that, 
 Gen. when Abram dwells with the Amorite princes, 
 xiv. 13. Mamre and Eshcol, they are faithful allies to 
 him; and when he buys his grave from Ephron the 
 Gen. Hittite, and David the threshing floor from 
 xxiii. s. Araunah the Jebusite, both of the mountaineers 
 behave just as the proudest and truest Highland chief 
 would. ' What is that between me and thee ? ' ' All 
 a Sam. these things did Araunah, as a King, give unto 
 xxiv. 13. th e King and Araunah said unto the King, 
 The Lord thy God accept thee.' Not our God, you 
 see ; but giving sadly, as the Sidonian widow begging,
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 9 
 
 with claim of no part in Israel. Fors Clavigera, 
 Letter LXV. 
 
 Anchorites. 
 
 While we mourn over the fictitious shape given to the 
 religious visions of the anchorite, we may envy the sin- 
 cerity and the depth of the emotion from which they 
 spring : in the deep feeling, we have to acknowledge the 
 solemn influences of the hills ; but for the erring modes 
 or forms of thought, it is human wilfulness, sin, and false 
 teaching, that are answerable. We are not to deny the 
 nobleness of the imagination because its direction is ille- 
 gitimate, nor the pathos of the legend because its cir- 
 cumstances are groundless ; the ardour and abstraction 
 of the spiritual life are to be honoured in themselves, 
 though the one may be misguided and the other de- 
 ceived; and the deserts at Osma, Assisi, and Monte 
 Viso are still to be thanked for the zeal they Ex 
 gave, or guarded, whether we find it in St. xxxiii. ai, 
 Francis and St. Dominic, or in those whom 
 God's hand hid from them in the clefts of the rocks. 
 Modern Painters, vol. iv., Pt. v., ch. xx., 12. 
 
 Anchorites and Saints. 
 
 The evidence respecting them has never yet been 
 honestly collected, much less dispassionately examined : 
 but assuredly, there is in that direction a probability, 
 and more than a probability, of dangerous error, while 
 there is none whatever in the practice of an active, cheer- 
 ful, and benevolent life. The hope of attaining a higher 
 religious position, which induces us to encounter, for its 
 exalted alternative, the risk of unhealthy error, is often, as 
 I said, founded more on pride than piety ; and those who, 
 in modest usefulness, have accepted what seemed to them 
 here the lowliest place in the kingdom of their s Luke 
 Father, are not, I believe, the least likely to *. 10. 
 receive hereafter the command, then unmistakable, 
 ' Friend, go up higher.' Ethics of the Dust, 87.
 
 io THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Angel of the Sea. 
 
 Far away in the south the strong river Gods have all 
 hasted, and gone down to the sea. Wasted and burning, 
 white furnaces of blasting sand, their broad beds lie 
 ghastly and bare; but here in the moss-lands, the soft 
 wings of the Sea Angel droop still with dew, and the 
 shadows of their plumes falter on the hills : strange 
 laughings and glitterings of silver streamlets, born sud- 
 denly, and twined about the mossy heights in trickling 
 tinsel, answering to them as they wave. Nor are those 
 wings colourless. We habitually think of the rain-cloud 
 only as dark and gray; not knowing that we owe to it 
 perhaps the fairest, though not the most dazzling of the 
 hues of heaven. Often in our English mornings, the 
 rain-clouds in the dawn form soft, level fields, which 
 melt imperceptibly into the blue ; or, when of less ex- 
 tent, gather into apparent bars, crossing the sheets of 
 broader cloud above ; and all these bathed throughout 
 in an unspeakable light of pure rose-colour, and purple, 
 and amber, and blue ; not shining, but misty-soft ; the 
 barred masses, when seen nearer, composed of clusters 
 or tresses of cloud, like floss silk ; looking as if each knot 
 were a little swathe or sheaf of lighted rain. No clouds 
 form such skies, none are so tender, various, inimitable. 
 For these are the robes of love of the Angel of the Sea. 
 j b To these that name is chiefly given, the ' spread- 
 
 xxxvi. 29. m g S o f the douds,' from their extent, their 
 gentleness, their fulness of rain. Note how they are 
 spoken of in Job xxxvi. 5, 29-31. 'By them judgeth 
 job He the people; He giveth meat in abundance. 
 
 xxxvi. 32. \vith clouds He covereth the light. He hath 
 hidden the light in His hands and commanded it that 
 it should return. He speaks of it to His friend ; that 
 it is His possession, and that He may ascend thereto.' 
 
 That, then, is the Sea Angel's message to God's 
 friends ; that, the meaning of those strange golden lights 
 and purple flushes before the morning rain. The rain is 
 sent to judge, and feed us ; but the light is the possession
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN n 
 
 of the friends of God, and they may ascend thereto, 
 where the tabernacle veil will cross and part its rays no 
 more. Modern Painters, vol. v., Pt. vii., ch. iv., 5, 6, 7. 
 
 Apostles, The Baptistery of St. Mark's. 
 
 Each of the Apostles, over the font, is seen baptizing 
 in the country to which he is sent. Their legends, 
 written above them, begin over the door of entrance 
 into the church, with St. John the Evangelist, and end 
 with St. Mark. 
 
 Most careful reference is made to the various tra- 
 ditions concerning the places of each Apostle's special 
 ministry, the main tradition being always followed in 
 cases of doubt. Thus, St. John was bishop of Ephesus ; 
 St. James the Less bishop of Jerusalem, where he re- 
 ceived St. Paul, and introduced him to the Church ; St. 
 Philip laboured in Phrygia, and is said to have died at 
 Hierapolis ; St. Matthew chiefly in Ethiopia ; St. Simeon 
 in Egypt ; and St. Thomas (though this may be by con- 
 fusion with another Thomas) is said to have preached 
 in India and founded the Church at Malabar, where 
 his tomb is shown, and ' Christians of St. Thomas ' 
 is still a name for the Church. So, again, St. Andrew 
 preached in Achaia, and was there crucified at Patrae; 
 the connection of St. Peter with Rome needs no com- 
 ment; both Jerome and Eusebius assign India to St. 
 Bartholomew ; St. Thaddaeus or Jude preached in Syria 
 and Arabia, and died at Edessa; the first fifteen years 
 of the ministry of St. Matias were spent in Palestine; 
 and lastly, St. Mark is reported to have been sent by 
 St. Peter to Egypt, and there founded the Church at 
 Alexandria. St. Mark's Rest, pp. 95, 156. 
 
 Beauty of Holiness. 
 
 And perfect the day shall be, when it is of all men 
 understood that the beauty of Holiness must Psalm 
 be in labour as well as in rest. Nay ! more, xxix - * 
 if it may be, in labour; in our strength, rather than
 
 12 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 in our weakness ; and in the choice of what we shall 
 work for through the six days, and may know to be 
 good at their evening time, than in the choice of what 
 Psalm we P ra y f r on tne seventh, of reward or repose. 
 3dU - 4- With the multitude that keep holiday, we may 
 perhaps sometimes vainly have gone up to the house 
 of the Lord, and vainly there asked for what we fancied 
 would be mercy; but for the few who labour as their 
 Lord would have them, the mercy needs no seeking, 
 Psalm an d their wide home no hallowing. Surely 
 xxiii. e. goodness and mercy shall follow them, all the 
 days of their life ; and they shall dwell in the house of 
 the Lord FOR EVER. Lectures on Art, 96. On the 
 Old Road, vol. i., Pt. i., 252. 
 
 Beholding this our Natural Face in a Glass. 
 
 We come at last to set ourselves face to face with our- 
 Gen. selves ; expecting that in creatures made after 
 L "^ the image of God, we are to find comeliness and 
 completion more exquisite than in the fowls of the air 
 and the things that pass through the paths of the sea. 
 
 But behold now a sudden change from all former 
 experience. No longer among the individuals of the 
 race is there equality or likeness, a distributed fairness 
 and fixed type visible in each ; but evil diversity, and 
 terrible stamp of various degradation : features seamed 
 by sickness, dimmed by sensuality, convulsed by passion, 
 pinched by poverty, shadowed by sorrow, branded with 
 remorse; bodies consumed with sloth, broken down by 
 labour, tortured by disease, dishonoured in foul uses; 
 intellects without power, hearts without hope, minds 
 Psalm earthly and devilish ; our bones full of the sin 
 xxv. 7. o f our youth, the heaven revealing our iniquity, 
 the earth rising up against us, the roots dried up 
 beneath, and the branch cut off above ; well for us only, 
 S. James ^ a ^ er beholding this our natural face in a 
 1 *3- glass, we desire not straightway to forget what 
 manner of men we be.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 13 
 
 Herein there is at last something, and too much for 
 that short-stopping intelligence and dull perception of 
 ours to accomplish, whether in earnest fact, or in the 
 seeking for the outward image of beauty : to undo the 
 devil's work; to restore to the body the grace and the 
 ppwer which inherited disease has destroyed ; to restore 
 to the spirit the purity, and to the intellect the grasp, 
 that they had in Paradise. . . . And so the only restora- 
 tion of the body that we can reach is not to be coined 
 out of our fancies, but to be collected out of such un- 
 injured and bright vestiges of the old seal as we can 
 find and set together : and the ideal of the good and 
 perfect soul, as it is seen in the features, is not to be 
 reached by imagination, but by the seeing and reaching 
 forth of the better part of the soul to that of which it 
 must first know the sweetness and goodness in itself, 
 before it can much desire, or rightly find, the signs of it 
 in others. Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. xiv., i. 
 
 Benediction, The. 
 
 ' The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love 
 of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, 2 Cor 
 be with you.' Now I do not know precisely xiii - I * 
 what sense is attached in the English public mind to 
 those expressions. But what I have to tell you posi- 
 tively is that the three things do actually exist, and 
 can be known if you care to know them, and possessed 
 if you care to possess them ; and that another thing 
 exists, besides these, of which we already know too 
 much. 
 
 First, by simply obeying the orders of the Founder 
 of your religion, all grace, graciousness, or beauty and 
 favour of gentle life, will be given to you in mind and 
 body, in work and in rest. The Grace of Christ exists, 
 and can be had if you will. 
 
 Secondly, as you know more and more of the created 
 world, you will find that the true will of its Maker is 
 that its creatures should be happy ; that He has made
 
 14 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 everything beautiful in its time and its place, and that 
 it is chiefly by the fault of men, when they are allowed 
 Rom the liberty of thwarting His laws, that Creation 
 via. 22. groans or travails in pain. The Love of God 
 exists, and you may see it, and live in int you will. 
 Lastly, a spirit does actually exist which teaches the ant 
 her path, the bird her building, and men, in an instinc- 
 tive and marvellous way, whatever lovely arts and noble 
 deeds are possible to them. Without it you can do no 
 good thing. To the grief of it you can do many bad ones. 
 In the possession of it is your peace and your power. 
 
 And there is a fourth thing, of which we already know 
 too much. There is an evil spirit whose dominion is 
 in blindness and in cowardice, as the dominion of the 
 Spirit of wisdom is in clear sight and in courage. And 
 this blind and cowardly spirit is for ever telling you 
 that evil things are pardonable, and you shall not die 
 for them, and that good things are impossible, and you 
 need not live for them ; and that gospel of his is now 
 the loudest that is preached in your Saxon tongue. 
 You will find some day, to your cost, if you believe the 
 first part of it, that it is not true ; but you may never, 
 if you believe the second part of it, find, to your gain, 
 that also, untrue; and therefore I pray you with all 
 earnestness to prove, and know within your hearts, that 
 all things lovely and righteous are possible for those who 
 believe in their possibility, and who determine that, for 
 their part, they will make every day's work contribute to 
 them. Lectures on Art, 125. 
 
 Bible. 
 
 Not book, merely; but Bibliotheca,' Treasury of 
 Books : and it is, I repeat, a singular question, how far, 
 if Jerome, at the very moment when Rome, his tutress, 
 ceased from her material power, had not made her lan- 
 guage the oracle of Hebrew prophecy, a literature of 
 their own, and a religion unshadowed by the terrors 
 of the Mosaic law, might have developed itself in the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 15 
 
 hearts of the Goth, the Frank, and the Saxon, under 
 Theodoric, Clovis, and Alfred. Fate had otherwise 
 determined, and Jerome was so passive an instrument 
 in her hands that he began the study of Hebrew as a 
 discipline only, and without any conception of the task 
 he was to fulfil, still less of the scope of its fulfilment. 
 I could joyfully believe that the words of Christ, ' If 
 they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither s Lu ke 
 will they be persuaded though one rose from xvi - 3- 
 the dead,' had haunted the spirit of the recluse, until 
 he resolved that the voice of Moses and the Prophets 
 should be made audible to the Churches of all the earth. 
 But so far as we have evidence, no such will or hope 
 exalted the quiet instincts of his natural industry ; partly 
 as a scholar's exercise, partly as an old man's recreation, 
 the severity of the Latin language was softened, like Vene- 
 tian crystal, by the variable fire of Hebrew thought ; and 
 the ' Book of Books ' took the abiding form of which all 
 the future art of the Western nations was to be an hourly 
 enlarging interpretation. And in this matter you have 
 to note that the gist of it lies, not in the translation of 
 the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures into an easier and a 
 common language, but in their presentation to the Church 
 as of common authority. The earlier Gentile Christians 
 had naturally a tendency to carry out in various oral 
 exaggeration or corruption, the teaching of the Apostle 
 of the Gentiles, until their freedom from the bondage 
 of the Jewish law passed into doubt of its inspiration ; 
 and, after the fall of Jerusalem, even into horror-stricken 
 interdiction of its observance. So that, only a few years 
 after the remnant of exiled Jews in Pella had elected the 
 Gentile Marcus for their Bishop, and obtained leave to 
 return to the ^Elia Capitolina built by Hadrian on Mount 
 Zion, ' it became a matter of doubt and controversy 
 whether a man who sincerely acknowledged Jesus as the 
 Messiah, but who still continued to observe the law of 
 Moses, could possibly hope for salvation ! ' l While, on 
 1 Gibbon, chap. 15 (11.277).
 
 1 6 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 the other hand, the most learned and the most wealthy 
 of the Christian name, under the generally recognized 
 title of ' knowing ' (Gnostic), had more insidiously effaced 
 the authority of the Evangelists by dividing themselves, 
 during the course of the third century, ' into more than 
 fifty numerably distinct sects, and producing a multi- 
 tude of histories, in which the actions and discourses of 
 Christ and His Apostles were adapted to their several 
 tenets.' l It would be a task of great, and in no wise 
 profitable difficulty to determine in what measure the 
 consent of the general Church, and in what measure 
 the act and authority of Jerome, contributed to fix in 
 their ever since undisturbed harmony and majesty, the 
 canons of Mosaic and Apostolic Scripture. All that 
 the young reader need know is, that when Jerome died 
 at Bethlehem, this great deed was virtually accom- 
 plished : and the series of historic and didactic books 
 which form our present Bible, (including the Apocry- 
 pha), were established in and above the nascent thought 
 of the noblest races of men living on the terrestrial 
 globe, as a direct message to them from its Maker, 
 containing whatever it was necessary for them to learn 
 of His purposes towards them; and commanding, or 
 advising, with divine authority and infallible wisdom, 
 all that was best for them to do, and happiest to desire. 
 And it is only for those who have obeyed the law sin- 
 cerely, to say how far the hope held out to them by the 
 Ephes. u. law-giver, has been fulfilled. The worst ' chil- 
 ; v. e. d re n of disobedience ' are those who accept, of 
 Col. Hi. e. the Word, what they like, and refuse what they 
 hate : nor is this perversity in them always conscious, 
 for the greater part of the sins of the Church have been 
 brought on it by enthusiasm which, in passionate contem- 
 plation and advocacy of parts of Scripture easily grasped, 
 neglected the study, and at last betrayed the balance, 
 of the rest. What forms and methods of self-will are 
 concerned in the wresting of the Scriptures to a man's 
 1 Gibbon, chap. 15 (u. 283).
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 17 
 
 destruction, is for the keepers of consciences to exa- 
 mine, not for us. The history we have to learn must 
 be wholly cleared of such debate, and the influence 
 of the Bible watched exclusively on the persons who 
 receive the Word with joy, and obey it in truth. There 
 has, however, been always a farther difficulty in examin- 
 ing the power of the Bible, than that of distinguishing 
 honest from dishonest readers. The hold of Christianity 
 on the souls of men must be examined, when we come 
 to close dealing with it, under these three several heads: 
 there is first, the power of the Cross itself, and of the 
 theory of salvation, upon the heart, then, the operation 
 of the Jewish and Greek Scriptures on the intellect, 
 then, the influence on morals of the teaching and example 
 of the living hierarchy. And in the comparison of men 
 as they are and as they might have been there are these 
 three questions to be separately kept in mind, first, 
 what would have been the temper of Europe without 
 the charity and labour meant by ' bearing the Cross ' ; 
 then, secondly, what would the intellect of Europe have 
 become without Biblical literature ; and lastly, what 
 would the social order of Europe have become with- 
 out its hierarchy. You see I have connected s. Matt. 
 the words ' charity ' and ' labour ' under the xvi - 24 - 
 general term of ' bearing the cross.' ' If any ^{^^ 
 man will come after me, let him deny himself, x - 
 (for charity) and take up his cross (of pain) and 
 follow me.' . . . 
 
 Only, therefore, in days when the Cross was re- 
 ceived with courage, the Scripture searched with gphes 
 honesty, and the Pastor heard in faith, can the vi - *? 
 pure word of God, and the bright sword of the Spirit, be 
 recognised in the heart and hand of Christianity. 
 
 The effect of Biblical poetry and legend on its in- 
 tellect, must be traced farther, through decadent ages, 
 and in unfenced fields ; producing ' Paradise Lost ' 
 for us, no less than the ' Divina Commedia ' ; 
 Goethe's ' Faust,' and Byron's ' Cain,' no less than 
 
 B
 
 1 8 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 the ' Imitatio Christ!.' Much more, must the scholar, 
 who would comprehend in any degree approaching to 
 completeness, the influence of the Bible on mankind, 
 be able to read the interpretations of it which rose into 
 the great arts of Europe at their culmination. . . . 
 
 But this is demonstrably true of the entire volume of 
 them, as we have it, and read, each of us as it may be 
 rendered in his native tongue ; that, however mingled 
 with mystery which we are not required to unravel, or 
 difficulties which we should be insolent in desiring to 
 solve, it contains plain teaching for men of every rank 
 of soul and state in life, which so far as they honestly 
 and implicitly obey, they will be happy and innocent 
 to the utmost powers of their nature, and capable of 
 victory over all adversities, whether of temptation or 
 pain. Indeed, the Psalter alone, which practically was 
 the service book of the Church for many ages, contains 
 merely in the first half of it the sum of personal and 
 social wisdom. The ist, 8th, i2th, i4th, i5th, igth, 
 23rd, and 24th psalms, well learned and believed, are 
 enough for all personal guidance; the 48th, 72nd, and 
 75th, have in them the law and the prophecy of all 
 righteous government ; and every real triumph of natu- 
 ral science is anticipated in the io4th. For the con- 
 tents of the entire volume, consider what other group of 
 historic and didactic literature has a range comparable 
 with it. There are 
 
 i. The stories of the Fall and of the Flood, the 
 grandest human traditions founded on a true horror 
 of sin. 
 
 ii. The story of the Patriarchs, of which the effective 
 truth is visible to this day in the polity of the Jewish 
 and Arab races. 
 
 iii. The story of Moses, with the results of that tradi- 
 tion in the moral law of all the civilized world. 
 
 iv. The story of the Kings virtually that of all King- 
 hood, in David, and of all Philosophy, in Solomon : 
 culminating in the Psalms and Proverbs, with the still
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 19 
 
 more close and practical wisdom of Ecclesiasticus and 
 the Son of Sirach. 
 
 v. The story of the Prophets virtually that of the 
 deepest mystery, tragedy, and permanent fate, of national 
 existence. 
 
 vi. The story of Christ. 
 
 vii. The moral law of St. John, and his closing 
 Apocalypse of its fulfilment. 
 
 Think, if you can match that table of contents in any 
 other I do not say book ' but ' literature.' 
 
 Think, so far as it is possible for any of us either 
 adversary or defender of the faith to extricate his in- 
 telligence from the habit and the association of moral 
 sentiment based upon the Bible, what literature could 
 have taken its place, or fulfilled its function, though 
 every library in the world had remained, unravaged, and 
 every teacher's truest words had been written down. 
 Our Fathers Have Told Us, ch. iii., 37. 
 
 Bible of Venice, Church of St. Mark. 
 
 The old architect was sure of readers. He knew that 
 every one would be glad to decipher all that he wrote ; 
 that they would rejoice in possessing the vaulted leaves 
 of his stone manuscript; and that the more he gave 
 them, the more grateful would the people be. We must 
 take some pains, therefore, when we enter St. Mark's, to 
 read all that is inscribed, or we shall not penetrate into 
 the feeling either of the builder or of his times. 
 
 A large atrium or portico is attached to two sides of 
 the church, a space which was especially reserved for 
 unbaptized persons and new converts. It was thought 
 right that, before their baptism, these persons should 
 be led to contemplate the great facts of the Old Testa- 
 ment history ; the history of the Fall of Man, and of 
 the lives of Patriarchs up to the period of the covenant 
 by Moses ; the order of the subjects in this series being 
 very nearly the same as in many Northern churches, but 
 significantly closing with the Fall of the Manna in order
 
 20 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 to mark to the catechumen the insufficiency of the 
 s. John Mosaic covenant for salvation, ' Our fathers 
 vi. 49-58. did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead,' 
 and to turn his thoughts to the true Bread of which 
 that manna was the type. Then, when after his baptism 
 he was permitted to enter the church, over its main 
 entrance he saw, on looking back, a mosaic of Christ 
 enthroned, with the Virgin on one side and St. Mark 
 on the other, in attitudes of adoration. Christ is repre- 
 sented as holding a book open upon His knee, on which 
 S. John ' ls written : ' I AM THE DOOR ; BY ME IF ANY 
 
 * 9- MAN ENTER IN, HE SHALL BE SAVED.' On the 
 
 red marble moulding which surrounds the mosaic is 
 written: 'I AM THE GATE OF LIFE; LET THOSE WHO 
 ARE MINE ENTER BY ME.' Above, on the red marble 
 fillet which forms the cornice of the west end of the 
 church, is written, with reference to the figure of Christ 
 below : WHO HE WAS, AND FROM WHOM HE CAME, 
 
 AND AT WHAT PRICE HE REDEEMED THEE, AND WHY 
 HE MADE THEE, AND GAVE THEE ALL THINGS, DO THOU 
 
 CONSIDER.' Now observe, this was not to be seen and 
 read only by the catechumen when he first entered the 
 church; every one who at any time entered was sup- 
 posed to look back and to read this writing ; their daily 
 entrance into the church was thus made a daily memo- 
 rial of their first entrance into the spiritual church ; and 
 we shall find that the rest of the book which was open 
 for them upon its walls continually led them in the 
 same manner to regard the visible temple as in every 
 part a type of the invisible Church of God. Therefore 
 the mosaic of the first dome, which is over the head of 
 the spectator as soon as he has entered by the great 
 door (that door being the type of baptism) represents 
 the effusion of the Holy Spirit, as the first consequence 
 and seal of the entrance into the church of God. In 
 the centre of the cupola is the Dove, enthroned in the 
 Greek manner, as the Lamb is enthroned, when the 
 Divinity of the Second and Third Persons is to be
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 21 
 
 insisted upon, together with their peculiar offices. From 
 the central symbol of the Holy Spirit twelve streams of 
 fire descend upon the heads of the twelve apostles, who 
 are represented standing around the dome; and below 
 them, between the windows which are pierced in its 
 walls, are represented, by groups of two figures for each 
 separate people, the various nations who heard the 
 apostles speak, at Pentecost, every man in his 
 own tongue. Finally, on the vaults, at the four 
 angles which support the cupola, are pictured four 
 angels each bearing a tablet upon the end of a rod in 
 his hand : on each of the tablets of the three first angels 
 is inscribed the word ' Holy ' ; on that of the fourth is 
 written ' Lord ' ; and the beginning of the hymn being 
 thus put into the mouths of the four angels, the words 
 of it are continued around the border of the dome, 
 uniting praise to God for the gift of the Spirit, with wel- 
 come to the redeemed soul received into His Church : 
 
 1 HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, LORD GOD OF SABAOTH : 
 HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE FULL OF THY GLORY. 
 HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST I 
 
 b. Matt. 
 BLESSED is HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME xxi. 9 . 
 
 OF THE LORD.' 
 
 And observe in this writing that the convert is 
 required to regard the outpouring of the Holy Spirit 
 especially as a work of sanctification. It is the holiness 
 of God manifested in the giving of His Spirit to sanc- 
 tify those who had become His children, which the four 
 angels celebrate in their ceaseless praise ; and it is on 
 account of this holiness that the heaven and earth are 
 said to be full of His glory. 
 
 After thus hearing praise rendered to God by the 
 angels for the salvation of the newly-entered soul, it 
 was thought fittest that the worshipper should be led to 
 contemplate, in the more comprehensive forms possible, 
 the past evidence and the future hopes of Christianity, 
 as summed up in the three facts without assurance
 
 22 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 of which all faith is vain ; namely, that Christ died, 
 i Cor. ^at He rose again, and that He ascended 
 * v - 4- into heaven, there to prepare a place for His 
 elect. On the vault between the first and second 
 cupolas are represented the crucifixion and resurrection 
 of Christ, with the usual series of intermediate scenes, 
 the treason of Judas, the judgment of Pilate, the crown- 
 ing with thorns, the descent into Hades, the visit of 
 the women to the Sepulchre, and the apparition to 
 Mary Magdalene. The second cupola itself, which is 
 the central and principal one of the church, is entirely 
 occupied by the subject of the Ascension. At the 
 highest point of it Christ is represented as rising into 
 the blue heaven, borne up by four angels, and throned 
 upon a rainbow, the type of reconciliation. Beneath 
 Him, the twelve apostles are seen upon the Mount of 
 Olives, with the Madonna, and, in the midst of them, 
 the two men in white apparel who appeared at the 
 moment of the Ascension, above whom, as uttered by 
 Acts i. ii. them, are inscribed the words, ' Ye men of 
 j er . Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? 
 
 xxiii. s . Tnis Christ, the Son of God, as He is taken 
 from you, shall so come, the arbiter of the earth, trusted 
 to do judgment and justice.' 
 
 Beneath the circle of the apostles, between the win- 
 dows of the cupola, are represented the Christian virtues, 
 as sequent upon the crucifixion of the flesh, and the 
 spiritual ascension together with Christ. Beneath them, 
 on the vaults which support the angles of the cupola, 
 are placed the four Evangelists, because on their evidence 
 our assurance of the fact of the Ascension rests : and, 
 finally, beneath their feet, as symbols of the sweetness 
 Gen. a. an d fulness of the Gospel which they declared, 
 -4- are represented the four rivers of Paradise, 
 Pison, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. 
 
 The third cupola, that over the altar, represents the 
 witness of the Old Testament to Christ ; showing Him 
 enthroned in its centre, and surrounded by the patriarchs
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 23 
 
 and prophets. But this dome was little seen by the 
 people; their contemplation was intended to be chiefly 
 drawn to that of the centre of the church, and thus the 
 mind of the worshipper was at once fixed on the main 
 groundwork and hope of Christianity, ' Christ t c or . 
 is risen,' and ' Christ shall come.' If he had ** 20 - 
 time to explore the minor lateral chapels and cupolas, he 
 could find in them the whole series of New Testament 
 history, the events of the life of Christ, and the Apostolic 
 miracles in their order, and finally the scenery of the 
 Book of Revelation l but if he only entered, as often 
 the common people do to this hour, snatching a few 
 moments before beginning the labour of the day to offer 
 up an ejaculatory prayer, and advanced but from the 
 main entrance as far as the altar screen, all the splen- 
 dour of the glittering nave and variegated dome, if they 
 smote upon his heart, as they might often, in strange 
 contrast with his reed cabin among the shallows of the 
 lagoon, smote upon it only that they might proclaim the 
 two great messages, ' Christ is risen,' and ' Christ 
 shall come.' Daily, as the white cupolas rose like 
 wreaths of sea-foam in the dawn, while the shadowy 
 campanile and frowning palace were still withdrawn into 
 the night, they rose with the Easter Voice of Triumph, 
 ' Christ is risen ; ' and daily, as they looked down upon 
 the tumult of the people, deepening and eddying in the 
 wide square that opened from their feet to the sea, they 
 uttered above them the sentence of warning, ' Christ 
 shall come.' And this thought may surely dispose the 
 reader to look with some change of temper upon the 
 gorgeous building and wild blazonry of that shrine of 
 St. Mark's. He now perceives that it was in the 
 hearts of the old Venetian people far more than a place 
 of worship It was at once a type of the Redeemed 
 Church of God, and a scroll for the written word of 
 God. It was to be to them, both an image of the Bride, 
 
 1 The old mosaics from the Revelation have perished, and have 
 been replaced by miserable work of the seventeenth century.
 
 24 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 all glorious within, her clothing of wrought gold ; and 
 Psalm the actual Table of the Law and the Testimony, 
 xiv. 13. written within and without. And whether 
 honoured as the Church or as the Bible, was it not 
 fitting that neither the gold nor the crystal should be 
 spared in the adornment of it ; that, as the symbol of 
 R CV- the Bride, the building of the wall thereof should 
 xxi. is. fog o f j as per, and the foundations of it garnished 
 with all manner of precious stones; and that, as the 
 channel of the Word, that triumphant utterance of the 
 Psalm Psalmist should be true of it, ' I have rejoiced 
 cxix. 14. j n che way of Thy testimonies, as much as in all 
 riches ' ? And shall we not look with changed temper 
 down the long perspective of St. Mark's Place towards 
 the sevenfold gates and glowing domes of its temple, 
 when we know with what solemn purpose the shafts of 
 it were lifted above the pavement of the populous square ? 
 Men met there from all countries of the earth, for traffic 
 or for pleasure ; but, above the crowd swaying for ever 
 to and fro in the restlessness of avarice or thirst of 
 delight, was seen perpetually the glory of the temple, 
 attesting to them, whether they would hear or whether 
 they would forbear, that there was one treasure which the 
 merchantmen might buy without a price, and one delight 
 better than all others, in the word and the statutes of 
 God. Not in the wantonness of wealth, not in vain 
 ministry to the desire of the eyes or the pride of life, 
 were those marbles hewn into transparent strength, and 
 those arches arrayed in the colours of the iris. There 
 is a message written in the dyes of them, that once was 
 written in blood; and a sound in the echoes of their 
 vaults, that one day shall fill the vault of heaven, 
 Gen. ' He shall return to do judgment and justice.' 
 xviii. 19. The strength of Venice was given her, so long 
 as she remembered this : her destruction found her 
 when she had forgotten this; and it found her irre- 
 vocably, because she forgot it without excuse. Never 
 had city a more glorious Bible. Among the nations of
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 25 
 
 the North, a rude and shadowy sculpture filled their 
 temples with confused and hardly legible imagery ; but, 
 for her, the skill and the treasures of the East had gilded 
 every letter, and illumined every page, till the Book- 
 Temple shone from afar off like the star of the Magi. 
 Stones of Venice, vol. ii., ch. iv., LXIV. 
 
 Bishops. 
 
 As for the rank or name of the officers in whom the 
 authorities, either of teaching or discipline, are to be 
 vested, they are left undetermined by Scripture. I have 
 heard it said by men who know their Bible far better 
 than I, that careful examination may detect evidence of 
 the existence of three orders of Clergy in the Church. 
 This may be ; but one thing is very clear, without 
 any laborious examination, that ' bishop } and ' elder ' 
 sometimes mean the same thing; as indisputably, in 
 Titus i. 5 and 7, and i Peter v. i and 2, and that the 
 office of the bishop or overseer was one of considerably 
 less importance than it is with us. This is palpably 
 evident from i Timothy iii., for what divine among us, 
 writing of episcopal proprieties, would think of saying 
 that bishops ' must not be given to wine,' must be ' no 
 strikers,' and must not be ' novices ' ? We are not in 
 the habit of making bishops of novices in these days ; 
 and it would be much better that, like the early Church, 
 we sometimes ran the risk of doing so ; for the fact is 
 we have not bishops enough by some hundreds. The 
 idea of overseership has been practically lost sight of, its 
 fulfilment having gradually become physically impossible, 
 for want of more bishops. The duty of a bishop is, 
 without doubt, to be accessible to the humblest clergy- 
 man of his diocese, and to desire very earnestly that all 
 of them should lie in the habit of referring to him in all 
 cases of difficulty ; if they do not do this of their own 
 accord, it is evidently his duty to visit them, live with 
 them sometimes, and join in their ministrations to their 
 flocks, so as to know exactly the capacities and habits
 
 26 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 of life of each ; and if any of them complained of this 
 or that difficulty with their congregations, the bishop 
 should be ready to go down to help them, preach for 
 them, write general epistles to their people, and so on : 
 besides this, he should of course be watchful of their 
 errors ready to hear complaints from their congre- 
 gations of inefficiency or aught else ; besides having 
 general superintendence of all the charitable institutions 
 and schools in his diocese, and good knowledge of what- 
 ever was going on in theological matters, both all over 
 the kingdom and on the Continent. This is the work 
 of a right overseer ; and I leave the reader to calculate 
 how many additional bishops and those hard-working 
 men, too we should need to have it done, even 
 decently. Then our present bishops might all become 
 archbishops with advantage, and have general authority 
 over the rest. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 206. 
 
 Blasphemy. 
 
 The real sin of blasphemy is not in the saying, nor 
 even in the thinking ; but in the wishing which is father 
 to thought and word : and the nature of it is simply in 
 wishing evil to anything ; for as the quality of Mercy is 
 not strained, so neither that of Blasphemy, the one dis- 
 tilling from the clouds of Heaven, the other from the 
 S. Luke steam of the Pit. He that is unjust in little is 
 xvi. ID. unjust in much, he that is malignant to the 
 least is to the greatest, he who hates the earth which is 
 God's footstool, hates yet more Heaven which is God's 
 throne, and Him that sitteth thereon. On the Old 
 Road, vol. ii., 96. 
 
 Blessed are the Pure in Heart. 
 
 The Christian Theoria seeks not, though it accepts 
 and touches with its own purity, what the Epicurean 
 sought ; but finds its food and the objects of its love 
 everywhere, in what is harsh and fearful as well as in 
 what is kind : nay, even in all that seems coarse and
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 27 
 
 commonplace, seizing that which is good; and some- 
 times delighting more at finding its table spread in 
 strange places, and in the presence of its enemies, and 
 its honey coming out of the rock, than if all were 
 harmonized into a less wondrous pleasure ; hating only 
 what is self-sighted and insolent of men's work, de- 
 spising all that is not of God, unless reminding it of 
 God, yet able to find evidence of Him still where all 
 seems forgetful of Him, and to turn that into a witness 
 of His working which was meant to obscure it ; and 
 so with clear and unoffended sight beholding s Mattt 
 Him for eyer, according to the written promise, v> 8< 
 ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' 
 Modern Painters, vol. ii.j sec. i., ch. ii., 10. 
 
 Blindness and Neglect of God's Warning. 
 
 Where chiefly the beauty of God's working was mani- 
 fested to men, warning was also given, and that to the 
 full, of the enduring of His indignation against sin. It 
 seems one of the most cunning and frequent of self- 
 deceptions to turn the heart away from this warning, 
 and refuse to acknowledge anything in the fair scenes of 
 the natural creation but beneficence. Men in general 
 lean towards the light, so far as they contemplate such 
 things at all, most of them passing 'by oh the s L u t e 
 other side,' either in mere plodding pursuit of * 3- 
 their own work, irrespective of what good or evil is 
 around them, or else in selfish gloom, or selfish delight, 
 resulting from their own circumstances at the moment. 
 Of those who give themselves to any true contemplation, 
 the plurality, being humble, gentle, and kindly hearted, 
 look only in nature for what is lovely and kind ; partly, 
 also, God gives the disposition to every healthy human 
 mind in some degree to pass over or even harden itself 
 against evil things, else the suffering would be too great 
 to be borne ; and humble people, with a quiet trust 
 that everything is for the best, do not fairly represent 
 the facts to themselves, thinking them none of their
 
 28 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 business. So, what between hard-hearted people, 
 thoughtless people, busy people, humble people, and 
 cheerfully- minded people, giddiness of youth, and 
 preoccupations of age, philosophies of faith, and 
 cruelties of folly, priest and Levite, masquer and 
 merchantman, all agreeing to keep their own side of 
 the way, the evil that God sends to warn us gets to 
 be forgotten, and the evil that He sends to be mended 
 by us gets left unmended. And then, because people 
 shut their eyes to the dark indisputableness of the facts 
 in front of them, their Faith, such as it is, is shaken 
 or uprooted by every darkness in what is revealed to 
 them. In the present day it is not easy to find a well- 
 meaning man among our more earnest thinkers, who 
 will not take upon himself to dispute the whole system 
 of redemption, because he cannot unravel the mystery 
 of the punishment of sin. But can he unravel the 
 mystery of the punishment of No sin? . . . We can- 
 not reason of these things. But this I know and 
 this may by all men be known that no good or 
 lovely thing exists in this world without its corre- 
 spondent darkness; and that the universe presents 
 S. Matt, itself continually to mankind under the stern 
 xxv - 33- aspect of warning, or of choice, the good and 
 the evil set on the right hand and the left. Modern 
 Painters, vol. iv., ch. xix., 32. 
 
 Bread of Heaven. 
 
 The most helpful and sacred work, which can at 
 present be done for humanity, is to teach people (chiefly 
 by example, as all best teaching must be done) not how 
 ' to better themselves,' but how to ' satisfy themselves.' 
 It is the curse of every evil nation and evil creature to 
 Deut. eat, and not be satisfied. The words of bless- 
 *iv. 99. - n are t h at t h e s k a j] ( ^j. an( j ke satisfied.' 
 
 S. John And as there is only one kind of water which 
 
 iv. 14 ; J 
 
 vi. 35 quenches all thirst, so there is only one kind 
 of bread which satisfies all hunger the bread of
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 29 
 
 justice, or righteousness; which hungering after, men 
 shall always be filled, that being the bread of Heaven ; 
 but hungering after the bread, or wages, of unrighteous- 
 ness, shall not be filled, that being the bread of Sodom. 
 Modern Painters, vol. v., Pt. ix., ch. xi., 20. 
 
 In the parable in Luke, the bread asked for is shown 
 to be also, and chiefly, the Holy Spirit, and the 5. Luke 
 prayer, ' Give us each day our daily bread,' is, xi - X 3- 
 in its fulness, the disciples', ' Lord, evermore 5. John 
 give us this bread,' the clergyman's question ** 34- 
 to his whole flock, primarily literal : ' Children, g. John 
 have ye here any meat ? ' must ultimately be xxi - s - 
 always the greater spiritual one : ' Children, have ye 
 here any Holy Spirit ? ' or, ' Have ye not heard yet 
 whether there be any ? and, instead of a Holy Ghost 
 the Lord and Giver of Life, do you only believe in an 
 unholy mammon, Lord and Giver of Death ? ' 
 
 The opposition between the two Lords has been, and 
 will be as long as the world lasts, absolute, irreconcilable, 
 mortal; and the clergyman's first message to j osnu a 
 his people of this day is if he be* faithful **** x s- 
 ' Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.' On the Old 
 Road, vol. ii., 239. 
 
 Breaking of Bread. 
 
 Whatever is good for human life is also made beautiful 
 to human sight, not by ' association of ideas,' but by ap- 
 pointment of God that in the bread we rightly break for 
 our lips, we shall best see the power and grace of the Light 
 He gave for our eyes. The Laws of Fe sole, ch. vii., 12. 
 
 Charity. 
 
 You know how often it is difficult to be wisely 
 charitable, to do good without multiplying the sources 
 of evil. You know that to give alms is nothing un- 
 less you give thought also ; and that therefore Psalm 
 it is written, not < blessed is he that feedeth *& ' 
 the poor,' but, ' blessed is he that considereth the poor.'
 
 30 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 And you know that a little thought and a little kindness 
 are often worth more than a great deal of money. 
 
 Now this charity of thought is not merely to be ex- 
 ercised towards the poor ; it is to be exercised towards 
 all men. There is assuredly no action of our social life, 
 however unimportant, which, by kindly thought, may 
 not be made to have a beneficial influence upon others ; 
 and it is impossible to spend the smallest sum of money, 
 for any not absolutely necessary purpose, without a grave 
 responsibility attaching to the manner of spending it. 
 The object we ourselves covet may, indeed, be desirable 
 and harmless, so far as we are concerned, but the pro- 
 viding us with it may, perhaps, be a very prejudicial 
 occupation to some one else. And then it becomes 
 instantly a moral question, whether we are to indulge 
 ourselves or not. Whatever we wish to buy, we ought 
 first to consider not only if the thing be fit for us, but 
 if the manufacture of it be a wholesome and happy 
 one; and if, on the whole, the sum we are going to 
 spend will do as much good spent in this way as it 
 would if spent in any other way. It may be said that 
 we have not time to consider all this before we make 
 a purchase. But no time could be spent in a more 
 important duty ; and God never imposes a duty with- 
 out giving the time to do it. Let us, however, only 
 acknowledge the principle ; once make up your mind 
 to allow the consideration of the effect of your purchases 
 to regulate the kind of your purchase, and you will soon 
 easily find grounds enough to decide upon. The plea 
 of ignorance will never take away our responsibilities. 
 p rov- It is written, ' If thou sayest, Behold, we knew 
 xxiv. ia. ^ no t . doth not He that pondereth the heart 
 consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not 
 He know it ? ' Lectures on Architecture and Painting, 
 
 44- 
 
 For truly it is fine Christianity we have come to, 
 which, professing to expect the perpetual grace or 
 charity of its Founder, has not itself grace or charity
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 31 
 
 enough to hinder it from over-reaching its friends in 
 sixpenny bargains; and which, supplicating evening 
 and morning the forgiveness of its own debts, s Matt 
 goes forth at noon to take its fellow-servants xviii - z8 - 
 by the throat, saying, not merely ' Pay me that thou 
 owest,' but ' Pay me that thou owest me not,' 
 
 It is true that we sometimes wear Ophelia's rue with a 
 difference, and call it ' Herb o' grace o' Sundays,' taking 
 consolation out of the offertory with ' Look, what 
 he layeth out, it shall be paid him again.' Comfortable 
 words indeed, and good to set against the old royalty of 
 Largesse 
 
 Whose moste joie was, I wis, 
 
 When that she gave, and said, ' Have this.' 
 
 I am glad to end, for this time, with these lovely 
 words of Chaucer. We have heard only too much lately 
 of ' Indiscriminate charity,' with implied reproval, not 
 of the Indiscrimination merely, but of the Charity also. 
 We have partly succeeded in enforcing on the minds of 
 the poor the idea that it is disgraceful to receive ; and 
 are likely, without much difficulty, to succeed in per- 
 suading not a few of the rich that it is disgraceful to 
 give. But the political economy of a great state makes 
 both giving and receiving graceful; and the political 
 economy of true religion interprets the saying that 'it 
 is more blessed to give than to receive,' not as Acts 
 the promise of reward in another life for morti- ** 35- 
 fled selfishness in this, but as pledge of bestowal upon us 
 of that sweet and better nature, which does not mortify 
 itself in giving. Munera Pulveris, Appendix 6. 
 
 Christmas. 
 
 Standing as it were astonished in the midst of this 
 gaiety of yours, will you tell what it is all about ? Your 
 little children would answer, doubtless, fearlessly, ' Be- 
 cause the Child Christ was born to-day ' : but you, wiser 
 than your children, it may be, at least, should be, 
 are you also sure that He was ?, . . .
 
 32 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 What is, or may be, this Nativity, to you, then, I re- 
 peat ? Shall we consider, a little, what, at all events, it 
 was to the people of its time ; and so make ourselves more 
 clear as to what it might be to us ? We will read slowly. 
 
 ' And there were, in that country, shepherds, staying 
 s. Luke out m tne ne ld, keeping watch over their flocks 
 ii. s, 9. by night.' . . . ' And behold, the Messenger 
 of the Lord stood above them, and the glory of the Lord 
 lightened round them, and they feared a great fear.' 
 
 ' Messenger.' You must remember that, when this 
 was written, the word ' angel ' had only the effect of our 
 word ' messenger ' on men's minds. Our translators 
 say ' angel ' when they like, and ' messenger ' when they 
 Joshua like; but the Bible, messenger only, or angel 
 " s> 16- only, as you please. For instance, ' Was not ' 
 s. James Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she 
 had received the angels, and sent them forth 
 another way ? ' . . . 
 
 S. Luke T ne shepherds were told that their Saviour 
 " was that day born to them ' in David's village.' 
 We are apt to think that this was told, as of special in- 
 terest to them, because David was a King. Not so. It 
 was told them because David was in youth not a King ; 
 s. Luke Dut a Shepherd like themselves. ' To you, 
 " " shepherds, is born this day a Saviour in the 
 shepherd's town ' ; that would be the deep sound of the 
 message in their ears. For the great interest to them in 
 the story of David himself must have been always, not 
 that he had saved the monarchy, or subdued Syria, or 
 s. Luke written Psalms, but that he had kept sheep in 
 " j s- those very fields they were watching in ; ... 
 and they said hastily, ' Let us go and see.' 
 
 Will you note carefully that they only think of see- 
 ing, not of worshipping? Even when they do see the 
 Child, it is not said that they worshipped. They were 
 simple people, and had not much faculty of worship ; 
 even though the heavens had opened for them, and the 
 hosts of heaven had sung. They had been at first only
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 33 
 
 frightened ; then curious, and communicative to the by- 
 standers : they do not think even of making any offering, 
 which would have been a natural thought enough, as it 
 was to the first of shepherds : but they brought no first- 
 lings of their flock. ... It is not said here that they 
 brought anything, but they looked, and talked, and went 
 away praising God, as simple people, yet taking nothing 
 to heart; only the mother did that. . . . Some days 
 later, another kind of persons came. On that first day, 
 the simplest people of His own land ; twelve days after, 
 the wisest people of other lands, far away : persons who 
 had received, what you are all so exceedingly desirous to 
 receive, a good education. . . . 
 
 The uneducated people came only to see, but these 
 highly trained ones to worship ; and they have allowed 
 themselves to be led, and governed, and directed into 
 the way which they should go, (and that a long one,) by 
 the mere authority and prestige of a superior person, 
 whom they clearly recognize as a born king, s Matt, 
 though not of their people. ' Tell us, where is " * 
 He that is born King of the Jews, for we have come to 
 worship Him.' . . , 
 
 Therefore, the Magi bring treasures, as being discerners 
 of treasures, knowing what is intrinsically worthy, and 
 worthless ; what is best in brightness, best in sweetness, 
 best in bitterness gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 
 Finders of treasure hid in fields, and goodliness in strange 
 pearls, such as produce no effect whatever on the public 
 mind, bent passionately on its own fashion of pearl-diving 
 at Gennesaret. 
 
 And you will find that the essence of the mis-teach- 
 ing, of your day, concerning wealth of any kind, is in 
 this denial of intrinsic value. What anything is worth, 
 or not worth, it cannot tell you : all that it can tell is 
 the exchange value. ... I repeat to you, now, the 
 question I put at the beginning. What is this Christ- 
 mas to you ? What Light is there, for your eyes, also, 
 pausing yet over the place where the Child lay ? 
 
 C
 
 34 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 I will tell you, briefly, what Light there should be ; 
 what lessons and promise are in this story, at the least. 
 There may be infinitely more than I know, but there 
 is certainly, this. The Child is born to bring you the 
 promise of new life. Eternal or not, is no matter ; pure, 
 and redeemed, at least. 
 
 He is born twice on your earth ; first, from the womb, 
 to the life of toil ; then, from the grave, to that of rest. 
 
 To His first life He is born in a cattle-shed, the sup- 
 posed son of a carpenter ; and afterwards brought up to 
 a carpenter's craft. 
 
 But the circumstances of His second life are, in great 
 part, hidden from us : only note this much of it. The 
 
 Luk three principal appearances to His disciples are 
 xxiv. 30, accompanied by giving or receiving of food. 
 He is known at Emmaus in breaking of bread ; 
 xxiv. 42. at Jerusalem He Himself eats fish and honey to 
 show that He is not a spirit ; and His charge to Peter 
 s. John is ' when they had dined,' the food having been 
 i 13. 'S- obtained under His direction. 
 
 But in His first showing Himself to the person who 
 loved Him best, and to whom He had forgiven most, 
 there is a circumstance more singular and significant 
 still. Observe assuming the accepted belief to be 
 true, this was the first time when the Maker of men 
 showed Himself to human eyes, risen from the dead, to 
 assure them of immortality. You might have thought 
 He would have shown Himself in some brightly glorified 
 form, in some sacred and before unimaginable beauty. 
 
 He shows Himself in so simple aspect, and dress, 
 s. John tnat she, who, of all people on the earth, 
 ** *s should have known Him best, glancing quickly 
 back through her tears, does not know Him. Takes 
 Him for ' the gardener.' 
 
 Now, unless absolute orders had been given to us, such 
 as would have rendered error impossible, (which would 
 have altered the entire temper of Christian probation) ; 
 could we possibly have had more distinct indication
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 35 
 
 of the purpose of the Master borne first by witness 
 of shepherds, in a cattle-shed, then by witness of the 
 person for whom He had done most, and who loved 
 Him best, in the garden, and in gardener's guise, and 
 not known even by His familiar friends till He gave 
 them bread could it be told us, I repeat, more defi- 
 nitely by any sign or indication whatsoever, that the 
 noblest human life was appointed to be by the cattle-fold 
 and in the garden ; and to be known as noble in break- 
 ing of bread ? 
 
 Now, but a few words more. You will constantly 
 hear foolish and ignoble persons conceitedly proclaiming 
 the text, that ' not many wise and not many , c r. 
 noble are called.' Nevertheless, of those who ' z6 - 
 are truly wise, and truly noble, all are called that exist. 
 And to sight of this Nativity, you find that, together 
 with the simple persons, near at hand, there were called 
 precisely the wisest men that could be found on earth 
 at that moment. 
 
 And these men, for their own part, came I beg you 
 very earnestly again to note this not to see, nor talk 
 but to do reverence. They are neither curious nor 
 talkative, but submissive. 
 
 And, so far as they came to teach, they came as teachers 
 of one virtue only : Obedience. For of this Child, at 
 once Prince and Servant, Shepherd and Lamb, i sa iaij 
 it was written : ' See, mine elect, in whom my xlii - ' " 3- 
 soul delighteth. He shall not strive, nor cry, till He 
 shall bring forth Judgment unto Victory.' 
 
 My friends, you may have wondered at my telling 
 you so often, I tell you nevertheless, once more, that 
 one main purpose of the education I want you to seek 
 is, that you may see the sky, with the stars of it again ; 
 and be enabled, in their material light 'riveder le 
 stelle.' 
 
 But, much more, out of this blackness of the smoke 
 of the Pit, the blindness of heart, in which the children 
 of -Disobedience blaspheme God and each other, heaven
 
 36 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 grant to you the vision of that sacred light, at pause 
 over the place where the young Child was laid; and 
 S. Matt, ordain that more and more in each coming 
 " I0 - Christmas it may be said of you, ' When they 
 saw the Star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.' 
 Fors Clavigera, Letter XII. 
 
 Christ's Church. 
 
 Christ does not order impossibilities, and He has 
 S. Matt, ordered us to be at peace one with another.- 
 * 34- Nay, it is answered He came not to send 
 peace, but a sword. Yes, verily : to send a sword upon 
 S.John earth, but not within His Church; for to His 
 xiv. a 7 . Church He said, My Peace I leave with 
 you.' On the Old Road, vol. ii., 222. 
 
 Christ, Life of. 
 
 You have had various ' lives of Christ,' German and 
 other, lately provided among your other severely his- 
 torical studies. Some, critical; and some, sentimental. 
 But there is only one light by which you can read the 
 life of Christ, the light of the life you now lead in the 
 GaL flesh; and that not the natural, but the won 
 11 ** life. ' Nevertheless, I live ; yet not I, but 
 Christ liveth in me.' St. Mark's Rest, 127. 
 
 Christ your Master. 
 
 With those whom you know to be honest, know to be 
 innocent, know to be striving, with main purpose, to 
 serve mankind and honour their God, you are humbly 
 and lovingly to associate yourselves : and with none 
 others. ' You don't like to set yourself up for being 
 better than other people ? You dare not judge harshly 
 of your fellow-creatures ? ' 
 
 I do not tell you to judge them. . . . To their own 
 Master they stand or fall ; but to your Master, Christ, 
 you must stand, with your best might ; and in this 
 manner only, self asserting as you may think it, can
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 37 
 
 you confess Him before men. Why do you suppose 
 that thunderous word of His impends over your denial 
 of Him, ' Whosoever shall deny me before men, Matt 
 him will I also deny before Angels,' but because * 33- 
 you are sure to be constantly tempted to such denial. 
 Fors Clavigera, Letter LXIII. 
 
 Christ at the Lake of Galilee. 
 
 There is no event in the whole life of Christ to which, 
 in hours of doubt or fear, men turn with more anxious 
 thirst to know the close facts of it, or with more earnest 
 and passionate dwelling upon every syllable of its re- 
 corded narrative, than Christ's showing Himself to 
 His disciples at the Lake of Galilee. There is some- 
 thing pre-eminently open, natural, full fronting our 
 disbelief, in this manifestation. The others, recorded 
 after the resurrection, were sudden, phantom-like, occur- 
 ring to men in profound sorrow and wearied agitation 
 of heart; not, it might seem, safe judges of what they 
 saw. But the agitation was now over. They had gone 
 back to their daily work, thinking still their business 
 lay net-wards, unmeshed from the literal rope and drag. 
 ' Simon Peter saith unto them, " I go a fishing." s j ohn 
 They say unto him, " We also go with thee." ' xxi - 3- 
 True words enough, and having far echo beyond those 
 Galilean hills. That night they caught nothing; but 
 when the morning came, in the clear light of it, behold, 
 a figure stood on the shore. They were not thinking 
 of anything but their fruitless hauls. They had no 
 guess who it was. It asked them simply if they had 
 caught anything. They said No ; and it tells them to 
 cast yet again. And John shades his eyes from the 
 morning sun with his hand, to look who it is ; and 
 though the glinting of the sea, too, dazzles him, he 
 makes out who it is, at last ; and poor Simon, not to 
 be outrun this time, tightens his fisher's coat about him, 
 and dashes in, over the nets. One would have liked 
 to see him swim those hundred yards, and stagger to
 
 38 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 his knees on the beach. Well, the others get to the 
 beach, too, in time, in such slow way as men in general 
 do get, in this world, to its true shore, much impeded 
 S.John by th at wonderful 'dragging the net with 
 Jad - 8 - fishes;' but they get there seven of them 
 in all; fijst the Denier, and then the slowest believer, 
 and then the quickest believer, and then the two throne- 
 seekers, and two more, we know not who. They sit 
 down on the shore face to face with Him, and eat 
 their broiled fish as He bids. And then, to Peter, all 
 dripping still, shivering and amazed, staring at Christ 
 in the sun, on the other side of the coal fire, thinking 
 a little, perhaps, of what happened by another coal fire, 
 when it was colder, and having had no word once 
 changed with him by his Master since that look of 
 S. John His, to him, so amazed, comes the question, 
 - '5- < Simon, lovest thou Me ? ' Try to feel that 
 a little, and think of it till it is true to you. Modern 
 Painters, vol. iii., ch. iv., 16. 
 
 Christ's Teachings. 
 
 Have you ever observed that all Christ's main teach- 
 ings, by direct order, by earnest parable, and by His 
 own permanent emotion, regard the use and misuse of 
 money ? We might have thought, if we had been asked 
 what a divine teacher was most likely to teach, that he 
 would have left inferior persons to give directions about 
 money ; and himself spoken only concerning faith and 
 love, and the discipline of the passions, and the guilt 
 of the crimes of soul against soul. But not so. He 
 speaks in general terms of these. But He does not 
 speak parables about them for all men's memory, nor 
 s. John permit Himself fierce indignation against them, 
 viii. 3-6. j n a u men's sight. The Pharisees bring 
 Him an adulteress. He writes her forgiveness on the 
 s. Luke dust f which He had formed her. Another, 
 vii. 37. 47- despised of all for known sin, He recognized 
 as a giver of unknown love. But He acknowledges no
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 39 
 
 love in buyers and sellers in His house. One should 
 have thought there were people in that house twenty 
 times worse than they; Caiaphas and his like false 
 priests, false prayer-makers, false leaders of the people 
 who needed putting to silence, or to flight, with darkest 
 wrath. But the scourge is only against the traffickers 
 and thieves. The two most intense of all the parables : 
 the two which lead the rest in love and terror (this of 
 the Prodigal, and of Dives), relate, both of them, to 
 management of riches. The practical order 5. Mark 
 given to the only seeker of advice, of whom it * ax - 
 is recorded that Christ ' loved him,' is briefly about his 
 property. ' Sell that thou hast.' 
 
 And the arbitrament of the day of the Last Judg- 
 ment is made to rest wholly, neither on belief in God, 
 nor in any spiritual virtue in man, nor on freedom from 
 stress of stormy crime, but on this only, ' I s Matt 
 was an hungred and ye gave me drink ; naked, x * v - 3S.3- 
 and ye clothed me ; sick, and ye came unto me.' Time 
 and Tide, 174. 
 
 Christ waiting at the Gate. 
 
 You have heard it said (and I believe there is more 
 than fancy even in that saying, but let it pass for a 
 fanciful one) that flowers only flourish rightly in the 
 garden of some one who loves them. I know you 
 would like that to be true ; you would think it a pleasant 
 magic if you could flush your flowers into brighter 
 bloom by a kind look upon them : nay, more, if your 
 look had the power, not only to cheer, but to guard ; 
 if you could bid the black blight turn away, and the 
 knotted caterpillar spare if you could bid the dew fall 
 upon them in the drought, and say to the south wind, 
 in frost ' Come, thou south, and breathe Cant 
 upon my garden, that the spices of it may flow iv - l6 - 
 out.' This you would think a great thing? And do 
 you think it not a greater thing, that all this, (and how 
 much more than this !) you can do, for fairer flowers
 
 40 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 than these flowers that could bless you for having 
 blessed them, and will love you for having loved them ; 
 flowers that have thoughts like yours, and lives like 
 yours ; and which, once saved, you save for ever ? Is 
 this only a little power? Far among the moorlands 
 and the rocks, far in the darkness of the terrible 
 streets, these feeble florets are lying, with all their 
 fresh leaves torn, and their stems broken will you 
 never go down to them, nor set them in order in their 
 little fragrant beds, nor fence them, in their trembling, 
 from the fierce wind ? Shall morning follow morning, 
 for you, but not for them ; and the dawn rise to watch, 
 far away, those frantic Dances of Death ; but no dawn 
 rise to breathe upon these living banks of wild violet, 
 and woodbine, and rose ; nor call to you, through your 
 casement, call (not giving you the name of the English 
 poet's lady, but the name of Dante's great Matilda, who 
 on the edge of happy Lethe, stood, wreathing flowers 
 with flowers)? . . . Will you not go down among them? 
 among those sweet living things, whose new courage, 
 sprung from the earth with the deep colour of heaven 
 upon it, is starting up in strength of goodly spire ; and 
 whose purity, washed from the dust, is opening, bud by 
 bud, into the flower of promise; and still they turn 
 to you and for you, ' The Larkspur listens I hear, I 
 hear ! And the Lily whispers I wait.' . . . Who is it, 
 think you, who stands at the gate of this sweeter garden, 
 alone, waiting for you? Did you ever hear, not of a 
 Maud, but a Madeleine, who went down to her garden 
 s. John m tne dawn, and found One waiting at the gate, 
 tt x s- whom she supposed to be the gardener ? Have 
 you not sought Him often ; sought Him in vain, all 
 through the night ; sought Him in vain at the gate of 
 Oen that old garden where the fiery sword is set ? 
 *" * He is never there ; but at the gate of this 
 garden He is waiting always waiting to take your hand 
 ready to go down to see the fruits of the valley, to see 
 whether the vine has flourished, and the pomegranate
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 41 
 
 budded. There you shall see with Him the little tendrils 
 of the vines that His hand is guiding there you shall 
 see the pomegranate springing where His hand cast the 
 sanguine seed ; more : you shall see the troops of the 
 angel keepers that, with their wings, wave away the 
 hungry birds from the pathsides where He has sown, 
 and call to each other between the vineyard Cant 
 rows, Take us the foxes, the little foxes, " z s- 
 that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.' 
 Oh you queens you queens ; among the hills and 
 happy greenwood of this land of yours, shall s Luke 
 the foxes have holes and the birds of the '* st- 
 air have nests; and in your cities shall the stones 
 cry out against you, that they are the only pillows 
 where the Son of Man can lay His head? Sesame 
 and Lilies, 94, 95. 
 
 Christianity. 
 
 Briefly, the entire doctrine of Christianity, painted so 
 that a child could understand it. And what a child 
 cannot understand of Christianity, no one need try to. 
 . . . The total meaning was, and is, that the God 
 who made earth and its creatures, took at a certain 
 time upon the earth, the flesh and form of man; in 
 that flesh sustained the pain and died the death of 
 the creature He had made ; rose again after death into 
 glorious human life, and when the date of the human 
 race is ended, will return in visible human p r <>v. 
 form, and render to every man according to R^, a " s ; 
 his work. Christianity is the belief in, and 6 - 
 love of, God thus manifested. Anything less than 
 this, the mere acceptance of the sayings of Christ, 
 or assertion of any less than divine power in His 
 Being, may be, for aught I know, enough for virtue, 
 peace, and safety ; but they do not make people 
 Christians, or enable them to understand the heart 
 of the simplest believer in the old doctrine. Prceterita, 
 vol. ii., pp. 207-9.
 
 42 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Christian Ministers. 
 
 We shall find the offices of the Clergy, whatever names 
 we may choose to give to those who discharge them, fall- 
 ing mainly into two great heads : Teaching ; including 
 doctrine, warning, and comfort : Discipline ; including 
 reproof and direct administration of punishment. . . . 
 
 Teaching. It appears natural and wise that certain 
 men should be set apart from the rest of the Church 
 that they may make Theology the study of their lives : 
 and that they should be thereto instructed specially in 
 the Hebrew and Greek tongues ; and have entire leisure 
 granted them for the study of the Scriptures, and for 
 obtaining general knowledge of the grounds of Faith, 
 and best modes of its defence against all heretics : and 
 it seems evidently right, also, that with this Scholastic 
 duty should be joined the Pastoral duty of constant 
 visitation and exhortation to the people; for, clearly, 
 the Bible, and the truths of Divinity in general, can only 
 be understood rightly in their practical application ; and 
 clearly, also, a man spending his time constantly in 
 spiritual ministrations, must be better able, on any 
 given occasion, to deal powerfully with the human 
 heart than one unpractised in such matters. The unity 
 of Knowledge and Love, both devoted altogether to 
 the service of Christ and His Church, marks the true 
 Christian Minister; who, I believe, whenever he has 
 existed, has never failed to receive due and fitting rever- 
 ence from all men, of whatever character or opinion ; 
 and I believe that if all those who profess to be such 
 were such indeed, there would never be question of their 
 authority more. 
 
 But, whatever influence they may have over the 
 Church, their authority never supersedes that of either 
 the intellect or the conscience of the simplest of its lay 
 members. They can assist those members in the search 
 for truth, or comfort their over- worn and doubtful minds; 
 they can even assure them that they are in the way of 
 truth, or that pardon is within their reach : but they can
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 43 
 
 neither manifest the truth, nor grant the pardon. Truth 
 is to be discovered, and Pardon to be won, for every 
 man by himself. This is evident from innumerable texts 
 of Scripture, but chiefly from those which exhort every 
 man to seek after Truth, and which connect knowing 
 with doing. We are to seek after knowledge Prov 
 as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures ; " 3, 4- 
 therefore, from every man she must be naturally hid, 
 and the discovery of her is to be the reward only of 
 personal search. The kingdom of God is as 5. Matt, 
 treasure hid in a field ; and of those who profess xiii - ** 
 to help us to seek for it, we are not to put confidence 
 in those who say, Here is the treasure, we have found 
 it, and have it, and will give you some of it; but in 
 those who say, We think that is a good place to dig, 
 and you will dig most easily in such and such a way. 
 
 Farther, it has been promised that if such earnest 
 search be made, Truth shall be discovered : as much 
 truth, that is, as is necessary for the person seeking. 
 These, therefore, I hold, for two fundamental principles 
 of religion, that, without seeking, truth cannot be 
 known at all ; and that, by seeking, it may be discovered 
 by the simplest. I say, without seeking it cannot be 
 known at all. It can neither be declared from pulpits, 
 nor set down in Articles, nor in anywise ' prepared 
 and sold ' in packages, ready for use. Truth must be 
 ground for every man by himself out of its husk, with 
 such help as he can get, indeed, but not without stern 
 labour of his own. In what science is knowledge to be 
 had cheap ? or truth to be told over a velvet cushion, 
 in half an hour's talk every seventh day ? Can you 
 learn chemistry so ? zoology ? anatomy ? and do you 
 expect to penetrate the secret of all secrets, and to 
 know that whose price is above rubies ; and of j b 
 which the depth saith, It is not in me, in so x * vii >- '4- 
 easy fashion? There are doubts in this matter which 
 evil spirits darken with their wings, and that is true 
 of all such doubts which we were told long ago
 
 44 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 they can ' be ended by action alone.' l As surely as 
 we live, this truth of truths can only so be discerned : 
 to those who act on what they know, more shall be 
 S.John revealed; and thus, if any man will do His 
 vii. 17. wii^ ne s hall know the doctrine whether it be 
 of God. Any man, not the man who has most means 
 of knowing, who has the subtlest brains, or sits under 
 the most orthodox preacher, or has his library fullest 
 of most orthodox books, but the man who strives to 
 know, who takes God at His word, and sets himself to 
 dig up the heavenly mystery, roots and all, before sun- 
 s. John set > an d the night come, when no man can work, 
 k-* Beside such a man, God stands in more and 
 more visible presence as he toils, and teaches him that 
 which no preacher can teach no earthly authority gain- 
 say. By such a man, the preacher must himself be 
 judged. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 198-201. 
 
 Church, The. 
 
 In the minds of all early Christians the Church itself 
 was most frequently symbolized under the image of a 
 ship, of which the bishop was the pilot. Consider the 
 force which this symbol would assume in the imagina- 
 tions of men to whom the spiritual Church had become 
 an ark of refuge in the midst of a destruction hardly 
 i s. Peter l ess terrible than that from which the eight souls 
 m. o. were saved of old, a destruction in which the 
 wrath of man had become as broad as the earth and as 
 merciless as the sea, and who saw the actual and literal 
 edifice of the Church raised up, itself like an ark in the 
 midst of the waters. No marvel if with the surf of the 
 Adriatic rolling between them and the shores of their 
 s. Mark birth, from which they were separated for ever, 
 fr. 37-39 they should have looked upon each other as 
 S. Luke the disciples did when the storm came down 
 viii. si, a*. on t he Tiberias Lake, and have yielded 
 ready and loving obedience to those who ruled them 
 
 1 Carlyle, Past and Present, Ch. ii.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 45 
 
 in His name, who had there rebuked the winds and 
 commanded stillness to the sea. And if the stranger 
 would yet learn in what spirit it was that the dominion of 
 Venice was begun, and in what strength she went forth 
 conquering and to conquer, let him not seek to estimate 
 the wealth of her arsenals or number of her armies, nor 
 look upon the pageantry of her palaces, nor enter into 
 the secrets of her councils; but let him ascend the 
 highest tier of the stern ledges that sweep round the 
 altar of Torcello, and then, looking as the pilot did of 
 old along the marble ribs of the goodly temple-ship, let 
 him repeople its veined deck with the shadows of its 
 dead mariners, and strive to feel in himself the strength 
 of heart that was kindled within them, when first, after 
 the pillars of it had settled in the sand, and the roof of 
 it had been closed against the angry sky that was still 
 reddened by the fires of their homesteads, first, within 
 the shelter of its knitted walls, amidst the murmur of the 
 waste of waves and the beating of the wings of the sea- 
 birds round the rock that was strange to them, rose 
 that ancient hymn in the power of their gathered voices : 
 THE SEA is His, AND HE MADE IT ; p sa im 
 
 AND HIS HANDS PREPARED THE DRY LAND. xcv ' * 
 
 Stones of Venice, vol. ii., ch. ii., xvi. 
 Church Decoration. 
 
 What is the purpose of your decoration ? Let us 
 take an instance the most noble with which I am ac- 
 quainted, the Cathedral of Chartres. You have there 
 the most splendid coloured glass, and the richest sculp- 
 ture, and the grandest proportions of building, united to 
 produce a sensation of pleasure and awe. We profess 
 that this is to honour the Deity ; or, in other words, 
 that it is pleasing to Him that we should delight our 
 eyes with blue and golden colours, and solemnize our 
 spirits by the sight of large stones laid one on another, 
 and ingeniously carved. 
 
 I do not think it can be doubted that it is pleasing to
 
 46 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Him when we do this ; for He has Himself prepared 
 for us, nearly every morning and evening, windows 
 painted with Divine art, in blue and gold and vermilion : 
 windows lighted from within by the lustre of that heaven 
 which we may assume, at least with more certainty than 
 any consecrated ground, to be one of His dwelling- 
 places. Again, in every mountain side, and cliff of rude 
 sea shore, He has heaped stones one upon another of 
 greater magnitude than those of Chartres Cathedral, and 
 sculptured them with floral ornament, surely not less 
 sacred because living ? 
 
 Must it not then be only because we love our own 
 work better than His, that we respect the lucent glass, 
 but not the lucent clouds ; that we weave embroidered 
 robes with ingenious fingers, and make bright the gilded 
 vaults we have beautifully ordained while yet we have 
 Psalm not considered the heavens, the work of His 
 *"* 3 - fingers, nor the stars of the strange vault which 
 He has ordained ? And do we dream that by carving 
 fonts and lifting pillars in His honour, who cuts the way 
 job of the rivers among the rocks, and at whose 
 
 xacvi - " reproof the pillars of the earth are astonished, 
 we shall obtain pardon for the dishonour done to the 
 hills and streams by which He has appointed our dwell- 
 ing-place; for the infection of their sweet air with 
 poison ; for the burning up of their tender grass and 
 flowers with fire, and for spreading such a shame of 
 mixed luxury and misery over our native land, as if we 
 laboured only that, at least here in England, we might 
 Rev be able to give the lie to the song, whether of 
 iv. s-i i. the Cherubim above, or Church beneath 
 ' Holy, holy, Lord God of all creatures ; Heaven and 
 Earth are full of Thy glory ' ? 
 
 That we may have splendour of art again, and with 
 that, we may truly praise and honour our Maker, and 
 with that set forth the beauty and holiness of all that 
 He has made : but only after we have striven with our 
 whole hearts first to sanctify the temple of the body and
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 47 
 
 spirit of every child that has no roof to cover its head 
 from the cold, and no walls to guard its soul from cor- 
 ruption, in this our English land. Lectures on Art, 
 62-65. 
 
 I do not know, as I have repeatedly stated, how far 
 the splendour of architecture, or other art, is compatible 
 with the honesty and usefulness of religious service. 
 The longer I live, the more I incline to severe judgment 
 in this matter, and the less I can trust the sentiments 
 excited by painted glass and coloured tiles. But if there 
 be indeed value in such things, our plain duty is to 
 direct our strength against the superstition which has 
 dishonoured them ; since there are thousands to whom 
 they are now merely an offence, owing to their associa- 
 tion with absurd or idolatrous ceremonies. I have but 
 this exhortation for all who love them, not to regu- 
 late their creeds by their taste in colours, but to hold 
 calmly to the right, at whatever present cost to their 
 imaginative enjoyment ; sure that they will one day find 
 in heavenly truth a brighter charm than in earthly 
 imagery, and striving chiefly to gather stones i sa i a h 
 for the eternal building, whose walls shall be ^- l8 - 
 salvation, and whose gates shall be praise. Stones of 
 Venice, vol. i. Appendix 12. 
 
 Church and State. 
 
 In all human institutions certain evils are granted, as 
 of necessity; and, in organizing such institutions, we 
 must allow for the consequences of such evils, and make 
 arrangements such as may best keep them in check. 
 Now, in both the civil and ecclesiastical governments 
 there will of necessity be a certain number of bad men. 
 The wicked civilian has comparatively little interest in 
 overthrowing ecclesiastical authority ; it is often a useful 
 help to him, and presents in itself little which seems 
 covetable. But the wicked ecclesiastical officer has 
 much interest in overthrowing the civilian, and getting 
 the political power into his own hands. As far as
 
 48 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 wicked men are concerned, therefore, it is better that 
 the State should have power over the Clergy, than the 
 Clergy over the State. 
 
 Secondly, supposing both the Civil and Ecclesiastical 
 officers to be Christians ; there is no fear that the civil 
 officer should underrate the dignity or shorten the service- 
 ableness of the minister ; but there is considerable danger 
 that the religious enthusiasm of the minister might 
 diminish the serviceableness of the civilian. (The His- 
 tory of Religious Enthusiasm should be written by some 
 one who had a life to give to its investigation ; it is one 
 of the most melancholy pages in human records, and one 
 the most necessary to be studied.) Therefore, as far as 
 good men are concerned, it is better the State should have 
 power over the Clergy than the Clergy over the State. 
 
 This we might, it seems to me, conclude by unassisted 
 reason. But surely the whole question is, without 
 any need of human reason, decided by the history of 
 Israel. If ever a body of Clergy should have received 
 independent authority, the Levitical Priesthood should ; 
 for they were indeed a Priesthood, and more holy 
 than the rest of the nation. But Aaron is always sub- 
 ject to Moses. All solemn revelation is made to 
 Moses, the civil magistrate, and he actually commands 
 Aaron as to the fulfilment of his priestly office, and 
 Num that in a necessity of life and death : ' Go, and 
 xvi. 46, 47. m ake an atonement for the people.' Nor is 
 anything more remarkable throughout the whole of the 
 Jewish history than the perfect subjection of the Priestly 
 to the Kingly Authority. Thus Solomon thrusts out 
 Abiathar from being priest, i Kings ii. 2 7 ; and Jehoahaz 
 administers the funds of the Lord's House, 2 Kings xii. 4, 
 though that money was actually the Atonement Money, 
 the Ransom for Souls (Exod. xxx. 12). 
 
 We have, however, also the beautiful instance of 
 Samuel uniting in himself the offices of Priest, Prophet, 
 and Judge ; nor do I insist on any special manner 
 of subjection of Clergy to civil officers, or vice versa;
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 49 
 
 but only on the necessity of their perfect unity and in- 
 fluence upon each other in every Christian kingdom. 
 Those who endeavour to effect the utter separation of 
 ecclesiastical and civil officers, are striving, on the one 
 hand, to expose the Clergy to the most grievous and most 
 subtle of temptations from their own spiritual enthusiasm 
 and spiritual pride; on the other, to deprive the civil officer 
 of all sense of religious responsibility. . . . Whereas, the 
 ideal of all government is the perfect unity of the two 
 bodies of officers, each supporting and correcting the 
 other ; the Clergy having due weight in all the national 
 councils ; the civil officers having a solemn reverence for 
 God in all their acts ; the Clergy hallowing all worldly 
 policy by their influence; and the magistracy repressing all 
 religious enthusiasm by their practical wisdom. To sepa- 
 rate the two is to endeavour to separate the daily life of the 
 nation from God. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 217-19. 
 
 Clouds. 
 
 What noble things these clouds are, and with what 
 feeling it seems to be intended by their Creator that we 
 should contemplate them. 
 
 The account given of the stages of Creation in the 
 first chapter of Genesis, is in every respect clear and 
 intelligible to the simplest reader, except in the statement 
 of the work of the second day. I suppose that this 
 statement is passed over by careless readers without an 
 endeavour to understand it; and contemplated by simple 
 and faithful readers as a sublime mystery, which was not 
 intended to be understood. But there is no mystery in 
 any other part of the chapter, and it seems to me unjust 
 to conclude that any was intended here. 
 
 And the passage ought to be peculiarly interesting to 
 us, as being the first in the Bible in which the 
 heavens are named, and the only one in which 
 the word ' Heaven,' all important as that word is to 
 our understanding of the most precious promises of 
 Scripture, receives a definite explanation. . . . 
 
 D
 
 50 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 In the first place, the English word 'Firmament ' itself 
 is obscure and useless : because we never employ 
 
 Gen. i. 6. . i ,. . 
 
 it but as a synonym of heaven ; it conveys no 
 other distinct idea to us ; and the verse, though from our 
 familiarity with it we imagine that it possesses mean- 
 ing, has in reality no more point or value than if it were 
 written, ' God said, Let there be a something in the midst 
 of the waters, and God called the something Heaven.' 
 But the marginal reading, ' Expansion,' has definite 
 value ; and the statement that ' God said, Let 
 there be an expansion in the midst of the 
 waters, and God called the expansion ^Heaven,' has an 
 apprehensible meaning. . . . 
 
 An unscientific reader knows little about the manner 
 in which the volume of the atmosphere surrounds the 
 earth; but I imagine that he could hardly glance at 
 the sky when rain was falling in the distance, and see 
 the level line of the bases of the cloud from which the 
 shower descended, without being able to attach an 
 instant and easy meaning to the words ' Expansion in 
 the midst of the waters.' And if, having once seized 
 this idea, he proceeded to examine it more accurately, 
 he would perceive at once, if he had ever noticed any- 
 thing of the nature of clouds, that the level line of their 
 bases did indeed most severely and stringently divide 
 ' waters from waters,' that is to say, divide 
 water in its collective and tangible state, from 
 water in its divided and aerial state ; or the waters which 
 fall and flow, from those which rise and float. Next, 
 if we try this interpretation in the theological sense of 
 Exodus the word Heaven, and examine whether the 
 " ai ; clouds are spoken of as God's dwelling-place, 
 we find God going before the Israelites in a 
 xvTa. pillar of cloud ; revealing Himself in a cloud 
 a Chron on Sinai ; appearing in a cloud on the mercy 
 v - *3 seat ; filling the Temple of Solomon with the 
 cloud when its dedication is accepted ; appearing in a 
 great cloud to Ezekiel; ascending into a cloud before
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 51 
 
 the eyes of the disciples on Mount Olivet ; and in like 
 manner returning to Judgment. ' Behold, He Ezekiei 
 cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see ' 4 
 Him.' ' Then shall they see the Son of man Acts i. 9. 
 coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and R ev . i. 7 . 
 great glory.' l While farther, the ' clouds ' and s Matt 
 ' heavens ' are used as interchangeable words in x v. 30. 
 those Psalms which most distinctly set forth the power of 
 God : ' He bowed the heavens also, and came p sa i m 
 down; He made darkness pavilions round about xviii - 9, 
 Him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.' And, 
 again: ' Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and p sa i m 
 Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.' And, xxxvi - s- 
 again : ' His excellency is over Israel, and His strength 
 is in the clouds.' Again : ' The clouds poured p sa ini 
 out water, the skies sent out a sound, the voice lxviii - 34- 
 of Thy thunder was in the heaven.' Again, ^J 
 ' Clouds and darkness are round about Him, ? 8. 
 righteousness and judgment are the habitation of Psalm 
 His throne ; the heavens declare His righteous- 
 ness, and all the people see His glory.' 
 
 In all these passages the meaning is unmistakable, if 
 they possess definite meaning at all. We are too apt to 
 take them merely for sublime and vague imagery, and 
 therefore gradually to lose the apprehension of their life 
 and power. Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. vi., 1-6. 
 
 Coming of the Day of God. 
 
 Whether the opportunity is to be permitted us to 
 redeem the hours that we have lost; whether He, in 
 whose sight a thousand years are as one day, psaia, 
 has appointed us to be tried by the continued xc - * 
 possession of the strange powers with which He has 
 lately endowed us ; or whether the periods of childhood 
 
 1 The reader may refer to the following texts : Exod. xiii. 24, xvi. 
 IO, xix. 9, xxiv. 16, xxxiv. 5 ; Levit. xvi. 2 ; Numb. x. 34 ; Judges 
 v. 4; i Kings viii. 10; Ezek. i. 4; Dan. vii. 13 ; Matt. xxiv. 30; 
 i Thcss. iv. 17 ; Rev. i. 7.
 
 52 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 and of probation are to cease together, and the youth of 
 mankind is to be one which shall prevail over death, and 
 bloom for ever in the midst of a new heaven and a 
 R CV new earth, are questions with which we have no 
 xxi - l - concern. It is indeed right that we should look 
 for, and hasten, so far as in us lies, the coming of the 
 ? s. Peter Day of God ; but not that we should check any 
 *" " human efforts by anticipations of its approach. 
 We shall hasten it best by endeavouring to work out 
 the tasks that are appointed for us here ; and, therefore, 
 reasoning as if the world were to continue under its 
 existing dispensation, and the powers which have just 
 been granted to us were to be continued through myriads 
 of future ages. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. iv., n. 
 
 Confession. 
 
 I find in my concordance (confess and confession 
 together) forty-two occurrences of the word. Sixteen of 
 these, including John's confession that he was not the 
 Christ, and the confession of the faithful fathers that they 
 were pilgrims on the earth, do indeed move us strongly 
 to confess Christ before men. Have you ever taught 
 your congregations what that confession means ? They 
 are ready enough to confess Him in church, that is to 
 say, in their own private synagogue. Will they in Parlia- 
 ment ? Will they in a ball-room ? Will they in a shop ? 
 Sixteen of the texts are to enforce their doing that. 
 
 The next most important one (i Tim. vi. 13) refers 
 to Christ's own good confession, which I suppose was 
 not of His sins, but of His obedience. How many of 
 your congregations can make any such kind of confes- 
 sion, or wish to make it ? 
 
 The eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth (i Kings 
 viii. 33, 2 Chron. vi. 26, Heb. xiii. 15) speak of con- 
 fessing thankfully that God is God, and the twenty-first 
 (Job xl. 14) speaks of God's own confession, that no 
 doubt we are the people, and that wisdom shall die with 
 us, and on what conditions He will make it.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 53 
 
 There remain twenty-one texts which do speak of the 
 confession of our sins very moving ones indeed and 
 Heaven grant that some day the British public may be 
 moved by them. 
 
 (1) The first is Lev. v. 5, ' He shall confess that he 
 hath sinned in that thing.' And if you can get any 
 soul of your congregation to say he has sinned in any- 
 thing, he may do it in two words for one if he likes, and 
 it will yet be good liturgy. 
 
 (2) The second is indeed general Lev. xvi. 2 1 : the 
 command that the whole nation should afflict its soul on 
 the great day of atonement once a year. The Church 
 of England, I believe, enjoins no such unpleasant cere- 
 mony. Her festivals are passed by her people often 
 indeed in the extinction of their souls, but by no means 
 in their intentional affliction. 
 
 (3, 4, 5) The third, fourth, and fifth (Lev. xxvi. 40, 
 Numb. v. 7, Nehem. i. 6) refer all to national humilia- 
 tion for definite idolatry, accompanied with an entire 
 abandonment of that idolatry, and of idolatrous persons. 
 How soon that form of confession is likely to find a 
 place in the English congregations the defences of their 
 main idol, mammon, in the vilest and cruellest shape of 
 it usury show very sufficiently. 
 
 (6) The sixth is Psalm xxxii. 5 virtually the whole 
 of that psalm, which does, indeed, entirely refer to the 
 greater confession, once for all opening the heart to 
 God, which can be by no means done fifty-two times a 
 year, and which, once done, puts men into a state in 
 which they will never again say there is no health in 
 them ; nor that their hearts are desperately wicked ; 
 but will obey for ever the instantly following order, 
 ' Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and shout for joy, 
 all ye that are true of heart.' 
 
 (7) The seventh (Acts xxiv. 14) is the one confes- 
 sion in which I can myself share : ' After the way 
 which they call heresy, so worship I the Lord God of 
 my fathers.'
 
 54 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 (8) The eighth (James v. 16) tells us to confess our 
 faults not to God, but ' one to another ' a practice 
 not favoured by English catechumens (by the way, 
 what do you all mean by ' auricular ' confession con- 
 fession that can be heard ? and is the Protestant 
 pleasanter form one that can't be ?). 
 
 (9) The ninth is that passage of St. John (i. 9), the 
 favourite evangelical text, which is read and preached 
 by thousands of false preachers every day, without once 
 going on to read its great companion, ' Beloved, if our 
 i s. John heart condemn us, God is greater than our 
 '" " heart, and knoweth all things ; but if our heart 
 condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.' 
 Make your people understand the second text, and they 
 will understand the first. At present you leave them 
 understanding neither. 
 
 And the entire body of the remaining texts is summed 
 in Joshua vii. 1 9 and Ezra x. 1 1 , in which, whether it 
 be Achan, with his Babylonish garment, or the people 
 of Israel, with their Babylonish lusts, the meaning of 
 confession is simply what it is to every brave boy, girl, 
 man, and woman, who knows the meaning of the word 
 1 honour ' before God or man namely, to say what 
 they have done wrong, and to take the punishment of it 
 (not to get it blanched over by any means), and to do it 
 no more. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 259-62. 
 
 Conscience, Divine. 
 
 One thing we know, or may know, if we will, that 
 the heart and conscience of man are divine ; that in his 
 perception of evil, in his recognition of good, he is him- 
 self a God manifest in the flesh ; that his joy in love, his 
 agony in anger, his indignation at injustice, his glory in 
 self-sacrifice, are all eternal, indisputable proofs of his 
 unity with a great Spiritual Head ; that in these, and 
 not merely in his more availing form, or manifold in- 
 stinct, he is king over the lower animate world; that, so far 
 as he denies or forfeits these, he dishonours the Name
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 55 
 
 of his Father, and makes it unholy and unadmirable 
 in the earth ; that so far as he confesses, and rules by, 
 these, he hallows and makes admirable the Name of 
 his Father, and receives, in his sonship, fulness s. Matt. 
 of power with Him, whose are the kingdom, vi - X 3- 
 the power, and the glory, world without end. Fors 
 Clavigera, Letter LI 1 1. 
 
 Covetousness. 
 
 The first and great Commandment, so called by 
 Christ, and the Second which is like unto s Matt 
 it. ... You vow, then, that you will at least xxii. 
 strive to keep both of these commandments 37 ' 39 ' 
 as far as, what some would call the corruption, but what 
 in honest people is the weakness, of flesh, permits. If 
 you cannot watch an hour, because you don't love 
 Christ enough to care about His agony, that is your 
 weakness ; but if you first sell Him, and then kiss Him, 
 that is your corruption. ... Be sure that you are 
 serving Christ, till you are tired and can do no more; 
 for that time : and then, even if you have not breath 
 enough left to say ' Master, Master ' with, He will not 
 mind. Begin therefore ' to-day ' ... to do good for 
 Him, whether you live or die. . . . And see that 
 every stroke of this work be it weak or strong, 
 shall therefore be done in love of God and your neigh- 
 bour, and in hatred of covetousness. Fors Clavigera, 
 Letter LXII. 
 
 ' A lover of silver,' this latter word being the common 
 and proper word for covetous, in the Gospels gccie. 
 and Epistles ; as of the Pharisees in Luke xvi. v - I0 - 
 1 4 ; and associated with the other characters of men in 
 perilous times, 2 Timothy iii. 2, and its relative noun 
 (fukapyvpia, given in sum for the root of all evil in 
 i Timothy vi. 10, while even the authority of Liddell 
 and Scot in the interpretation of irXeovf^'a itself as only 
 the desire of getting more than our share, may per- 
 haps be bettered by the authority of the teacher, who,
 
 56 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 declining the appeal made to him as an equitable 
 cmys (Luke xii. 14-46), tells his disciples to beware of 
 s. Luke covetousness, simply as the desire of getting more 
 *" x s- than we have got. ' For a man's life consisteth 
 not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.' 
 OH the Old Road, vol. ii., 162. 
 
 Creator, The. 
 
 Whether taught or untaught, whether of mean capa- 
 city or enlarged, it is necessary that communion with 
 their Creator should be possible to all ; and the admis- 
 sion to such communion must be rested, not on their 
 having a knowledge of astronomy, but on their having 
 a human soul. In order to render this communion 
 possible, the Deity has stooped from His throne, and 
 has not only, in the person of the Son, taken upon Him 
 the veil of our human flesh, but, in the person of the 
 Father, taken upon Him the veil of our human thoughts, 
 and permitted MS, by His own spoken authority, to con- 
 ceive Him simply and clearly as a loving Father and 
 Friend ; a being to be walked with and reasoned with ; 
 to be moved by our entreaties, angered by our rebellion, 
 alienated by our coldness, pleased by our love, and 
 glorified by our labour; and, finally, to be beheld in 
 immediate and active presence in all the powers and 
 changes of creation. This conception of God, which 
 is the child's, is evidently the only one which can be 
 universal, and therefore the only one which for us can 
 be true. The moment that, in our pride of heart, we 
 refuse to accept the condescension of the Almighty, and 
 desire Him, instead of stooping to hold our hands, to 
 rise up before us into His glory, we hoping that by 
 standing on a grain of dust or two of human knowledge 
 higher than our fellows, we may behold the Creator as 
 He rises, God takes us at our word; He rises, into 
 Isaiah His own invisible and inconceivable majesty; 
 lv 8 He goes forth upon the ways which are not 
 our ways, and retires into the thoughts which are not our
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 57 
 
 thoughts ; and we are left alone. And presently we say 
 in our vain hearts, ' There is no God.' Modern p^^ 
 Painters, vol. iv., ch. vi., 7. m - x - 
 
 Creed. 
 
 It is a creed with a great part of the existing English 
 people, that they are in possession of a book which tells 
 them, straight from the lips of God, all they ought to 
 do, and need to know. I have read that book, with as 
 much care as most of them, -for some forty years ; and 
 am thankful that, on those who trust it, I can press its 
 pleadings. My endeavour has been uniformly to make 
 them trust it more deeply than they do ; trust it, not in 
 their own favourite verses only, but in the sum of all ; 
 trust it, not as a fetish or talisman, which they are to be 
 saved by daily repetitions of; but as a Captain's order, 
 to be heard and obeyed at their peril. Crown of Wild 
 Olive, 12. ^^^r 
 
 Cross. 
 
 It means simply that you are to go the road which 
 you see to be the straight one : carrying whatever you 
 find is given you to carry, as well and stoutly as you 
 can ; without making faces or calling people to come 
 and look at you. Above all, yc\u are neither to load, 
 nor unload, yourself; nor cut your cross to your own 
 liking: Ethics of the Dust, p. 141. 
 
 Cross of Christ. 
 
 Remember that Christ Himself never says anything 
 about holding by His Cross. He speaks a good deal 
 of bearing it; but never for an instant of holding by 
 it. It is His Hand, not His Cross, which is to save 
 either you, or St. Peter, when the waves are rough. 
 Ariadne Florentina, 29. 
 
 David. 
 
 And, though Tightness of moral conduct is ultimately 
 the great purifier of race, the sign of nobleness is not
 
 5 8 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 in this Tightness of moral conduct, but in sensitiveness. 
 When the make of the creature is fine, its temptations 
 are strong, as well as its perceptions ; it is liable to all 
 kinds of impressions from without in their most violent 
 form ; liable therefore to be abused and hurt by all kinds 
 of rough things which would do a coarser creature little 
 harm, and thus to fall into frightful wrong if its fate 
 will have it so. Thus David, coming of gentlest as 
 well as royalist race of Ruth as well as of Judah, is sen- 
 sitiveness through all flesh and spirit; not that his 
 compassion will restrain him from murder when his 
 terror urges him to it ; nay, he is driven to the murder 
 all the more by his sensitiveness to the shame which 
 otherwise threatens him. But when his own story is 
 told him under a disguise, though only a lamb is now 
 a Sam. concerned, his passion about it leaves him no 
 *" s- time for thought. ' The man shall die ' note 
 a Sam. the reason ' because he had no pity.' He is 
 *" 6 - so eager and indignant that it never occurs to 
 him as strange that Nathan hides the name. Modern 
 Painters, vol. v., Pt. ix., ch. vii., 6. 
 
 King and Prophet, type of all Divinely right doing, 
 and right claiming, and right proclaiming, kinghood, for 
 ever. Our Fathers Have Told Us, ch. iv., 32. 
 
 Dawn. 
 
 Let every dawn of morning be to you as the be- 
 ' ginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its 
 close : then let every one of these short .lines leave 
 its sure record of some kindly thing done for others 
 some goodly strength or knowledge gained for your- 
 selves ; so, from day to day, and strength to strength, 
 you shall build up indeed, by Art, by Thought, and by 
 s. Mark J ust Will, an Ecclesia of England, of which it 
 xiii - ' shall not be said, ' See what manner of stones 
 are here,' but, ' See what manner of men.' Lectures 
 on Art, 125.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 59 
 
 ' Day ' of Genesis. 
 
 ' And God said, Let the waters which are under the 
 heaven be gathered together unto one place, 
 and let the dry land appear.' 
 
 We do not, perhaps, often enough consider the deep 
 significance of this sentence. We are too apt to receive 
 it as the description of an event vaster only in its extent, 
 not in its nature, than the compelling the Red Sea to 
 draw back, that Israel might pass by. We imagine the 
 Deity in like manner rolling the waves of the greater 
 ocean together on an heap, and setting bars and doors 
 to them eternally. But there is a far deeper meaning 
 than this in the solemn words of Genesis, and in the 
 correspondent verse of the Psalm, ' His hands p sa i m 
 prepared the dry land.' Up to that moment xcv - s- 
 the earth had been void, for it had been without form. 
 The command that the waters should be gathered was 
 the command that the earth should be sculptured. The 
 sea was not driven to his place in suddenly restrained 
 rebellion, but withdrawn to his place in perfect and 
 patient obedience. The dry land appeared, not in 
 level sands, forsaken by the surges, which those surges 
 might again claim for their own ; but in range beyond 
 range of swelling hill and iron rock, for ever to claim 
 kindred with the firmament, and be companioned by 
 the clouds of heaven. What space of time was in 
 reality occupied by the 'day' of Genesis, is not, at 
 present, of any importance for us to consider. By 
 what furnaces of fire the adamant was melted, and by 
 what wheels of earthquake it was torn, and by what 
 teeth of glacier and weight of sea-waves it was engraven 
 and finished into its perfect form, we may perhaps here- 
 after endeavour to conjecture ; but here, as in few words 
 the work is summed by the historian, so in few broad 
 thoughts it should be comprehended by us ; and as we 
 read the mighty sentence, ' Let the dry land 
 appear,' we should try to follow the finger of 
 God, as it engraved upon the stone tables of the earth
 
 60 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 the letters and the law of its everlasting form ; as, gulf 
 by gulf, the channels of the deep were ploughed ; and, 
 cape by cape, the lines were traced, with Divine fore- 
 knowledge, of the shores that were to limit the nations ; 
 and, chain by chain, the mountain walls were lengthened 
 forth, and their foundations fastened for ever; and the 
 compass was set upon the face of the depth, and the 
 fields, and the highest part of the dust of the world 
 were made ; and the right hand of Christ first strewed 
 the snow on Lebanon, and smoothed the slopes of 
 Calvary. Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. vii., i, 2. 
 
 Death. 
 
 The longer I live, the more clearly I see how all souls 
 are in His hand the mean and the great. Fallen 
 on the earth in their baseness, or fading as the mist of 
 j er . morning in their goodness ; still in the hand 
 
 xviii. e. o f t ne potter as the clay, and in the temple of 
 their master as the cloud. It was not the mere bodily 
 death that He conquered that death had no sting. It 
 was this spiritual death which He conquered, so that 
 at last it should be swallowed up mark the word not 
 in life ; but in victory. As the dead body shall be raised 
 to life, so also the defeated soul to victory, if only it has 
 been fighting on its Master's side, has made no covenant 
 with death; nor itself bowed its forehead for his seal. 
 Blind from the prison-house, maimed from the battle, 
 i Kings or ma d from the tombs, their souls shall surely 
 3- yet sit, astonished, at His feet Who giveth peace. 
 Modern Painters, vol. v., ch. xii., 16. 
 
 For, exactly in proportion as the pride of life became 
 more insolent, the fear of death became more servile; 
 and the difference in the manner in which the men of 
 early and later days adorned the sepulchre, confesses 
 a still greater difference in their manner of regarding 
 death. To those he came as the comforter and the 
 friend, rest in his right hand, hope in his left ; to these 
 as the humiliator, the spoiler, and the avenger. And,
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 61 
 
 therefore, we find the early tombs at once simple and 
 lovely in adornment, severe and solemn in their expres- 
 sion; confessing the power, and accepting the peace, 
 of death, openly and joyfully ; and in all their symbols 
 marking that the hope of resurrection lay only in Christ's 
 righteousness ; signed always with this simple utterance 
 of the dead, ' I will lay me down in peace, and p sa i m 
 take my rest ; for it is thou, Lord, only that iv - 9- 
 makest me dwell in safety.' Stones of Venice, vol. Hi., 
 ch. ii., XLVI. :._ -r 
 
 'Dew of the Morning.' 
 
 When you go out, delighted, into the dew of the 
 morning, have you ever considered why it is so rich 
 upon the grass ; why it is not upon the trees ? It is 
 partly on the trees, but yet your memory of it will be 
 always chiefly of its gleam upon the lawn. On many 
 trees you will find there is none at all. I cannot follow 
 out here the many inquiries connected with this subject, 
 but, broadly, remember the branched trees are fed chiefly 
 by rain, the unbranched ones by dew, visible or in- 
 visible ; that is to say, at all events by moisture which 
 they can gather for themselves out of the air ; or else by 
 streams and springs. Hence the division of the verse 
 of the song of Moses : ' My doctrine shall drop Deut. 
 as the rain ; my speech shall distil as the dew : xxxii - * 
 as the small rain upon the tender herb, as the showers 
 upon the grass.' Proserpina, ch. iii., 22. 
 
 Dives and Lazarus. ^ 
 
 It is one of the strange characters of the human mind, 
 necessary indeed to its peace, but infinitely destructive 
 of its power, that we never thoroughly feel the evils 
 which are not actually set before our eyes. If, sud- 
 denly, in the midst of the enjoyments of the palate 
 and lightnesses of heart of a London dinner-party, the 
 walls of the chamber were parted, and through their gap, 
 the nearest human beings who were famishing, and in
 
 62 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 misery, were borne into the midst of the company 
 feasting and fancy-free if, pale with sickness, horrible 
 in destitution, broken by despair, body by body, they 
 were laid upon the soft carpet, one beside the chair of 
 every guest, would only the crumbs of the dainties be 
 cast to them would only a passing glance, a passing 
 thought be vouchsafed to them ? Yet the actual facts, 
 the real relations of each Dives and Lazarus, are not 
 altered by the intervention of the house wall between 
 the table and the sick-bed by the few feet of ground 
 (how few !) which are indeed all that separate the merri- 
 ment from the misery. On the Old Road, vol. i., part i., 
 
 Divine Builder. 
 
 The glacier of the Col de Cervin lies as level as a 
 lake. This spur is one of the few points from which 
 the mass of the Mont Cervin is in anywise approachable. 
 It is a continuation of the masonry of the mountain 
 itself, and affords us the means of examining the char- 
 acter of its materials. 
 
 Few architects would like to build with them. The 
 slope of the rocks to the north-west is covered two feet 
 deep with their ruins, a mass of loose and slaty shale, 
 of a dull brick-red colour. . . . The rock is indeed 
 hard beneath, but still disposed in thin courses of these 
 cloven shales, so finely laid that they look in places 
 more like a heap of crushed autumn leaves than a rock ; 
 and the first sensation is one of unmitigated surprise, 
 as if the mountain were upheld by miracle ; but surprise 
 becomes more intelligent reverence for the great Builder, 
 when we find, in the middle of the mass of these dead 
 leaves, a course of living rock, of quartz as white as the 
 snow that encircles it, and harder than a bed of steel. 
 
 It is one only of a thousand iron bands that knit the 
 strength of the mighty mountain. Through the buttress 
 and the wall alike, the courses of its varied masonry are 
 seen in their successive order, smooth and true as if
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 63 
 
 laid by line and plummet, 1 but of thickness and strength 
 continually varying, and with silver cornices glittering 
 along the edge of each, laid by the snowy winds and 
 carved by the sunshine, stainless ornaments of the 
 eternal temple, by which ' neither the hammer x Klngs 
 nor the axe, nor any tool, was heard while it was " ^ 
 in building.' Stones of Venice, vol. i., ch. v., 3-5. 
 
 Divine Law. 
 
 When people read, ' The law came by Moses, but 
 grace and truth by Christ,' do they suppose it s John 
 means that the law was ungracious and untrue ? ' *7 
 The law was given for a foundation ; the grace (or 
 mercy) and truth for fulfilment ; the whole forming 
 one glorious Trinity of judgment, mercy, and truth. 
 And if people would but read the text of their Bibles 
 with heartier purpose of understanding it, instead of 
 superstitiously, they would see that throughout the parts 
 which they are intended to make most personally their 
 own (the Psalms) it is always the Law which is spoken 
 of with chief joy. The Psalms respecting mercy are 
 often sorrowful, as in thought of what it cost; b.ut those 
 respecting the law are always full of delight. David 
 cannot contain himself for joy in thinking of pgaia, 
 it, he is never weary of its praise : ' How cxix - 97- 
 love I thy law ! it is my meditation all the day. p sa i m 
 Thy testimonies are my delight and my coun- xLx - 10 - 
 sellers ; sweeter, also, than honey and the honey-comb.' 
 Modern Painters, vol. v., Pt. vii., ch. iv., 22. 
 
 Divine Power, in Active Life. 
 
 In general, active men, of strong sense and stern 
 principle, do not care to see anything in a leaf, but 
 vegetable tissue, and are so well convinced of useful 
 moral truth, that it does not strike them as a new or 
 notable thing when they find it in any way symbolized 
 
 1 On the eastern side : violently contorted on the northern and 
 western.
 
 64 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 by material nature ; hence there is a strong presumption, 
 when first we perceive a tendency in any one to regard 
 trees as living, and enunciate moral aphorisms over 
 every pebble they stumble against, that such tendency 
 proceeds from a morbid temperament, like Shelley's, or 
 an inconsistent one, like Jaques's. But when the active 
 life is nobly fulfilled, and the mind is then raised beyond 
 it into clear and calm beholding of the world around us, 
 the same tendency again manifests itself in the most 
 sacred way : the simplest forms of nature are strangely 
 animated by the sense of the Divine presence ; the trees 
 and flowers seem all, in a sort, children of God; and 
 we ourselves, their fellows, made out of the same dust, 
 and greater than they only in having a greater portion 
 of the Divine power exerted on our frame, and all the 
 common uses and palpably visible forms of things, be- 
 come subordinate in our minds to their inner glory, 
 to the mysterious voices in which they talk to us about 
 God, and the changeful and typical aspects by which 
 they witness to us of holy truth, and fill us with obedient, 
 joyful, and thankful emotion. Modern Painters, vol. iii., 
 ch. xvii., 41. 
 
 Divine Service. 
 
 We say, ' Divine service will be " performed " ' (that's 
 our word the fo'rm Of it gone through) ' at so-and-so 
 o'clock.' Alas ; unless we perform Divine service in 
 every* willing act of life, we never perform it at all. 
 The one Divine work the one ordered sacrifice is 
 to do justice; and it is the last we are ever inclined 
 to do. Anything rather than that ! As much charity 
 as you choose, but no justice. ' Nay,' you will say, 
 ' charity is greater than justice.' Yes, it is greater ; it 
 is the summit of justice It is the temple of which 
 justice is the foundation. But you can't have the top 
 without the bottom ; you cannot build upon charity. 
 You must build upon justice, for this main reason, 
 that you have not, at first, charity to build with. It
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 65 
 
 is the last reward of good work. Do justice to your 
 brother (you can do that whether you love him or not), 
 and you will come to love him. But do injustice to 
 him, because you don't love him ; and you will come to 
 hate him. The Crown of Wild Olive, 39. 
 
 Dove of the Ark. 
 
 Of the splendour of your own true life, you are told, 
 in the words which, to-day, let me call, as your Fathers 
 did, words of inspiration ' Yet shall ye be as Psa^ 
 the wings of a dove, that is covered with silver lxviii - *3- 
 wings and her feathers with gold.' . . . 
 
 Of the power of flight in these wings, and the tender 
 purpose of their flight, you hear also in your Father's 
 book. To the Church, flying from her enemies into 
 desolate wilderness, there were indeed given two wings 
 as of a great eagle. But the weary saint of God, looking 
 forward to his home in calm of eternal peace, prays 
 rather ' Oh that I had wings like a dove, for psaim 
 then should I flee away, and be at rest.' And lv - 6 - 
 of these wings, and this mind of hers, this is what 
 reverent science should teach you : first, with what 
 parting of plume, and what soft pressure and rhythmic 
 bearing of divided air, she reaches that miraculous swift- 
 ness of undubious motion, compared with which the 
 tempest is slow, and the arrow uncertain ; and secondly, 
 what clue there is, visible, or conceivable to thought of 
 man, by which, to her living conscience and errorless 
 pointing of magnetic soul, her distant home is felt afar 
 beyond the horizon, and the straight path, through con- 
 cealing clouds, and over trackless lands, made plain to 
 her desire, and her duty, by the finger of God. 
 
 And lastly, since in the tradition of the Old Covenant 
 she was made the messenger of forgiveness to Gen 
 those eight souls saved through the baptism unto vui. n. 
 death, and in the Gospel of the New Covenant, s. Mark 
 under her image, was manifested the well-pleas- 1- Ia 
 ing of God, in the fulfilment of all righteousness by 
 
 E
 
 66 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 His Son in the Baptism unto life, surely alike all 
 Christian people, old and young, should be taught to be 
 gladdened by her sweet presence ; and in every city and 
 village in Christendom she should have such home as in 
 Venice she has had for ages, and be, among the sculp- 
 tured marbles of the temple, the sweetest sculpture; 
 and, fluttering at your children's feet, their never-angered 
 friend. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 281-83. 
 
 Dragon (Scriptural). 
 
 The reader may have heard, perhaps, in other books 
 of Genesis than Hesiod's, of a Dragon being busy about 
 a tree which bore apples, and of crushing the head of 
 that dragon ; but seeing how, in the Greek mind, this 
 serpent was descended from the sea, he may, perhaps, 
 be surprised to remember another verse, bearing also on 
 
 the matter : ' Thou brakest the heads of the 
 ixxiv. 13, dragons in the waters ; ' and yet more surprised, 
 I4> xs " going on with the Septuagint version, to find 
 where he is being led : ' Thou brakest the head of the 
 dragon, and gavest him to be meat to the Ethiopian people. 
 
 Thou didst tear asunder the strong fountains and 
 xmao. the storm-torrents ; thou didst dry up the rivers 
 Nnm. of Etham,' TTTjyas KCU -^fifiappovi, the Pegasus 
 xxxiii - 6 - fountains ' Etham on the edge of the wilder- 
 ness.' Modern Painters, vol. v., part ix., ch. x., n. 
 
 It seems to me that just because we are intended, as 
 long as we live, to be in a state of intense moral effort, 
 Rev we are not i nten ded to be in intense physical or 
 * * intellectual effort. Our full energies are to be 
 s. Matt, given to the soul's work to the great fight with 
 
 the Dragon the taking the kingdom of heaven 
 by force. On the Old Road, vol. i., part L, 169. 
 
 Duty. 
 
 The greatest part of the good work of the world is 
 done either in pure and unvexed instinct of duty, . . . 
 or else, and better, it is cheerful and helpful doing of
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 67 
 
 what the hand finds to do, in surety that at evening 
 time, whatsoever is right the Master will give. Lectures 
 on Art, 86. 
 
 Early Christianity. 
 
 In the early ages of Christianity, there was little care 
 taken to analyse character. One momentous question 
 was heard over the whole world, Dost thou believe in 
 the Lord with all thine heart ? There was but one 
 division among men, the great unatoneable division 
 between the disciple and adversary. The love 
 of Christ was all, and in all ; and in proportion 
 to the nearness of their memory of His person and 
 teaching, men understood the infinity of the require- 
 ments of the moral law, and the manner in which it 
 alone could be fulfilled. The early Christians felt that 
 virtue, like sin, was a subtle universal thing, entering 
 into every act and thought, appearing outwardly in ten 
 thousand diverse ways, diverse according to the separate 
 framework of every heart in which it dwelt ; but one and 
 the same always in its proceeding from the love of God, 
 as sin is one and the same in proceeding from hatred 
 of God. And in their pure, early, and practical piety, 
 they saw that there was no need for codes of morality, 
 or systems of metaphysics. Their virtue comprehended 
 everything, entered into everything ; it was too vast and 
 too spiritual to be defined ; but there was no need of 
 its definition. For through faith, working by 
 love, they knew that all human excellence would 
 be developed in due order; but that, without faith, 
 neither reason could define, nor effort reach, the lowest 
 phase of Christian virtue. And therefore, when any of 
 the Apostles have occasion to describe or enumerate 
 any forms of vice or virtue by name, there is no attempt 
 at system in their words. They use them hurriedly and 
 energetically, heaping the thoughts one upon another, in 
 order as far as possible to fill the reader's mind with a 
 sense of the infinity both of crime and of righteousness.
 
 68 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Hear St. Paul describe sin : ' Being filled with all un- 
 righteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,mali- 
 Rom. ciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, 
 1.19,30,31. malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, 
 despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, dis- 
 obedient to parents, without understanding, covenant 
 breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmer- 
 ciful.' There is evidently here an intense feeling of 
 the universality of sin; and in order to express it, the 
 Apostle hurries his words confusedly together, little 
 caring about their order, as knowing all the vices to be 
 indissolubly connected one with another. It would be 
 utterly vain to endeavour to arrange his expressions as if 
 they had been intended for the ground of any system, 
 or to give any philosophical definition of the vices. 
 PhiL iv. So also hear him speaking of virtue : ' Rejoice 
 
 4, s, 6. s. m the Lord. Let your moderation be known 
 unto all men. Be careful for nothing, but in every- 
 thing let your requests be made known unto God ; and 
 whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are 
 just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
 lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be 
 any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
 things.' Observe, he gives up all attempt at definition ; 
 he leaves the definition to every man's heart, though he 
 writes so as to mark the overflowing fulness of his own 
 vision of virtue. And so it is in all writings of the 
 Apostles ; their manner of exhortation, and the kind of 
 conduct they press, vary according to the persons they 
 address, and the feeling of the moment at which they 
 write, and never show any attempt at logical precision. 
 And, although the words of their Master are not thus 
 irregularly uttered, but are weighed like fine gold, yet, 
 even in His teaching, there is no detailed or organized 
 system of morality ; but the command only of that faith 
 
 5. Matt. an d love which were to embrace the whole 
 **** 40- being of man : ' On these two commandments 
 hang all the law and the prophets.' Here and there an
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 69 
 
 incidental warning against this or that more dangerous 
 form of vice or error. ' Take heed and beware of covet- 
 ousness.' ' Beware of the leaven of the Phari- s Lnke 
 sees ; ' here and there a plain example of the *" x s- 
 meaning of Christian love, as in the parables of s. Lnke 
 the Samaritan and the Prodigal, and His own *"" x- 
 perpetual example : these were the elements of Christ's 
 constant teaching; for the Beatitudes, which are the 
 only approximation to anything like a systematic state- 
 ment, belong to different conditions and characters of 
 individual men, not to abstract virtues. And all early 
 Christians taught in the same manner. They never 
 cared to expound the nature of this or that virtue ; for 
 they knew that the believer who had Christ had all. 
 Did he need fortitude ? Christ was his rock : T Cor 
 Equity? Christ was his righteousness : Holiness? * 4: 30- 
 Christ was his sanctification : Liberty ? Christ was his re- 
 demption : Temperance ? Christ was his ruler : Wisdom ? 
 Christ was his light : Truthfulness ? Christ was the truth : 
 Charity? Christ was love. Stones of Venice, vol. ii., 
 ch. viii., XLV. 
 
 Education. ^^ 
 
 Education is, indeed, of all differences not divinely 
 appointed an instant effacer and reconciler. What- 
 ever is undivinely poor, it will make rich; whatever is 
 undivinely maimed, and halt, and blind, it will make 
 whole, and equal, and seeing. The blind and the 
 lame are to it as to David at the siege of the Tower 
 of the Kings, 'hated of David's soul.' But aSam 
 there are other divinely-appointed differences, v 8 - 
 eternal as the ranks of the everlasting hills, and as the 
 strength of their ceaseless waters. And these, education 
 does not do away with; but measures, manifests, and 
 employs. 
 
 In the handful of shingle which you gather from the 
 sea-beach, which the indiscriminate sea, with equality 
 of fraternal foam, has only educated to be, every one,
 
 70 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 round, you will see little difference between the noble 
 and mean stones. But the jeweller's trenchant edu- 
 cation of them will tell you another story. Even the 
 meanest will be better for it, but the noblest so much 
 better that you can class the two together no more. 
 The fair veins and colours are all clear now, and so 
 stern is nature's intent regarding this, that not only 
 will the polish show which is best, but the best will 
 take most polish. You shall not merely see they have 
 more virtue than the others, but see that more of virtue 
 more clearly; and the less virtue there is, the more 
 dimly you shall see what there is of it. 
 
 And the law about education, which is sorrowfullest 
 to vulgar pride, is this that all its gains are at com- 
 pound interest; so that, as our work proceeds, every 
 hour throws us farther behind the greater men with 
 whom we began on equal terms. 
 
 Two children go to school hand in hand, and spell 
 for half-an-hour over the same page. Through all their 
 lives, never shall they spell from the same page more. 
 One is presently a page ahead, two pages, ten pages, 
 and evermore, though each toils equally, the interval 
 enlarges at birth nothing, at death, infinite. Time 
 and Tide, 171, 172. 
 
 Egyptian Type of Servitude. 
 
 In the earliest and grandest shaft architecture which 
 we know, that of Egypt, we have no grouped arrange- 
 ments, properly so called, but either single and smooth 
 shafts, or richly reeded and furrowed shafts, which re- 
 present the extreme conditions of a complicated group 
 bound together to sustain a single mass ; and are indeed, 
 without doubt, nothing else than imitations of bundles of 
 reeds, or of clusters of the lotus : . . . the great Christian 
 truth of distinct services of the individual soul is typified 
 in the Christian shaft ; and the old Egyptian servitude 
 of the multitudes, the servitude inseparable from the 
 children of Ham, is typified also in that ancient shaft
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 71 
 
 of the Egyptians which in its gathered strength of the 
 river reeds, seems, as the sands of the desert drift over 
 its ruin, to be intended to remind us for ever of the 
 end of the association of the wicked. ' Can j ob 
 the rush grow up without mire, or the flag grow **" "> *3 
 without water? So are the paths of all that forget 
 God ; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish.' Stones of 
 Venice, vol. i., ch. viii., xxm. 
 
 I must ask you to think with me to-day what is 
 the meaning of the myth, if you call it so, of the great 
 prophet of the Old Testament, who is to be Mai. iv. 5. 
 again sent before the coming of the day of the s Matt 
 Lord. For truly, you will find that if any part xvii - " 
 of your ancient faith be true, it is needful for every soul 
 which is to take up its cross, with Christ, to be also 
 first transfigured in the light of Christ, talking 5. Matt. 
 with Moses and with Elias. The contest of xvii - 3- 
 Moses is with the temporal servitude, of Elijah, with 
 the spiritual servitude, of the people; and the war of 
 Elijah is with their servitude essentially to two Gods, 
 Baal, or the Sun-God, in whose hand they thought was 
 their life, and Baalzebub the Fly-God, of Corruption, 
 in whose hand they thought was the arbitration of 
 death. The entire contest is summed in the first asser- 
 tion by Elijah, of his authority as the Servant of God, 
 over those elemental powers by which the heart of 
 Man, whether Jew or heathen, was filled with food and 
 gladness. 
 
 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants 
 of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God x Rings. 
 of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there xvii - x - 
 shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to 
 my word.' . . . 
 
 The whole confidence and glory of prayer is in its 
 appeal to a Father who knows our necessities before we 
 ask, who knows our thoughts before they rise in our
 
 72 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 hearts, and whose decrees, as unalterable in the eternal 
 future as in the eternal past, yet in the close verity of 
 visible fact, bend, like reeds, before the fore-ordained 
 and faithful prayers of His children. 
 
 Of Elijah's contest on Carmel with that Sun-power in 
 which, literally, you again now are seeking your life, you 
 know the story, however little you believe it. 
 
 But of his contest with the Death-power, on the hill 
 of Samaria, you read less frequently, and more doubt- 
 x Kings fully. ' Oh, thou Man of God, the King hath 
 i. 9, 10. said, Come down. And Elijah answered and 
 said, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from 
 Heaven, and consume thee, and thy fifty.' . . . 
 
 But note Elijah's message. ' Because thou hast sent 
 > Kings to enquire of Baalzebub the God of Ekron, 
 ' l6 - therefore, thou shalt not go down from the 
 bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.' 
 
 ' Because thou hast sent to enquire ' : he had not 
 sent to pray to the God of Ekron, only to ask of him. 
 The priests of Baal prayed to Baal, but Ahaziah only 
 questions the fly-god. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 
 285-87. 
 
 Emblems of the Bible. 
 
 You will assuredly admit this principle, that what- 
 ever temporal things are spoken of in the Bible as 
 emblems of the highest spiritual blessings, must be 
 good things in themselves. You would allow that 
 bread, for instance, would not have been used as an 
 emblem of the word of life, unless it had been good, and 
 necessary for man ; nor water used as the emblem of 
 sanctification, unless it also had been good and neces- 
 sary for man. You will allow that oil, and honey, and 
 Psalm ^ m are gd> when David says, ' Let the 
 cxii. s- righteous reprove me ; it shall be an excellent 
 Psalm oil ; ' or, ' How sweet are thy words unto my 
 cxix. 103. taste j y^ SW eeter than honey to my mouth ; ' 
 or when Jeremiah cries out in his weeping, ' Is there
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 73 
 
 no balm in Gilead ? is there no physician there ? ' You 
 would admit at once that the man who said j er 
 there was no taste in the literal honey, and no viiL " 
 healing in the literal balm, must be of distorted judg- 
 ment, since God had used them as emblems of spiritual 
 sweetness and healing. And how, then, will you evade 
 the conclusion, that there must be joy, and comfort, 
 and instruction in the literal beauty of architecture, 
 when God, descending in His utmost love to the dis- 
 tressed Jerusalem, and addressing to her His most 
 precious and solemn promises, speaks to her in such 
 words as these : ' Oh, thou afflicted, tossed i sa iah 
 with tempest, and not comforted,' What shall Hv - xl " 
 be done to her? What brightest emblem of blessing 
 will God set before her ? ' Behold, I will lay thy stones 
 with fair colours, and thy foundations with sapphires ; 
 and I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates 
 of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.' 
 Nor is this merely an emblem of spiritual blessing ; for 
 that blessing is added in the concluding words, i sa i a h 
 ' And all thy children shall be taught of the liv - *3- 
 Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.' 
 Lectures on Architecture and Painting, 56. 
 
 England and her Great Men. 
 
 So far as in it lay, this century has caused every one 
 of its great men, whose hearts were kindest, and whose 
 spirits most perceptive of the work of God, to die with- 
 out hope : Scott, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Turner. Great 
 England, of the Iron-heart now, not of the Lion-heart; 
 for these souls of her children an account may perhaps 
 be one. day required of her. 
 
 She has not yet read often enough that old story of 
 the Samaritan's mercy. He whom he saved 5. Luke 
 was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho x - 33- 
 to the accursed city (so the old Church used to under- 
 stand it). He should not have left Jerusalem ; it was 
 his own fault that he went out into the desert, and fell
 
 74 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 among the thieves, and was left for dead. Every one 
 of these English children, in their day, took the desert 
 by-path as he did, and fell among fiends took to 
 making bread out of stones at their bidding, and then 
 died, torn and famished ; careful England, in her pure, 
 priestly dress, passing by on the other side. So far as 
 we are concerned, that is the account we have to give 
 of them. 
 
 So far as they are concerned, I do not fear for them ; 
 there being one Priest Who never passes by. The 
 longer I live, the more clearly I see how all souls are 
 in His hand the mean and the great. Fallen on the 
 earth in their baseness, or fading as the mist of morning 
 Jer in their goodness ; still in the hand of the 
 
 xviii - 6 - potter as the clay, and in the temple of their 
 master as the cloud. It was not the mere bodily death 
 that He conquered that death had no sting. It was 
 this spiritual death which He conquered, so that at last 
 Isaiah ^ should be swallowed up mark the word 
 xxv 8 - not in life ; but in victory. As the dead body 
 shall be raised to life, so also the defeated soul to victory, 
 if only it has been fighting on its Master's side, has made 
 no covenant with death; nor itself bowed its forehead 
 for his seal. Blind from the prison-house, maimed from 
 the battle, or mad from the tombs, their souls shall 
 surely yet sit, astonished, at His feet Who giveth peace. 
 Modern Painters, vol. v., ch. xii., 14-16. 
 
 Errors. 
 
 There are few of the errors against which I have to 
 warn my readers, into which I have not myself at some 
 time fallen. Of which errors, the chief, and cause of all 
 the rest, is the leaning on our own understanding ; the 
 thought that we can measure the hearts of our brethren, 
 Jer and judge of the ways of God. Of the hearts 
 
 xvu. 9. o f men, noble, yet ' deceitful above all things, 
 who can know them ? ' St. Mark's Rest, 67.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 75 
 
 Esdras. 
 
 v^ It chanced, this morning, as I sat down to finish my 
 preface, that I had, for my introductory reading, the 
 fifth chapter of the second book of Esdras ; in which, 
 though often read carefully before, I had never enough 
 noticed the curious verse ' Blood shall_drop out a Esdras 
 of wood, and the stone shall gfve his voice, and v - s- 
 the people shall be troubled.' Of which verse, so far 
 as I can gather the meaning from the context, and from 
 the rest of the chapter, the intent is, that in the time 
 spoken of by the prophet, which, if not our own, is one 
 exactly corresponding to it, the deadness of men to all 
 noble things shall be so great, that the sap of trees shall 
 be more truly blood, in God's sight, than their heart's 
 blood ; and the silence of men, in praise of all noble 
 things, so great, that the stones shall cry out, in God's 
 hearing, instead of their tongues ; and the rattling of the 
 shingle on the beach, and the roar of the rocks driven 
 by the torrent, be truer Te Deum than the thunder of all 
 their choirs. The writings of modern scientific prophets 
 teach us to anticipate a day when even these Psalm 
 lower voices shall be also silent ; and leaf cease 
 to wave, and stream to murmur, in the grasp of 
 an eternal cold. But it may be, that rather out 5. John 
 of the mouths of babes and sucklings a better *" *s- 
 peace may be promised to the redeemed Jeru- ? ech - 
 salem; and the strewn branches, and low-laid s Matt 
 stones, remain at rest at the gates of the city, x. s- 
 built in unity with herself, and saying with her human 
 voice, ' My King cometh.' Deucalion, Intro., pp. 6, 7. 
 
 Eternal Charity. 
 
 ' Charity never faileth ; but whether there be pro- 
 phecies they shall fail tongues, they shall c 
 cease knowledge, it shall vanish.' And the *iii. s. 
 one message they bear to us is the command- s. Matt, 
 ment of the Eternal Charity. 'Thou shalt "" 37 ~ 39 ' 
 love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and thy
 
 76 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 neighbour as thyself.' As thyself no more, even the 
 dearest of neighbours. ' Therefore let every man see 
 Ep k that he love his wife even as himself.' No 
 v -33- more else she has become an idol, not a 
 fellow-servant ; a creature between us and our Master. 
 On the Old Road, vol. i., part i., 248. 
 
 Evangelists, The Four. 
 
 An Evangelion is the voice of the Messenger, saying, 
 it is here. 
 
 And the four mystic Evangelists, under the figures of 
 living creatures, are not types merely of the men that 
 are to bring the Gospel message, but of the power of 
 that message in all Creation -so far as it was, and is, 
 spoken in all living things, and as the Word of God, 
 which is Christ, was present, and not merely prophesied, 
 in the Creatures of His hand. . . . 
 
 'QILEQUE SUB OBSCURIS 
 DE CRISTO DICTA FIGURIS 
 HIS APERIRE DATUR 
 ET IN HIS, DEUS IPSE NOTATUR.' 
 
 ' Whatever things under obscure figures have been 
 said of Christ, it is given to these ' (creatures) ' to open ; 
 and in these, Christ himself is seea' 
 
 A grave saying. Not in the least true of mere 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Christ was never 
 seen in them, though told of by them. But, as the 
 Word by which all things were made, He is seen in all 
 things made, and in the Poiesis of them : and therefore, 
 when the vision of Ezekiel is repeated to St. John, 
 changed only in that the four creatures are to him more 
 distinct each with its single aspect, and not each four- 
 fold, they are full of eyes within, and rest not 
 Rev. nr. a ^ nor n ight,_saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord 
 God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come.' 
 
 We repeat the words habitually, in our own most 
 solemn religious service ; but we repeat without noticing
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 77 
 
 out of whose mouths they come. ' Therefore,' (we say, 
 in much self-satisfaction,) ' with Angels and Archangels, 
 and with all the Company of heaven,' (meaning each of 
 us, I suppose, the select Company we expect to get into 
 there,) ' we laud and magnify,' etc. But it ought to 
 make a difference in our estimate of ourselves, and of 
 our power to say, with our hearts, that God is Holy, 
 if we remember that we join in saying so, not, for the 
 present, with the Angels, but with the Beasts. 
 
 Yet not with every manner of Beast ; for afterwards, 
 when all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth, Rev 
 and the Sea, join in the giving of praise, it is v - * 
 only these four who can say ' Amen.' 
 
 The Ox that treadeth out the corn ; and the Lion that 
 shall eat straw like the Ox, and lie down with the lamb ; 
 and the Eagle that fluttereth over her young; and the 
 human creature that loves its mate, and its children. 
 In these four is all the power and all the charity of 
 earthly life ; and in such power and charity ' Deus ipse 
 notatur.' . . . 
 
 ' SIC ACTUS CHRISTI 
 DESCRIBUNT QUATUOR ISTI 
 QUOD NEQUE NATURA 
 LITER NENT, NEC UTRINQUE FIGURA.' 
 
 'Thus do these four describe the Acts of Christ. 
 And weave his story, neither by natural knowledge, nor, 
 contrariwise, by any figure.' 
 
 Compare now the two inscriptions. In the living 
 creatures, Christ himself is seen by nature and by figure. 
 But these four tell us his Acts, ' Not by nature not by 
 figure.' How then ? You have had various ' lives of 
 Christ.' But there is only one light by which you can 
 read the life of Christ, the light of the life you now 
 lead in the flesh ; and that not the natural, 
 but the won life. ' Nevertheless, I live ; yet 
 not I, but Christ livelh in me.' S/. Mark's Rest, ch. 
 viii., 114, 121-7.
 
 78 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Evil Spirits. 
 
 Without any discussion as to the personal existence 
 or traditional character of evil spirits, you will find it a 
 practical fact, that external temptations and inevitable 
 trials of temper, have power against you which your 
 health and virtue depend on your resisting ; that, if not 
 resisted, the evil energy of them will pass into your 
 own heart, <j>p^v, or pyvis; and that the ordinary and 
 vulgarized phrase ' the Devil, or betraying Spirit, is in 
 him,' is the most scientifically accurate which you can 
 apply to any person so influenced. You will find also 
 that, in the compass of literature, the casting out of, or 
 cleansing from, such a state is best symbolized for you 
 by the image of one who had been wandering wild and 
 s. Luke naked among tombs, sitting still, clothed, and 
 via. 35. i n n i s right mind, and that in whatever literal 
 or figurative sense you receive the Biblical statement of 
 what followed, this is absolutely certain, that the herd of 
 swine hastening to their destruction, in perfect sympathy 
 with each other's fury, is the most accurate symbol ever 
 given, in literature, of consummate ac/yxxrvvTj. Eagle's 
 Nest, 69. 
 
 'Except ye be converted and become as little cb.il 
 dren.' 
 
 The first character of right childhood is that it is 
 Modest. A well-bred child does not think it can teach 
 its parents, or that it knows everything. It may think 
 its father and mother know everything perhaps that 
 all grown-up people know everything; very certainly 
 it is sure that it does not. And it is always asking 
 questions, and wanting to know more. Well, that is 
 the first character of a good and wise man at his 
 work. To know that he knows very little ; to perceive 
 that there are many above him wiser than he ; and 
 to be always asking questions, wanting to learn, not to 
 teach. No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, 
 or governs well who wants to govern ; it is an old saying
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 79 
 
 (Plato's, but I know not if his, first) and as wise as 
 old. 
 
 Then, the second character of right childhood is to 
 be Faithful. Perceiving that its father knows best what 
 is good for it, and having found always, when it has 
 tried its own way against his, that he was right and it 
 was wrong, a noble child trusts him at last wholly, gives 
 him its hand, and will walk blindfold with him, if he 
 bids it. And that is the true character of all good men 
 also, as obedient workers, or soldiers under captains. 
 They must trust their captains ; they are bound for 
 their lives to choose none but those whom they can 
 trust. Then, they are not always to be thinking that 
 what seems strange to them, or wrong in what 
 they are desired to do, is strange or wrong. They 
 know their captain : where he leads they must fol- 
 low, what he bids, they must do ; and without this 
 trust and faith, without this captainship and soldier- 
 ship, no great deed, no great salvation, is possible to 
 man. 
 
 Then, the third character of right childhood is to be 
 Loving. Give a little love to a child, and you get a 
 great deal back. It loves everything near it, when it 
 is a right kind of child; would hurt nothing, would 
 give the best it has away, always if you need it ; does 
 not lay plans for getting everything in the house for 
 itself: and, above all, delights in helping people; you 
 cannot please it so much as by giving it a chance of 
 being useful, in ever so humble a way. 
 
 And because of all these characters, lastly, it is 
 Cheerful. Putting its trust in its father, it is careful 
 for nothing being full of love to every creature, it is 
 happy always, whether in its play or its duty. Well, 
 that's the great worker's character also. Taking s Matt 
 no thought for the morrow ; taking thought vi 34- 
 only for the duty of the day ; trusting somebody else to 
 take care of to-morrow ; knowing indeed what labour 
 is, but not what sorrow is ; and always ready for play
 
 8o THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 beautiful play. For lovely human play is like the play 
 of the Sun. There's a worker for you. He, steady to 
 his time, is set as a strong man to run his course, but 
 Psalm a l so he rejoiceth as a strong man to run his 
 *** s- course. See how he plays in the morning, with 
 the mists below, and the clouds above, with a ray here, 
 and a flash there, and a shower of jewels everywhere ; 
 that's the Sun's play ; and great human play is like his 
 all various all full of light and life, and tender, as 
 the dew of the morning. 
 
 So then, you have the child's character in these 
 four things Humility, Faith, Charity and Cheerfulness, 
 s Matt That's what you have got to be converted 
 xviii. 3. t o> < Except ye be converted and become 
 as little children.' You hear much of conversion 
 nowadays : but people always seem to think they have 
 got to be made wretched by conversion, to be con- 
 verted to long faces. No, friends, you have got to 
 be converted to short ones; you have to repent into 
 childhood, to repent into delight, and delightsome- 
 ness. ... It is among children only, and as children 
 only, that you will find medicine for your healing and 
 Rom true wisdom for your teaching. There is poison 
 '3- in the counsels of the men of this world ; the 
 Isaiah words they speak are all bitterness, ' the poison 
 of asps is under their lips,' but 'the sucking 
 child shall play by the hole of the asp.' There is 
 Psalm death in the looks of men. f Their eyes are 
 x & privily set against the poor : ' they are as the 
 
 uncharmable serpent, the cockatrice, which slew by 
 Isaiah seeing. But ' the weaned child shall lay his 
 xi - 8 - hand on the cockatrice' den.' There is death 
 in the steps of men : ' their feet are swift to shed blood ; 
 Rom they have compassed us in our steps like the 
 m - '5 lion that is greedy of his prey, and the young 
 Isaiah non lurking in secret places ; ' but, in that 
 ** 6 - kingdom, the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, 
 and the falling with the lion, and 'a little child shall
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 81 
 
 lead them.' There is death in the thoughts of men : 
 the world is one wide riddle to them, darker and darker 
 as it draws to a close; but the secret of it is s Matt 
 known to the child, and the Lord of heaven and . 25. 
 earth is most to be thanked in that 'He has s. Luke 
 hidden these things from the wise and prudent, *' "' 
 and has revealed them unto babes.' Crown of Wild 
 Olive, 47-51. 
 
 Ezekiel's Vision, Altar-vault of St. Mark's. 
 
 Boy or girl, man or woman, of you, not one in a 
 thousand, if one, has ever, I am well assured, asked 
 what was the use of Ezekiel's Vision, either to Ezekiel, 
 or to anybody else; any more than I used to think, 
 myself, what St. Mark's was built for. 
 
 ' As I was among the Captives by the River of 
 Chebar, the Heavens were opened, and I saw Ezek. 
 visions of God.' L x- 
 
 (Fugitive at least, and all but captive, by the River 
 of the deep stream, the Venetians perhaps cared yet 
 to hear what he saw.) 
 
 ' In the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's captivity, 
 the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the 
 Priest.' 
 
 (We also we Venetians have our Pontifices ; we 
 also our King. May we not hear ?) 
 
 ' And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out 
 of the north, and a fire infolding itself. Also in the 
 midst thereof was x the likeness of Four living Creatures. 
 
 ' And this was the aspect of them ; the Likeness of 
 a Man was upon them. 
 
 1 And every one had four faces, and every one four 
 wings. And they had the hands of a Man under their 
 wings. And their wings were stretched upward, two 
 wings of every one were joined one to another, and 
 two covered their bodies. And when they went, I 
 heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great 
 J What alterations i make are from the Septuagint. 
 
 i* i i "' F
 
 82 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, 
 the noise of an Host.' 
 
 (To us in Venice, is not the noise of the great waters 
 known and the noise of an Host ? May we hear also 
 the voice of the Almighty ?) 
 
 ' And they went every one straight forward. Whither 
 the Spirit was to go, they went. And this was the 
 likeness of their faces : they four had the face of a 
 Man ' (to the front), ' and the face of a Lion on the 
 right side, and the face of an Ox on the left side, and ' 
 (looking back) ' the face of an Eagle.' 
 
 The face of Man ; and of the wild beasts of the earth, 
 and of the tame, and of the birds of the air. This was 
 the Vision of the Glory of the Lord. 
 
 ' And as I beheld the living creatures, behold, one 
 wheel upon the earth, by the living creatures, with his 
 four faces, . . . and their aspect, and their work, was 
 as a wheel in the midst of a wheel.' 
 
 Crossed, that is, the meridians of the four quarters of 
 the earth. (See Holbein's drawing of it in his Old 
 Testament series.) 
 
 ' And the likeness of the Firmament upon the heads 
 of the living creatures was as the colour of the terrible 
 crystal. 
 
 ' And there was a voice from the Firmament that 
 was over their heads, when they stood, and had let down 
 their wings. 
 
 ' And above the Firmament that was over their 
 heads was the likeness of a Throne; and upon the 
 likeness of the Throne was the likeness of the Aspect 
 of a Man above, upon it. 
 
 ' And from His loins round about I saw as it were 
 the appearance of fire; and it had brightness round 
 about, as the bow that is in the cloud in the day of 
 rain. This was the appearance of the likeness of the 
 Glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon 
 my face.' 
 
 Can any of us do the like or is it worth while?
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 83 
 
 ... Or is there, nowadays, no more anything for us 
 to be afraid of, or to be thankful for, in all the wheels, 
 and flame, and light, of earth and heaven ? 
 
 This that follows, after the long rebuke, is their 
 Evangelion. This the sum of the voice that speaks 
 in them. ' Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord, Ezek. 
 Though I have cast them far off among the *' l6 
 heathen, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in 
 the places whither they shall come. 
 
 ' And I will give them one heart ; and I will put 
 a new spirit within them ; and I will take the Ezek 
 stony heart out of their flesh, and will give xi - *9, m - 
 them a heart of flesh. That they may walk in my 
 statutes, and keep mine ordinances and do them, and 
 they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 
 
 ' Then did the Cherubims lift up their wings, and 
 the wheels beside them, and the glory of the Ezek. 
 God of Israel was over them above.' *' ** 
 
 That is the story of the Altar-vault of St. Mark's, 
 of which though much was gone, yet, when I was last 
 in Venice, much was left, wholly lovely and mighty. 
 The principal figure of the Throned Christ was indeed 
 for ever destroyed by the restorer ; but the surrounding 
 Prophets, and the Virgin in prayer, at least retained 
 so much of their ancient colour and expression as to 
 be entirely noble, if only one had nobility enough in 
 one's own thoughts to forgive the failure of any other 
 human soul to speak clearly what it had felt of most 
 divine. St. Mark's Rest, 115-18. 
 
 Faith. 
 
 Faith, whether we receive it in the sense of adherence 
 to resolution, obedience to law, regardfulness of pro- 
 mise, in which from all time it has been the test, as the 
 shield, of the true being and life of man ; or in the still 
 higher sense of trustfulness in the presence, kindness, 
 and word of God, in which form it has been exhibited 
 under the Christian dispensation. For, whether in one
 
 84 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 or other form, whether the faithfulness of men whose 
 path is chosen and portion fixed, in the following and 
 receiving of that path and portion, as in the Ther- 
 mopylae camp ; or the happier faithfulness of children 
 in the good giving of their Father, and of subjects in 
 Exod. the conduct of their King, as in the ' Stand 
 * iv '3 still and see the salvation of God ' of the Red 
 Sea shore, there is rest and peacefulness, the ' standing 
 still,' in both, the quietness of action determined, of 
 spirit unalarmed, of expectation unimpatient : beautiful 
 even when based only, as of old, on the self-command 
 and self-possession, the persistent dignity or the uncalcu- 
 lating love, of the creature ; but more beautiful yet when 
 the rest is one of humility instead of pride, and the trust 
 no more in the resolution we have taken, but in the hand 
 we hold. Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. vii., 4. 
 
 Fear of God. 
 
 Among the children of God, while there is always 
 that fearful and bowed apprehension of His majesty, 
 and that sacred dread of all offence to Him, which is 
 called the Fear of God, yet of real and essential fear there 
 
 is not any, but clinging of confidence to Him 
 xxii. as their Rock, Fortress, and Deliverer; and 
 s. John perfect love, and casting out of fear ; so that 
 
 it is not possible that, while the mind is rightly 
 bent on Him, there should be dread of anything either 
 earthly or supernatural; and the more dreadful seems 
 the height of His majesty, the less fear they feel that 
 _ , dwell in the shadow of it (' Of whom shall I 
 
 Psalm 
 
 xjcvii. i. be afraid ? '), so that they are as David was, 
 Psalm devoted to His fear ' ; whereas, on the other 
 vx " 3$ ' hand, those who, if they may help it, never con- 
 ceive of God, but thrust away all thought and memory 
 of Him, and in His real terribleness and omnipresence 
 fear him not nor know Him, yet are by real, acute, 
 piercing, and ignoble fear, haunted for evermore. 
 Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. xiv., 27.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 85 
 
 Firmament. 
 
 I understand the making of the firmament to signify 
 that, so far as man is concerned, most magnificent 
 ordinance of the clouds; the ordinance, that as the 
 great plain of waters was formed on the face of the 
 earth, so also a plain of waters should be stretched 
 along the height of air, and the face of the cloud answer 
 the face of the ocean ; and that this upper and heavenly 
 plain should be of waters, as it were, glorified in their 
 nature, no longer quenching the fire, but now bearing 
 fire in their own bosoms ; no longer murmuring only 
 when the winds raise them or rocks divide, but answer- 
 ing each other with their own voices from pole to pole ; 
 no longer restrained by established shores, and guided 
 through unchanging channels, but going forth at their 
 pleasure like the armies of the angels, and choosing 
 their encampments upon the heights of the hills; no 
 longer hurried downwards for ever, moving but to fall, 
 nor lost in the lightless accumulation of the abyss, but 
 covering the east and west with the waving of their 
 wings, and robing the gloom of the farther infinite with 
 a vesture of divers colours, of which the threads are 
 purple and scarlet, and the embroideries flame. 
 
 This, I believe, is the ordinance of the firmament; 
 and it seems to me that in the midst of the material 
 nearness of these heavens God means us to acknowledge 
 His own immediate presence as visiting, judging, and 
 blessing us. 'The earth shook, the heavens Psalm 
 also dropped, at the presence of God.' ' He i*viii. . 
 doth set His bow in the cloud,' and thus Gen. 
 renews, in the sound of every drooping swathe ** I3 ' 
 of rain, His promises of everlasting love. ' In them hath 
 He set a tabernacle for the sun ; ' whose burning psain, 
 ball, which without the firmament would be x ' x - * 
 seen but as an intolerable and scorching circle in the 
 blackness of vacuity, is by that firmament surrounded 
 with gorgeous service, and tempered by mediatorial 
 ministries; by the firmament of clouds the golden
 
 86 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 pavement is spread for his chariot wheels at morning ; 
 by the firmament of clouds the temple is built for his 
 presence to fill with light at noon ; by the firmament of 
 clouds the purple veil is closed at evening round the 
 sanctuary of his rest ; by the mists of the firmament his 
 implacable light is divided, and its separated fierceness 
 appeased into the soft blue that fills the depth of 
 distance with its bloom, and the flush with which the 
 mountains burn as they drink the overflowing of the 
 dayspring. And in this tabernacling of the unendurable 
 sun with men, through the shadows of the firmament, 
 God would seem to set forth the stooping of His own 
 majesty to men, upon the throne of the firmament. As 
 the Creator of all the worlds, and the Inhabiter of 
 eternity, we cannot behold Him ; but, as the Judge of 
 the earth and the Preserver of men, those heavens 
 S. Matt. are indeed His dwelling-place. ' Swear not, 
 v. 34, as- neither by heaven, for it is God's throne ; nor 
 by the earth, for it is His footstool.' And all those 
 passings to and fro of fruitful shower and grateful shade, 
 and all those visions of silver palaces built about the 
 horizon, and voices of moaning winds and threatening 
 S. Matt, thunders, and glories of coloured robe and 
 vi - 9- cloven ray, are but to deepen in our hearts the 
 s. Luke acceptance, and distinctness, and dearness of 
 the simple words, ' Our Father, which art in 
 heaven.' Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. vi., 8, 9. 
 
 Forgiveness. 
 
 Mercy misericordia : it does not in the least mean 
 forgiveness of sins, it means pity of sorrows. In that 
 very instance which the Evangelicals are so fond of 
 quoting the adultery of David it is not the Passion 
 for which he is to be judged, but the want of Passion, 
 the want of Pity. This he is to judge himself for, by 
 > Sam. his own mouth : 'As the Lord liveth, the 
 xii. s, 6. man that hath done this thing shall surely die, 
 because he hath done this thing, and because he had
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 87 
 
 no pity.' And you will find, alike throughout the record 
 of the Law and the promises of the Gospel, that there is, 
 indeed, forgiveness with God, and Christ, for the passing 
 sins of the hot heart, but none for the eternal and in- 
 herent sin of the cold. ' Blessed are the merci- s Matt 
 ful, for they shall obtain mercy ; ' find it you v - ? 
 written anywhere that the unmerciful shall ? ' Her sins, 
 which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.' s Luke, 
 But have you record of any one's sins being for- vii - *? 
 given who loved not at all? Fors Clavigera, Letter XLII. 
 
 Garden of Eden, The. 
 
 ' To dress it and to keep it.' Gen. ii. 15. 
 
 That, then, was to be our work. Alas ! what work 
 have we set ourselves upon instead ! How have we 
 ravaged the garden instead of kept it feeding our 
 war-horses with its flowers, and splintering its trees into 
 spear-shafts. 
 
 ' And at the East a flaming sword.' Gen. 
 
 Is its flame quenchless ? and are those gates Ui - ** 
 that keep the way indeed passable no more ? Or is it 
 not rather that we no more desire to enter ? For what 
 can we conceive of that first Eden which we might not 
 yet win back, if we chose ? It was a place full of flowers, 
 we say. Well : the flowers are always striving to grow 
 wherever we suffer them ; and the fairer, the closer. 
 There may, indeed, have been a Fall of Flowers, as a 
 Fall of Man ; but assuredly creatures such as we are 
 can now fancy nothing lovelier than roses and lilies, 
 which would grow for us side by side, leaf overlapping 
 leaf, till the Earth was white and red with them, if we 
 cared to have it so. And Paradise was full of pleasant 
 shades and fruitful avenues. Well : what hinders us 
 from covering as much of the world as we like with 
 pleasant shade, and pure blossom, and goodly fruit? 
 Who forbids its valleys to be covered over with p sa ] m 
 corn till they laugh and sing ? Who prevents bcv - '3 
 its dark forests, ghostly and uninhabitable, from being
 
 88 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 changed into infinite orchards, wreathing the hills with 
 frail-floreted snow, far away to the half-lighted horizon 
 of April, and flushing the face of all the autumnal earth 
 with glow of clustered food ? But Paradise was a place 
 of peace, we say, and all the animals were gentle servants 
 to us. Well : the world would yet be a place of peace 
 if we were all peacemakers, and gentle service should 
 we have of its creatures if we gave them gentle mastery. 
 But so long as we make sport of slaying bird and beast, 
 so long as we choose to contend rather with our fel- 
 lows than with our faults, and make battlefields of our 
 Gen. meadows instead of pasture so long, truly, the 
 ill. 24. Flaming Sword will still turn every way, and 
 the gates of Eden remain barred close enough, till we 
 have sheathed the sharper flame of our own passions, 
 and broken down the closer gates of our own hearts. 
 I have been led to see and feel this more and more, as 
 I considered the service which the flowers and trees, 
 which man was at first appointed to keep, were intended 
 to render to him in return for his care ; and the services 
 they still render to him, as far as he allows their influ- 
 ence, or fulfils his own task towards them. Modern 
 Painters, vol. v. Pt. vi. ch. i., i, 2. 
 
 When we speak carelessly of the traditions respecting 
 the Garden of Eden, (or in Hebrew, remember, Garden of 
 Delight) we are apt to confuse Milton's descriptions with 
 those in the book of Genesis. Milton fills his Paradise 
 with flowers ; but no flowers are spoken of in Genesis. We 
 may indeed conclude that in speaking of every herb of 
 the field, flowers are included. But they are not named. 
 The things that are named in the Garden of Delight are 
 trees only. The words are, 'every tree that 
 was pleasant to the sight and good for food ; ' 
 and as if to mark the idea more strongly for us in the 
 Septuagint, even the ordinary Greek word for tree is 
 not used, but the word %v\ov, literally, every ' wood,' 
 every piece of timber that was pleasant or good. They 
 are indeed the 'vivi travi,' living rafters, of Dante's
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 89 
 
 Apennine. Do you remember how those trees were 
 said to be watered ? Not by the four rivers only. The 
 rivers could not supply the place of rain. No rivers 
 do ; for in truth they are the refuse of rain. No storm- 
 clouds were there, hidings of the blue by darkening 
 veil ; but there went up a mist from the earth, 
 and watered the face of the ground, or, as in 
 Septuagint and Vulgate, 'There went forth a fountain 
 from the earth, and gave the earth to drink.' 
 
 And now, lastly, we continually think of that Garden 
 of Delight, as if it existed, or could exist, no longer; 
 wholly forgetting that it is spoken of in Scripture as 
 perpetually existent ; and some of its fairest trees as 
 existent also, or only recently destroyed. When Ezekiel 
 is describing to Pharaoh the greatness of the Assyrians, 
 do you remember what image he gives of them ? ' Be- 
 hold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with Ez k 
 fair branches ; and his top was among the xxxi. 3, 
 thick boughs; the waters nourished him, and 4 ' 6 ' 
 the deep brought him up, with her rivers running round 
 about his plants. Under his branches did all the beasts 
 of the field bring forth their young; and under his 
 shadow dwelt all great nations.' 
 
 Now hear what follows. ' The cedars in the Garden 
 of God could not hide him. The fir trees were Ezek. 
 not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were xjuci - * 
 not like his branches : nor any tree in the Garden of 
 God was like unto him in beauty.' 
 
 So that you see, whenever a nation rises into con- 
 sistent, vital, and, through many generations, enduring 
 power, there is still the Garden of God; still it is the 
 water of life which feeds the roots of it ; and R CV . 
 still the succession of its people is imaged by xxii - * * 
 the perennial leafage of trees of Paradise. Could this 
 be said of Assyria, and shall it not be said of England ? 
 How much more, of lives such as ours should be, just, 
 laborious, united in aim, beneficent in fulfilment, may 
 the image be used of the leaves of the trees of Eden !
 
 90 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Other symbols have been given often to show the evan- 
 escence and slightness of our lives the foam upon the 
 water, the grass on the housetop, the vapour that van- 
 ishes away ; yet none of these are images of true human 
 life. That life, when it is real, is not evanescent ; is not 
 slight; does not vanish away. Every noble life leaves 
 the fibre of it interwoven for ever in the work of the 
 world; by so much, evermore, the strength of the 
 human race has gained; more stubborn in the root, 
 Isaiah higher towards heaven in the branch ; and ' as 
 vi - *3- a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is 
 in them when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed 
 is in the midst thereof.' 
 
 Only remember on what conditions. In the great 
 Psalm Psalm of life, we are told that everything that 
 1 x > a man doeth shall prosper, so only that he 
 delight in the law of his God, that he hath not walked 
 in the counsel of the wicked, nor sat in the seat of the 
 scornful. Is it among these leaves of the perpetual 
 Rev. Spring, helpful leaves for the healing of the 
 xxii. . nations, that we mean to have our part and 
 place, or rather among the ' brown skeletons of leaves 
 that lag, the forest brook along ' ? For other leaves 
 there are, and other streams that water them, not water 
 of life, but water of Acheron. Autumnal leaves there 
 are that strew the brooks, in Vallombrosa. Remember 
 you how the name of the place was changed : ' Once 
 called " Sweet water " (Aqua bella), now, the Shadowy 
 Vale.' Portion in one or other name we must choose, 
 all of us, with the living olive, by the living fountains 
 of waters, or with the wild fig trees, whose leafage of 
 human soul is strewed along the brooks of death, in the 
 eternal Vallombrosa. Proserpina, ch. iii., 29-32. 
 
 Gift of God's Unchangeable Mercy, The. 
 i Sam David, ruddy and of a fair countenance, with 
 
 xvii. 4*. the brook stone of deliverance in his hand, 
 is not more ideal than David leaning on the old age
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 91 
 
 of Barzillai, returning chastened to his kingly home. 
 And they who are as the angels of God in hea- 3 Sam 
 ven, yet cannot be conceived as so assimilated xi * 3*-39- 
 that their different experiences and affections upon 
 earth shall then be forgotten and effectless; the child 
 taken early to his place cannot be imagined to wear 
 there such a body, nor to have such thoughts, as the 
 glorified apostle who has finished his course and kept 
 the faith on earth. And so whatever perfections and 
 likeness of love we may attribute to either the tried or 
 the crowned creatures, there is the difference of x Cor 
 the stars in glory among them yet ; differences xv - 4 1 - 
 of original gifts, though not of occupying till their Lord 
 come, different dispensations of trial and of trust, of 
 sorrow and support, both in their own inward, variable 
 hearts, and in their positions of exposure or of peace, 
 of the gourd shadow and the smiting sun, of Jonah 
 calling at heat of day or eleventh hour, of the iv. 6-8. 
 house unroofed by faith, or the clouds opened s. Mark. 
 by revelation ; differences in warning, in " 4- 
 mercies, in sicknesses, in signs, in time of calling to 
 account ; alike only they all are, by that which s Matt 
 is not of them, but the gift of God's unchange- ** x - 
 able mercy. ' I will give unto this last even as unto 
 thee.' Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. xiv., 10. 
 
 Gift of ^ 
 
 Whenever a nation is in its right mind, it always has 
 a deep sense of divinity in the gift of rain from heaven, 
 filling its heart with food and gladness; and all the 
 more when that gift becomes gentle and perennial in the 
 flowing of springs. It literally is not possible that any 
 fruitful power of the Muses should be put forth upon a 
 people which disdains their Helicon ; still less is Gen 
 it possible that any Christian nation should grow **" I0 > " 
 up ' tanquam lignum quod plantatum est secus Gen 
 decursus aquarum,' which cannot recognize the xxix - * 
 lesson meant in their being told of the places where
 
 92 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Rebekah was met; where Rachel, where Zipporah, 
 Exod. and she who was asked for water under Mount 
 u- 15. i ; Gerizim by a Stranger, weary, who had nothing 
 IT. 6, 7. to draw with. Lectures on Art, 1 1 8. 
 
 Gifts to the Church. 
 
 It is not the church we want, but the sacrifice ; not 
 the emotion of admiration, but the act of adoration ; 
 not the gift, but the giving. And see how much more 
 charity the full understanding of this might admit, 
 among classes of men of naturally opposite feelings; 
 and how much more nobleness in the work. There 
 is no need to offend by importunate, self-proclaimant 
 splendour. Your gift may be given in an unpresuming 
 way. Cut one or two shafts out of a porphyry whose 
 preciousness those only would know who would desire 
 it to be so used; add another month's labour to the 
 under-cutting of a few capitals, whose delicacy will not 
 be seen nor loved by one beholder of ten thousand ; see 
 that the simplest masonry of the edifice be perfect and 
 substantial ; and to those who regard such things, their 
 witness will be clear and impressive; to those who 
 regard them not, all will at least be inoffensive. But do 
 not think the feeling itself a folly, or the act itself use- 
 less. Of what use was that dearly bought water of the 
 i Chron. we ^ f Bethlehem, with which the King of 
 . 17, is. i sr ael slaked the dust of Adullam ? yet was it 
 not thus better than if he had drunk it ? Of what use 
 was that passionate act of Christian sacrifice, against 
 which, first uttered by the false tongue, the very objec- 
 tion we would now conquer took a sullen tone for ever ? 
 s. John So also let us not ask of what use our offering 
 *" s is to the church : it is at least better for us 
 than if it had been retained for ourselves. It may be 
 better for others also : there is, at any rate, a chance of 
 this ; though we must always fearfully and widely shun 
 the thought that the magnificence of the temple can 
 materially add to the efficiency of the worship or to the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 93 
 
 power of the ministry. Whatever we do, or whatever 
 we offer, let it not interfere with the simplicity of the 
 one, or abate, as if replacing, the zeal of the other. . . . 
 God never forgets any work or labour of love ; and 
 whatever it may be of which the first and best portions 
 or powers have been presented to Him, He will multiply 
 and increase sevenfold. Seven Lamps of Architecture, 
 ch. i., viii., ix. 
 
 Glory of God. 
 
 Man's use and function (and let him who will not 
 grant me this, follow me no farther, for this I purpose 
 always to assume) are, to be the witness of the glory of 
 God, and to advance that glory by his reasonable obedi- 
 ence and resultant happiness. 
 
 Whatever enables us to fulfil this function is, in the 
 pure and first sense of the word, Useful to us : pre-emi- 
 nently, therefore, whatever sets the glory of God more 
 brightly before us. But things that only help us to exist 
 are, (only} in a secondary and mean sense, useful ; or 
 rather, if they be looked for alone, they are useless, and 
 worse, for it would be better that we should not exist, than 
 that we should guiltily disappoint the purposes of existence. 
 
 And yet people speak in this working age, when they 
 speak from their hearts, as if houses and lands, and food 
 and raiment were alone useful, and as if Sight, Thought, 
 and Admiration were all profitless, so that men insolently 
 call themselves Utilitarians, who would turn, if they had 
 their way, themselves and their race into vegetables ; men 
 who think, as far as such can be said to think, that s Matt 
 the meat is more than the life, and the raiment vi. 25. 
 than the body, who look to the earth as a stable, s. Luke 
 and to its fruit as fodder ; vine-dressers and *"' 23- 
 husbandmen, who love the corn they grind, and the 
 grapes they crush, better than the gardens of the angels 
 upon the slopes of Eden; hewers of wood j os h. 
 and drawers of water, who think that it is to ** " 
 give them wood to hew and water to draw, that the
 
 94 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 pine-forests cover the mountains like the shadow of 
 God, and the great rivers move like His eternity. And 
 so comes upon us that Woe of the preacher, that though 
 Eccie. God ' hath made everything beautiful in His 
 m - " time, also He hath set the world in their heart, 
 so that no man can find out the work that God maketh 
 from the beginning to the end.' Modern Painters, vol. ii., 
 sec. i., ch. i., 4, 5. 
 
 God of Light. 
 
 Do you think the words, ' Light of the World ' 
 s. John mean only ' Teacher or Guide of the World ' ? 
 via. xa ; When the Sun of Justice is said to rise with 
 health in its wings, do you suppose the image 
 Mai. iv. a. on i v m eans the correction of error ? Or does 
 it even mean so much ? The Light of Heaven is 
 S. John needed to do that perfectly. But what we are 
 ' 9- to pray for is the Light of the World; nay, 
 
 the Light ' that lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world. ' 
 
 You will find that it is no metaphor nor has it ever 
 been so. 
 
 To the Persian, the Greek, and the Christian, the 
 sense of the power of the God of Light has been one 
 and the same. That power is not merely in teaching or 
 protecting, but in the enforcement of purity of body, and 
 of equity or justice in the heart ; and this, observe, not 
 heavenly purity, nor final justice; but, now, and here, 
 actual purity in the midst of the world's foulness, 
 practical justice in the midst of the world's iniquity. 
 And the physical strength of the organ of sight, the 
 physical purity of the flesh, the actual love of sweet 
 light and stainless colour, are the necessary signs, real, 
 inevitable, and visible, of the prevailing presence, with 
 any nation, or in any house, of the ' Light that lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world.' Eagle's Nest,
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 95 
 
 God speaking to Man. 
 
 The greater number of the words which are recorded 
 in Scripture, as directly spoken to men by the lips of 
 the Deity, are either simple revelations of His law, or 
 special threatenings, commands, and promises relating 
 to special events. But two passages of God's speaking, 
 one in the Old and one in the New Testament, possess, 
 it seems to me, a different character from any of the 
 rest, having been uttered, the one to effect the last 
 necessary change in the mind of a man whose piety 
 was in other respects perfect; and the other, as the 
 first statement to all men of the principles of Chris- 
 tianity by Christ Himself I mean the 38th to 4ist 
 chapters of the book of Job, and the Sermon on the 
 Mount. Now the first of these passages is, from be- 
 ginning to end, nothing else than a direction of the 
 mind which was to be perfected to humble observance 
 of the works of God in nature. And the other consists 
 only in the inculcation of three things : ist, right con- 
 duct; 2nd, looking for eternal life; 3rd, trusting God, 
 through watchfulness of His dealings with His creation : 
 and the entire contents of the book of Job, and of the 
 Sermon on the Mount, will be found resolvable simply 
 into these three requirements from all men, that they 
 should act rightly, hope for heaven, and watch God's 
 wonders and work in the earth ; the right conduct being 
 always summed up under the three heads of justice, mercy, 
 and truth, and no mention of any doctrinal point what- 
 soever occurring in either piece of divine teaching. 
 Modern Painters, vol. iii., ch. xvii., 33. 
 
 God's Communications of Truth to Men. 
 
 It is to be noted that it is neither by us ascertainable 
 what moments of pure feeling or aspiration may occur 
 to men of minds apparently cold and lost, nor by us to 
 be pronounced through what instruments, and in what 
 strangely occurrent voices, God may choose to commu- 
 nicate good to men. It seems to me that much of what
 
 96 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 is great, and to all men beneficial, has been wrought by 
 those who neither intended nor knew the good they did; 
 and that many mighty harmonies have been discoursed 
 by instruments that had been dumb or discordant, but 
 that God knew their stops. The Spirit of Prophecy con- 
 sisted with the avarice of Balaam, and the disobedience 
 of Saul. Could we spare from its page that parable, 
 Num. which he said, who saw the vision of the Al- 
 xxiv. 4-16. mighty, falling into a trance ; but having his 
 eyes open; though we know that the sword of his 
 punishment was then sharp in its sheath beneath him 
 i Sam. i n the plains of Moab ? or shall we not lament 
 i. x. with David over the shield, cast away on the 
 Gilboa mountains, of him to whom God gave another 
 heart that day, when he turned his back to go from 
 Samuel? It is not our part to look hardly, nor to 
 look always, to the character or the deeds of men, but 
 to accept from all of them, and to hold fast, that which 
 we can prove good, and feel to be ordained for us. We 
 know that whatever good there is in them is itself divine; 
 and wherever we see the virtue of ardent labour and 
 self-surrendering to a single purpose, wherever we find 
 constant reference made to the written scripture of 
 natural beauty, this at least we know is great and good ; 
 this we know is not granted by the counsel of God 
 without purpose, nor maintained without result : their 
 interpretation we may accept, into their labour we may 
 enter, but they themselves must look to it, if what they 
 do has no intent of good, nor any reference to the Giver 
 of all gifts. Selfish in their industry, unchastened in 
 their wills, ungrateful for the Spirit that is upon them, 
 S. James they may yet be helmed by that Spirit whither- 
 "' * soever the Governor listeth ; involuntary in- 
 struments they may become of others' good ; unwillingly 
 they may bless Israel, doubtingly discomfort Amalek; 
 but short-coming there will be of their glory, and sure, 
 of their punishment. Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., 
 ch. xv., 8.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 97 
 
 Good and Evil. 
 
 Where chiefly the beauty of God's working was mani- 
 fested to men, warning was also given, and that to the 
 full, of the enduring of His indignation against sin. It 
 seems one of the most cunning and frequent of self- 
 deceptions to turn the heart away from this warning, 
 and refuse to acknowledge anything in the fair scenes 
 of the natural creation but beneficence. Men in general 
 lean towards the light, so far as they contemplate such 
 things at all, most of them passing ' by on the 3. Luke 
 other side,' either in mere plodding pursuit of * 3. & 
 their own work, irrespective of what good or evil is 
 around them, or else in selfish gloom, or selfish delight, 
 resulting from their own circumstances at the" moment. 
 Of those who give themselves to any true contempla- 
 tion, the plurality, being humble, gentle, and kindly 
 hearted, look only in nature for what is lovely and kind ; 
 partly, also, God gives the disposition to every healthy 
 human mind in some degree to pass over or even harden 
 itself against evil things, else the suffering would be too 
 great to be borne; and humble people, with a quiet 
 trust that everything is for the best, do not fairly repre- 
 sent the facts to themselves, thinking them none of 
 their business. So, what between hard-hearted people, 
 thoughtless people, busy people, humble people, and 
 cheerfully-minded people, giddiness of youth, and pre- 
 occupations of age, philosophies of faith, and cruelties 
 of folly, priest and Levite, masquer and merchantman, 
 all agreeing to ke"qf their own side of the way, the evil 
 that God sends to warn us gets to be forgotten, and the 
 evil that He sends to be mended by us gets left un- 
 mended. And then, because people shut their eyes to 
 the dark indisputableness of the facts in front of them, 
 their Faith, such as it is, is shaken or uprooted by every 
 darkness in what is revealed to them. In the present 
 day it is not easy to find a well-meaning man among 
 our more earnest thinkers, who will not take upon him- 
 self to dispute the whole system of redemption, because 
 
 G
 
 98 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 he cannot unravel the mystery of the punishment of sin. 
 But can he unravel the mystery of NO sin ? ... 
 
 We cannot reason of these things. But this I know 
 and this may by all men be known that no good 
 or lovely thing exists in this world without its correspon- 
 dent darkness ; and that the universe presents itself con- 
 tinually to mankind under the stern aspect of warning, or 
 of choice, the good and the evil set on the right hand and 
 the left. Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. xix., 32, 33. 
 
 I understand not the most dangerous, because most 
 attractive form of modern infidelity, which, pretending 
 to exalt the beneficence of the Deity, degrades it into a 
 reckless infinitude of mercy, and blind obliteration of 
 the work of sin : and which does this chiefly by dwelling 
 on the manifold appearances of God's kindness on the 
 face of creation. Such kindness is indeed everywhere 
 and always visible; but not alone. Wrath and threatening 
 are invariably mingled with the love ; and in the utmost 
 solitudes of nature, the existence of Hell seems to me as 
 legibly declared by a thousand spiritual utterances, as 
 that of Heaven. It is well for us to dwell with thank- 
 fulness on the unfolding of the flower, and the falling of 
 the dew, and the sleep of the green fields in the sun- 
 shine; but the blasted trunk, the barren rock, the 
 moaning of the bleak winds, the roar of the black, 
 perilous, merciless whirlpools of the mountain streams, 
 the solemn solitudes of moors and seas, the continual 
 fading of all beauty into darkness, and of all strength 
 into dust, have these no language for us ? We may seek 
 to escape their teaching by reasonings touching the good 
 which is wrought out of all evil; but it is vain sophistry. 
 The good succeeds to the evil as day succeeds the night, 
 Deut. but so also the evil to the good. Gerizim and 
 xi - * Ebal, birth and death, light and darkness, 
 heaven and hell, divide the existence of man, and his 
 Futurity. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. iii., XLII.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 99 
 
 Goodwill to men. 
 
 In the passage, so often read by us, which announces 
 the advent of Christianity as the dawn of peace on earth, 
 we habitually neglect great part of the promise, owing to 
 the false translation of the second clause of the sentence. 
 I cannot understand how it should be still needful to 
 point out to you here in Oxford that neither the Greek 
 words ' ev dvOpioTTOLg euSoKia,' nor those of the Vulgate, 
 'in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis,' in the slightest 
 degree justify our English words, ' good will to men.' 
 Of God's goodwill to men, and to all creatures, for ever, 
 there needed no proclamation by angels. But that men 
 should be able to please Him, that their wilte should 
 be made holy, and they should not only possess peace 
 in themselves, but be able to give joy to their God, in 
 the sense in which He afterwards is pleased with His 
 own baptized Son ; this was a new thing for angels to 
 declare, and for shepherds to believe.' " 
 
 And the error was made yet more fatal by its repetition 
 in a passage of parallel importance, the thanksgiving, 
 namely, offered by Christ, that His Father, while He had 
 hidden what it was best to know, not from the c ,. ,. 
 
 S. Matt. 
 
 wise and prudent, but from some among the wise . 25. *6. 
 and prudent, and had revealed it unto babes ; not s. Luke 
 ' for so it seemed good ' in His sight, but ' that x " 
 these might be well pleasing in his sight,' Heb. 
 namely, that the wise and simple might equally x 
 live in the necessary knowledge, and enjoyed presence, 
 of God. And if, having accurately read these vital pas- 
 sages, you then as carefully consider the tenour of the two 
 songs of human joy in the birth of Christ, the Magnificat, 
 and the Nunc Dimittis, you will find the theme of both to 
 be, not the newness of blessing, but the equity which dis- 
 appoints the cruelty and humbles the strength of s Luke 
 men ; which scatters the proud in the imagina- s*. 
 tion of their hearts ; which fills the hungry with s. Luke 
 good things; and is not only the glory of Israel, IL 3 *- 
 but the light of the Gentiles. Val cTArno, 253-54.
 
 ioo THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Gospel, or Divine Facts. 
 
 What the natural or divine facts of the universe are; 
 what God is, or what His work has been, or shall be, 
 no man has ever yet known, nor has any wise man ever 
 attempted, but as a child, to discover. But the utmost 
 reach both towards the reality and the love of all things 
 yet granted to human intellect, has been granted to the 
 thinkers and the workmen who have trusted in the 
 teaching of Christ, and in the spiritual help of the 
 mortals who have tried to serve Him. And the strength, 
 and joy, and height of achievement, of any group or 
 race of mankind has, from the day of Christ's nativity 
 to this hour, been in exact proportion to their power of 
 apprehending, and honesty in obeying the truth of His 
 Gospel. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. v., vn. 
 
 Gospel Teaching. 
 
 (Are you not bid to go into all the world and preach 
 it to every creature? (I should myself think the 
 clergymarf- most likely to do good who accepted the 
 Trdo-r) rfj KTrei so literally as at least to sympathize 
 with ST. Francis' sermon to the birds, and to feel 
 that feeding either sheep or fowls, or unmuzzling the 
 S. John ox > or keeping the wrens alive in the snow, 
 xxi. 16, 17. would be received by their Heavenly Feeder 
 
 I as the perfect fulfilment of His ' Feed my sheep ' in the 
 
 ( higher sense.) 1 . . . 
 
 I want only to put the sterner question before your 
 council, how this Gospel is to be preached either ' irav- 
 raxov ' or to ' iravra TO. tdvij,' if first its preachers have 
 not determined quite clearly what it is ? And might not 
 such definition, acceptable to the entire body of the 
 Church of Christ, be arrived at by merely explaining, 
 in their completeness and life, the terms of the Lord's 
 S. Matt. Prayer the first words taught to children all 
 **' 9- over the Christian world ? . . . My meaning, 
 in saying that the Lord's Prayer might be made a 
 
 1 'Arrows of the Chase,' ii., 209, 184.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 101 
 
 foundation of Gospel-teaching, was not that it contained 
 all that Christian ministers have to teach; but that it 
 contains what all Christians are agreed upon as first to 
 be taught; and that no good parish-working pastor in 
 any district of the world but would be glad to take his 
 part in making it clear and living to his congregation. 
 And the first clause of it, of course rightly explained, 
 gives us the ground of what is surely a mighty part of 
 the Gospel its ' first and great commandment,' namely, 
 that we have a Father whom we can love, and are 
 required to love, and to desire to be with Him in 
 Heaven, wherever that may be. And to declare that 
 we have such a loving Father, whose mercy is 
 over all His works, and whose will and law is cxiv. 9. 
 so lovely and lovable that it is sweeter than p sa ini 
 honey, and more precious than gold, to those xix - I0 - 
 who can ' taste ' and ' see ' that the Lord is Psalm 
 Good this, surely, is a most pleasant and 
 glorious good message and spell to bring to men as 
 distinguished from the evil message and accursed spell 
 that Satan has brought to the nations of the world 
 instead of it, that they have no Father, but only 'a 
 consuming fire ' ready to devour them, unless Heb 
 they are delivered from its raging flame by some *" 2 9- 
 scheme of pardon for all, for which they are to be 
 thankful, not to the Father, but to the Son. Suppos- 
 ing this first article of the true Gospel agreed to, how 
 would the blessing that closes the epistles of that 
 Gospel become intelligible and living, instead of dark 
 and dead : ' The grace of Christ, and the love a c or . 
 of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost,' *" '4- 
 the most tender word being that used of the Father ? 
 On the Old Road, vol. ii., 227-29. 
 
 ide o 
 
 "Grass of the Field." 
 
 Gather a single blade of grass, and examine for a 
 minute, quietly, its narrow sword-shaped strip of fluted 
 green. Nothing, as it seems there, of notable goodness
 
 102 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 or beauty. A very little strength, and a very little tall- 
 ness, and a few delicate long lines meeting in a point, 
 not a perfect point neither, but blunt and unfinished, by 
 no means a creditable or apparently much cared-for 
 example of Nature's workmanship; made, as it seems, 
 s. Luke on ty to ke trodden on to-day, and to-morrow 
 ' z8 - to be cast into the oven ; and a little pale and 
 hollow stalk, feeble and flaccid, leading down to the dull 
 brown fibres of roots. And yet, think of it well, and 
 judge whether of all the gorgeous flowers that beam in 
 summer air, and of all strong and goodly trees, pleasant 
 to the eyes or good for food, stately palm and pine, 
 strong ash and oak, scented citron, burdened vine, 
 there be any by man so deeply loved, by God so highly 
 graced, as that narrow point of feeble green. It seems 
 to me not to have been without a peculiar significance, 
 that our Lord, when about to work the miracle which, 
 of all that He showed, appears to have been felt by the 
 multitude as the most impressive, the miracle of the 
 loaves, commanded the people to sit down by com- 
 s. Mark panics ' upon the green grass.' He was about 
 vi - 39- to feed them with the principal produce of earth 
 and the sea, the simplest representations of the food of 
 mankind. He gave them the seed of the herb ; He bade 
 them sit down upon the herb itself, which was as great 
 a gift, in its fitness for their joy and rest, as its perfect 
 fruit, for their sustenance; thus, in this single order 
 and act, when rightly understood, indicating for ever- 
 more how the Creator had entrusted the comfort, con- 
 solation, and sustenance of man, to the simplest and 
 most despised of all the leafy families of the earth. 
 And well does it fulfil its mission. Consider what we 
 owe merely to the meadow grass, to the covering of the 
 dark ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies 
 of those soft, and countless, and peaceful spears. . . . 
 Look up towards the higher hills, where the waves of ever- 
 lasting green roll silently into their long inlets among the 
 shadows of the pines, and we may, perhaps, at last know
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 103 
 
 the meaning of those quiet words of the i47th Psalm, 
 ' He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.' . . . 
 
 From Isaiah xl. 6, we find the grass and flowers are 
 types, in their passing, of the passing of human life, and, 
 in their excellence, of the excellence of human life ; and 
 this in twofold way ; first, by their Beneficence, and then, 
 by their Endurance : the grass of the earth, in giving the 
 seed of corn, and in its beauty under tread of foot and 
 stroke of scythe ; and the grass of the waters, in giving its 
 freshness to our rest, and in its bending before the wave. 
 
 So also in Isaiah xxxv. 7, the prevalence of righteousness 
 and peace over all evil is thus foretold. ' In the habitation 
 of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and 
 rushes.' Modern Painters, vol. iii., ch. xiv., 51-53. 
 
 Grass Reeds and Hushes. 
 
 But understood in the broad human and Divine sense, 
 the ' herb yielding seed ' (as opposed to the 
 fruit-tree yielding fruit) includes a third family 
 of plants, and fulfils a third office to the human race. 
 It includes the great family of the lints and flaxes, and 
 fulfils thus the three offices of giving food, raiment, and 
 rest. Follow out this fulfilment ; consider the associa- 
 tion of the linen garment and the linen embroidery, with 
 the priestly office, and the furniture of the Tabernacle ; 
 and consider how the rush has been, in all time, the 
 first natural carpet thrown under the human foot. Then 
 next observe the three virtues definitely set forth by 
 the three families of plants ; not arbitrarily or fancifully 
 associated with them, but in all the three cases marked 
 for us by Scriptural words : 
 
 i st. Cheerfulness, or joyful serenity; in the grass for 
 food and beauty. ' Consider the lilies of the 3. Matt, 
 field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do vi - a8 - 
 
 theV S P in '' Isaiah 
 
 2nd. Humility; in the grass for rest. 'A xlii i3- 
 bruised reed shall He not break.' x u. 2* 
 
 3rd. Love; in the grass for clothing (because
 
 io 4 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 of its swift kindling). ' The smoking flax shall He not 
 Isaiah quench.' And then, finally, observe the con- 
 xiii. 3. firmation of these last two images in, I suppose, 
 S. Matt, the most important prophecy, relating to the 
 xu - "- future state of the Christian Church, which 
 occurs in the Old Testament, namely, that contained in 
 the closing chapters of Ezekiel. The measures of the 
 Temple of God are to be taken ; and because it is only 
 by charity and humility that those measures ever can 
 Ezek. be taken, the angel has 'a line of flax in his 
 ** 3- hand, and a measuring reed? The use of the 
 line was to measure the land, and of the reed to take 
 the dimensions of the buildings ; so the buildings of the 
 church, or its labours, are to be measured by humility, 
 and its territory or land, by love. Modern Painters, 
 vol. iii., ch. xiv., 53. 
 
 Happiness. 
 
 Now in what are you rightly happy ? Not in thinking 
 of what you have done yourself; not in your own pride ; 
 not your own birth; not in your own being, or your own 
 will, but in looking at God ; watching what He does ; 
 what He is ; and obeying His law, and yielding yourself 
 to His will. Stones of Venice, vol. i., ch. xx., xvi. 
 
 I do verily believe that it [the world] will come, 
 finally, to understand that God paints the clouds and 
 shapes the moss-fibres, that men may be happy in see- 
 ing Him at His work, and that in resting quietly beside 
 Him, and watching His working, and according to 
 the power He has communicated to ourselves, and the 
 guidance He grants, in carrying out His purposes of 
 peace and charity among all His creatures, are the only 
 real happinesses that ever were, or will be, possible to 
 mankind. Modern Painters, vol. iii., ch. xvii., 38. 
 
 Heathen Creed. 
 
 The creed of the philosophers or sages varied ac- 
 cording to the character and knowledge of each ; their
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 105 
 
 relative acquaintance with the secrets of natural science 
 their intellectual and sectarian egotism and their 
 mystic or monastic tendencies, for there is a classic as 
 well as a mediaeval monasticism. They ended in losing 
 the life of Greece in play upon words; but we owe 
 to their early thought some of the soundest ethics, and 
 the foundation of the best practical laws, yet known to 
 mankind. 
 
 Such was the general vitality of the heathen creed 
 in its strength. Of its direct influence on conduct, 
 it is, as I said,-impossible for me to speak now ; only, 
 remember always, in endeavouring to form a judg- 
 ment of it, that what of good or right the heathens did, 
 they did looking for no reward. The purest forms of 
 our own religion have always consisted in sacrificing less 
 things to win greater; time, to win eternity, the 
 world, to win the skies. The order, ' sell that s Luke 
 thou hast,' is not given without the promise, xviii - 2Z 
 ' thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; ' and well s. Matt, 
 for the modern Christian if he accepts the alter- * 
 native as his Master left it and does not practically 
 read the command and promise thus : ' Sell that thou 
 hast in the best market, and thou shalt have treasure 
 in eternity also.' But the poor Greeks of the great 
 ages expected no reward from heaven but honour, and 
 no reward from earth but rest; though, when, on 
 those conditions, they patiently, and proudly, fulfilled 
 their task of the granted day, an unreasoning instinct 
 of an immortal benediction broke from their lips in 
 song : and they, even they, had sometimes a prophet 
 to tell them of a land ' where there is sun alike by day, 
 and alike by night where they shall need no more to 
 trouble the earth by strength of hands for daily bread 
 but the ocean breezes blow around the blessed islands, 
 and golden flowers burn on their bright trees for ever- 
 more.' Queen of the Air, 49, 50.
 
 106 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Heavens, The. 
 
 When the earth had to be prepared for the habitation of 
 man, a veil, as it were, of intermediate being was spread 
 between him and its darkness, in which were joined, in 
 a subdued measure, the stability and insensibility of the 
 earth, and the passion and perishing of mankind. 
 
 But the heavens, also, had to be prepared for his 
 habitation. 
 
 Between their burning light, their deep vacuity, and 
 man, as between the earth's gloom of iron substance, and 
 man, a veil had to be spread of intermediate being ; 
 which should appease the unendurable glory to the level 
 of human feebleness, and sign the changeless motion of 
 the heavens with a semblance of human vicissitude. Be- 
 tween the earth and man arose the leaf. Between the 
 heaven and man came the cloud. His life being partly 
 as the falling leaf, and partly as the flying vapour. 
 
 Has the reader any distinct idea of what clouds are ? 
 ... So far from it, I rather believe that some of the 
 mysteries of the clouds never will be understood by us 
 at all. ' Knowest thou the balancings of the clouds ? ' 
 job Is the answer ever to be one of pride ? ' The 
 
 xxxvii. 16 wondrous works of Him which is perfect in 
 knowledge ? ' Is our knowledge ever to be so ? Modern 
 Painters, vol. v., part vii., ch. i., 1-3. 
 
 'Heavens declare the Glory of God,' 'The.' 
 
 The first thing that children should be taught about 
 their Bibles is, to distinguish clearly between words that 
 they understand and words that they do not ; and to 
 put aside the words they do not understand, and verses 
 connected with them, to be asked about, or for a future 
 time; and never to think they are reading the Bible 
 when they are merely repeating phrases of an unknown 
 tongue. 
 
 Let us try, by way of example, this nineteenth Psalm, 
 and see what plain meaning is uppermost in it. 
 
 1 The heavens declare the glory of God.'
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 107 
 
 What are the heavens ? 
 
 Now there can be no question that in the minds of 
 the sacred writers, it stood naturally for the entire 
 system of cloud, and of space beyond it, conceived by 
 them as a vault set with stars. But there can, also, be 
 no question, that the firmament, which is said to have 
 been ' called ' heaven, at the creation, expresses, in all 
 definite use of the word, the system of clouds, as spread- 
 ing the power of the water over the earth ; hence the 
 constant expressions dew of heaven, rain of heaven, etc., 
 where heaven is used in the singular - } while ' the 
 heavens ' when used plurally, and especially when in 
 distinction, as here, from the word ' firmament,' re- 
 mained expressive of the starry space beyond. 
 
 A child might therefore be told (surely, with advan- 
 tage), that our beautiful word Heaven may possibly 
 have been formed from a Hebrew word, meaning ' the 
 high place ; ' that the great warrior Roman nation, 
 camping much out at night, generally overtired and not 
 in moods for thinking, are believed by many people to 
 have seen in the stars only the likeness of the glittering 
 studs of their armour, and to have called the sky ' The 
 bossed, or studded ' ; but that others think those Roman 
 soldiers on their night-watches had rather been impressed 
 by the great emptiness and void of night, and by the 
 far-coming of sounds through its darkness, and had 
 called the heaven, 'The Hollow place.' Finally, I 
 should tell the children, showing them first the setting 
 of a star, how the great Greeks had found out the truest 
 power of the heavens, and had called them, ' The 
 Rolling.' But whatever different nations had called 
 them, at least I would make it clear to the child's mind 
 that in this nineteenth Psalm, their whole power being 
 intended, the two words are used which express it ; the 
 Heavens, for the great vault or void, with all its planets, 
 and stars, and ceaseless march of orbs innumerable; 
 and the Firmament, for the ordinance of the clouds. 
 
 These heavens, then, ' declare the glory of God ; '
 
 io8 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 that is, the light of God, the eternal glory, stable, and 
 changeless. As their orbs fail not but pursue their 
 course for ever, to give light upon the earth so God's 
 glory surrounds man for ever changeless, in its fulness 
 insupportable infinite. 
 
 ' And the firmament sheweth His handy work,'' 
 
 The clouds, prepared by the hands of God for the 
 help of man, varied in their ministration veiling the 
 inner splendour show, not His eternal glory, but His 
 Exod. daily handiwork. So He dealt with Moses. I 
 xxxiii. 2*. W JH cover thee ' with my hand ' as I pass by. 
 Compare Job xxxvi. 24 : ' Remember that thou magnify 
 His work, which men behold. Every man may see it.' 
 Not so the glory that only in part; the courses of 
 these stars are to be seen imperfectly, and but by few. 
 But this firmament, 'every man may see it, man may 
 Job behold it afar off.' 'Behold, God is great, 
 
 xxxvi. 6. an( j we know Him not. For He maketh small 
 the drops of water : they pour down rain according to 
 the vapour thereof.' 
 
 ' Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night 
 sheweth knowledge. They have no speech nor language, 
 yet without these their voice is heard. Their rule is 
 gone out throughout the earth, and their words to the 
 end of the world.' 
 
 Note that. Their rule throughout the earth, whether 
 inhabited or not their law of light is thereon ; but 
 their words, spoken to human souls, to the end of the 
 inhabited world. 
 
 ' In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,' etc. 
 Exod. Literally, a tabernacle, or curtained tent, with 
 x v - 6 - its veil and its hangings; also of the colours 
 of His desert tabernacle blue, and purple, and scarlet. 
 
 Thus far the Psalm describes the manner of this great 
 heaven's message. 
 
 Thenceforward it comes to the matter of it. 
 
 Observe, you have the two divisions of the declara- 
 tion. The heavens (compare Psalm viii.) declare the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 109 
 
 eternal glory of God before men, and the firmament 
 the daily mercy of God towards men. And the eternal 
 glory is in this that the law of the Lord is perfect, and 
 His testimony sure, and His statutes right. 
 
 And the daily mercy in this that the commandment 
 of the Lord is pure, and His fear is clean, and His judg- 
 ments true and righteous. 
 
 There are three oppositions : 
 
 Between law and commandment. 
 
 Between testimony and fear. 
 
 Between statute and judgment. 
 
 i. Between law and commandment. 
 
 The law is fixed and everlasting ; uttered once, abiding 
 for ever, as the sun, it may not be moved. It is ' per- 
 fect, converting the soul ' : the whole question about 
 the soul being, whether it has been turned from dark- 
 ness to light, acknowledged this law or not, whether 
 it is godly or ungodly ? But the commandment is given 
 momentarily to each man, according to the need. It 
 does not convert : it guides. It does not concern the 
 entire purpose of the soul : but it enlightens the eyes, 
 respecting a special act. The law is, ' Do this always ; ' 
 the commandment, ' Do thou this now : ' often mys- 
 terious enough, and through the cloud; chilling, and 
 with strange rain of tears ; yet always pure (the law con- 
 verting, but the commandment cleansing) : a rod not 
 for guiding merely, but for strengthening, and , Sam> 
 tasting honey with. ' Look how mine eyes xiv - *9- 
 have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this 
 honey.' 
 
 ii. Between testimony and fear. 
 
 The testimony is everlasting: the true promise of 
 salvation. Bright as the sun beyond all the earth-cloud, 
 it makes wise the simple ; all wisdom being assured in 
 perceiving it and trusting it; all wisdom brought to 
 nothing which does not perceive it. 
 
 But the fear of God is taught through special en- 
 couragement and special withdrawal of it, according to
 
 no THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 each man's need by the earth-cloud smile and frown 
 alternately : it also, as the commandment, is clean, 
 purging, and casting out all other fear, it only remaining 
 for ever. 
 
 iii. Between statute and judgment. 
 
 The statutes are the appointments of the Eternal 
 justice ; fixed and bright, and constant as the stars ; 
 equal and balanced as their courses. They 'are right, 
 rejoicing the heart.' But the judgments are special 
 judgments of given acts of men. 'True,' that is to 
 say, fulfilling the warning or promise given to each 
 man ; ' righteous altogether,' that is, done or executed 
 in truth and righteousness. The statute is right, in 
 appointment. The judgment righteous altogether, in 
 appointment and fulfilment ; yet not always rejoicing 
 the heart. 
 
 Then, respecting all these, comes the expression of 
 passionate desire, and of joy ; that also divided with 
 respect to each. The glory of God, eternal in the 
 Heavens, is future, ' to be desired more than gold, than 
 much fine gold ' treasure in the heavens that faileth 
 not. But the present guidance and teaching of God 
 are on earth ; they are now possessed, sweeter than all 
 earthly food ' sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. 
 Moreover by them ' (the law and the testimony) ' is 
 Thy servant warned ' warned of the ways of death and 
 life. ' And in keeping them > ^the commandments and 
 the judgments) ' there is great reward : ' pain now, and 
 bitterness of tears, but reward unspeakable. 
 
 Thus far the psalm has been descriptive and inter- 
 preting. It ends in prayer. 
 
 Who can understand his errors ? ' (wanderings from 
 the perfect law.) ' Cleanse Thou me from secret 
 faults ' ; from all that I have done against Thy will, and 
 far from Thy way, in the darkness. ' Keep back Thy 
 servant from presumptuous sins ' (sins against the com- 
 mandment), against Thy will when it is seen and direct, 
 pleading with heart and conscience. ' So shall I be
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN in 
 
 undefiled, and innocent from the great transgression ' 
 the transgression that crucifies afresh. 
 
 ' Let the words of my mouth (for I have set them to 
 declare Thy law), and the meditation of my heart (for I 
 have set it to keep Thy commandments), be acceptable in 
 Thy sight,' whose glory is my strength, and whose work, 
 my redemption ; ' ' my Strength, and my Redeemer.' 
 Modern Painters^ vol. v., part vii., ch. iv., 26-35. 
 
 Helpfulness. 
 
 Dwell a little on this word ' Help.' It is a grave one. 
 In substance which we call ' inanimate,' as of clouds, or 
 stones, their atoms may cohere to each other, or consist 
 with each other, but they do not help each other. The 
 removal of one part does not injure the rest. 
 
 But in a plant, the taking away of any one part 
 does injure the rest. Hurt or remove any portion of 
 the sap, bark, or pith, the rest is injured. If any part 
 enters into a state in which it no more assists the rest, 
 and has thus become ' helpless,' we call it also ' dead.' 
 
 The power which causes the several portions of the 
 plant to help each other, we call life. Much more is 
 this so in an animal. We may take away the branch of 
 a tree without much harm to it; but not the animal's 
 limb. Thus, intensity of life is also intensity of helpful- 
 ness completeness of depending of each part on all the 
 rest. The ceasing of this help is what we call corrup- 
 tion ; and in proportion to the perfectness of the help, 
 is the dreadfulness of the loss. The more intense the 
 life has been, the more terrible is its corruption. . . . 
 
 Though atoms of inanimate substance could not 
 help each other, they could ' consist ' with each other. 
 ' Consistence ' is their virtue. Thus the parts of a 
 crystal are consistent, but of dust, inconsistent. Orderly 
 adherence, the best help its atoms can give, constitutes 
 the nobleness of such substance. 
 
 Life and consistency, then, both expressing one char- 
 acter (namely, helpfulness of a higher or lower order),
 
 ii2 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 the Maker of all creatures and things, 'by whom all 
 creatures live, and all things consist,' is essen- 
 '' I7 ' tially and for ever the Helpful One, or in softer 
 Saxon, the ' Holy ' One. The word has no other ulti- 
 mate meaning : Helpful, harmless, undented : ' living ' 
 or ' Lord of life.' 
 
 The idea is clear and mighty in the cherubim's cry : 
 'Helpful, Helpful, Helpful, Lord God of 
 
 Rev. iv. 7. TI . . r ,, ' , * 
 
 Hosts ; t.e., of all the hosts, armies, and crea- 
 tures of the earth. A pure or holy state of anything, 
 therefore, is that in which all its parts are helpful or 
 consistent. They may or may not be homogeneous. 
 The highest or organic purities are composed of many 
 elements in an entirely helpful state. The highest and 
 first law of the universe and the other name of life is, 
 therefore, ' help.' The other name of death is ' separa- 
 tion.' Government and co-operation are in all things 
 and eternally the laws of life. Anarchy and competi- 
 tion, eternally, and in all things, the laws of death. 
 Modern Painters, vol. v., part viii., ch. i., 4-6. 
 
 'Herb for the Service of Man.' 
 
 That sentence of Genesis, ' I have given thee every 
 green herb for meat,' like all the rest of the 
 1<3 ' book, has a profound symbolical as well as a 
 literal meaning. It is not merely the nourishment 
 of the body, but the food of the soul, that is intended. 
 The green herb is, of all nature, that which is most 
 essential to the healthy spiritual life of man. Most 
 of us do not need fine scenery; the precipice and the 
 mountain peak are not intended to be seen by all men, 
 perhaps their power is greatest over those who are 
 unaccustomed to them. But trees and fields and 
 flowers were made for all, and are necessary for all. 
 God has connected the labour which is essential to the 
 bodily sustenance with the pleasures which are healthiest 
 for the heart ; and while He made the ground stubborn, 
 He made its herbage fragrant, and its blossoms fair.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 113 
 
 The proudest architecture that man can build has no 
 higher honour than to bear the image and recall the 
 memory of that grass of the field which is, at once, the 
 type and the support of his existence ; the goodly build- 
 ing is then most glorious when it is sculptured into the 
 likeness of the leaves of Paradise ; and the great Gothic 
 spirit, as we showed it to be noble in its disquietude, 
 is also noble in its hold of nature ; it is, indeed, G 
 like the dove of Noah, in that she found no viii. j>. 
 rest upon the face of the waters, but like her Gen. 
 in this also, ' Lo, IN HER MOUTH WAS AN OLIVE vm- " 
 BRANCH PLUCKED OFF.' Stones of Venice, vol. ii., ch. vi., 
 LXXI 
 
 Hills, Mission of the. 
 
 The feeding of the rivers and the purifying ot the 
 winds are the least of the services appointed to the 
 hills. To fill the thirst of the human heart for the 
 beauty of God's working, to startle its lethargy with 
 the deep and pure agitation of astonishment, are their 
 higher missions. They are as a great and noble archi- 
 tecture ; first giving shelter, comfort, and rest ; and 
 covered also with mighty sculpture and painted legend. 
 It is impossible to examine in their connected system 
 the features of even the most ordinary mountain scenery, 
 without concluding that it has been prepared in order 
 to unite as far as possible, and in the closest compass, 
 every means of delighting and sanctifying the heart of 
 man. ' As far as possible ' ; that is, as far as is con- 
 sistent with the fulfilment of the sentence of condem- 
 nation on the whole earth. Death must be upon the 
 hills ; and the cruelty of the tempests smite them, and 
 the briar and thorn spring up upon them : but they so 
 smite, as to bring their rocks into the fairest i sa jaij 
 forms ; and so spring, as to make the very ZJCXV - * 
 desert blossom as the rose. Modern Painters, vol. iv., 
 ch. vii., 4. 
 
 H
 
 ii4 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Hills, Sanctity of. 
 
 There was an idea of sanctity attached to rocky 
 wilderness, because it had always been among hills that 
 the Deity had manifested Himself most intimately to 
 men, and to the hills that His saints had nearly always 
 retired for meditation, for especial communion with 
 Him, and to prepare for death. Men acquainted with 
 the history of Moses, alone at Horeb, or with 
 Israel at Sinai, of Elijah by the brook Cherith, 
 Deut. and in the Horeb cave ; of the deaths of Moses 
 "f" 1 ' *' and Aaron on Hor and Nebo ; of the prepara- 
 xvii! n f S tion of Jephthah's daughter for her death among 
 Deut. the Judaea mountains ; of the continual retire- 
 v ' 5 " ment of Christ Himself to the mountains for 
 
 Num. 
 
 xx. 28. prayer, His temptation in the desert of the Dead 
 judges Sea, His sermon on the hills of Capernaum, 
 
 xi 37. 
 
 s Matt His transfiguration on Mount Hermon, and 
 >v. 1-4 ; His evening and morning walks over Olivet for 
 xviT'i.'a.' the four or five days preceding His crucifixion, 
 S. Luke were not likely to look with irreverent or un- 
 loving eyes upon the blue hills that girded their 
 xxvi. 30. golden horizon, or drew down upon them the 
 S. Luke mysterious clouds out of the height of the darker 
 heaven. But with this impression of their 
 greater sanctity was involved also that of a peculiar terror. 
 In all this, their haunting by the memories of prophets, 
 the presences of angels, and the everlasting thoughts 
 and words of the Redeemer, the mountain ranges 
 seem separated from the active world, and only to be 
 fitly approached by hearts which were condemnatory 
 of it. Just in so much as it appeared necessary for the 
 noblest men to retire to the hill recesses before their 
 missions could be accomplished, or their spirits per- 
 fected, in so far did the daily world seem by comparison 
 to be pronounced profane and dangerous ; and to those 
 who loved that world, and its work, the mountains were 
 thus voiceful with perpetual rebuke, and necessarily 
 contemplated with a kind of pain and fear. ... It was
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 1x5 
 
 only for their punishment, or in their despair, that men 
 consented to tread the crocused slopes of the Chartreuse, 
 or the soft glades and dewy pastures of Vallombrosa. 
 Modern Painters, vol. iii., ch. xiv., 10. 
 
 Holiness of Colour. 
 
 The early religious painting of the Flemings is as 
 brilliant in hue as it is holy in thought. . . . The 
 builders of our great cathedrals veiled their casements 
 and wrapped their pillars with one robe of purple splen- 
 dour. The builders of the luxurious Renaissance left 
 their palaces filled only with cold white light, and in the 
 paleness of their native stone. 
 
 Nor does it seem difficult to discern a noble reason 
 for this universal law. In that heavenly circle which 
 binds the statutes of colour upon the front of the sky, 
 when it became the sign of the covenant of peace, the 
 pure hues of divided light were sanctified to the human 
 heart for ever ; nor this, it would seem, by mere arbitrary 
 appointment, but in consequence of the fore-ordained 
 and marvellous constitution of those hues into a seven- 
 fold, or, more strictly still, a threefold order, typical of 
 the Divine nature itself. Observe also, the name Shem, 
 or Splendour, given to that son of Noah in whom this 
 covenant with mankind was to be fulfilled, and see how 
 that name was justified by every one of the Asiatic races 
 which descended from him. Not without meaning was 
 the love of Israel to his chosen son expressed by the 
 coat ' of many colours ; ' not without deep sense Gen 
 of the sacredness of that symbol of purity did cxvu. 3. 
 the lost daughter of David tear it from her breast : 
 ' With such robes were the king's daughters a Sam 
 that were virgins apparelled.' We know it to *"' l8 
 have been by Divine command that the Israelite, rescued 
 from servitude, veiled the tabernacle with its rain Exodus 
 of purple and scarlet, while the under sunshine "^vi. as- 
 flashed through the fall of the colour from its tenons 
 of gold : but was it less by Divine guidance that the
 
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 Mede, as he struggled out of anarchy, encompassed his 
 king with the sevenfold burning of the battlements of 
 Ecbatana? of which one circle was golden like the 
 sun, and another silver like the moon ; and then came 
 the great secret chord of colour, blue, purple, and scarlet ; 
 and then a circle white like the day, and another dark, 
 like night ; so that the city rose like a great mural rain- 
 bow, a sign of peace amidst the contending of lawless 
 races, and guarded, with colour and shadow, that seemed 
 to symbolize the great order which rules over Day, and 
 Daniel Night, and Time, the first organization of the 
 vi. s, i*. mighty statutes the law of the Medes and 
 Persians, that altereth not. Stones of Venice, vol. ii., 
 ch. v., XXXIL, xxxin. 
 
 Holy Ghost, Sin against the. 
 
 All of you who have ever read your Gospels carefully 
 must have wondered, sometimes, what could be the 
 s Matt, meaning of those words, ' If any speak against 
 xii - 3- the Son of Man it shall be forgiven ; but if 
 against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven, neither 
 in this world nor in the next.' 
 
 The passage may have many meanings which I do 
 not know ; but one meaning I know positively, and I 
 tell you so just as frankly as I would that I knew the 
 meaning of a verse in Homer. Those of you who still 
 go to chapel say every day your creed ; and, I suppose, 
 too often, less and less every day believing it. Now, 
 you may cease to believe two articles of it, and, ad- 
 mitting Christianity to be true, still be forgiven. But 
 I can tell you you must not cease to believe the third ! 
 You begin by saying that you believe in an Almighty 
 Father. Well, you may entirely lose the sense of that 
 Fatherhood, and yet be forgiven. You go on to say that 
 you believe in a Saviour Son. You may entirely lose 
 the sense of that Sonship, and yet be forgiven. 
 
 But the third article disbelieve if you dare ! ' I 
 believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life.'
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 117 
 
 Disbelieve that; and your own being is degraded into 
 the state of dust driven by the wind ; and the elements 
 of dissolution have entered your very heart and soul. 
 
 All nature, with one voice with one glory, is set 
 to teach you reverence for the life communicated to you 
 from the Father of Spirits. The song of birds, and 
 their plumage ; the scent of flowers, their colour, their 
 very existence, are in direct connection with the mystery 
 of that communicated life : and all the strength, and 
 all the arts of men, are measured by, and founded upon, 
 their reverence for the passion, and their guardianship 
 of the purity, of Love. The Eagle's Nest, 169. 
 
 Holy Life, A. 
 
 Fra Angelico was a man of (humanly speaking) perfect 
 piety humility, charity, and faith that he never em- 
 ployed his art but as a means of expressing his love to 
 God and man, and with the view, single, simple, and 
 straightforward, of glory to the Creator, and good to the 
 Creature. Every quality or subject of art by which 
 these ends were not to be attained, or to be attained 
 secondarily only, he rejected ; from all study of art, as 
 such, he withdrew; whatever might merely please the 
 eye, or interest the intellect, he despised, and refused ; 
 he used his colours and lines, as David his harp, after a 
 kingly fashion, for purposes of praise and not of science. 
 To this grace and gift of holiness were added, those of a 
 fervent imagination, vivid invention, keen sense of love- 
 liness in lines and colours, unwearied energy, and to all 
 these gifts the crowning one of quietness of life and 
 mind. On the Old Road, vol. i., part i., 90. 
 
 Angelico in perpetual peace. Not seclusion from the 
 world. No shutting out of the world is needful for 
 him. . . . The little cell was as one of the houses of 
 heaven prepared for him by his Master. ' What need 
 had it to be elsewhere ? Was not the Val D'Arno, with 
 its olive woods in white blossom, paradise enough for a 
 poor monk ? or could Christ be indeed in heaven more
 
 n 8 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 than here ? Was He not always with him ? Could he 
 breathe or see, but that Christ breathed beside him, and 
 looked into his eyes ? Under every cypress avenue the 
 angels walked ; he had seen their white robes, whiter 
 than the dawn, at his bedside, as he awoke in early 
 summer. They had sung with him, one on each side, 
 when his voice failed for joy at sweet vesper and matin 
 time ; his eyes were blinded by their wings in the sunset, 
 when it sank behind the hills of Luni.' Modern Painters, 
 vol. v., part ix., ch. viii., 13. 
 
 Homes. 
 
 When men do not love their hearths, nor reverence 
 their thresholds, it is a sign that they have dishonoured 
 both, and that they have never acknowledged the true 
 universality of that Christian worship which was indeed 
 to supersede the idolatry, but not the piety of the pagan. 
 Our God is a household God, as well as a heavenly one; 
 He has an altar in every man's dwelling ; let men look 
 to it when they rend it lightly and pour out its ashes. 
 Seven Lamps of Architecture, ch. vi., 4. 
 
 So far as it is a sacred place, a vestal temple, a temple 
 of the hearth watched over by Household Gods, before 
 whose faces none may come but those whom they can 
 receive with love, so far as it is this, and roof and fire 
 Isaiah are types only of a nobler shade and light, 
 xxxil * shade as of the rock in a weary land, and light 
 as of the Pharos in the stormy sea : so far it vindicates 
 the name, and fulfils the praise, of Home. Sesame and 
 Lilies, 68. 
 
 Hope. 
 
 We usually paint Hope as young, and joyous. 
 Veronese knows better. That young hope is vain 
 hope passing away in rain of tears ; but the Hope 
 Rom. v. 3, f Veronese is aged, assured, remaining when 
 * s- all else has been taken away. ' For tribula- 
 tion worketh patience, and patience experience, and
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 119 
 
 experience hope ; ' and that hope maketh not ashamed. 
 Modern Painters, vol. v., part ix., ch. iii., 20. 
 
 Of all the virtues, this is the most distinctively Christian 
 (it could not, of course, enter definitely into any Pagan 
 scheme) ; and above all others, it seems to me the test- 
 ing virtue, that by the possession of which we may 
 most certainly determine whether we are Christians or 
 not ; for many men have charity, that is to say general 
 kindness of heart, or even a kind of faith, who have not 
 any habitual hope of, or longing for, heaven. Stones of 
 Venice, voL ii. ch. viii., LXXXV. 
 
 Hope of the Resurrection. 
 
 This is the root of all life and all Tightness in Christian 
 harmony, whether of word or instrument ; and so liter- 
 ally, that in precise manner as this hope disappears, the 
 power of song is taken away, and taken away utterly. 
 When the Christian falls back out of the bright hope of 
 the Resurrection, even the Orpheus song is forbidden 
 him. Not to have known the hope is blameless : one 
 may sing, unknowing, as the swan, or Philomela. But 
 to have known and fall away from it, and to declare that 
 the human wishes, which are summed in that one 
 ' Thy kingdom come ' are vain ! The Fates s Matt 
 ordain there shall be no singing after that denial. vi - I0 - 
 
 For observe this, and earnestly. The old Orphic 
 song, with its dim hope of yet once more Eurydice, 
 the Philomela song granted after the cruel silence, 
 the Halcyon song with its fifteen days of peace, were 
 all sad, or joyful only in some vague vision of conquest 
 over death. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 45, 46. 
 
 Human Heart, The. 
 
 ' A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, 
 bringeth forth that which is good ; and an evil s Luke 
 man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth that v - 45- 
 which is evil.' They on the rock are they which, in an
 
 izo THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it.' 
 s. Luke ' Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give 
 Tiii. 13-15. thee the desires of thine heart.' ' The wicked 
 Psalm have bent their bow, that they may privily shoot 
 at him that is upright in heart.' And so on ; 
 they are countless, to the same effect. And, for all of 
 us, the question is not at all to ascertain how much or 
 how little corruption there is in human nature ; but to 
 ascertain whether, out of all the mass of that nature, we 
 are of the sheep or the goat breed; whether we are 
 people of upright heart, being shot at, or, people of 
 crooked heart, shooting. And, of all the texts bearing 
 on the subject, this, which is a quite simple and practical 
 Prov order, is the one you have chiefly to hold in 
 >v. 23- mind. ' Keep thy heart with all diligence, for 
 out of it are the issues of life.' Ethics of the Dust, p. 101. 
 
 Human Nature. 
 
 Human nature is a noble and beautiful thing; not a 
 foul nor a base thing. All the sin of men I esteem as 
 their disease, not their nature; as a folly which may be 
 prevented, not a necessity which must be accepted. 
 And my wonder, even when things are at their worst, 
 is always at the height which this human nature can 
 attain. Thinking it high, I find it always a higher 
 thing than I thought it ; while those who think it low, 
 find it, and will find it, always, lower than they thought 
 it : the fact being, that it is infinite, and capable of 
 infinite height and infinite fall ; but the nature of it 
 and here is the faith which I would have you hold with 
 me the nature of it is in the nobleness, not in the 
 catastrophe. . . . 
 
 You have had false prophets among you, for cen- 
 turies you have had them, solemnly warned against 
 them though you were; false prophets, who have told 
 you that all men are nothing but fiends or wolves, 
 half beast, half devil. Believe that, and indeed you 
 may sink to that. But refuse that, and have faith that
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 121 
 
 God ' made you upright,' though you have sought out 
 many inventions; so, you will strive daily to be- 
 come more what your Maker meant and means you to 
 be, and daily gives you also the power to be, and 
 you will cling more and more to the nobleness j ob 
 and virtue that is in you, saying, ' My right- Jutvii - 6 - 
 eousness I hold fast, and will not let it go.' Crown of 
 Wild Olive, 106, 107. 
 
 Humility. 
 
 This, it seems to me, is the principal lesson we are 
 intended to be taught by the book of Job; for there 
 God has thrown open to us the heart of a man most 
 just and holy, and apparently perfect in all things 
 possible to human nature except humility. For this 
 he is tried : and we are shown that no suffering, no 
 self-examination however honest, however stern, no 
 searching out of the heart by its own bitterness, is 
 enough to convince man of his nothingness before 
 God ; but that the sight of God's creation will do it. 
 For, when the Deity Himself has willed to end the 
 temptation, and to accomplish, in Job that for which 
 it was sent, He does not vouchsafe to reason with 
 him, still less does He overwhelm him with terror, or 
 confound him by laying open before his eyes the book 
 of his iniquities. He opens before him only the arch 
 of the dayspring, and the fountains of the deep ; and 
 amidst the covert of the reeds, and on the heaving 
 waves, He bids him watch the kings of the j t, 
 children of pride, ' Behold now Behemoth, ** i s- 
 which I made with thee.' And the work is done. 
 Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. ii., xxxi. 
 
 Idleness. 
 
 There are no chagrins so venomous as the chagrins 
 of the idle ; there are no pangs so sickening as the 
 satieties of pleasure. Nay, the bitterest and most 
 enduring sorrow may be borne through the burden
 
 122 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 and heat of day bravely to the due time of death, 
 s Matt ^7 a true worker. And, indeed, it is this very 
 XX- dayspring and fount of peace in the bosoms 
 s. Luke of the labouring poor which has till now ren- 
 dered their oppression possible. Only the idle 
 among them revolt against their state ; the brave 
 workers die passively, young and old and make no 
 sign. It is for you to pity them, for you to stand 
 with them, for you to cherish, and save. Fors Clavigera, 
 Letter XCIII. 
 / 
 Idolatry. / 
 
 Idolatry is, both literally and verily, not the mere 
 bowing down before sculptures, but the serving or 
 becoming the slave of any images or imaginations 
 which stand between us and God, and it is otherwise 
 j er expressed in Scripture as 'walking after the 
 
 xxiii. 17. Imagination ' of our own hearts. And observe 
 also that while, at least on one occasion, we find in the 
 Bible an indulgence granted to the mere external and 
 literal violation of the second commandment, When 
 > Kings I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the 
 T - l8 - Lord pardon thy servant in this thing,' we 
 find no indulgence in any instance, or in the slightest 
 degree, granted to ' covetousness, which is idolatry' 
 (Col. iii. 5 ; no casual association of terms, observe, 
 but again energetically repeated in Ephesians v. 5, 
 ' No covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any in- 
 heritance in the kingdom of Christ ') ; nor any to that 
 denial of God, idolatry in one of its most subtle forms, 
 following so often on the possession of that wealth 
 Prov. against which Agur prayed so earnestly, ' Give 
 xxx. a me neither poverty nor riches, lest I be full 
 and deny thee, and say, " Who is the Lord ? " ' 
 
 And in this sense, which of us is not an idolater? 
 Which of us has the right, in the fulness of that better 
 knowledge, in spite of which he nevertheless is not 
 yet separated from the service of this world, to speak
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 123 
 
 scornfully of any of his brethren, because, in a guiltless 
 ignorance, they have been accustomed to bow their knees 
 before a statue? Which of us shall say that there may 
 not be a spiritual idolatry in our own apparent worship ? 
 
 For indeed it is utterly impossible for one man to 
 judge of the feeling with which another bows down 
 before an image. From that pure reverence in which 
 Sir Thomas Browne wrote, ' I can dispense with my 
 hat at the sight of a cross, but not with a thought 
 of my Redeemer,' to the worst superstition of the 
 most ignorant Romanist, there is an infinite series 
 of subtle transitions; and the point where simple re- 
 verence and the use of the image merely to render 
 conception more vivid, and feeling more intense, change 
 into definite idolatry by the attribution of Power to 
 the image itself, is so difficultly determinable that we 
 cannot be too cautious in asserting that such a change 
 has actually taken place in the case of any individual. 
 Even when it is definite and certain, we shall oftener 
 find it the consequence of dulness of intellect than of 
 real alienation of heart from God ; and I have no 
 manner of doubt that half of the poor and untaught 
 Christians who are this day lying prostrate before cruci- 
 fixes, Bambinos, and Voltos Santos, are finding more 
 acceptance with God than many Protestants who idolise 
 nothing but their own opinions or their own interests. 
 I believe that those who have worshipped the thorns of 
 Christ's crown will be found at last to have been holier 
 and wiser than those who worship the thorns of the 
 world's service, and that to adore the nails of the cross 
 is a less sin than to adore the hammer of the workman. 
 
 But, on the other hand, though the idolatry of the 
 lower orders in the Romish Church may thus be fre- 
 quently excusable, the ordinary subterfuges by which it is 
 defended are not so. It may be extenuated, but cannot 
 be denied ; and the attribution of power to the image, in 
 which it consists, is not merely a form of popular feeling, 
 but a tenet of priestly instruction, and may be proved,
 
 i2 4 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 over and over again, from any book of the Romish Church 
 services. Stones of Venice, vol. ii. Appendix 10. 
 
 The essence of evil idolatry begins only in the idea 
 Exodus or behW f a rea l presence of any kind, in a 
 ii. " ; thing in which there is no such presence. I 
 need not say that the harm of the idolatry must 
 i Kings depend on the certainty of the negative. If 
 "* "' there be a real presence in a pillar of cloud, 
 in an unconsuming flame, or in a still small voice, it 
 is no sin to bow down before these. Aratra Pentelici, 
 $ 45, 46. 
 
 'Imagination of the Heart. 1 
 
 First, consider what are the legitimate uses of the 
 imagination, that is to say, of the power of perceiving, 
 or conceiving with the mind, things which cannot be 
 perceived by the senses. 
 
 Its first and noblest use is, to enable us to bring 
 sensibly to our sight the things which are recorded as 
 belonging to our future state, or as invisibly surround- 
 ing us in this. It is given us, that we may imagine 
 Hebrews tne cloud of witnesses in heaven and earth, 
 *" x - and see, as if they were now present, the souls 
 of the righteous waiting for us ; that we may conceive 
 the great army of the inhabitants of heaven, and dis- 
 cover among them those whom we most desire to be 
 with for ever ; that we may be able to vision forth 
 the ministry of angels beside us, and see the chariots 
 of fire on the mountains that gird us round ; but, above 
 all, to call up the scenes and facts in which we are 
 commanded to believe, and be present, as if in the 
 body, at every recorded event of the history of the 
 Redeemer. Modern Painters, vol. iii., ch. iv., 5. 
 
 Infallibility of the Church. 
 
 Observe, St. Paul, and the rest of the Apostles, write 
 nearly all their epistles to the Invisible Church : those 
 epistles are headed, Romans, ' To the beloved of God,
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 125 
 
 called to be saints ; ' i Corinthians, ' To them that 
 are sanctified in Christ Jesus ; ' 2 Corinthians, ' To the 
 saints in all Achaia ; ' Ephesians, ' To the saints which 
 are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus ; ' 
 Philippians, ' To all the saints which are at Philippi ; ' 
 Colossians, ' To the saints and faithful brethren which 
 are at Colosse ; ' i and 2 Thessalonians, ' To the 
 Church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the 
 Father, and the Lord Jesus ; ' i and 2 Timothy, ' To 
 his own son in the faith ; ' Titus, to the same ; i Peter, 
 'To the Strangers, Elect according to the foreknow- 
 ledge of God ; ' 2 Peter, ' To them that have obtained 
 like precious faith with us ; ' 2 John, ' To the Elect 
 lady ; ' Jude, ' To them that are sanctified by God the 
 Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.' 
 
 There are thus fifteen epistles, expressly directed to the 
 members of the Invisible Church. Philemon and s. Matt. 
 Hebrews, and i and 3 John, are evidently also * 3U ^' 4 ' 
 so written, though not so expressly inscribed, xiu. 5. 
 That of James, and that to the Galatians, are s. Luke 
 
 as evidently to the Visible Church : the one 
 
 . . i Cor. 
 
 being general, and the other to persons l ' re- Uj. a ; 
 
 moved from Him that called them.' Missing xv. 9 ^. 
 out, therefore, these two epistles, but including Eph. 
 Christ's words to His disciples, we find in the ^s* 4 ' 
 Scriptural addresses to members of the Invisible Col. ii. B. 
 Church, fourteen if not more, direct injunctions 2/Thess. 
 ' not to be deceived.' So much for the Infalli- ^ 3 , 
 bility of the Church. On the Old Road, vol. ii., ffi. 13. 
 
 'In His own Image.' 
 
 For the directest manifestation of Deity to man is in 
 His own image, that is, in man. 
 
 ' In His own image. After His likeness. ' 
 Ad imaginem et Similitudinem Suam. I do 
 not know what people in general understand by those 
 1 Galatians i. 6.
 
 126 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 words. I suppose they ought to be understood. The 
 truth they contain seems to lie at the foundation of 
 our knowledge both of God and man; yet do we not 
 usually pass the sentence by, in dull reverence, attaching 
 no definite sense to it at all ? For all practical purpose, 
 might it not as well be out of the text. 
 
 I have no time, nor much desire, to examine the 
 vague expressions of belief with which the verse has 
 been encumbered. Let us try to find its only possible 
 plain significance. 
 
 It cannot be supposed that the bodily shape of man 
 resembles or resembled, any bodily shape in Deity. 
 The likeness must therefore be, or have been, in the 
 soul. Had it wholly passed away, and the divine soul 
 been altered into a soul brutal or diabolic, I suppose we 
 should have been told of the change. But we are told 
 nothing of the kind. The verse still stands as if for our 
 use and trust. It was only death which was to be our 
 punishment. Not change. So far as we live, the image 
 is still there ; defiled, if you will ; broken, if you will ; 
 all but effaced, if you will, by death and the shadow of 
 it. But not changed. We are not made now in any 
 other image than God's. There are, indeed, the two 
 states of this image the earthly and heavenly, but both 
 Adamite, both human, both the same likeness ; only 
 one defiled, and one pure. So that the soul of man is 
 still a mirror, wherein may be seen, darkly, the image of 
 the mind of God. 
 
 These may seem daring words. I am sorry that they 
 do ; but I am helpless to soften them. Discover any 
 other meaning of the text if you are able; but be 
 sure that it is a meaning a meaning in your head 
 and heart; not a subtle gloss, nor a shifting of one 
 verbal expression into another, both idealess. I repeat 
 that, to me, the verse has, and can have, no other sig- 
 nification than this that the soul of man is a mirror 
 of the mind of God. A mirror, dark, distorted, broken, 
 use what blameful words you please of its state ; yet in
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 127 
 
 the main, a true mirror, out of which alone, and by 
 which alone, we can know anything of God at all. 
 
 ' How ? ' the reader, perhaps, answers indignantly. 
 4 1 know the nature of God by revelation, not by look- 
 ing into myself.' 
 
 Revelation to what? To a nature incapable of re- 
 ceiving truth? That cannot be; for only to a nature 
 capable of truth, desirous of it, distinguishing it, feeding 
 upon it, revelation is possible. To a being undesirous 
 of it, and hating it, revelation is impossible. There can 
 be none to a brute, or fiend. In so far, therefore, as 
 you love truth, and live therein, in so far revelation can 
 exist for you ; and in so far, your mind is the image 
 of God's. 
 
 But consider, farther, not only to what, but by what, is 
 the revelation. By sight ? or word ? If by sight, then 
 to eyes which see justly. Otherwise, no sight would be 
 revelation. So far, then, as your sight is just, it is the 
 image of God's sight. 
 
 If by words, how do you know their meanings? 
 Here is a short piece of precious word revela- , j h n 
 tion, for instance. ' God is love.' iv - * 
 
 Love ! yes. But what is that ? The revelation does 
 not tell you that, I think. Look into the mirror, and you 
 will see. Out of your own heart, you may know what 
 love is. In no other possible way, by no other help 
 or sign. All the words and sounds ever uttered, all 
 the revelations of cloud, or flame, or crystal, are utterly 
 powerless. They cannot tell you, in the smallest point, 
 what love means. Only the broken mirror can. 
 
 Here is more revelation. ' God is just ! ' Just ! 
 What is that ? The revelation cannot help you Deut 
 to discover. You say it is dealing equitably or xxxii - 4- 
 equally. But how do you discern the equality? Not 
 by inequality of mind; not by a mind incapable of 
 weighing, judging, or distributing. If the length seem 
 unequal in the broken mirror, for you they are unequal ; 
 but if they seem equal, then the mirror is true. So far
 
 128 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 as you recognize equality, and your conscience tells you 
 what is just, so far your mind is the image of God's; and so 
 far as you do not discern this nature of justice or equality, 
 the words ' God is just ' bring no revelation to you. 
 
 ' But His thoughts are not as our thoughts.' No ; 
 Isaiah tne sea ^ s not as tne standing pool by the way- 
 lv - 8 - side. Yet when the breeze crisps the pool, you 
 may see the image of the breakers, and a likeness of the 
 foam. Nay, in some sort, the same foam. If the sea 
 is for ever invisible to you, something you may learn of 
 it from the pool. Nothing, assuredly, any otherwise. 
 
 ' But this poor miserable Me ! Is this, then, all the 
 book I have got to read about God in ? ' Yes, truly so. 
 No other book, nor fragment of book, than that, will 
 you ever find ; no velvet-bound missal, nor frankincensed 
 manuscript ; nothing hieroglyphic nor cuneiform ; papy- 
 rus and pyramid are alike silent on this matter; 
 nothing in the clouds above, nor in the earth beneath. 
 That flesh-bound volume is the only revelation that is, 
 that was, or that can be. In that is the image of God 
 painted ; in that is the law of God written ; in that is 
 the promise of God revealed. Know thyself ; for through 
 thyself only thou canst know God. 
 Cor. Through the glass, darkly. But, except 
 
 xiii - " through the glass, in nowise. 
 
 A tremulous crystal, waved as water, poured out upon 
 
 the ground; you may defile it, despise it, pollute it, at 
 
 your pleasure and at your peril; for on the peace of 
 
 those weak waves must all the heaven you shall ever 
 
 gain be first seen ; and through such purity as you can 
 
 win for those dark waves, must all the light of 
 
 the risen Sun of righteousness be bent down, 
 
 by faint refraction. Cleanse them, and calm them, as you 
 
 love your life. Modern Painters, vol. v., part ix., ch. i., 
 
 Invisible Church. 
 
 What are the distinctive characters of the Invisible
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 129 
 
 Church? That is to say, What is it which makes a 
 person a member of this Church, and how is he to be 
 known for such? Wide question if we had to take 
 cognizance of all that has been written respecting it, 
 remarkable as it has been always for quantity rather 
 than carefulness, and full of confusion between Visible 
 and Invisible : even the Article of the Church of 
 England being ambiguous in its first clause : ' The 
 Visible Church is a congregation of Faithful men.' As 
 if ever it had been possible, except for God, to see 
 Faith, or to know a Faithful man by sight ! And there 
 is little else written on this question, without some such 
 quick confusion of the Visible and Invisible Church ; 
 needless and unaccountable confusion. For evidently, 
 the Church which is composed of Faithful men is the 
 one true, indivisible, and indiscernible Church, built on 
 the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus gph. 
 Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone. It " a<x 
 includes all who have ever fallen asleep in Christ, and 
 all yet unborn, who are to be saved in Him : its Body 
 is as yet imperfect ; it will not be perfected till the last 
 saved human spirit is gathered to its God. 
 
 A man becomes a member of this Church only by 
 believing in Christ with all his heart ; nor is he positively 
 recognizable for a member of it, when he has become 
 so, by any one but God, not even by himself. Never- 
 theless, there are certain signs by which Christ's sheep 
 may be guessed at. Not by their being in any definite 
 Fold for many are lost sheep at times ; but by their 
 sheep-like behaviour ; and a great many are indeed sheep 
 which, on the far mountain side, in their peacefulness, 
 we take for stones. To themselves, the best proof of 
 their being Christ's sheep is to find themselves on Christ's 
 shoulders ; and, between them, there are certain sym- 
 pathies (expressed in the Apostles' Creed by the term 
 ' communion of Saints '), by which they may in a sort re- 
 cognize each other, and so become verily visible to each 
 other for mutual comfort. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 188. 
 
 i
 
 130 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Irreverence. 
 
 We treat God with irreverence by banishing Him 
 from our thoughts, not by referring to His will on slight 
 occasions. His is not the finite authority or intelligence 
 which cannot be troubled with small things. There is 
 nothing so small but that we may honour God by asking 
 His guidance of it, or insult Him by taking it into our 
 own hands; and what is true of the Deity is equally 
 true of His Revelation. We use it most reverently when 
 most habitually : our insolence is in ever acting without 
 reference to it, our true honouring of it is in its universal 
 application. . . . We have them not often enough on 
 our lips, nor deeply enough in our memories, nor loyally 
 Psalm enough in our lives. The snow, the vapour, 
 cxiviii. s. anc [ the stormy wind fulfil His word. Are our 
 acts and thoughts lighter and wilder than these that 
 we should forget it ? Seven Lamps of Architecture, Intro- 
 ductory, pp. 9, 10. 
 
 Israel. 
 
 When Israel was a child, God loved him and called 
 Hosea his son out f Egypt. He preparatorily sent 
 * x - him into Egypt. And the first deliverer of 
 Israel had to know the wisdom of Egypt before the 
 wisdom of Arabia ; and for the last deliverer of Israel, 
 the dawn of infant thought, and the first vision of the 
 earth He came to save, was under the palms of Nile. 
 Fors Clavigera, Letter LXIV. 
 
 Jacob's Ladder. 
 
 I have seen, over the doors of many churches, the 
 Gen legend actually carved, ' This is the house of 
 xxviii. 17. God, and this is the gate of heaven.' Now, 
 note where that legend comes from, and of what place 
 it was first spoken. A boy leaves his father's house to 
 go on a long journey on foot, to visit his uncle : he has 
 to cross a wild hill-desert ; just as if one of your own 
 boys had to cross the wolds to visit an uncle at Carlisle.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 131 
 
 The second or third day your boy finds himself some- 
 where between Hawes and Brough, in the midst of the 
 moors, at sunset. It is stony ground, and boggy; he 
 cannot go one foot farther that night. Down he lies, 
 to sleep, on Wharnside, where best he may, gathering a 
 few of the stones together to put under his head ; so 
 wild the place is, he cannot get anything but stones. 
 And there, lying under the broad night, he has a dream ; 
 and he sees a ladder set up on the earth, and the top 
 of it reaches to heaven, and the angels of God are seen 
 ascending and descending upon it. And when he wakes 
 out of his sleep, he saye, ' How dreadful is this Gen 
 place ; surely this is none other than the house * *7- 
 of God, and this is the gate of heaven.' This PLACE, 
 observe; not this church, not this city, not this stone, 
 even, which he puts up for a memorial the piece of 
 flint on which his head was lain. But this place; this 
 windy slope of Wharnside; this moorland hollow, 
 torrent-bitten, snow-blighted ! this any place where 
 God lets down the ladder. And how are you to know 
 where that will be ? or how are you to determine where 
 it may be, but by being ready for it always ? Do you 
 know where the lightning is to fall next ? You do know 
 that, partly ; you can guide the lightning ; but you 
 cannot guide the going forth of the Spirit, which is 
 as that lightning when it shines from the east to the 
 west. 
 
 But the perpetual and insolent warping of that strong 
 verse to serve a merely ecclesiastical purpose, is only one 
 of the thousand instances in which we sink back into 
 gross Judaism. We call our churches ' temples.' Now, 
 you know perfectly well they are not temples. They have 
 never had, never can have, anything whatever to do with 
 temples. They are ' synagogues ' - ' gather- s Matt 
 ing places ' where you gather yourselves to- *viii. *o. 
 gether'as an assembly ; and by not calling them s. Matt, 
 so, you again miss the force of another mighty vL Sl 6 
 text 'Thou, when thou prayest, shalt not be as the
 
 132 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the 
 churches ' [we should translate it], ' that they may be 
 seen of men. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into 
 thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to 
 thy Father,' which is, not in chancel or in aisle, but 
 ' in secret.' 
 
 Now, you feel, as I say this to you I know you feel 
 as if I were trying to take away the honour of your 
 churches. Not so ; I am trying to prove to you the 
 honour of your houses and your hills; not that the 
 Church is not sacred but that the whole Earth is. I 
 would have you feel what careless, what constant, what 
 infectious sin there is in all modes of thought, whereby, 
 in calling your churches only 'holy,' you call your 
 hearths and homes ' profane ' ; and have separated your- 
 selves from the heathen by casting all your household 
 gods to the ground, instead of recognizing, in the places 
 of their many and feeble Lares, the presence of your 
 One and Mighty Lord and Lar. Crown of Wild Olive, 
 62-4. 
 
 Job. 
 
 Do you remember the questioning to Job ? . . . Look 
 on to the thirty-eighth chapter, and read down to the 
 job question concerning this April time : ' Hath 
 
 *viii.a the rain a Father and who hath begotten the 
 drops of dew, the hoary Frost of Heaven who hath 
 gendered it ? ' 
 
 That rain and frost of heaven ; and the earth which 
 they loose and bind; these, and the labour of your 
 hands to divide them, and subdue, are your wealth, 
 for ever unincreasable. The fruit of Earth, and its 
 waters, and its light such as the strength of the pure 
 rock can grow such as the unthwarted sun in his 
 season brings these are your inheritance. You can 
 Prov. diminish it, but cannot increase : that your 
 "* I0 - barns should be filled with plenty your presses 
 burst with new wine, is your blessing ; and every year
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 133 
 
 when it is full it must be new ; and every year, no 
 more. Fors Clavigera, Letter XVI. 
 
 Jo 
 
 shua, the Soldier of Christ. (Botticelli!) 
 
 He had seen it, and often ; and between noble persons ; 
 knew the temper in which the noblest knights went 
 out to it ; knew the strength, the patience, the glory, and 
 the grief of it. He would fain see his Florence in peace ; 
 and yet he knows that the wisest of her citizens are her 
 bravest soldiers. So he seeks for the ideal of a soldier, 
 and for the greatest glory of war, that in the presence 
 of these he may speak reverently, what he must speak. 
 He does not go to Greece for his hero. He is not sure 
 that even her patriotic wars were always right. But, by 
 his religious faith, he cannot doubt the nobleness of the 
 soldier who put the children of Israel in possession of 
 their promised land, and to whom the sign of the con- 
 sent of heaven was given by its pausing light in j os hua 
 the valley of Ajalon. Must then setting sun * " 
 and risen moon stay, he thinks, only to look upon 
 slaughter? May no soldier of Christ bid them stay 
 otherwise than so ? He draws Joshua, but quitting his 
 hold of the sword : its hilt rests on his bent knee ; and 
 he kneels before the sun, not commands it; and this is 
 his prayer : 
 
 ' Oh, King of kings, and Lord of lords, who alone 
 rulest always in eternity, and who correctest all our 
 wanderings, Giver of melody to the choir of the angels, 
 listen Thou a little to our bitter grief, and come and 
 rule us, oh Thou highest King, with Thy love which is 
 so sweet ! ' Ariadne Florentina, 202. 
 
 You have all been greatly questioning, of late, whether 
 the sun, which you find to be now going out, ever stood 
 still. Did you in any lagging minute, on those scientific 
 occasions, chance to reflect what he was bid p sa i m 
 stand still for ? or if not will you please look *'* 4. s- 
 and what also, going forth again as a strong man to 
 run his course, he saw, rejoicing ?
 
 i 3 4 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 'Then Joshua passed from Makkedah unto Libnah 
 Joshua an d fought against Libnah. And the Lord 
 * "9- delivered it and the king thereof into the hand 
 of Israel, and he smote it with the edge of the sword, 
 and all the souls that were therein.' And from 
 Lachish to Eglon, and from Eglon to Kirjath-Arba, 
 and Sarah's grave in the Amorites' land, 'and Joshua 
 Joshua smote all the country of the hills and of the 
 * 4 south and of the vale and of the springs, and 
 all their kings : he left none remaining, but utterly de- 
 stroyed all that breathed as the Lord God of Israel 
 commanded.' Thus ' it is written ' : though you per- 
 s. John haps do not so often hear these texts preached 
 ' 29> from, as certain others about taking away the 
 sins of the world. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 57, 58. 
 
 Jotham. 
 
 As I re-read the chapter of Judges, now, except in 
 my memory, unread, as it "Dances "for many a year, 
 the sadness of that story of Gideon fastens on me, and 
 silences me. This the end of his angel visions, and 
 dream-led victories, the slaughter of all his sons but this 
 youngest, 1 and he never again heard of in Israel ! 
 
 You Scottish children of the Rock, taught through 
 all your once pastoral and noble lives by many a sweet 
 judges miracle of dew on fleece and ground, once 
 vL 37- servants of mighty kings, and keepers of sacred 
 covenant ; have you indeed dealt truly with your warrior 
 judges kings, and prophet saints, or are these ruins of 
 *>- 57- their homes, and shrines, dark with the fire that 
 fell from the curse of Jerubbael? Proserpina, ch. vii., 
 14- 
 
 Judas Iscariot. 
 
 We do great injustice to Iscariot, in thinking him 
 
 wicked above all common wickedness. He was only a 
 
 *^^_^^ 
 
 1 'Jotham, sum perfcctio eorum,' or ' Consummatio "SOrum.' 
 (Interpretation of name in Vulgate Index.)
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 135 
 
 common money-lover, and, like all money-lovers, did not 
 understand Christ; could not make out the worth of 
 Him, or meaning of Him. He never thought He would 
 be killed. He was horror-struck when he found that 
 CRriSTwould be killed ; threw his money away instantly, 
 and hanged himself. How many of our present money- 
 seekers, think you, would have the grace to hang them- 
 selves, whoever was killed ? But Judas was a common, 
 selfish, muddle-headed, pilfering fellow ; his hand always 
 in the bag of the poor, not caring for them. Helpless 
 to understand Christ, he yet believed in Him, much 
 more than most of us do ; had seen Him do miracles, 
 thought He was quite strong enough to shift for Him- 
 self, and he, Judas, might as well make his own little 
 bye-perquisites out of the affair. Christ would come 
 out of it well enough, and he have his thirty pieces. 
 Now, that is the money-seeker's idea, all over the world. 
 He doesn't hate Christ, but can't understand Him 
 doesn't care for Him sees no good in that benevolent 
 business ; makes his own little job out of it at all events, 
 come what will. And thus, out of every mass of men, 
 you have a certain number of bagmen ' your fee-first ' 
 men, whose main object is to make money. And they 
 do make it make it in all sorts of unfair ways, chiefly 
 by the weight and force of money itself, or what is called 
 the power of capital ; that is to say, the power which 
 money, once obtained, has over the labour of the poor, 
 so that the capitalist can take all its produce to himself, 
 except the labourer's food. That is the modern Judas' 
 way of ' carrying the bag,' and ' bearing what is put 
 therein.' Crown of Wild Olive, 33. 
 
 Justice. 
 
 It is the law of heaven that you shall not be able to 
 judge what is wise or easy, unless you are first resolved 
 to judge what is just, and to do it. That is Gen 
 the one thing constantly reiterated by our Master Xvi5i J 9- 
 the order of all others that is given oftenest ' Do
 
 136 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 justice and judgment.' That's your Bible order ; that's 
 the ' Service of God,' not praying nor psalm-singing. 
 You are told, indeed, to sing psalms when you are merry, 
 p rov . and to pray when you need anything; and, 
 xxi - 3- by the perverseness of the evil Spirit in us, 
 we get to think that praying and psalm-singing 'are 
 service.' . . . The one Divine work the one ordered 
 sacrifice is to do justice ; and it is the last we are ever 
 inclined to do. Anything rather than that ! As much 
 charity as you choose, but no justice. ' Nay,' you will 
 say, ' charity is greater than justice.' Yes, it is greater ; 
 it is the summit of justice it is the temple of which 
 justice is the foundation. But you can't have the top 
 without the bottom ; you cannot build upon charity. 
 You must build upon justice, for this main reason, that 
 you have not, at first, charity to build with. It is the 
 last reward of good work. Do justice to your brother 
 (you can do that whether you love him or not), and 
 you will come to love him. But do injustice to him, 
 because you don't love him ; and you will come to hate 
 him. Crown of Wild Olive, 39. 
 
 Kingdom, The. 
 
 In what respect the kingdoms of the world, and the 
 glory of them, differ from the Kingdom, the Power, and 
 the Glory, which are God's for ever, is seldom, as far 
 as I have heard, intelligibly explained from the pulpit ; 
 and still less the irreconcilable hostility between the 
 two royalties and realms asserted in its sternness of 
 decision. 
 
 Whether it be, indeed, Utopian to believe that the 
 kingdom we are taught to pray for may come verily 
 come for the asking, it is surely not for man to judge ; 
 but it is at least at his choice to resolve that he will no 
 longer render obedience, nor ascribe glory and power, 
 s. Matt, to the Devil. If he cannot find strength in 
 rvi - 23 - himself to advance towards Heaven, he may 
 at least say to the power of Hell, 'Get thee behind
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 137 
 
 me ; ' and staying himself on the testimony of Him 
 who saith, ' Surely I come quickly,' ratify his Rev 
 happy prayer with the faithful ' Amen, even xxii - 20 - 
 so, come, Lord Jesus.' On the Old Road, vol. ii., 
 246. 
 
 Knowledge. 
 
 Therefore, with respect to knowledge, we are to 
 reason and act exactly as with respect to food. We 
 no more live to know than we live to eat. We live to 
 contemplate, enjoy, act, adore : and we may know all 
 that is to be known in this world, and what Satan knows 
 in the other, without being able to do any of these. 
 We are to ask, therefore, first, is the knowledge we 
 would have fit food for us, good and simple, not artifi- 
 cial and decorated ? and secondly, how much of it will 
 enable us best for our work; and will leave our hearts 
 light, and our eyes clear ? For no more than that is to 
 be eaten without the old Eve-sin. 
 
 Observe, also, the difference between tasting know- 
 ledge and hoarding it. In this respect it is also like 
 food ; since, in some measure, the knowledge of all men 
 is laid up in granaries, for future use; much of it is at 
 any given moment dormant, not fed upon or enjoyed, 
 but in store. And by all it is to be remembered that 
 knowledge in this form may be kept without air till it 
 rots, or in such unthreshed disorder that it is of no use ; 
 and that, however good or orderly, it is still only in 
 being tasted that it becomes of use ; and that men may 
 easily starve in their own granaries, men of science, 
 perhaps, most of all, for they are likely to seek accumu- 
 lation of their store, rather than nourishment from it. 
 Yet let it not be thought that I would undervalue them. 
 The good and great among them are like Joseph, Gen 
 of whom all nations sought to buy corn ; or like *! 57- 
 the sower going forth to sow beside all waters, Isaiah 
 sending forth thither the feet of the ox and the * X L 20 ' 
 ass : only let us remember that this is not all men's
 
 138 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 work. We are not intended to be all keepers of 
 granaries, nor all to be measured by the filling of the 
 storehouse ; but many, nay, most of us, are to receive 
 day by day our daily bread, and shall be as well nourished 
 i Kings anc ^ as ^ f r our l aDour > and often, also, fit 
 xvii. 16. for nobler and more divine labour, in feeding 
 Prov. from the barrel of meal that does not waste 
 and from the cruse of oil that does not fail, than 
 if our barns were filled with plenty, and our presses 
 bursting out with new wine. 
 
 It is for each man to find his own measure in this 
 matter; in great part, also, for others to find it for 
 him, while he is yet a youth. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., 
 ch. ii., xxvi. xxvni. 
 
 Language of the Bible. 
 
 The language of the Bible is specifically distinguished 
 from all other early literature, by its delight in natural 
 imagery ; and that the dealings of God with His people 
 are calculated peculiarly to awaken this sensibility within 
 them. Out of the monotonous valley of Egypt they are 
 instantly taken into the midst of the mightiest mountain 
 scenery in the peninsula of Arabia; and that scenery is 
 associated in their minds with the immediate manifesta- 
 tion and presence of the Divine Power ; so that moun- 
 tains for ever afterwards become invested with a peculiar 
 sacredness in their minds : while their descendants being 
 placed in what was then one of the loveliest districts 
 upon the earth, full of glorious vegetation, bounded 
 Deut. on one side by the sea, on the north by ' that 
 " *s- goodly mountain ' Lebanon, on the south and 
 east by deserts, whose barrenness enhanced by their 
 contrast the sense of the perfection of beauty in their 
 own land, they became, by these means, and by the touch 
 of God's own hand upon their hearts, sensible to the 
 appeal of natural scenery in a way in which no other 
 people were at the time. And their literature is full 
 of expressions, not only testifying a vivid sense of the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 139 
 
 power of nature over man, but showing that sympathy 
 with natural things themselves, as if they had human 
 souls, which is the especial characteristic of true love 
 of the works of God. Consider such expressions as 
 that tender and glorious verse in Isaiah, speaking of the 
 cedars on the mountains as rejoicing over the fall of the 
 king of Assyria : ' Yea, the fir trees rejoice at i sa j a h 
 thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since *** 8 - 
 thou art gone down to the grave, no feller is come up 
 against us.' See what sympathy there is here, as if 
 with the very hearts of the trees themselves. So also in 
 the words of Christ, in His personification of the lilies : 
 ' They toil not, neither do they spin.' Con- s Matt 
 sider such expressions as, ' The sea saw that, and vi - 8 
 fled. Jordan was driven back. The mountains Psalm 
 skipped like rams ; and the little hills like CX1V ' * 
 lambs.' Try to find anything in profane writing like 
 this; and note farther that the whole book of Job 
 appears to have been chiefly written and placed in the 
 inspired volume in order to show the value of natural 
 history, and its power on the human heart. I cannot 
 pass by it without pointing out the evidences of the 
 beauty of the country that Job inhabited. Observe, 
 first, it was an arable country. ' The oxen were 
 ploughing and the asses feeding beside them.' 
 It was a pastoral country : his substance, besides camels 
 and asses, was 7000 sheep. It was a mountain country, 
 fed by streams descending from the high snows. ' My 
 brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and j ob 
 as the stream of brooks they pass away ; which vi - i s- 1 ?- 
 are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow 
 is hid : What time they wax warm they vanish : when 
 it is hot they are consumed out of their place.' 
 Again : ' If I wash myself with snow water, 
 and make my hands never so clean.' Again : ' Drought 
 and heat consume the snow waters.' It was a j b 
 rocky country, with forests and verdure rooted viii - 16 > x ?- 
 in the rocks. ' His branch shooteth forth in his
 
 1 40 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 garden ; his roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth 
 the place of stones.' Again : ' Thou shalt be in league 
 job v. 23. with the stones of the field.' It was a place 
 j ob visited, like the valleys of Switzerland, by con- 
 
 v. IB. vulsions and falls of mountains. ' Surely the 
 mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock 
 is removed out of his place. The waters wear the 
 stones ; thou washest away the things which grow out 
 job v. 9. of the dust of the earth.' ' He removeth the 
 j ob mountains and they know not : he overturneth 
 
 xxviii. 9. them in his anger.' 'He putteth forth his 
 hand upon the rock : he overturneth the mountains by 
 the roots : he cutteth out rivers among the rocks.' . . . 
 You see Job's country was one like your own, full of 
 pleasant brooks and rivers, rushing among the rocks, 
 and of all other sweet and noble elements of landscape. 
 The magnificent allusions to natural scenery through- 
 out the book are therefore calculated to touch the heart 
 to the end of time. 
 
 Then at the central point of Jewish prosperity, you 
 have the first great naturalist the world ever saw, Solo- 
 mon; not permitted, indeed, to anticipate, in writing, the 
 discoveries of modern times, but so gifted as to show us 
 i Kings tnat heavenly wisdom is manifested as much 
 iv 33- in the knowledge of the hyssop that springeth 
 out of the wall as in political and philosophical specu- 
 lation. 
 
 The books of the Old Testament, as distinguished 
 from all other early writings, are thus prepared for an 
 everlasting influence over humanity; and, finally, Christ 
 Himself, setting the concluding example to the conduct 
 and thoughts of men, spends nearly His whole life in 
 the fields, the mountains, or the small country villages 
 of Judea; and in the very closing scenes of His life, 
 will not so much as sleep within the walls of Jerusalem, 
 s. Matt but rests at the little village of Bethphage, 
 xxi i. walking in the morning, and returning in the 
 evening, through the peaceful avenues of the Mount
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 141 
 
 of Olives, to and from His work of teaching in the 
 temple. Lectures on Architecture and Painting ', 79, 80. 
 
 Last Words of the Virgin. 
 
 ' They have no wine.' ' Whatsoever He saith unto you, 
 do it.' These, the last recorded words of the 5. John 
 Mctfier of Christ, and the only ones recorded " 3-s- 
 during the period of His ministry. . . . The first sen- 
 tence of these two, contains the appeal of the workman's 
 wife, to her son, for the help of the poor of all the earth. 
 
 The second, the command of the Lord's Mother, to 
 the people of all the earth, that they should serve the 
 Lord. This day last year, I was walking with a dear 
 friend, and resting long, laid on the dry leaves in the 
 sunset, under the vineyard-trellises of the little range of 
 hills which, five miles west of Verona, look down on the 
 Lago di Garda at about the distance from its shore that 
 Cana is from the Lake of Galilee, (the Madonna had 
 walked to the bridal some four miles and a half). It 
 was a Sunday evening, golden and calm ; all the vine 
 leaves quiet; and the soft clouds held at pause in the 
 west, round the mountains that Virgil knew so well, 
 blue above the level reeds of Mincio. ... If ever 
 peace and joy, and sweet life on earth might be possible 
 for men, it is so here, and in such places, few, on the 
 wide earth, but many in the bosom of infinitely blessed, 
 infinitely desolate Italy. Its people were sitting at their 
 doors, quietly working the women at least, the old 
 men at rest behind them. A worthy and gentle race ; 
 but utterly poor, utterly untaught the things that in this 
 world make for their peace. . . . There they sat the 
 true race of Northern Italy, mere prey for the vulture, 
 patient, silent, hopeless, careless : infinitude of accus- 
 tomed and bewildered sorrow written in every line of 
 their faces, unnerving every motion of their hands, 
 slackening the spring in all their limbs. And their 
 blood has been poured out like water, age after age, and 
 risen round the wine-press, even to the horse-bridles.
 
 142 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 And of the peace on earth, and the goodwill towards 
 Isaiah men, which He who trod the wine-press alone, 
 lxiu - 3- and of the people there was none with Him 
 died to bring them, they have heard by the hearing 
 of the ear, their eyes have not seen. ' They have no 
 wine.' 
 
 But He Himself has been always with them, though 
 they saw Him not, and they have had the deepest of 
 s. John His blessings. ' Blessed are they that have 
 ** ** not seen, and yet have believed.' And in the 
 faith of these, and such as these, in the voiceless 
 religion and uncomplaining duty of the peasant races, 
 throughout Europe, is now that Church on earth, 
 s. Matt, against which the gates of Hell shall not pre- 
 xvi. is. va iL And on the part taken in ministry to 
 them, or in oppressing them, depends now the judgment 
 between the righteous and the wicked servant, which 
 the Lord, who has so long delayed His coming, will 
 assuredly now, at no far-off time, require. 
 
 ' But and if that servant shall say in his heart, " My 
 S. Luke Lord delayeth His coming " ' Shall I go 
 *" 45- on writing ? We have all read the passage so 
 often that it falls on our thoughts unfelt, as if its words 
 were dead leaves. We will write and read it more 
 slowly to-day so please you. 
 
 ' Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his 
 s. Matt Lord hath made ruler over His household, to 
 dv. 45- give them their meat in due season ? ' 
 
 Over His household, He probably having His eyes 
 upon it, then, whether you have or not. But He has 
 made you ruler over it, that you may give it meat, in 
 due season. Meat literally, first of all. And that 
 seasonably, according to laws of duty, and not of 
 chance. . . . 
 
 ' Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He 
 S Matt, cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto 
 jodv. 46. VOU) that He shall make him ruler over all 
 His goods.'
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 143 
 
 A vague hope, you think, to act upon ? Well, if you 
 only act on such hope, you will never either know, or 
 get, what it means. No one but Christ can tell what 
 all His goods are ; and you have no business to mind, 
 yet ; for it is not the getting of these, but the doing His 
 work, that you must care for yet awhile. . . . ' Let 
 your loins be girded about, and your lights s Luke 
 burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that *" 35. 3<s- 
 wait for their Lord, when He shall return from the 
 wedding.' Nor a hint of it merely, but you may even 
 hear, at quiet times, some murmur and sylla- Rev 
 bling of its music in the distance ' The Spirit xxii - X 7- 
 and the Bride, say, Come.' Fors Clavigera, Letter 
 LXXXIV. 
 
 Law of the Spirit. 
 
 Law, so far as it can be reduced to form and system, 
 and is not written upon the heart, as it is, in a Divine 
 loyalty, upon the hearts of the great hierarchies who 
 serve and wait about the throne of the Eternal Law- 
 giver, this lower and formally expressible law has, I 
 say, two objects. It is either for the definition and 
 restraint of sin, or the guidance of simplicity ; it either 
 explains, forbids, and punishes wickedness, or it guides 
 the movements and actions both of lifeless things and 
 of the more simple and untaught among responsible 
 agents. And so long, therefore, as sin and foolishness 
 are in the world, so long it will be necessary for men to 
 submit themselves painfully to this lower law, in pro- 
 portion to their need of being corrected, and to the 
 degree of childishness or simplicity by which they 
 approach more nearly to the condition of the un- 
 thinking and inanimate things which are governed by 
 law altogether ; yet yielding, in the manner of their 
 submission to it, a singular lesson to the pride of man, 
 being obedient more perfectly in proportion to their 
 greatness. But, so far as men become good and wise, 
 and rise above the state of children, so far they become
 
 i 4 4 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 emancipated from this written law, and invested with 
 the perfect freedom which consists in the fulness and 
 joyfulness of compliance with a higher and unwritten 
 law; a law so universal, so subtle, so glorious that 
 nothing but the heart can keep it. 
 
 Now pride opposes itself to the observance of this 
 Divine law in two opposite ways : either by brute resist- 
 ance, which is the way of the rabble and its leaders, 
 denying or defying law altogether ; or by formal com- 
 pliance, which is the way of the Pharisee, exalting him- 
 self while he pretends to obedience, and making void 
 the infinite and spiritual commandment by the finite 
 and lettered commandment. And it is easy to know 
 which law we are obeying : for any law which we 
 magnify and keep through pride, is always the law of 
 Cor. th e letter; but that which we love and keep 
 m - 6 - through humility, is the law of the Spirit : and 
 the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Stones of 
 Venice, vol. iii., ch. ii., LXXXVII., LXXXVIII. 
 
 Laymen. 
 
 Men not in office in the Church suppose themselves, 
 s on that ground, in a sort unholy ; and that, therefore, 
 they may sin with more excuse, and be idle or impious 
 with less danger, than the Clergy: especially they con- 
 sider themselves relieved from all ministerial function, 
 and as permitted to devote their whole time and energy 
 to the business of this world. No mistake can possibly 
 be greater. Every member of the Church is equally 
 bound to the service of the Head of the Church ; and 
 that service is pre-eminently the saving of souls. There 
 is not a moment of a man's active life in which he may 
 not be indirectly preaching; and throughout a great 
 part of his life he ought to be directly preaching, and 
 teaching both strangers and friends ; his children, his 
 servants, and all who in any way are put under him, 
 being given to him as special objects of his ministration. 
 On the Old Road, vol. ii., 197.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 145 
 
 Leaf. 
 
 In the leaf is the strength of the tree itself. Nay, 
 rightly speaking, the leaves are the tree itself. Its trunk 
 sustains ; its fruit burdens and exhausts ; but in the 
 leaf it breathes and lives. And thus also, in the eastern 
 symbolism, the fruit is the labour of men for others; 
 but the leaf is their own life. ' He shall bring forth 
 fruit in his time; and his own joy and strength shall 
 be continual.' Proserpina, ch. iii., 2. 
 
 Lesson. 
 
 As we pass beneath the hills which have been shaken 
 by earthquake and torn by convulsion, we find that 
 periods of perfect repose succeed those of destruction. 
 The pools of calm water lie clear beneath their fallen 
 rocks, the water-lilies gleam, and the reeds whisper 
 among their shadows ; the village rises again over the 
 forgotten graves, and its church-tower, white through 
 the storm twilight, proclaims a renewed appeal to His 
 protection in whose hand ' are all the corners pga^ 
 of the earth, and the strength of the hills is His xcv - * 
 also.' There is no loveliness of Alpine valley that does 
 not teach the same lesson. It is just where ' the moun- 
 tain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is j ob 
 removed out of his place, 5 that, in process of ^ l8 
 years, the fairest meadows bloom between the fragments, 
 the clearest rivulets murmur from their crevices among 
 the flowers, and the clustered cottages, each sheltered 
 beneath some strength of mossy stone, now to be re- 
 moved no more, and with their pastured flocks around 
 them, safe from the eagle's stoop and the wolfs ravin, 
 have written upon their fronts, in simple words, the 
 mountaineer's faith in the ancient promise ' Neither 
 shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it Jobv 
 cometh ; ' ' For thou shalt be in league with the ai ~ z 3- 
 Stones of the Field ; and the beasts of the field shall be 
 at peace with thee.' Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. xviii., 
 26.
 
 146 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Lessons from the Birds. 
 
 I believe verily for the first time, I have been able to 
 put before you some means of guidance to understand 
 the beauty of the bird which lives with you in your 
 own houses, and which purifies for you, from its insect 
 pestilence, the air that you breathe. Thus the sweet 
 domestic thing has done, for men, at least these four 
 thousand years. She has been their companion, not of 
 the home merely, but of the hearth, and the threshold ; 
 companion only endeared by departure, and showing 
 better her loving-kindness by her faithful return. Type 
 sometimes of the stranger, she has softened us to hos- 
 pitality ; type always of the suppliant, she has enchanted 
 us to mercy ; and in her feeble presence, the cowardice, 
 or the wrath, of sacrilege has changed into the fidelities 
 of sanctuary. Herald of our summer, she glances 
 through our days of gladness; numberer of our years, 
 Psalm g he would teach us to apply our hearts to wis- 
 xc. 12. dom . an( j ye^ so little have we regarded her, 
 that this very day, scarcely able to gather from all I can 
 find told of her enough to explain so much as the 
 unfolding of her wings, I can tell you nothing of her 
 life nothing of her journeying : I cannot learn how she 
 builds, nor how she chooses the place of her wandering, 
 nor how she traces the path of her return. Remaining 
 thus blind and careless to the true ministries of the 
 humble creature whom God has really sent to serve us, 
 we in our pride, thinking ourselves surrounded by the 
 pursuivants of the sky, can yet only invest them with 
 majesty by giving them the calm of the bird's motion, 
 and shade of the bird's plume : and after all, it is well 
 for us, if, when even for God's best mercies, and in 
 Isaiah His temples marble-built, we think that, ' with 
 VI - * angels and archangels, and all the company 
 Rev. iv. 8. o f Heaven, we laud and magnify His glorious 
 name ' well for us, if our attempt be not only an 
 insult, and His ears open rather to the inarticulate and
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 147 
 
 unintended praise, of ' the Swallow, twittering from her 
 straw-built shed.' Love's Meinie, 80. 
 
 Lessons from the Lips of a Heavenly King. 
 
 There is not any organic creature but, in its history 
 and habits, will exemplify or illustrate to us some moral 
 excellence or deficiency, or some point of God's provi- 
 dential government, which it is necessary for us to 
 know. Thus the functions and the fates of animals are 
 distributed to them, with a variety which exhibits to us 
 the dignity and results of almost every passion and kind 
 of conduct : some filthy and slothful, pining and un- 
 happy ; some rapacious, restless, and cruel ; some ever 
 earnest and laborious, and, I think, unhappy in their 
 endless labour ; creatures, like the bee, that heap p sa i m 
 up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them, xxxix - 6 - 
 and others employed, like angels, in endless offices of 
 love and praise. Of which, when in right condition of 
 mind, we esteem those most beautiful, whose functions 
 are the most noble, whether as some, in mere energy, or 
 as others, in moral honour : so that we look with hate 
 on the foulness of the sloth, and the subtlety of the 
 adder, and the rage of the hyaena ; with the honour due 
 to their earthly wisdom we invest the earnest ant and 
 unwearied bee; but we look with full perception of 
 sacred function to the tribes of burning plumage and 
 choral voice. And so what lesson we might receive for 
 our earthly conduct from the creeping and laborious 
 things, was taught us by that earthly King who 2 chron. 
 made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones (yet ' j s- 
 thereafter was less rich towards God). But from the 
 lips of a heavenly King, who had not where to s Matt 
 lay His head, we were taught what lesson we via. >. 
 have to learn from those higher creatures who s. Matt, 
 sow not, nor reap, nor gather into barns, for ** z6 ' 
 their Heavenly Father feedeth them. Modern Painters, 
 vol. ii., sec. i., ch. xii., 8.
 
 148 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Liberty. 
 
 Now the fulfilment of all human liberty is in the 
 peaceful inheritance of the earth, with its ' herb 
 yielding seed, and fruit tree yielding fruit ' 
 after his kind; the pasture, or arable, land, and the 
 blossoming, or wooded and fruited, land uniting the 
 final elements of life and peace, for body and soul. 
 Therefore, we have the two great Hebrew forms of bene- 
 Gen. diction, ' His eyes shall be red with wine, and 
 xiix. x*. his teeth white with milk,' and again, ' Butter 
 Isaiah and honey shall he eat, that he may know to 
 vu. 15. refuse the evil and choose the good.' And as 
 the work of war and sin has always been the devastation 
 of this blossoming earth, whether by spoil or idleness, 
 Gen so the work of peace and virtue is also that of 
 j s- the first day of Paradise, to ' Dress it and to 
 keep it.' And that will always be the song of perfectly 
 accomplished Liberty. Time and Tide, 168. 
 
 Life. 
 
 As the art of life is learned, it will be found at last 
 Deut that all lovely things are also necessary; 
 viii. 3. the wild flower by the wayside, as well as the 
 s. Matt, tended corn ; and the wild birds and creatures 
 lv ' * of the forest, as well as the tended cattle ; be- 
 S. Luke cause man doth not live by bread only, but also 
 by the desert manna ; by every wondrous word 
 and unknowable work of God. Unto this Last, 82. 
 
 Life and Death of the Blossom. 
 
 Without entering at all into the history of its fruitage, 
 the life and death of the blossom itself is always an 
 eventful romance, which must be completely told, if 
 well. The grouping given to the various states of form 
 between bud and flower is always the most important 
 part of the design of the plant ; and in the modes of 
 its death are some of the most touching lessons, or sym- 
 bolisms, connected with its existence. The utter loss
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 149 
 
 and far-scattered ruin of the cistus and wild rose, the 
 dishonoured and dark contortion of the convolvulus, 
 the pale wasting of the crimson heath of Apennine, are 
 strangely opposed by the quiet closing of the brown 
 bells of the ling, each making of themselves a little cross 
 as they die ; and so enduring into the days of winter. 
 Proserpina, ch. iv., 7. 
 
 Light of the World. 
 
 I speak of the picture by Holman Hunt. . . . The 
 legend beneath it is the beautiful verse, ' Behold, I 
 stand at the door and knock. If any man Rev 
 hear my voice, and open the door, I will come m - *- 
 in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.' 
 On the left-hand side of the picture is seen this 
 door of the human soul. It is fast barred : its bars 
 and nails are rusty; it is knitted and bound to its 
 stanchions by creeping tendrils of ivy, showing that it 
 has never been opened. A bat hovers about it; its 
 threshold is overgrown with brambles, nettles, and fruit- 
 less corn, the wild grass ' whereof the mower psai,,, 
 filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth the * 7- 
 sheaves his bosom.' Christ approaches it in the 
 night time, Christ, in His everlasting offices, of prophet, 
 priest, and king. He wears the white robe, represent- 
 ing the power of the Spirit upon Him ; the jewelled 
 robe and breastplate, representing the sacerdotal Rev 
 investiture ; the rayed crown of gold, inwoven xxii - ' 
 with the crown of thorns; not dead thorns, but now 
 bearing soft leaves, for the healing of the nations. 
 
 Now, when Christ enters any human heart, he bears 
 with him a twofold light : first, the light of conscience, 
 which displays past sin, and afterwards the light of 
 peace, the hope of salvation. The lantern, carried in 
 Christ's left hand, is this light of conscience. 
 
 Its fire is red and fierce; it falls only on the closed 
 door, on the weeds which encumber it, and on an apple 
 shaken from one of the trees of the orchard, thus
 
 150 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 marking that the entire awakening of the conscience is 
 not merely to committed, but to hereditary guilt. 
 
 The light is suspended by a chain, wrapt about the 
 wrist of the figure, showing that the light which reveals 
 sin appears to the sinner also to chain the hand of 
 Christ. The light which proceeds from the head of the 
 figure, on the contrary, is that of the hope of salvation ; 
 it springs from the crown of thorns, and, though itself 
 sad, subdued, and full of softness, is yet so powerful 
 that it entirely melts into the glow of it the forms of the 
 leaves and boughs, which it crosses, showing that every 
 earthly object must be hidden by this light, where its 
 sphere extends. Arrows of the Chace, vol. i., pp. 98-101. 
 
 ' Lilies of the Field.' 
 
 First, in their nobleness : the Lilies gave the lily of the 
 Annunciation ; the Asphodels, the flower of the Elysian 
 fields; the Irids, the fleur-de-lys of chivalry; and the 
 Matt Amaryllids, Christ's lily of the field : while the 
 vi. 28. rush, trodden always under foot, became the 
 emblem of humility. Queen of the Air, 82. 
 
 Lord's Prayer, The. 
 
 ' Thy kingdom come.' I believe very few, even of 
 the most earnest, using that petition, realize that it is 
 the Father's not the Son's kingdom, that they pray 
 may come, although the whole prayer is foundational 
 on that fact : ' For Thine is the kingdom, the power, 
 and the glory.' 
 
 And I fancy that the mind of the most faithful 
 Christian is quite led away from its proper hope, by 
 dwelling on the reign or the coming again of Christ ; 
 which, indeed, they are to look for, and watch for, but 
 not to pray for. 
 
 Their prayer is to be for the greater kingdom to which 
 He, risen and having all His enemies under His feet, 
 is to surrender His ' that God may be All in All.' 
 
 And, though the greatest, it is that everlasting kingdom
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 151 
 
 which the poorest of us can advance. We cannot hasten 
 Christ's coming. 'Of the day and the hour, knoweth 
 none.' 
 
 But the kingdom of God is as a grain of mustard- 
 seed : we can sow of it ; it is as a foam-globe of 
 leaven : we can mingle it ; and its glory and its joy are 
 that even the birds of the air can lodge in the branches 
 thereof. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 233. 
 
 Lost Souls. 
 
 ' Loss of life ' ! By the ship overwhelmed in the 
 river, shattered on the sea; by the mine's blast, the 
 earthquake's burial you mourn for the multitude 
 slain. You cheer the lifeboat's crew : you hear, with 
 praise and joy, of the rescue of one still breathing body 
 more at the pit's mouth : and all the while, for one 
 soul that is saved from the momentary passing away 
 (according to your creed, to be with its God), the lost 
 souls, yet locked in their polluted flesh, haunt, with 
 worse than ghosts, the shadows of your churches, and 
 the corners of your streets; and your weary p sa ^a 
 children watch, with no memory of Jerusalem, <rvii. 
 and no hope of return from their captivity, the weltering 
 to the sea of your Waters of Babylon. Fors Clavigera, 
 Letter XCI. 
 
 Love and Fear. 
 
 Two great and principal passions are evidently ap- 
 pointed by the Deity to rule the life of man; namely, 
 the love of God, and the fear of sin, and of its com- 
 panion Death. How many motives we have for Love, 
 how much there is in the universe to kindle our ad- 
 miration and to claim our gratitude. . . . Kindness 
 is indeed everywhere and always visible; but not alone. 
 Wrath and threatening are invariably mingled with the 
 love ; and in the utmost solitudes of nature, the exist- 
 ence of Hell seems to me as legibly declared by a thou- 
 sand spiritual utterances, as that of Heaven. It is well
 
 152 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 for us to dwell with thankfulness on the unfolding of 
 the flower, and the falling of the dew, and the sleep 
 of the green fields in the sunshine; but the blasted 
 trunk, the barren rock, the moaning of the bleak winds, 
 the roar of the black, perilous, merciless whirlpools of 
 the mountain streams, the solemn solitudes of moors 
 and seas, the continual fading of all beauty into dark- 
 ness, and of all strength into dust, have these no lan- 
 guage for us ? We may seek to escape their teaching by 
 Deut. reasonings touching the good which is wrought 
 x' 1 - ?; out of all evil; but it is vain sophistry. The 
 13. good succeeds to the evil as day succeeds the 
 
 night, but so also the evil to the good. Gerizim 
 an( j jbal, birth and death, light and darkness, 
 heaven and hell, divide the existence of man, and his 
 Futurity. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. iii., XLI., XLII. 
 Love is stronger than Death; and through her, we 
 Rom. i. 17. have, first, Hope of life to come ; then, surety 
 of it ; living by this surety, (the Just shall live 
 by Faith,) Righteousness, and Strength to the 
 [eb ' x ' 38 - end. Who bears on her scroll, ' The Lord shall 
 break the teeth of the Lions.' St. Mark's Rest, 130. 
 
 Luxury. 
 
 Consider whether, even supposing it guiltless, luxury 
 would be desired by any of us, if we saw clearly at our 
 sides the suffering which accompanies it in the world. 
 Luxury is indeed possible in the future innocent and 
 exquisite; luxury for all, and by the help of all; but 
 luxury at present can only be enjoyed by the ignorant ; 
 the cruelest man living could not sit at his feast, unless 
 he sat blindfold. Raise the veil boldly ; face the light ; 
 and if, as yet, the light of the eye can only be through 
 tears, and the light of the body through sackcloth, go 
 thou forth weeping, bearing precious seed, until the time 
 S. Matt, come, and the kingdom, when Christ's gift of 
 X 4- bread, and bequest of peace, shall be ' Unto 
 this last as unto thee'; and when, for earth's severed
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 153 
 
 multitudes of the wicked and the weary, there shall 
 be holier reconciliation than that of the narrow 
 home, and calm economy, where the wicked 
 cease not from trouble, but from troubling and the 
 weary are at rest. Unto this Last, 85. 
 
 Madonna, The, in the Church of Sts. Mary and Donato. 
 Far in the apse, is seen the sad Madonna standing 
 in her folded robe, lifting her hands in vanity of blessing. 
 There is little else to draw away our thoughts from the 
 solitary image. . . . The figure wears a robe of blue, 
 deeply fringed with gold, which seems to be gathered 
 on the head and thrown back on the shoulders, cross- 
 ing the breast, and falling in many folds to the ground. 
 The under robe, shown beneath it where it opens at 
 the breast, is of the same colour ; the whole, except the 
 deep gold fringe, being simply the dress of the women 
 of the time. Round the dome there is a coloured mosaic 
 border ; and on the edge of its arch, legible by the whole 
 congregation, this inscription : 
 
 'Quos Eva Contrivit, Pia Virgo Maria Redemit ; 
 Hanc Cuncti Laudent, Qui Cristi Munere Gaudent.' 1 
 
 The whole edifice is, therefore, simply a temple to the 
 Virgin : to her is ascribed the fact of Redemption, and 
 to her its praise. 
 
 ' And is this,' it will be asked of me, ' the time, is 
 this the worship, to which you would have us look back 
 with reverence and regret ? ' Inasmuch as redemption 
 is ascribed to the Virgin, No. Inasmuch as redemption 
 is a thing desired, believed, rejoiced in, Yes, and Yes a 
 thousand times. As far as the Virgin is worshipped in 
 place of God,~ No ; but as-far as there is the evidence 
 of worship- itself, and of the sense of a Divine presence, 
 Yes. For there is a wider division of men than that 
 into Christian and Pagan : before we ask what a man 
 
 1 ' Whom Eve destroyed, the pious Virgin Mary redeemed ; 
 All praise her, who rejoice in the Grace of Christ'
 
 154 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 worships, we have to ask whether he worships at all. 
 Observe Christ's own words on this head : ' God is 
 s. John a spirit ; and they that worship Him must 
 >v 4- worship Him in spirit/^ in truth.' The 
 
 ^^\^^^^LMWMMHJi^*f 
 
 worshipping in spirit comes~"nr5t7 and it does not 
 necessarily imply the worshipping in truth! Therefore, 
 there is first the broad division of men into Spirit 
 worshippers and Flesh worshippers ; and then, of the 
 Spirit worshippers, the farther division into Christian 
 and Pagan, worshippers in Falsehood or in Truth. 
 I therefore, for the moment, omit all inquiry how far 
 the Mariolatry of the early Church did indeed eclipse 
 Christ, t>r what measure of deeper reyerence for the 
 Son of God was still felt through all the grossest forms 
 of Madonna worship. Let that worship be' taken at 
 its worst; let the goddess of this dome of Murano be 
 looked upon as just in the same sense an idol as the 
 Athene of the Acropolis, or the Syrian Queen of Heaven ; 
 and then, on this darkest assumption, balance well the 
 difference between those who worship and those who 
 worship not ; that difference which there is in the sight 
 of Got^m all ages, between the calculating, smiling, 
 self-sustained, self-governed man, and the believing, 
 weeping, wondering, struggling, Heaven-governed man; 
 between the men who say in their hearts 
 
 Psalm 
 
 mi. i. ' There is no God,' and those who acknowledge 
 AC s a God at every step, ' if haply they might feel 
 "* 87 ' after Him and find Him.' For that is indeed 
 the difference which we shall find, in the end, between 
 the builders of this day, and the builders on that sand 
 island long ago. They did honour something out of 
 themselves ; they did believe in spiritual presence judg- 
 ing, animating, redeeming them ; they built to its honour 
 and for its habitation ; and were content to pass away 
 in nameless multitudes, so only that the labour of their 
 s. Matt, hands might fix in the sea-wilderness a throne for 
 xiv. a$. th^ guardian angel. In this was their strength, 
 and there was indeed a Spirit walking with them on
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 155 
 
 the waters, though they could not discern the form 
 thereof, though the Master's voice came not to s Mark 
 them, '-It is I.' What their error cost them, we vi. 48-50. 
 shall see hereafter ; for it remained when the s Matt 
 majesty and the sincerity of their worship had xiv - a ?- 
 departed, and remains to this day. Mariolatry is no 
 special characteristic of the twelfth cenriiry ' "oh the 
 outside of that very tribune of San Donate, in its central 
 recess, is an image of the Virgin which receives the 
 reverence once paid to the blue vision upon the inner 
 dome. With rouged cheeks and painted brows, the 
 frightful doll stands in wretchedness of rags, blackened 
 with the smoke of the votive lamps at its feet ; and if we 
 would know what has been lost or gained by Italy in 
 the six hundred years that have worn the marbles of 
 Murano, let us consider how far the priests who set up 
 this to worship, the populace who have this to adore, 
 may be nobler than the men who conceived that lonely 
 figure standing on the golden field, or than those to 
 whom it seemed to receive their prayer at evening, far 
 away, where they only saw the blue clouds rising out 
 of the burning sea. Stones of Venice, vol. ii., ch. iii., 
 xxxix., XL. 
 
 Madonna Worship. 
 
 To the common Protestant mind the dignities ascribed 
 to the Madonna have been always a violent offence; 
 they are one of the parts of the Catholic faith which are 
 openest to reasonable dispute, and least comprehensible 
 by the average realistic and materialist temper of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 But after the most careful examination, neither as 
 adversary nor as friend, of the influences of Catholicism 
 for good and evil, I am persuaded that the worship 
 of the Madonna has been one of its noblest and most 
 vital graces, and has never been otherwise than productive 
 of true holiness of life and purity of character. I do 
 not enter into any question as to the truth or fallacy
 
 156 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 of the idea ; I no more wish to defend the historical 
 or theological position of the Madonna than that of 
 St. Michael or St. Christopher; but I am certain that 
 to the habit of reverent belief in, and contemplation 
 of, the character ascribed to the heavenly hierarchies, 
 we must ascribe the highest results yet achieved in 
 human nature. . . . There has probably not been an 
 innocent cottage home throughout the length and 
 breadth of Europe during the whole period of vital 
 Christianity, in which the imagined presence of the 
 Madonna has not given sanctity to the humblest duties, 
 and comfort to the sorest trials of the lives of women ; 
 and every brightest and loftiest achievement of the arts 
 s. Luke an d strength of manhood has been the fulfilment 
 L 49- of the assured prophecy of the poor Israelite 
 maiden, ' He that is mighty hath magnified me, and Holy 
 is His name.' Fors Clavigera, Letter XLI. 
 
 Magnitude. 
 
 In one sense, and that deep, there is no such 
 Psalm thing as magnitude. The least thing is 
 xc 4- as the greatest, and one day as a thousand 
 m S 8 Peter y ears > i n ^e eyes of the Maker of great and 
 s. Matt, small things. In another sense, and that close 
 x - " to us and necessary, there exist both magni- 
 xii. 1 ^ 6 tu( ie an d value. Though not a sparrow falls 
 Isaiah to the ground unnoted, there are yet creatures 
 who are of more value than many; and the 
 same Spirit which weighs the dust of the earth in a 
 balance, counts the isles as a little thing. Modern 
 Painters, vol. v., pt. viii., ch. iii., i. 
 
 Mammon. 
 
 ' Mammon ' is assigned for the direct adversary 
 of the Master whom they are bound to serve. You 
 cannot, by any artifice of reconciliation, be God's 
 soldier, and his. Nor while the desire of gain is within 
 your heart, can any true knowledge of the Kingdom
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 157 
 
 of God come there. No one shall enter its stronghold, 
 no one receive its blessing, except, ' he that p sa in, 
 hath clean hands and a pure heart ' ; clean xxiv - 4- 
 hands that have done no cruel deed, pure heart, that 
 knows no base desire. And, therefore, in the highest 
 spiritual sense that can be given to words, be assured, 
 not respecting the literal temple of stone and gold, but 
 of the living temple of your body and soul, that no 
 redemption, nor teaching, nor hallowing, will be anywise 
 possible for it, until these two verses have been, for it 
 also, fulfilled : 
 
 ' And He went into the temple, and began to cast 
 out them that sold therein, and them that 3. Luke 
 bought. And He taught daily in the temple.' xix 4S, 47- 
 Time and Tide, 180. 
 
 Manna. 
 
 The word 'bdellium' occurs only twice in the Old 
 Testament : hereT'Sftd in the book of Numbers, Gen. H. u. 
 where you are told the manna was of the colour Numbers 
 or look of bdellium. There, the Septuagint ** ? 
 uses for "if ~ the word K/aixrraAAos, crystal, or more 
 properly anything congealed by cold ; and in the other 
 account of the manna, in Exodus, you are told that, 
 after the dew round the camp was gone up, ' there lay 
 a small round thing as small as the hoar- Exodus 
 frost upon the ground.' Until I heard from xvi - J 4- 
 my friend Mr. Tyrrwhitt of the cold felt at night in 
 camping on Sinai, I could not understand how deep 
 the feeling of the Arab, no less than the Greek, must 
 have been respecting the divine gift of the dew, nor 
 with what sense of thankfulness for miraculous blessing 
 the question of Job would be uttered, ' The j b 
 hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it ? ' ***viii.29. 
 Then compare the first words of the blessing ^' 5 ^ 
 of Isaac : ' God give thee of the dew of heaven, Deut. 
 and of the fatness of earth ; ' and, again, the xxxli ' r> ' 
 first words of the song of Moses : ' Give ear, oh ye
 
 158 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 heavens, for my speech shall distil as the dew ' ; and 
 you will see "at once why this heavenly food was made 
 to shine clear in the desert, like an enduring of its 
 dew; Divine remaining for continual need. Frozen, 
 as the Alpine snow pure for ever Deucalion, ch. vii., 
 
 12. 
 
 Meekness. 
 
 My time fails me my thoughts how much more in 
 s. Matt, trying to imagine what this sweet world will be, 
 when the meek inherit it indeed, and the low- 
 S. Luke Hness of every faithful handmaiden has been 
 regarded of her Lord. For the day will come, 
 
 the expectation of the poor shall not perish 
 Psaim ^ or ever - ^ ot by might, nor by power, but by 
 xxv. 9. His Spirit the meek shall He guide in judg- 
 ment, and the meek shall He teach His way. Fors 
 Clavigera, Letter XCIII. 
 
 Ministering. 
 
 Having cultivated, in the time of your studentship, 
 your powers truly to the utmost, then, in your manhood, 
 be resolved they shall be spent in the true service of 
 men not in being ministered unto, but in ministering. 
 Begin with the simplest of all ministries breaking of 
 bread to the poor. Think first of that, not of your 
 own pride, learning, comfort, prospects in life : nay, not 
 now, once come to manhood, may even the obedience 
 to parents check your own conscience of what is your 
 Master's work. ' Whoso loveth father and mother 
 s. Matt. more than me is not worthy of me.' Take 
 x 37- the perfectly simple words of the Judgment, 
 s. Matt. ' Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of 
 these, ye did it unto me : ' but you must do it, 
 not preach it. And you must not be resolved that it 
 shall be done only in a gentlemanly manner. Your 
 pride must be laid down, as your avarice, and your fear. 
 Whether as fishermen on the sea, ploughmen on the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 159 
 
 earth, labourers at the forge, or merchants at the shop- 
 counter, you must break and distribute bread to the poor, 
 set down in companies for that also is literally 5. Mark 
 told you upon the green grass, not crushed vi - 39- 
 in heaps under the pavement of cities. Take Christ at 
 His literal word, and, so sure as His word is true, He 
 will be known of you in breaking of bread. Refuse that 
 servant's duty because it is plain, seek either to serve 
 God, or know Him, in any other way : your service will 
 become mockery of Him, and your knowledge darkness. 
 Every day your virtues will be used by the evil spirits to 
 conceal, or to make respectable, national crime; every 
 day your felicities will become baits for the iniquity of 
 others ; your heroisms, wrecker's beacons, betraying 
 them to destruction; and before your own deceived 
 eyes and wandering hearts every false meteor of know- 
 ledge will flash, and every perishing pleasure glow, to 
 lure you into the gulf of your grave. 
 
 But obey the word in its simplicity, in wholeness of 
 purpose and with serenity of sacrifice, . . . and truly 
 you shall receive sevenfold into your bosom in this 
 present life, as in the world to come, life everlasting. 
 All your knowledge will become to you clear and sure, 
 all your footsteps safe; in the present brightness of 
 domestic life you will foretaste the joy of Paradise, and 
 to your children's children bequeath, not only Psalm 
 noble fame, but endless virtue. ' He shall XC1- " 
 give his angels charge over you to keep you in phil - iv - 7- 
 all your ways ; and the peace of God, which passeth all 
 understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through 
 Christ Jesus.' On the Old Road, vol. ii., 296, 297. 
 
 Mirror. 
 
 Most men's minds are dim mirrors, in which all truth 
 is seen, as St. Paul tells us, darkly : this is the , Cor 
 fault most common and most fatal ; dulness of **" " 
 the heart and mistiness of sight, increasing to utter hard- 
 ness and blindness ; Satan breathing upon the glass, so
 
 / 
 
 160 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 that if we do not sweep the mist laboriously away, it 
 will take no image. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. iii., 
 LXI. 
 
 Money. 
 
 For money is a strange kind of seed ; scattered, it is 
 poison ; but set, it is bread : so that a man whom God 
 has appointed to be a sower must bear as lightly as 
 he may the burden of gold and of possessions, till he 
 find the proper places to sow them in. Fors Clavigera, 
 Letter LXII. 
 
 M 
 
 ' an 
 
 oses, Death of. 
 
 For forty years Moses had not been alone. The care 
 and burden of all the people, the weight of their woe, 
 and guilt, and death, had been upon him continually. 
 The multitude had been kid upon him as if he had 
 conceived them ; their tears had been his meat, night 
 and day, until he had felt as if God had withdrawn His 
 
 favour from him, and he had prayed that he 
 U ', 15. might be slain, and not see his wretchedness. 
 Deut And now, at last, the command came, 'Get 
 xx * ii - 49- thee up into this mountain.' The weary hands 
 Exodus that had been so long stayed up against the 
 
 enemies of Israel, might lean again upon the 
 shepherd's staff, and fold themselves for the shepherd's 
 prayer for the shepherd's slumber. Not strange to 
 his feet, though forty years unknown, the roughness 
 Deut. f tne b^ 6 mountain - path, as he climbed 
 *xxii. 49- from ledge to ledge of Abarim ; not strange 
 to his aged eyes the scattered clusters of the mountain 
 herbage, and the broken shadows of the cliffs, in- 
 dented far across the silence of uninhabited ravines ; 
 scenes such as those among which, with none, as now, 
 beside him but God, he had led his flocks so often ; 
 and which he had left, how painfully ! taking upon him 
 the appointed power, to make of the fenced city a wilder- 
 ness, and to fill the desert with songs of deliverance.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 161 
 
 It was not to embitter the last hours of his life that 
 God restored to him, for a day, the beloved solitudes 
 he had lost; and breathed the peace of the perpetual 
 hills around him, and cast the world in which he 
 had laboured and sinned far beneath his feet, in that 
 mist of dying blue; all sin, all wandering, soon to be 
 forgotten for ever; the Dead Sea a type of God's 
 anger understood by him, of all men, most clearly, who 
 had seen the earth open her mouth, and the sea his 
 depth, to overwhelm the companies of those who con- 
 tended with his Master laid waveless beneath him ; 
 and beyond it, the fair hills of Judah, and the soft 
 plains and banks of Jordan, purple in the evening light 
 as with the blood of redemption, and fading in their 
 distant fulness into mysteries of promise and of love. 
 There, with his unabated strength, his un- Deut 
 dimmed glance, lying down upon the utmost *v. 7- 
 rocks, with angels waiting near to contend for the spoils 
 of his spirit, he put off his earthly armour. We do 
 deep reverence to his companion prophet, for a Kings 
 whom the chariot of fire came down from " " 
 heaven ; but was his death less noble, whom his Lord 
 Himself buried in the vales of Moab, keeping, in the 
 secrets of the eternal counsels, the knowledge of a 
 sepulchre, from which he was to be called, 3. Luke 
 in the fulness of time, to talk with that Lord, ** 3. 3- 
 upon Hermon, of the death that He should accomplish 
 at Jerusalem? Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. xx., 47. 
 
 Mountains in the Bible. 
 
 Mark the significance of the earliest mention of 
 mountains in the Mosaic books ; at least, of those in 
 which some Divine appointment or command is stated 
 respecting them. They are first brought before us as 
 refuges for God's people from the two judgments, of 
 water and fire. The ark rests upon ' the moun- Gen 
 tains of Ararat ; ' and man, having passed - * 
 through that great baptism unto death, kneels upon 
 
 L
 
 1 62 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 the earth first where it is nearest heaven, and mingles 
 with the mountain clouds the smoke of his sacrifice 
 of thanksgiving. Again : from the midst of the first 
 judgment by fire, the command of the Deity to His 
 Gen servant is, ' Escape to the mountain ' ; and the 
 
 xbc - J 7- morbid fear of the hills, which fills any human 
 mind after long stay in places of luxury and sin, is 
 Gen strangely marked in Lot's complaining reply : 
 
 xix. 19. < i cannot escape to the mountain, lest some 
 evil take me.' The third mention, in way of ordinance, 
 Gen is a far more solemn one : ' Abraham lifted up 
 
 **" * his eyes, and saw the place afaf"off*- - ' The 
 Place,' the Mountain of Myrrh, or of bitterness, chosen 
 Psalm to fulfil to all the seed of Abraham, far off and 
 cxxi. i. near, the inner meaning of promise regarded 
 in that vow : ' I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, 
 from whence cometh mine help.' 
 
 And the fourth is the delivery of the law on Sinai. 
 Exodus It seemed, then, to the monks, that the moun- 
 XX3cL l8 - tains were appointed by their Maker to be to 
 man, refuges from Judgment, signs of Redemption, and 
 altars of Sanctification and Obedience; and they saw 
 them afterwards connected, in the manner the most 
 touching and gracious, with the death, after his task 
 had been accomplished, of the first anointed Priest; 
 the death, in like manner, of the first inspired Law- 
 giver; and, lastly, with the assumption of his office by 
 the Eternal Priest, Lawgiver, and Saviour. . . . 
 
 If, in their remembrance of these things, and in their 
 endeavour to follow in the footsteps of their Master, 
 religious men of bygone days, closing themselves in 
 the hill solitudes, forgot sometimes, and sometimes 
 feared, the duties they owed to the active world, 
 we may perhaps pardon them more easily than we 
 ought to pardon ourselves, if we neither seek any 
 influence for good nor submit to it unsought, in scenes 
 to which thus all the men whose writings we receive 
 as inspired, together with their Lord, retired whenever
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 163 
 
 they had any task or trial laid upon them needing 
 more than their usual strength of spirit. Nor, perhaps, 
 should we have unprofitably entered into the mind of 
 the earlier ages, if among our other thoughts, as we 
 watch the chains of the snowy mountains rise on the 
 horizon, we should sometimes admit the memory of 
 the hour in which their Creator, among their solitudes, 
 entered on His travail for the salvation of our race; 
 and indulge the dream, that as the flaming and trem- 
 bling mountains of the earth seem to be the monuments 
 of the manifesting of His terror on Sinai, these pure 
 and white hills, near to the heaven, and sources of all 
 good to the earth, are the appointed memorials s Matt 
 of that Light of His Mercy, that fell, snow-like, xvii - *> 2 - 
 on the Mount of Transfiguration. "Modern Painters, 
 vol. iv., en. xx., & 45, 49 
 
 Music and Dancing. 
 
 The going forth of the women of Israel after Miriam 
 with timbrels and with dances, was, as you Exodus 
 doubtless remember, their expression of pas- ** *- 
 sionate triumph and thankfulness, after the full accom- 
 plishment of their deliverance from the Egyptians. That 
 deliverance had been by the utter death of their enemies, 
 and accompanied by stupendous miracle; no human 
 creatures could in an hour of triumph be surrounded 
 by circumstances more solemn. I am not going to 
 try to excite your feelings about them. Consider only 
 for yourself what that seeing of the Egyptians Exodus 
 ' dead upon the sea-shore ' meant to every xiv - 3> 3*- 
 soul that saw it. And then reflect that these intense 
 emotions of mingled horror, triumph, and gratitude were 
 expressed, in the visible presence of the Deity, by music 
 and dancing. If you answer that you do not believe 
 the Egyptians so perished, or that God ever appeared 
 in a pillar of cloud, I reply, Be it so believe Exodus 
 or disbelieve, as you choose ; This is yet *"' " 
 assuredly the fact, that the author of the poem or fable
 
 1 64 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 of the Exodus supposed that, under such circumstances 
 of Divine interposition as he had invented, the triumph 
 of the Israelitish women would have been, and ought 
 to have been, under the direction of a prophetess, ex- 
 pressed by music and dancing. Nor was it possible that 
 he should think otherwise, at whatever period he wrote ; 
 both music and dancing being, among all great ancient 
 nations, an appointed and very principal part of the 
 worship of the gods. . . . 
 
 Returning to the Jewish history, you find soon after- 
 wards this enthusiastic religious dance and song 
 
 Exodus 
 
 xxxii. employed, in their more common and habi- 
 tual manner, in the idolatries under Sinai ; but 
 beautifully again and tenderly, after the triumph of 
 judges Jephthah, ' And behold his daughter came out 
 ** 34- to meet him with timbrels and with dances.' 
 Again, still more notably, at the triumph of David with 
 i Sam. Saul, ' the women came out of all the cities of 
 xviii. e. Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul 
 with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music.' 
 And you have this joyful song and dance of the virgins 
 of Israel not only incidentally alluded to in the most 
 solemn passages of Hebrew religious poetry (as in 
 Psalm Ixviii. 24, 25, and Psalm cxlix. 2, 3), but approved, 
 and the restoration of it promised as a sign of God's 
 perfect blessing, most earnestly by the saddest of the 
 Hebrew prophets, and in one of the most beautiful 
 of all his sayings. 
 
 'The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, 
 "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. 
 Therefore, with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. 
 I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O Virgin 
 of Israel ; thou shalt again be adorned with thy 
 tabrets, and thou shalt go forth in dances with them 
 that make merry " ' (Jer. xxxi. 3, 4 ; and compare 
 
 v - 13)- 
 
 And finally, you have in two of quite the most im- 
 portant passages in the whole series of Scripture (one
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 165 
 
 in the Old Testament, one in the New), the rejoicing in 
 
 the repentance from, and remission of, sins, aSam 
 
 expressed by means of music and dancing, vi. 14. 
 
 namely, in the rapturous dancing of David s. Luke 
 
 before the returning ark ; and in the joy of the xv * 5 ' 
 
 father's household at the repentance of the prodigal 
 son. Time and Tide, 41, 42, 43. 
 
 Mystery. 
 
 We need not wonder, that mist and all its phenomena 
 have been made delightful to us, since our happiness 
 as thinking beings must depend on our being content 
 to accept only partial knowledge, even in those matters 
 which chiefly concern us. If we insist upon perfect 
 intelligibility and complete declaration in every moral 
 subject, we shall instantly fall into misery of unbelief. 
 Our whole happiness and power of energetic action 
 depend upon our being able to breathe and live in 
 the cloud; content to see it opening here and closing 
 there ; rejoicing to catch, through the thinnest films 
 of it, glimpses of stable and substantial things ; but 
 yet perceiving a nobleness even in the concealment, 
 and rejoicing that the kindly veil is spread where the 
 untempered light might have scorched us, or the infinite 
 clearness wearied. 
 
 And I believe that the resentment of this interference 
 of the mist is one of the forms of proud error which 
 are too easily mistaken for virtues. To be content in 
 utter darkness and ignorance is indeed unmanly, and 
 therefore we think that to love light and seek know- 
 ledge must always be right. Yet (as in all matters 
 before observed), wherever pride has any share in the 
 work, even knowledge and light may be ill pursued. 
 Knowledge is good, and light is good, yet man perished 
 in seeking knowledge, and moths perish in seeking 
 light ; and if we, who are crushed before the moth, will 
 not accept such mystery as is needful for us, we shall 
 perish in like manner. But accepted in humbleness,
 
 1 66 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 it instantly becomes an element of pleasure; and I 
 think that every rightly constituted mind ought to re- 
 joice, not so much in knowing anything clearly, as 
 in feeling that there is infinitely more which it cannot 
 know. None but proud or weak men would mourn 
 over this, for we may always know more if we choose, 
 by working on ; but the pleasure is, I think, to humble 
 people, in knowing that the journey is endless, the 
 treasure inexhaustible, watching the cloud still march 
 before them with its summitless pillar, and being sure 
 that, to the end of time and to the length of eternity, 
 the mysteries of its infinity will still open farther and 
 farther, their dimness being the sign and necessary 
 adjunct of their inexhaustibleness. I know there are 
 R CV . an evil mystery and a deathful dimness, the 
 xvii. 5. mystery of the great Babylon the dimness of 
 the sealed eye and soul; but do not let us confuse 
 these with the glorious mystery of the things which 
 i S. Peter the angels ' desire to look into,' or with the 
 ' Ia - dimness which, even before the clear eye and 
 open soul, still rests on sealed pages of the eternal 
 volume. Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. v., 3, 4. 
 
 Mystery of Loss. 
 
 There is no subject of thought more melancholy, 
 more wonderful, than the way in which God permits 
 so often His best gifts to be trodden under foot of men, 
 His richest treasures to be wasted by the moth, and the 
 mightiest influences of His Spirit, given but once in 
 the world's history, to be quenched and shortened by 
 miseries of chance and guilt. I do not wonder at what 
 men Suffer, but I wonder often at what they Lose. We 
 may see how good rises out of pain and evil; but the 
 dead, naked, eyeless loss, what good comes of that ? 
 The fruit struck to the earth before its ripeness; the 
 glowing life and goodly purpose dissolved away in 
 sudden death; the words, half spoken, choked upon 
 the lips with clay for ever; or, stranger than all, the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 167 
 
 whole majesty of humanity raised to its fulness, and 
 every gift and power necessary for a given purpose, 
 at a given moment, centred in one man, and all this 
 perfected blessing permitted to be refused, perverted, 
 crushed, cast aside by those who need it most, s Matt 
 the city which is Not set on a hill, the candle v - X 4, 'S- 
 that giveth light to None that are in the house ; these 
 are the heaviest mysteries of this strange world, and, 
 it seems to me, those which mark its curse the most. 
 Stones of Venice, vol. ii., ch. v., xxxvi. 
 
 'Nations of the Earth.' 
 
 The power of every great people, as of every living 
 tree, depends on its not effacing, but confirming and 
 concluding, the labours of its ancestors. Looking back 
 to the history of nations, we may date the beginning 
 of their decline from the moment when they ceased 
 to be reverent in heart, and accumulative in hand and 
 brain; from the moment when the redundant fruit of 
 age hid in them the hollowness of heart, whence the 
 simplicities of custom and sinews of tradition had 
 withered away. Had men but guarded the righteous 
 laws, and protected the precious works of their fathers, 
 with half the industry they have given to change and 
 to ravage, they would not now have been seeking vainly, 
 in millennial visions and mechanic servitudes, the ac- 
 complishment of the promise made to them so long 
 ago : ' As the days of a tree are the days of i sa iah 
 My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the bcv - ** *3- 
 work of their hands ; they shall not labour in vain, nor 
 bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the 
 blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.' . 
 Modern Painters, vol. v., Pt. vi., ch. viii., 19.
 
 1 68 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar Curse. 
 
 This Nebuchadnezzar curse, that sends men to grass 
 Daniel ^^ e oxen, seems to follow but too closely on 
 iv - *s- the excess or continuance of national power 
 and peace. In the perplexities of nations, in their 
 struggles for existence, in their infancy, their impotence, 
 or even their disorganization, they have higher hopes 
 and nobler passions. Out of the suffering comes the 
 serious mind ; out of the salvation, the grateful heart ; 
 out of endurance, fortitude ; out of deliverance, faith : 
 but when they have learned to live under providence 
 of laws and with decency and justice of regard for each 
 other, and when they have done away with violent 
 and external sources of suffering, worse evils seem to 
 arise out of their rest; evils that vex less and mortify 
 more, that suck the blood though they do not shed 
 it, and ossify the heart though they do not torture it. 
 And deep though the causes of thankfulness must be 
 to every people at peace with others and at unity in 
 itself, there are causes of fear, also, a fear greater than 
 of sword and sedition : that dependence on God may 
 be forgotten, because the bread is given and the water 
 sure ; that gratitude to Him may cease, because His 
 constancy of protection has taken the semblance of a 
 natural law ; that heavenly hope may grow faint amidst 
 the full fruition of the world; that selfishness may 
 take place of undemanded devotion, compassion be 
 Rom lost in vainglory, and love in dissimulation ; 
 *" 9- that enervation may succeed to strength, apathy 
 s. Luke to patience, and the noise of jesting words 
 *" 35- and foulness of dark thoughts, to the earnest 
 purity of the girded loins and the burning lamp. 
 Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. i., 6. 
 
 Neglect. 
 
 You ought to be glad in thinking how much more 
 beauty God has made, than human eyes can ever see ;
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 169 
 
 but not glad in thinking how much more evil man has 
 made, than his own soul can ever conceive, much 
 more, than his hands can ever heal. . . . The same 
 law holds in our neglect of multiplied pain, as in 
 our neglect of multiplied beauty. Ethics of the Dust, 
 p. 72. 
 
 Nobleness. 
 
 The finer the nature, the more flaws it will show 
 through the clearness of it; and it is a law of this 
 universe, that the best things shall be seldomest seen in 
 their best form. The wild grass grows well and strongly, 
 one year with another ; but the wheat is, according to 
 the greater nobleness of its nature, liable to the bitterer 
 blight. Stones of Venice, vol. ii., ch. vi., XL 
 
 Obedience. 
 
 One thing I solemnly desire to see all children taught 
 obedience ; and one to all persons entering into life 
 the power of unselfish admiration. . . . 
 
 In what courtesy or in what affection are we even 
 now carefully training ourselves ; above all, in what 
 form of duty or reverence to those to whom we owe all 
 our power of understanding even what duty or reverence 
 means ? I warned you . . . against the base curiosity 
 of seeking for the origin of life in the dust ; in earth 
 instead of heaven : how much more must I warn you 
 against forgetting the true origin of the life that is in 
 your own souls, of that good which you have heard with 
 your ears, and your fathers have told you. You p sa i m 
 buy the picture of the Virgin as furniture for xliv - ' 
 your rooms ; but you despise the religion, and you re- 
 ject the memory, of those who have taught you to love 
 the aspect of whatsoever things and creatures are good 
 and pure : and too many of you, entering into life, are 
 ready to think, to feel, to act, as the men bid you who 
 are incapable of worship, as they are of creation ;
 
 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 whose power is only in destruction : whose glad- 
 ness only in disdain; whose glorying is in their 
 shame. You know well, I should think, by this time, 
 that I am not one to seek to conceal from you any 
 truth of nature, or superstitiously decorate for you 
 any form of faith; but I trust deeply (and I will 
 strive, for my poor part, wholly, so to help you in 
 steadfastness of heart) that you, the children of the 
 Christian chivalry which was led in England by the 
 Lion-Heart, and in France by Roland, and in Spain 
 by the Cid, may not stoop to become as these, whose 
 thoughts are but to invent new foulness with which 
 to blaspheme the story of Christ, and to destroy the 
 noble works and laws that have been founded in His 
 name. 
 
 Will you not rather go round about this England and 
 tell the towers thereof, and mark well her bul- 
 warks, and consider her palaces, that you may 
 13 tell it to the generation following? Will you 
 
 not rather honour with all your strength, with all your 
 obedience, with all your holy love and never-ending 
 worship, the princely sires, and pure maids, and nursing 
 mothers, who have bequeathed and blest your life? 
 
 Exodus tnat so > f r vou a ^ so an d f r y ur children, the 
 xx. . d a y S o f strength, and the light of memory, may 
 be long in this lovely land which the Lord your God 
 has given you. The Eagle's Nest, 239-40. 
 
 The first duty of a child is to obey its father and 
 mother ; as the first duty of a citizen is to obey the laws 
 of his state. And this duty is so strict that I believe 
 the only limits to it are those fixed by Isaac and 
 Iphigenia. On the other hand, the father and mother 
 Ephes. have also a fixed duty to the child not to pro- 
 ** * voke it to wrath. I have never heard this text 
 explained to fathers and mothers from the pulpit, which 
 is curious. For it appears to me that God will expect 
 the parents to understand their duty to their children, 
 better even than children can be expected to know their
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 171 
 
 duty to their parents. But farther. A child's duty is 
 to obey its parents. It is never said anywhere in the 
 Bible, and never was yet said in any good or wise book, 
 that a man's, or woman's is. When, precisely, a child 
 becomes a man or a woman, it can no more be said, 
 than when it should first stand on its legs. But a 
 time assuredly comes when it should. In great states, 
 children are always trying to remain children, and the 
 parents wanting to make men and women of them. 
 In vile states, the children are always wanting to 
 be men and women, and the parents to keep them 
 children. . . . 
 
 No point of duty has been more miserably warped 
 and perverted by false priests, in all churches, than this 
 duty of the young to choose whom they will serve. 
 But the duty itself does not the less exist ; and if 
 there be any truth in Christianity at all, there will 
 come, for all true disciples, a time when they 5. Matt, 
 have to take that saying to heart, ' He that * 37- 
 loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy 
 of me.' 
 
 ' Loveth ' observe. There is no talk of disobeying 
 fathers or mothers whom you do not love, or of running 
 away from a home where you would rather not stay. 
 But to leave the home which is your peace, and to be 
 at enmity with those who are most dear to you, this, 
 if there be meaning in Christ's words, one day or other 
 will be demanded of His true followers. 
 
 And there is meaning in Christ's words. Whatever 
 misuse may have been made of them, whatever false 
 prophets and Heaven knows there have been many 
 have called the young children to them, not to bless, 
 but to curse, the assured fact remains, that if you will 
 obey God, there will come a moment when the voice of 
 man will be raised, with all its holiest natural autho- 
 rity, against you. The friend and the wise adviser 
 the brother and the sister the father and the master 
 the entire voice of your prudent and keen-sighted
 
 172 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 acquaintance the entire weight of the scornful stupidity 
 of the vulgar world for once, they will be against you, 
 all at one. You have to obey God rather than man. 
 The human race, with all its wisdom and love, all its 
 indignation and folly, on one side, God alone on the 
 other. You have to choose. Mornings in Florence, 
 48-50- 
 
 Offices of the Clergy. 
 
 What should be the offices of the Clergy ? That is 
 to say, What are the possible spiritual necessities which 
 at any time may arise in the Church, and by what 
 means and men are they to be supplied ? evidently 
 an infinite question. Different kinds of necessities 
 must be met by different authorities, constituted as 
 the necessities arise. Robinson Crusoe, in his island, 
 wants no Bishop, and makes a thunderstorm do for 
 an Evangelist. The University of Oxford would be 
 ill off without its Bishop; but wants an Evangelist 
 besides ; and that forthwith. The authority which the 
 Acts Vaudois shepherds need is of Barnabas, the 
 iv -36- Son of Consolation; the authority which the 
 city of London needs is of James, the Son of Thunder, 
 s. Mark Let us then alter the form of our question, and 
 "* *? put it to the Bible thus : What are the necessi- 
 ties most likely to arise in the Church ? and may they 
 be best met by different men, or in great part by the 
 same men acting in different capacities? and are the 
 names attached to their offices of any consequence? 
 E p h. Ah, the Bible answers now, and that loudly. 
 * ** The Church is built on the Foundation of the 
 Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the 
 corner-stone. Well ; we cannot have two foundations, 
 so we can have no more Apostles nor Prophets : 
 then, as for the other needs of the Church in its 
 edifying upon this foundation, there are all manner 
 of things to be done daily ; rebukes to be given ; 
 comfort to be brought; Scripture to be explained;
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 173 
 
 warning to be enforced ; threatenings to be executed; 
 charities to be administered; and the men who do 
 these things are called, and call themselves, with absolute 
 indifference, Deacons, Bishops, Elders, Evangelists, ac- 
 cording to what they are doing at the time of speaking. 
 St. Paul almost always calls himself a deacon, St. Peter 
 calls himself an elder, i Peter v. i ; and Timothy, 
 generally understood to be addressed as a bishop, is 
 called a deacon in i Tim. iv. 6 forbidden to rebuke 
 an elder, in v. i, and exhorted to do the work of an 
 evangelist, in 2 Tim. iv. 5. But there is one thing 
 which, as officers, or as separate from the rest of the 
 flock, they never call themselves, which it would have 
 been impossible, as so separate, they ever should have 
 called themselves ; that is Priests. 
 
 It would have been just as possible for the Clergy 
 of the early Church to call themselves Levites, as to 
 call themselves (ex-officio) Priests. The whole function 
 of Priesthood was, on Christmas morning, at once and 
 for ever gathered into His Person who was born at 
 Bethlehem ; and thenceforward, all who are united with 
 Him, and who with Him make sacrifice of themselves ; 
 that is to say, all members of the Invisible Church 
 become, at the instant of their conversion, Priests ; 
 and are so called in i Peter ii. 5 and Rev. i. 6 and 
 xx. 6, where, observe, there is no possibility of limit- 
 ing the expression to the Clergy ; the conditions of 
 Priesthood being simply having been loved by Christ, 
 and washed in His blood. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 
 195-6. 
 
 Olive-tree. 
 
 What the elm and oak are to England, the olive is to 
 Italy. ... Its classical associations double its import- 
 ance in Greece; and in the Holy Land the remem- 
 brances connected with it are of course more touching 
 than can ever belong to any other tree of the field. . . . 
 I do not want painters to tell me any scientific facts
 
 174 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 about olive-trees. But it had been well for them to 
 have felt and seen the olive-tree; to have loved it for 
 Christ's sake, partly also for the helmed Wisdom's sake 
 which was to the heathen in some sort as that nobler 
 Wisdom which stood at God's right hand, when He 
 founded the earth and established the heavens. To 
 have loved it, even to the hoary dimness of its delicate 
 foliage, subdued and faint of hue, as if the ashes of the 
 s Luke Gethsemane agony had been cast upon it for 
 xadi.39,44. ever; and to have traced, line by line, the 
 Matt. gnarled writhing of its intricate branches, and 
 xxvl ' & the pointed fretwork of its light and narrow 
 leaves, inlaid on the blue field of the sky, and the small 
 rosy-white stars of its spring blossoming, and the beads 
 of sable fruit scattered by autumn along its topmost 
 boughs the right, in Israel, of the stranger, the father- 
 less, and the widow, and, more than all, the softness 
 of the mantle, silver grey, and tender like the down 
 on a bird's breast, with which, far away, it veils the 
 undulation of the mountains. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., 
 ch. iv., XL, xn. 
 
 Oppression of the Poor. 
 
 You cannot but have noticed how often in those 
 parts of the Bible which are likely to be oftenest opened 
 when people look for guidance, comfort, or help in the 
 affairs of daily life, namely, the Psalms and Proverbs, 
 mention is made of the guilt attaching to the Oppres- 
 sion of the poor. Observe : not the neglect of them, 
 but the Oppression of them : the word is as frequent as 
 it is strange. You can hardly open either of those 
 Psalm books, but somewhere in their pages you will 
 * xo - find a description of the wicked man's attempts 
 against the poor : such as, ' He doth ravish the poor 
 when he getteth him into his net.' 
 Psalm ' He sitteth in the lurking places of the 
 
 * a villages ; his eyes are privily set against the 
 poor.'
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 175 
 
 ' In his pride he doth persecute the poor, and 
 blesseth the covetous, whom God abhorreth.' Psalm 
 ' His mouth is full of deceit and fraud : in * 
 
 Psalm 
 
 the secret places doth he murder the innocent. *. 7, * 
 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, p sa j m 
 who eat up my people as they eat bread ? * v - 4- 
 They have drawn out the sword, and bent the Psalm 
 bow, to cast down the poor and needy.' 
 
 ' They are corrupt, and speak wickedly con- Psalm 
 cerning oppression.' 
 
 ' Pride compasseth them about as a chain, Psalm 
 and violence as a garment.' 
 
 ' Their poison is like the poison of a serpent, J^f 
 Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the p sa i m 
 earth.' lviii - z - 
 
 Yes : ' Ye weigh the violence of your hands ' : 
 weigh these words as well. The last things we ever 
 usually think of weighing are Bible words. We like to 
 dream and dispute over them ; but to weigh them, and 
 see what their true contents are anything but that. 
 Yet, weigh these ; for I have purposely taken all these 
 verses, perhaps more striking to you read in this connec- 
 tion than separately in their places, out of the Psalms, 
 because, for all people belonging to the Established 
 Church of this country, these Psalms are appointed 
 lessons, portioned out to them by their clergy to be 
 read once through every month. Presumably, therefore, 
 whatever portions of Scripture we may pass by or forget, 
 these, at all events, must be brought continually to our 
 observance as useful for direction of daily life. Now, 
 do we ever ask ourselves what the real meaning of these 
 passages may be, and who these wicked peeple are, who 
 are ' murdering the innocent ' ? You know it p sa ] m 
 is rather singular language, this ! rather strong x - a 
 language, we might, perhaps, call it hearing it for the 
 first time. Murder ! and murder of innocent people ! 
 nay, even a sort of cannibalism. Eating people, yes, 
 and God's people, too eating My people as if they
 
 176 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 were bread ! swords drawn, bows bent, poison of serpents 
 Psalm mixed ! violence of hands weighed, measured, 
 ziv - and trafficked with as so much coin ! where 
 is all this going on ? Do you suppose it was only going 
 on in the time of David, and that nobody but Jews ever 
 murder the poor ? If so, it would surely be wiser not 
 to mutter and mumble for our daily lessons what does 
 not concern us ; but if there be any chance that it may 
 concern us, and if this description, in the Psalms, of 
 human guilt is at all generally applicable, as the descrip- 
 tions in the Psalms of human sorrow are, may it not be 
 advisable to know wherein this guilt is being committed 
 round about us, or by ourselves ? and when we take the 
 words of the Bible into our mouths in a congregational 
 way, to be sure whether we mean merely to chant a 
 piece of melodious poetry relating to other people (we 
 know not exactly to whom) or to assert our belief in 
 facts bearing somewhat stringently on ourselves and our 
 daily business. And if you make up your minds to do 
 this no longer, and take pains to examine into the 
 matter, you will find that these strange words, occurring 
 i Sam. as tne y do, not in a few places only, but almost 
 x*v. 3- in every alternate psalm and every alternate 
 s. Luke chapter of proverb or prophecy, with tremen- 
 xvl ' I9 ' dous reiteration, were not written for one nation 
 or one time only, but for all nations and languages, for 
 all places and all centuries ; and it is as true of the 
 Psalm wicked man now as ever it was of Nabal or Dives, 
 x - 8 - that ' his eyes are set against the poor.' The 
 Two Paths, 179, 1 80. 
 
 'Our Father's Business.' 
 
 God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the places 
 where He wishes us to be employed ; and that employ- 
 s. Luke ment is truly ' our Father's business.' He 
 " 49- chooses work for every creature which will be 
 delightful to them, if they do it simply and humbly. 
 He gives us always strength enough, and sense enough,
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 177 
 
 for what He wants us to do ; if we either tire ourselves 
 or puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault. And we may 
 always be sure, whatever we are doing, that we cannot 
 be pleasing Him, if we are not happy ourselves. Ethics 
 of the Dusf, pp. 125-6. 
 
 Parables. 
 
 Why prayer should be taught by the story of the 
 unjust judge; use of present opportunity by that of 
 the ""unjust steward 7" and use of the gifts of God by 
 that of the hard man who reaped where he had not 
 sown, there is no human creature wise enough to 
 know; but there are the traps set; and every slack 
 judge, cheating servant, and gnawing usurer may, if he 
 will, approve himself in these. 
 
 'Thou knewest that I was a hard man.' Yes and 
 if God we"fe~also a Tiar3~Go'3 v ,"arTa r *reaped where s Matt 
 He had not sown the conclusion would be xxv. * 
 true that earthly usury was right. But which s. Luke 
 of God's gifts to us are not His own ? 
 
 The meaning of the parable, heard with ears un- 
 besotted, is this : ' You, among hard and unjust men, 
 yet suffer their claim to the return of what they never 
 gave ; you suffer them to reap, where they have not 
 strawed. But to me, the Just Lord of your life whose 
 is the breath in your nostrils, whose the fire in" 
 your blood, who gave you light and thought, 
 and the fruit of earth and the dew of neaven, to me, 
 of all this gift, will you return no fruit but only the dust 
 of your bodies, and the wreck of your souls ? ' 
 
 Nevertheless, the Parables have still their living use, 
 as well as their danger; but the Psalter has become 
 practically dead; and the form of repeating it in the 
 daily service only deadens the phrases of it by familiarity. 
 Fors Clavigera, Letter LIII. 
 
 Peace. 
 
 Who giveth peace ? Many a peace we have made and 
 named for ourselves, but the falsest is in that marvellous 
 
 M
 
 178 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 thought that we, of all generations of the earth, only 
 know the right ; and that to us at last, to us alone, 
 all the scheme of God, about the salvation of men, 
 has been shown. ' This is the light in which we are 
 walking. Those vain Greeks are gone down to their 
 Persephone for ever Egypt and Assyria, Elam and 
 her multitude, uncircumcised, their graves are round 
 about them Pathros and careless Ethiopia filled with 
 the slain. Rome, with her thirsty sword, and poison 
 wine, how did she walk in her darkness ! We only 
 have no idolatries ours are the seeing eyes ; in our 
 pure hands at last, the seven-sealed book is laid; to 
 our true tongues entrusted the preaching of a perfect 
 gospel. Who shall come after us? Is it not Peace? 
 2 Kings The poor Jew, Zimri, who slew his master, 
 3'- there is no peace for him : but, for us ? tiara on 
 head, may we not look out of the windows of heaven ? ' 
 Another kind of peace I look for than this. Modern 
 Painters, vol. v., Pt. ix., ch. xii., 17. 
 
 Imagine the peace of heart which follows the casting 
 out of the element of selfishness as the root of action ; 
 but it is peace, observe, only, that is promised to you, 
 s Matt not at a ^ necessarily, or at least primarily, joy. 
 xi. 29. You shall find rest unto your souls when first 
 s. Matt, you take on you the yoke of Christ ; but joy 
 ***' "' only when you have borne it as long as He 
 wills, and are called to enter into the joy of your Lord. 
 Fors Clavigera, Letter LXXIX. 
 
 Peace and War. 
 
 Both peace and war are noble or ignoble according 
 to their kind and occasion. No man has a profounder 
 sense of the horror and guilt of ignoble war than I 
 have : I have personally seen its effects, upon nations, 
 of unmitigated evil, on soul and body, with perhaps as 
 much pity, and as much bitterness of indignation, as 
 any of those whom you will hear continually declaim- 
 ing in the cause of peace. But peace may be sought in
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 179 
 
 two ways. One way is as Gideon sought it, when he 
 built his altar in Ophrah, naming it, ' God send 
 peace,' yet sought this peace that he loved, as vi. 22, 23, 
 he was ordered to seek it, and the peace was * 4 ' 
 sent, in God's way : ' the country was in quiet- j u d ge s 
 ness forty years in the days of Gideon.' And the vi "- z8 - 
 other way of seeking peace is as Menahem sought ., Kings 
 it, when he gave the King of Assyria a thousand ** x * 
 talents of silver, that ' his hand might be with him.' 
 That is, you may either win your peace, or buy it : 
 win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise 
 with evil. You may buy your peace, with silenced con- 
 sciences ; you may buy it, with broken vows, buy 
 it, with lying words, buy it, with base connivances, 
 buy it, with the blood of the slain, and the cry of 
 the captive, and the silence of lost souls over hemis- 
 pheres of the earth, while you sit smiling at your 
 serene hearths, lisping comfortable prayers evening and 
 morning, and counting your pretty Protestant beads 
 (which are flat, and of gold, instead of round, and of 
 ebony, as the monks' ones were), and so mutter 
 continually to yourselves, ' Peace, Peace,' when vfi[.' n ; 
 there is No peace ; but only captivity and death, ** I4- 
 for you, as well as for those you leave unsaved ; and 
 yours darker than theirs. 
 
 I cannot utter to you what I would in this matter ; 
 we all see too dimly, as yet, what our great world 
 duties are, to allow any of us to try to outline their 
 enlarging shadows. . . . Reflect that their peace was 
 not won for you by your own hands; but by theirs 
 who long ago jeoparded their lives for you, their 
 children; and remember that neither this inherited 
 peace, nor any other, can be kept, but through the 
 same jeopardy. No peace was ever won from Fate by 
 subterfuge or agreement ; no peace is ever in store 
 for any of us, but that which we shall win by victory 
 over shame or sin ; victory over the sin that oppresses, 
 as well as over that which corrupts. For many a year
 
 i8o THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 to come, the sword of every righteous nation must be 
 whetted to save or to subdue ; nor will it be by patience 
 of other's suffering, but by the offering of your own, 
 that you will ever draw nearer to the time when the 
 great change shall pass upon the iron of the earth; 
 Isaiah when men shall beat their swords into plough- 
 " * shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; 
 
 neither shall they learn war any more. The Two 
 Paths, 195-6. 
 
 Perfume. 
 
 The fact is, that of scents artificially prepared the 
 extreme desire is intemperance; but of natural and 
 God-given scents, which take their part in the har- 
 mony and pleasantness of creation, there can hardly 
 be intemperance : not that there is any absolute differ- 
 ence between the two kinds, but that these are likely 
 to be received with gratitude and joyfulness rather than 
 those; so that we despise the seeking of essences and 
 s. Mark unguents, but not the sowing of violets along 
 xiv - 3- our garden banks. But all things may be 
 s. Luke elevated by affection, as the spikenard of Mary, 
 and in the Song of Solomon the myrrh upon 
 xii^s. 1 " 1 tne handles of the lock, and the sense of Isaac 
 of the field-fragrance upon his son. And the 
 v. 5. general law for all these pleasures is, that, when 
 
 Gen. sought in the abstract and ardently, they are foul 
 xxvii. 27. things ; but when received with thankfulness and 
 with reference to God's glory, they become Theoretic : 
 and so we may find something divine in the sweet- 
 ness of wild fruits, as well as in the pleasantness of the 
 pure air, and the tenderness of its natural perfumes 
 that come and go as they list. Modern Painters, vol. ii., 
 sec. i., ch. ii., 7. 
 
 Physical Science. 
 
 Much as I reverence physical science as a means of 
 mental education, I reverence it, at this moment, more
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 181 
 
 as the source of utmost human practical power, and the 
 means by which the far-distant races of the p sa im 
 world, who now sit in darkness and the shadow cvii - I0 - 
 of death, are to be reached and regenerated. At home, 
 or far away, the call is equally instant : here, for want 
 of more extended physical science, there is plague in our 
 streets, famine in our fields ; the pest strikes root and 
 fruit over a hemisphere of the earth, we know not why ; 
 the voices of our children fade away into silence of 
 venomous death, we know not why ; the population of 
 this most civilised country resists every effort to lead it 
 into purity of habit and habitation, to give it genuine- 
 ness of nourishment and wholesomeness of air, as a 
 new interference with its liberty, and insists vociferously 
 on its right to helpless death. All this is terrible; but 
 it is more terrible yet that dim, phosphorescent, frightful 
 superstitions still hold their own over two-thirds of the 
 inhabited globe, and that all the phenomena of nature 
 which were intended by their Creator to enforce His 
 eternal laws of love and judgment, and which, rightly 
 understood, enforce them more strongly by their patient 
 beneficence and their salutary destructiveness, j u d ges 
 that the miraculous dew on Gideon's fleece, vi - 37, 38. 
 or the restrained lightnings of Horeb that all these 
 legends of God's daily dealing with His creatures re- 
 main unread. . . . 
 
 How strange it seems that physical science should 
 ever have been thought adverse to religion ! The pride 
 of physical science is, indeed, adverse, like every other 
 pride, both to religion and truth ; but sincerity i sa j a j, 
 of science, so far from being hostile, is the path- m - ? 
 maker among the mountains for the feet of those who 
 publish peace. Arrows of the Chace, vol. i., pp. 193-5. 
 
 Pity. 
 
 When any ot you next go abroad, observe, and con- 
 sider the meaning of, the sculptures and paintings, which 
 of every rank in art, and in every chapel and cathedral,
 
 182 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 and by every mountain path, recall the hours, and repre- 
 sent the agonies, of the Passion of Christ : and try to 
 form some estimate of the efforts that have been made 
 by the four arts of eloquence, music, painting, and sculp- 
 ture, since the twelfth century, to wring out of the 
 hearts of women the last drops of pity that could be 
 excited for this merely physical agony : for the art nearly 
 always dwells on the physical wounds or exhaustion 
 chiefly, and degrades, far more than it animates, the con- 
 ception of pain. 
 
 Then try to conceive the quantity of time, and of 
 excited and thrilling emotion, which have been wasted 
 by the tender and delicate women of Christendom 
 during these last six hundred years, in thus picturing 
 to themselves, under the influence of such imagery, the 
 bodily pain, long since passed, of One Person : which, 
 so far as they indeed conceived it to be sustained by a 
 Divine Nature, could not for that reason have been less 
 endurable than the agonies of any simple human death 
 by torture : and then try to estimate what might have 
 been the better result, for the righteousness and felicity 
 of mankind, if these same women had been taught the 
 deep meaning of the last words that were ever spoken 
 by their Master to those who had ministered to Him of 
 s. Luke tne i r substance : ' Daughters of Jerusalem, weep 
 xxiii. zs. not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for 
 your children.' If they had but been taught to measure 
 with their pitiful thoughts the tortures of battle-fields 
 the slowly consuming plagues of death in the starving 
 children, and wasted age, of the innumerable desolate 
 those battles left ; nay, in our own life of peace, the 
 agony of unnurtured, untaught, unhelped creatures, 
 awaking at the grave's edge to know how they should 
 have lived ; and the worse pain of those whose existence, 
 not the ceasing of it, is death ; those to whom the cradle 
 was a curse, and for whom the words they cannot hear, 
 ' ashes to ashes,' are all that they have ever received of 
 benediction. These, you who would fain have wept
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 183 
 
 at His feet, or stood by His cross, these you have 
 always with you ! Him, you have not always. s . j ohn 
 Lectures on Art, 57. xii - 8 - 
 
 Poor, The. 
 
 The command to all of us is strict and straight, 
 ' When thou seest the naked, that thou cover isaiah 
 him, and that thou bring the poor that are cast lv " L 7> 
 out to thy house.' Not to the workhouse, observe, but 
 to thy house : and I say it would be better a thousand- 
 fold, that our doors should be beset by the poor day by 
 day, than that it should be written of any one of us, ' They 
 reap every one his corn in the field, and they j ob 
 gather the vintage of the wicked. They cause xxiv - ** 
 the naked to lodge without shelter, that they have no 
 covering in the cold. They are wet with the showers 
 of the mountains, and embrace the rock, for want of a 
 shelter.' Lectures on Architecture and Painting, 25. 
 
 Poor of the Earth, The. 
 
 The poor we must have with us always, and sorrow 
 is inseparable from any hour of life ; but we may make 
 their poverty such as shall inherit the earth, and the 
 sorrow such as shall be hallowed by the hand of the 
 Comforter with everlasting comfort. We can, if we 
 will but shake off this lethargy and dreaming that is 
 upon us, and take the pains to think and act like men, 
 we can, I say, make kingdoms to be like well-governed 
 households, in which, indeed, while no care or kindness 
 can prevent occasional heart-burnings, nor any foresight 
 or piety anticipate all the vicissitudes of fortune, or 
 avert every stroke of calamity, yet the unity of their 
 affection and fellowship remains unbroken, and their 
 distress is neither embittered by division, prolonged by 
 imprudence, nor darkened by dishonour. . . . 
 
 Now the cry for the education of the lower classes, 
 which is heard every day more widely and loudly, is a 
 wise and sacred cry, provided it be extended into one 
 for the education of all classes, with definite respect to
 
 i8 4 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 the work each man has to do, and the substance of 
 which he is made. But it is a foolish and vain cry, 
 if it be understood, as in the plurality of cases it is 
 meant to be, for the expression of mere craving after 
 knowledge, irrespective of the simple purposes of the 
 life that now is, and blessings of that which is to come. 
 One great fallacy into which men are apt to fall 
 when they are reasoning on this subject is : that light, 
 as such, is always good ; and darkness, as such, always 
 evil. Far from it. Light untempered would be anni- 
 Psaim hilation. It is good to them that sit in dark- 
 cvii. 10. ness and in the shadow of death ; but, to those 
 Isaiah that faint in the wilderness, so also is the 
 XXXH. a. shadow of the great rock in a weary land. If 
 the sunshine is good, so also the cloud of the latter 
 rain. Light is only beautiful, only available for life, 
 when it is tempered with shadow ; pure light is fearful, 
 and unendurable by humanity. And it is not less ridi- 
 culous to say that the light, as such, is good in itself, 
 than to say that the darkness is good in itself. Both 
 are rendered safe, healthy, and useful by the other; the 
 night by the day, the day by the night ; and we could 
 just as easily live without the dawn as without the 
 sunset, so long as we are human. Of the celestial city 
 Rev we are told there shall be ' no night there,' and 
 
 xxi. 25. then we shall know even as also we are known : 
 but the night and the mystery have both their service 
 Psalm here ; and our business is not to strive to turn 
 cxxx. e. t he n ight into day, but to be sure that we are 
 as they that watch for the morning. Stones of Venice, 
 vol. in., Appendix 7. 
 
 Prayer. 
 
 All the true religions of the world are forms of the 
 prayer ' Search me, and know my heart ; prove 
 
 cxxxbc. me, and examine my thoughts ; and see if there 
 be any wicked way in me, and lead me in 
 
 the way everlasting.'
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 185 
 
 And there are broadly speaking two ways in which 
 the Father of men does this : the first, by making them 
 eager to tell their faults to Him themselves, s Luke 
 (Father, I have sinned against heaven and be- xv - l8 
 fore Thee;) the second, by making them sure they 
 cannot be hidden, if they would : ' If I make p sa i m 
 my bed in hell, behold Thou art there.' In ix.8. 
 neither case, do the men who love their Father fear that 
 others should hear their confession, or witness His 
 inquisition. But those who hate Him, and perceive 
 that He is minded to make inquisition for blood, cry, 
 even in this world, for the mountains to fall on Hosea 
 them, and the hills to cover them. And in the * 8. 
 actual practice of daily life you will find that S. Luke 
 wherever there is secrecy, there is either guilt 
 or danger. It is not possible but that there should be 
 things needing to be kept secret ; but the dignity and 
 safety of human life are in the precise measure of its 
 frankness. . . . There is no fear for any child who is 
 frank with its father and mother ; none for men or 
 women, who are frank with God. 
 
 I have told you that you can do nothing in policy 
 without prayer. The day will be ill-spent, in which 
 you have not been able, at least once, to say the 
 Lord's Prayer with understanding : and if after it you 
 accustom yourself to say, with the same intentness, 
 that familiar one in your Church service, ' Almighty 
 God, unto whom all hearts be open,' etc., you will 
 not fear during the rest of the day, to answer any 
 questions which it may conduce to your neighbour's 
 good should be put to you. Fors Clavigera, Letter 
 LXXVII. 
 
 The whole confidence and glory of prayer is in its 
 appeal to a Father who knows our necessities before we 
 ask, who knows our thoughts before they rise in our 
 hearts, and whose decrees, as unalterable in the eternal 
 future as in the eternal past, yet in the close verity of 
 visible fact, bend, like reeds, before the fore-ordained and
 
 1 86 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 faithful prayers of His children. On the Old Road, vol. ii., 
 286. 
 
 All that has ever been alleged against forms of wor- 
 ship, is justly said only of those which are compiled 
 without sense, and employed without sincerity. The 
 earlier services of the Catholic church teach men to 
 think, as well as pray ; nor did ever a soul in its imme- 
 diate distress or desolation, find the forms of petition 
 learnt in childhood, lifeless on the lips of age. Roadside 
 Songs of Tuscany, p. 142. 
 
 Preacher, The. 
 
 If once we begin to regard the preacher, whatever 
 his faults, as a man sent with a message to us, which it 
 is a matter of life or death whether we hear or refuse ; 
 if we look upon him as set in charge over many spirits 
 in danger of ruin, and having allowed to him but an 
 hour or two in the seven days to speak to them ; if we 
 make some endeavour to conceive how precious these 
 hours ought to be to him, a small vantage on the side 
 of God after his flock have been exposed for six days 
 together to the full weight of the world's temptation, 
 and he has been forced to watch the thorn and the 
 thistle springing in their hearts, and to see what wheat 
 had been scattered there snatched from the wayside by 
 this wild bird and the other, and at last, when breathless 
 and weary with the week's labour they give him this in- 
 terval of imperfect and languid hearing, he has but thirty 
 minutes to get at the separate hearts of a thousand men, 
 to convince them of all their weaknesses, to shame them 
 for all their sins, to warn them of all their dangers, to try 
 Rev. by this way and that to stir the hard fastenings 
 "*** of those doors where the Master Himself has 
 stood and knocked yet none opened, and to call at the 
 Prov. openings of those dark streets where Wisdom 
 i *>, M herself hath stretched forth her hands and no 
 man regarded, thirty minutes to raise the dead in, 
 let us but once understand and feel this, and we shall
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 187 
 
 look with changed eyes upon that frippery of gay furni- 
 ture about the place from which the message of judgment 
 must be delivered, which either breathes upon Ezek 
 the dry bones that they may live, or, if ineffectual, 3uucvii - s- 
 remains recorded in condemnation, perhaps against the 
 utterer and listener alike, but assuredly against one of 
 them. We shall not so easily bear with the silk and 
 gold upon the seat of judgment, nor with ornament 
 of oratory in the mouth of the messenger ; we shall 
 wish that his words may be simple, even when they are 
 sweetest, and the place from which he speaks like a 
 marble rock in the desert, about which the people 
 have gathered in their thirst. Stones of Venice, vol. ii., 
 ch. ii., xiv. 
 
 Precious Stones. 
 
 Are we right in setting our hearts on these stones, 
 loving them, holding them precious ? 
 
 Yes, assuredly ; provided it is the stone we love, and 
 the stone we think precious ; and not ourselves we love, 
 and ourselves we think precious. To worship a black 
 stone, because it fell from heaven, may not be wholly 
 wise, but it is half-way to being wise; half-way to wor- 
 ship of heaven itself. Or, to worship a white stone 
 because it is dug with difficulty out of the earth, and 
 to put it into a log of wood, and say the wood sees 
 with it, may not be wholly wise; but it is half-way to 
 being wise; half-way to believing that the God who 
 makes earth so bright, may also brighten the eyes of 
 the blind. It is no true folly to think that stones see, 
 but it is, to think that eyes do not ; it is no true folly 
 to think that stones live, but it is, to think that souls 
 die; it is no true folly to believe that, in the Ma i 
 day of the making up of jewels, the palace "' * 7 - 
 walls shall be compact of life above their corner-stone, 
 but it is, to believe that in the day of dissolution the 
 souls of the globe shall be shattered with its emerald ; 
 and no spirit survive, unterrified. above the ruin.
 
 1 88 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Yes, pretty ladies ! love the stones, and take care of 
 them ; but love your own souls better, and take care 
 Ma i of them, for the day when the Master shall 
 
 iii- 17- make up His jewels. See that it be first the 
 precious stones of the breastplate of justice you delight 
 in, and are brave in ; not first the stones, of your own 
 diamond necklaces. . . . Get your breastplate of truth 
 first, and every earthly stone will shine in it. 
 
 Alas ! most of you know no more what justice means, 
 than what jewels mean ; but here is the pure practice of 
 it to be begun, if you will, to-morrow. 
 
 For literal truth of your jewels themselves, absolutely 
 search out and cast away all manner of false, or dyed, 
 or altered stones. . . . 
 
 And lastly, as you are true in the choosing, be just 
 in the sharing, of your jewels. They are but dross and 
 dust, after all ; and you, my sweet religious friends, who 
 are so anxious to impart to the poor your pearls of 
 great price, may surely also share with them your pearls 
 of little price. Strangely (to my own mind at least), 
 you are not so zealous in distributing your estimable 
 rubies, as you are in communicating your mestimable 
 wisdom. Of the grace of God, which you can give 
 away in the quantity you think others are in need of, 
 without losing any yourselves, I observe you to be 
 affectionately lavish; but of the jewels of God, if any 
 suggestions be made by charity touching the distri- 
 S. Matt bution of them, you are apt, in your wisdom, 
 ** v - 9- to make answer like the wise virgins, ' Not so, 
 lest there be not enough for us and you.' Deucalion, 
 ch. vii., 41. 
 
 Pride. 
 
 Mortal Pride. For this we gather, for this we war, 
 James ^ or tms we die here and hereafter ; while all 
 "* X 7- the while the Wisdom which is from above 
 stands vainly teaching us the way to Earthly Riches
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 189 
 
 and to Heavenly Peace, ' What doth the Lord thy God 
 require of thee, but to do justice, to love mercy, Micah 
 and to walk humbly with thy God ? ' On the ** a 
 Old Road, vol. ii., 181. 
 
 Prodigal Son. 
 
 First, have you ever observed that all Christ's main 
 teachings, by direct order, by earnest parable, and by 
 His own permanent emotion, regard the use and mis- 
 use of money ? We might have thought, if we had been 
 asked what a divine teacher was most likely to teach, 
 that he would have left inferior persons to give directions 
 about money ; and himself spoken only concerning faith 
 and love, and the discipline of the passions, and the 
 guilt of the crimes of soul against soul. But not so. 
 He speaks in general terms of these. But He does not 
 speak parables about them for all men's memory, nor 
 permit Himself fierce indignation against them, in all 
 men's sight. The Pharisees bring Him an adulteress. 
 He writes her forgiveness on the dust of which He had 
 formed her. Another despised of all for known sin, He 
 recognised as a giver of unknown love. But he acknow- 
 ledges no love in buyers and sellers in His house. One 
 should have thought there were people in that house 
 twenty times worse than they ; Caiaphas and his like 
 false priests, false prayer-makers, false leaders of the 
 people who needed putting to silence, or to flight, with 
 darkest wrath. But the scourge is only against the 
 traffickers and thieves. The two most intense of all the 
 parables : the two which lead the rest in love g Luke 
 and terror (this of the Prodigal, and of Dives), *v. 11-32; 
 relate, both of them, to management of riches. 
 The practical order given to the only seeker f;^ ark 
 of advice, of whom it is recorded that Christ , 
 
 n i S. Matt. 
 
 ' loved him, is briefly about his property, xix. 21. 
 ' Sell that thou hast.' And the arbitrament s. Luke 
 of the day of the Last Judgment is made to xviii -"- 
 rest wholly, neither on belief in God, nor in any spiritual
 
 1 9 o THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 virtue in man, nor on freedom from stress of stormy 
 S. Matt, crime, but on this only, ' I was an hungred, 
 xxv. 35, 36. and ye gave me drink ; naked, and ye clothed 
 me; sick, and ye came unto me.' 
 
 . . . Then, secondly, I want you to note that when 
 the prodigal comes to his senses, he complains of no- 
 body but himself, and speaks of no unwoTttltfiess but 
 his ~ewrr. Efe-says nothing against any of the women 
 who tempted him nothing against the citizen who left 
 him to feed on husks nothing of the false friends of 
 S. Luke whom ' no man gave unto him ' above all, 
 ** l6 - nothing of the ' corruption of human nature,' 
 or the corruption of things in general. He says that he 
 himself is unworthy, as distinguished from honourable 
 persons, and that he himself \&s> sinned, as distinguished 
 from righteous persons. And that is the hard lesson to 
 learn, and the beginning of faithful lessons. All right 
 and fruitful humility, and purging of heart, and seeing 
 of God, is in that. It is easy to call yourself the chief 
 of sinners, expecting every sinner round you to decline 
 or return the compliment ; but learn to measure the 
 real degrees of your own relative baseness, and to be 
 ashamed, not in heaven's sight, but in man's sight ; and 
 redemption is indeed begun. Observe the phrase, I 
 S. Luke have sinned c against heaven,' against the great 
 xv. 18. i aw o f ^at, an(T~be/ore thee, visibly degraded 
 before my human sire and gTTicle, unworthy any more of 
 being esteemed of his blood, and desirous only of taking 
 the place I deserve among his servants. Now I do not 
 doubt but that I shall set many a reader's teeth on edge by 
 what he will think my carnal and material rendering of this 
 S Matt ' beautiful ' parable. But I am just as ready to 
 u- 3- spiritualise it as he is, provided I am sure first 
 s. Mark tnat we understand it. If we want to understand 
 iv 3- the parable of the sower, we must first think of 
 s. Luke it as f literal husbandry ; if we want to under- 
 viii $ stand the parable of the prodigal, we must 
 first understand it as of literal prodigality. And the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 191 
 
 story has also for us a precious lesson in this literal 
 sense of it, namely this, that all redemption must begin 
 in subjection, and in the recovery of the sense of Father- 
 hood and authority, as all ruin and desolation begin in 
 the loss of that sense. The lost son began by claiming 
 his rights. He is found when he resigns them. He is 
 lost by flying from his father, when his father's autho- 
 rity was only paternal. He is found by returning 
 to his father, and desiring that his authority may be 
 absolute, as over a hired stranger. And this is the 
 practical lesson I want to leave with you. Time and 
 Tide, 174-7. 
 
 Promise, The. 
 
 But surely the time is come when all these faithful 
 armies should lift up the standard of their Lord, not 
 by might, nor by power, but by His spirit, bringing 
 forth judgment unto victory. That they should no 
 more be hidden, nor overcome of evil, but overcome 
 evil with good. If the enemy cometh in like i sa i a h 
 a flood, how much more may the rivers of *** ** 
 Paradise? Are there not fountains of the great deep 
 that open to bless, not destroy ? 
 
 And the beginning of blessing, if you will think of 
 it, is in that promise, ' Great shall be the peace of 
 thy children.' Fors Clavigera, Letter XCVI. 
 
 Promise of Old, The. 
 
 ' The light shall be darkened in the heavens thereof, 
 and the stars shall withdraw their shining.' All Isaiah 
 Greek, all Christian, all Jewish prophecy insists v - so- 
 on the same truth through a thousand myths ; j oe i 
 but of all the chief, to former thought, was iL xo - 
 the fable of the Jewish warrior and prophet, for whom 
 the sun hasted not to go down. . . . Whether you 
 can affect the signs of the sky or not, you can the 
 signs of the times. Whether you can bring the sun 
 back or not, you can assuredly bring back your own
 
 1 92 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 cheerfulness, and your own honesty. You may not 
 S. Mark be zble to say to the winds, 'Peace; be still,' 
 iv - 39- but you can cease from the insolence of your 
 own lips, and the troubling of your own passions. 
 And all that it would be extremely well to do, even 
 though the day were coming when the sun should be 
 as darkness, and the moon as blood. But, the paths 
 of rectitude and piety once regained, who shall say 
 that the promise of old time would not be found to 
 Ma i hold for us also ? ' Bring ye all the tithes 
 " 10 - into my storehouse, and prove me now here- 
 with, saith the Lord God, if I will not open you the 
 windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that 
 there shall not be room enough to receive it.' The 
 Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century, p. 62. 
 
 Proverbs. 
 
 Read this first of Proverbs with me, please. The 
 Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of 
 Israel. 
 
 ' To know wisdom and instruction.' 
 
 (Not to opine them.) 
 
 ' To perceive the words of understanding.' 
 
 (He that hath eyes, let him read he that hath ears, 
 hear, And for the Blind and the Deaf, if patient 
 and silent by the road-side, there may also be some 
 one to say, ' He is coming.') 
 
 ' To receive the instruction of WISDOM, JUSTICE, and 
 JUDGMENT, and EQUITY.' 
 
 Four things, Oh friends, which you have not only 
 to perceive but to receive. Fors Clavigera, Letter 
 LXXXVII. 
 
 Psalm of Life. 
 
 In the great Psalm of life, we are told that every- 
 Psaim thing that a man doeth shall prosper, so only 
 1 that he delight in the law of his God, that he 
 hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor sat
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 193 
 
 in the seat of the scornful. Is it among these leaves 
 of the perpetual Spring, helpful leaves for the R CV- 
 healing of the nations, that we mean to have xxii - * 
 our part and place, or rather among the ' brown skeletons 
 of leaves that lag, the forest brook along ' ? For other 
 leaves there are, and other streams that water them, 
 not water of life, but water of Acheron. Autumnal 
 leaves there are that strew the brooks, in Vallombrosa. 
 Remember you how the name of the place was changed : 
 ' Once called " Sweet water " (Aqua bella), now, the 
 Shadowy Vale.' Portion in one or other name we must 
 choose, all of us, with the living olive, by the living 
 fountains of waters, or with the wild fig trees, whose 
 leafage of human soul is strewed along the brooks of death, 
 in the eternal Vallombrosa. Proserpina, ch. hi., 32. 
 
 Pure in Heart. 
 
 'Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God ' ; words always understood by me as 5. Matt, 
 having reference, like the other Beatitudes, to v - 8 - 
 actual human life, according to the word of Job ' I 
 have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, j b 
 but now mine eye seeth Thee ; ' this revelation xlii - * 
 being given to Job entirely through the forms and life 
 of the natural world, severally shown him by their 
 unseen Creator. The same confession of faith, after 
 the same instruction, is again uttered by Linnaeus in 
 the beginning of the ' Systema (properly Imperium) 
 Naturae ' : ' Deum sempiternum, immensum, omni- 
 scium, omnipotentem, expergefactus, transeuntem vidi, 
 et obstupui.' ' As one awaked out of sleep, I saw the 
 Lord passing by eternal, infinite, omniscient, omni- 
 potent, and I stood as in a trance.' He does not say 
 ' all merciful ' ; the vision, to him, is as that of 
 Eliphaz ' the hair of my flesh stood up ' ; yet 
 note well, that the terror of Eliphaz, the self-abhorrence 
 of Job, and the awe of Linnaeus, are all entirely distinct 
 from the spurious and prurient self-condemnation which 
 
 N
 
 194 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 is the watchword of modern Protestantism. The perfect 
 virtue of Job, of Daniel, and of Noah, is directly, and 
 at length, asserted by the Deity Himself, before these 
 three men are taken for His best beloved friends ; and 
 the words ' Pure in heart ' were never, in any place, 
 used by me (and they are referred to again and again 
 through the whole body of my works), or at any moment 
 thought of, by me, as expressing states of religious belief 
 or fantasy, such as modern theological writers suppose 
 i Cor. to De signified by the ' washing of sanctifica- 
 vi - " tion,' or any other parallel phrase of doctrinal 
 mystery; but only the definite human virtue possible 
 S. James to human effort, and commanded in the plain 
 iv. s. words, ' Cleanse your hands, ye sinners ; and 
 purify your hearts, ye double-minded? Modern Painters, 
 vol. ii., Preface, 4, 5. 
 
 Purity. 
 
 And so in all cases I suppose that pureness is made 
 to us desirable, because expressive of that constant 
 Acts presence and energizing of the Deity by which 
 xvii. 28. a u things live and move, and have their being ; 
 and that foulness is painful as the accompaniment of 
 disorder and decay, and always indicative of the with- 
 drawal of Divine support. And the practical analogies 
 of life, the invariable connection of outward foulness 
 with mental sloth and degradation, as well as with 
 bodily lethargy and disease, together with the contrary 
 indications of freshness and purity belonging to every 
 healthy and active organic frame (singularly seen in 
 the effort of the young leaves when first their inward 
 energy prevails over the earth, pierces its corruption, 
 and shakes its dust away from their own white purity 
 of life), all these circumstances strengthen the instinct 
 by associations countless and irresistible. And then, 
 finally, with the idea of purity comes that of spirituality ; 
 for the essential characteristic of matter is its inertia, 
 whence, by adding to its purity of energy, we may in
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 195 
 
 some measure spiritualize even matter itself. Thus 
 in the Apocalyptic descriptions, it is the purity of every 
 substance that fits it for its place in heaven ; Rev 
 the river of the water of life, that proceeds out *xii. 
 of the throne of the Lamb, is as clear as crystal, Rev. 
 and the pavement of the city is pure gold ' like ""' l8 ~ 21 ' 
 unto clear glass.' Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., 
 ch. ix., 8. 
 
 Put ye in the Sickle. 
 
 Death, not of myriads of poor bodies only, but of 
 will and mercy, and conscience ; death, not once in- 
 flicted on the flesh, but daily fastening on the spirit ; 
 death, not silent or patient, waiting his appointed hour, 
 but voiceful, venomous ; death with the taunting word, 
 and burning grasp, and infixed sting. 
 
 ' Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.' The 
 word is spoken in our ears continually to other 
 reapers than the angels, to the busy skeletons 
 that never tire for stooping. When the measure of 
 iniquity is full, and it seems that another day might 
 bring repentance and redemption, ' Put ye in the 
 sickle.' When the young life has been wasted all away, 
 and the eyes are just opening upon the tracks of ruin, 
 and faint resolution rising in the heart for nobler things, 
 ' Put ye in the sickle.' When the roughest blows 
 of fortune have been borne long and bravely, and the 
 hand is just stretched to grasp its goal, ' Put ye in 
 the sickle.' And when there are but a few in the midst 
 of a nation to save it, or to teach, or to cherish ; and 
 all its life is bound up in those few golden ears, ' Put 
 ye in the sickle, pale reapers, and pour hemlock for 
 your feast of harvest home.' Modern Painters, vol. v., 
 Pt. ix., ch. ix., 24. 
 
 Reformation. 
 
 >" The Church had become so mingled with the world 
 that its witness could no longer be received ; and the
 
 196 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 professing members of it, who were placed in circum- 
 stances such as to enable them to become aware of its 
 corruptions, and whom their interest or their simplicity 
 did not bribe or beguile into silence, gradually separated 
 themselves into two vast multitudes of adverse energy, 
 one tending to Reformation, and the other to Infidelity. 
 
 Of these, the last stood, as it were, apart, to watch 
 the course of the struggle between Romanism and 
 Protestantism ; a struggle which, however necessary, was 
 attended with infinite calamity to the Church. For, in 
 the first place, the Protestant movement was, in reality, 
 not reformation but reanimation. It poured new life 
 into the Church, but it did not form or define her anew. 
 Psalm I n some sort it rather broke down her hedges, 
 ^ c - x r 2 ' so that all they who passed by might pluck off 
 book. her grapes. The reformers speedily found that 
 S. Matt, the enemy was never far behind the sower of 
 ii. 24, *s- good seed : that an evil spirit might enter the 
 ranks of reformation as well as those of resistance : 
 and that though the deadly blight might be checked 
 amidst the wheat, there was no hope of ever ridding 
 the wheat itself from the tares. New temptations were 
 invented by Satan wherewith to oppose the revived 
 strength of Christianity : as the Romanist, confiding in 
 his human teachers, had ceased to try whether they were 
 teachers sent from God, so the Protestant, confiding in 
 i s. John tn e teaching of the Spirit, believed every spirit, 
 iv - * and did not try the spirits whether they were 
 of God. And a thousand enthusiasms and heresies 
 speedily obscured the faith and divided the force of 
 the Reformation. 
 
 But the main evils rose out of the antagonism of the 
 two great parties ; primarily, in the mere fact of the 
 existence of an antagonism. To the eyes of the un- 
 believer the Church of Christ, for the first time since 
 s. Matt. i ts foundation, bore the aspect of a house 
 xii. 25. divided against itself. Not that many forms of 
 schism had not before arisen in it ; but either they had
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 197 
 
 been obscure and silent, hidden among the shadows of 
 the Alps and the marshes of the Rhine; or they had 
 been outbreaks of visible and unmistakable error, cast 
 off by the Church, rootless, and speedily withering away, 
 while, with much that was erring and criminal, she still 
 retained within her the pillar and ground of the truth. 
 But here was at last a schism in which truth and autho- 
 rity were at issue. The body that was cast off withered 
 away no longer. It stretched out its boughs to the 
 sea and its branches to the river, and it was the ancient 
 trunk that gave signs of decrepitude. On one side stood 
 the reanimated faith, in its right hand the Book open, 
 and its left hand lifted up to heaven, appealing for its 
 proof to the Word of the Testimony and the power of 
 the Holy Ghost. On the other stood, or seemed to 
 stand, all beloved custom and believed tradition ; all 
 that for fifteen hundred years had been closest to the 
 hearts of men, or most precious for their help. Long- 
 trusted legend ; long-reverenced power ; long-practised 
 discipline ; faiths that had ruled the destiny, and sealed 
 the departure, of souls that could not be told nor num- 
 bered for multitude ; prayers that from the lips of the 
 fathers to those of the children had distilled like sweet 
 waterfalls, sounding through the silence of ages, break- 
 ing themselves into heavenly dew to return upon the 
 pastures of the wilderness ; hopes, that had set the face 
 as a flint in the torture, and the sword as a flame in the 
 battle, that had pointed the purposes and ministered the 
 strength of life, brightened the last glances and shaped 
 the last syllables of death; charities, that had bound 
 together the brotherhoods of the mountain and the 
 desert, and had woven chains of pitying or aspiring 
 communion between this world and the unfathomable 
 beneath and above ; and more than these, the spirits 
 of all the innumerable, undoubting dead, beckoning to 
 the one way by which they had been content s Lu ke 
 to follow the things that belonged unto their 3cbc - * 
 peace; these all stood on the other side: and the
 
 i 9 8 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 choice must have been a bitter one, even at the best; 
 but it was rendered tenfold more bitter by the natural, 
 but most sinful, animosity of the two divisions of the 
 Church against each other. Stones of Venice, vol. Hi., 
 ch. ii., xcin.-xcv. 
 
 Religion. 
 
 Religion is, of all subjects, that which will least 
 endure a second place in the heart or thoughts, and 
 a languid and occasional study of it was sure to lead 
 to error or infidelity. On the other hand, what was 
 heartily admired and unceasingly contemplated was 
 soon brought nigh to being believed ; and the systems 
 of Pagan mythology began gradually to assume the 
 places in the human mind from which the unwatched 
 Christianity was wasting. Men did not indeed openly 
 sacrifice to Jupiter, or build silver shrines for Diana, but 
 the ideas of Paganism nevertheless became thoroughly 
 vital and present with them at all times ; and it did not 
 matter in the least, as far as respected the power of true 
 religion, whether the Pagan image was believed in or 
 not, so long as it entirely occupied the thoughts. The 
 s. Matt scholar of the sixteenth century, if he saw the 
 xv. 27. lightning shining from the east unto the west, 
 thought forthwith of Jupiter, not of the coming of the 
 Psalm Son of Man ; if he saw the moon walking in 
 Iri*^*' brightness, he thought of Diana, not of the 
 job xx throne which was to be established for ever as 
 6, z8- a faithful witness in heaven ; and though his 
 heart was but secretly enticed, yet thus he denied the 
 God that is above. -Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. ii., 
 ci. 
 
 The purest forms of our own religion have always 
 consisted in sacrificing less things to win greater; 
 s. Matt time, to win eternity, the world, to win the 
 Jdjt skies. The order, Sell that thou hast,' is not 
 given without the promise, ' thou shalt have treasure 
 in heaven ; ' and well for the modern Christian if he
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 199 
 
 accepts the alternative as his Master left it and does 
 not practically read the command and promise thus : 
 ' Sell that thou hast in the best market, and thou shalt 
 have treasure in eternity also.' But the poor Greeks 
 of the great ages expected no reward from heaven 
 but honour, and no reward from earth but rest ; 
 though, when, on those conditions, they patiently, and 
 proudly, fulfilled their task of the granted day, an 
 unreasoning instinct of an immortal benediction broke 
 from their lips in song : and they, even they, had some- 
 times a prophet to tell them of a land ' where there is 
 sun alike by day, and alike by night where they shall 
 need no more to trouble the earth by strength of hands 
 for daily bread but the ocean breezes blow around the 
 blessed islands, and golden flowers burn on their bright 
 trees for evermore.' Queen of the Air, ch. i., 50. 
 
 Religion and Faith. 
 
 If, loving well the creatures that are like yourself, you 
 feel that you would love still more dearly, creatures 
 better than yourself were they revealed to you ; if 
 striving with all your might to mend what is evil, near 
 you and around, you would fain look for a day when 
 some Judge of all the Earth shall wholly do Psain, 
 right, and the little hills rejoice on every side ; ]xv - " 
 if, parting with the companions that have given you all 
 the best joy you had on Earth, you desire ever to meet 
 their eyes again and clasp their hands, where eyes 
 shall no more be dim, nor hands fail; if, preparing 
 yourselves to lie down beneath the grass in silence and 
 loneliness, seeing no more beauty, and feeling no more 
 gladness you would care for the promise to you of a 
 time when you should see God's light again, and know 
 the things you have longed to know, and walk in the 
 peace of everlasting Love then, the Hope of these 
 things to you is religion, the Substance of them Rev 
 in your life is Faith. And in the power of ** j s- 
 them, it is promised us, that the kingdoms of this world
 
 200 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 shall yet become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His 
 Christ. Our Fathers Have Told Us, ch. iv., 60. 
 
 Religious Symbols. 
 
 The habit of employing some religious symbol, or 
 writing some religious legend, over the door of the 
 house, does not entirely disappear until far 
 xxv. e. into the period of the Renaissance. The words, 
 s. Luke ' Peace be to this house,' occur on one side of 
 a Veronese gateway, with the appropriate and 
 veracious inscription S. P. Q. R-, on a Roman standard, 
 S. Matt. on the other ; and ' Blessed is he that cometh 
 xxi - 9- in the name of the Lord,' is written on one of 
 the doorways of a building added at the flank of the 
 Casa Barbarigo, in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. 
 It seems to be only modern Protestantism which is 
 entirely ashamed of all symbols and words that appear 
 in anywise like a confession of faith. 
 
 This peculiar feeling is well worthy of attentive ana- 
 lysis. It indeed, in most cases, hardly deserves the name 
 of a feeling ; for the meaningless doorway is merely an 
 ignorant copy of heathen models ; but yet, if it were at 
 this moment proposed to any of us, by our architects, 
 to remove the grinning head of a satyr, or other classical 
 or Palladian ornament, from the keystone of the door, 
 and to substitute for it a cross, and an inscription testi- 
 fying our faith, I believe that most persons would shrink 
 from the proposal with an obscure and yet overwhelming 
 sense that things would be sometimes done, and thought, 
 within the house which would make the inscription on 
 its gate a base hypocrisy. And if so, let us look to 
 it, whether that strong reluctance to utter a definite reli- 
 gious profession, which so many of us feel, and which, 
 not very carefully examining into its dim nature, we 
 conclude to be modesty, or fear of hypocrisy, or other 
 s. Matt suc h fc> rm of amiableness, be not, in very deed, 
 xxvi. 73. neither less nor more than Infidelity ; whether 
 Peter's ' I know not the man ' be not the sum and
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 201 
 
 substance of all these misgivings and hesitations ; and 
 whether the shamefacedness which we attribute to 
 sincerity and reverence, be not such shame- 5. Mark 
 facedness as may at last put us among those viu - & 
 of whom the Son of Man shall be ashamed. Stones of 
 Venice, vol. ii., ch. vii., LVII.-LVIII. 
 
 Best. 
 
 The desire of rest planted in the heart is no sensual 
 nor unworthy one, but a longing for renovation and 
 for escape from a state whose every phase is mere 
 preparation for another equally transitory, to one in 
 which permanence shall have become possible through 
 perfection. Hence the great call of Christ to s Matt 
 men, that call on which St. Augustine fixed ** 
 as the essential expression of Christian hope, 5. John 
 is accompanied by the promise of rest ; and xiv z ?- 
 the death bequest of Christ to men is peace. Modern 
 Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. vii., i. 
 
 Revelation. 
 
 Of no other sources than these visible ones, can we, 
 by any effort in our present condition of existence, 
 conceive. For what revelations have been made to 
 humanity inspired, or caught up to heaven, of things 
 to the heavenly region belonging, have been eith.er-s.by 
 unspeakable words, or else by their very nature in- 
 communicable, except in types and shadows ; and in- 
 effable by words belonging to earth, for, of things 
 different from the visible, words appropriated to the 
 visible can convey no image. How different R CV _ 
 from earthly gold the clear pavement of the xxi - l8 - 
 city might have seemed to the eyes of St. John, we 
 of unreceived sight cannot know; neither of Rev . 
 that strange jasper and sardine can we conceive iv - 3. 
 the likeness which He assumed that sat on the throne 
 above the crystal sea; neither what seeming that was 
 of skying that the Root of David bore in the midst
 
 202 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 of the elders ; neither what change it was upon the 
 Daniel form of the fourth of them that walked in the 
 "* a s- furnace of Dura, that even the wrath of Idolatry 
 knew for the likeness of the Son of God. The knowing 
 that is here permitted to us is either of things outward 
 only, as in those it is whose eyes Faith never opened, 
 or else of that dark part that her glass shows feebly, 
 of things supernatural, that gleaming of the Divine 
 form among the mortal crowd, which all may catch 
 S. Luke if they will climb the sycamore and wait : nor 
 xix. 4. now m uch of God's abiding at the house may 
 be granted to those that so seek, and how much more 
 Acts may be opened to them in the breaking of 
 u. 43. bread, cannot be said ; but of that only we 
 can reason which is in a measure revealed to all, of 
 that which is by constancy and purity of affection to 
 be found in the things and the beings around us upon 
 earth. Modern Painter s y vol ii., sec. i., ch. xv., i. 
 
 Reverence. 
 
 We English have many false ideas about reverence ; 
 we should be shocked, for instance, to see a market- 
 woman come into church with a basket of eggs on 
 her arm : we think it more reverent to lock her out 
 till Sunday: and to surround the church with respec- 
 tability of iron railings. ... I believe this to be ir- 
 reverence; and that it is more truly reverent, when 
 the market-woman, hot and hurried, at six in the 
 morning, her head much confused with calculations 
 of the probable price of eggs, can nevertheless get 
 within church porch, and church aisle, and church 
 chancel, lay the basket down on the very steps of the 
 altar, and receive thereat so much of help and hope 
 as may serve her for the day's work. Modern Painters, 
 vol. iii., ch. x., 22. 
 
 This is the thing which I KNOW and which, if you 
 labour faithfully, you shall know also, that in Rever- 
 ence is the chief joy and power of life; Reverence,
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 203 
 
 for what is pure and bright in your own youth; for 
 what is true and ' tried in the age of others ; for all 
 that is gracious among the living, great among the 
 dead, and marvellous, in the Powers that cannot die. 
 Lectures on Art, 65. 
 
 Bod. 
 
 Virga a ' rod ' ; the green rod, or springing bough 
 
 of a tree, being the type of perfect human Exodus 
 
 strength, both in the use of it in the Mosaic iv -.?; 
 
 , ., xvu. 5, 6. 
 
 story, when it becomes a serpent, or strikes 
 the rock ; or when Aaron's bears its almonds ; x^'a. 
 and in the metaphorical expressions, the ' Rod i saiah 
 out of the stem of Jesse,' and the ' Man whose 
 name is the Branch,' and so on. And the zech. 
 essential idea of real virtue is that of a vital VL " 
 human strength, which instinctively, constantly, and 
 without motive, does what is right. You must train 
 men to this by habit, as you would the branch of a 
 tree ; and give them instincts and manners (or morals) 
 of purity, justice, kindness, and courage. Once rightly 
 trained, they act as they should, irrespectively of all 
 motive, of fear, or of reward. Ethics of the Dust, p. 142. 
 
 Sacred Chord of Colour. 
 
 The ascertainment of the sanctity of colour is not 
 left to human sagacity. It is distinctly stated in Scrip- 
 ture. . . . The sacred chord of colour (blue, Exodus 
 purple, and scarlet, with white and gold) as xxviii - s- 
 appointed in the Tabernacle ; this chord is the fixed 
 base of all colouring with the workmen of every great 
 age; the purple and scarlet will be found constantly 
 employed by noble painters, in various unison, to the 
 exclusion in general of pure crimson ; it is the harmony 
 described by Herodotus as used in the battlements of 
 Ecbatana, and the invariable base of all beautiful missal- 
 painting ; the mistake continually made by modern 
 restorers, in supposing the purple to be a faded crimson,
 
 204 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 and substituting full crimson for it, being instantly fatal 
 to the whole work, as, indeed, the slightest modification 
 of any hue in a perfect colour-harmony must always be. 
 In this chord the scarlet is the powerful colour, and is 
 on the whole the most perfect representation of abstract 
 colour which exists ; blue being in a certain degree 
 associated with shade, yellow with light, and scarlet, as 
 absolute colour, standing alone. Accordingly, we find 
 it used, together with cedar wood, hyssop, and running 
 water, as an emblem of purification, in Leviticus xiv. 4, 
 and other places, and so used not merely as represen- 
 tative of the colour of blood, since it was also to be 
 dipped in the actual blood of a living bird. So that the 
 cedar wood for its perfume, the hyssop for its searching- 
 ness, the water for its cleansing, and the scarlet for its 
 kindling or enlightening, are all used as tokens of sanc- 
 tification ; l and it cannot be with any force alleged, in 
 opposition to this definite appointment, that scarlet is 
 used incidentally to illustrate the stain of sin, ' though 
 Isaiah ^y sins be as scarlet,' any more than it could 
 * l8 - be received as a diminution of the authority for 
 using snow-whiteness as a type of purity, that Gehazi's 
 i Kings leprosy is described as being ' white as snow.' 
 v ? An incidental image has no authoritative 
 meaning, but a stated ceremonial appointment has ; 
 besides, we have the reversed image given distinctly 
 in Prov. xxxi. : ' She is not afraid of the snow for her 
 Sam. household, for all her household are clothed 
 L ** with scarlet.' And, again : ' Ye daughters of 
 Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, 
 with other delights.' So, also, the arraying of the 
 Rev. mystic Babylon in purple and scarlet may be 
 xviii. 16. interpreted exactly as we choose ; either by 
 those who think colour sensual, as an image of earthly 
 pomp and guilt, or, by those who think it sacred, as an 
 image of assumed or pretended sanctity. It is possible 
 
 Joshua 1 The redeemed Rahab bound for a sign a scarlet 
 
 * ** thread iu the window. Compare Canticles iv. 3.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 205 
 
 the two meanings may be blended, and the idea may be 
 that the purple and fine linen of Dives are worn s Luke 
 in hypocritical semblance of the purple and fine xvi x - 
 linen of the high priest, being, nevertheless, themselves, 
 in all cases typical of all beauty and purity. . . . All 
 men, completely organized and justly tempered, enjoy 
 colour ; it is meant for the perpetual comfort and delight 
 of the human heart ; it is richly bestowed on the highest 
 works of creation, and the eminent sign and seal of per- 
 fection in them ; being associated with life in the human 
 body, with light in the sky, with purity and hardness in 
 the earth, death, night, and pollution of all kinds being 
 colourless. Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. iii., 24. 
 
 t 
 Sacred Symbols. / 
 
 Joseph's two dreams were evidently intended to be 
 signs ofTihe steadfastness of the Divine purpose 
 towards him, by possessing the clearness of special xxxvii. 
 prophecy ; yet were couched in such imagery, as 5> 9 ' 
 not to inform him prematurely of his destiny, and only 
 to be understood after their fulfilment. The sun, Gen 
 and moon, and stars were at the period, and xxxvii - 9 
 are indeed throughout the Bible, the symbols of high 
 authority. It was not revealed to Joseph that he should 
 be lord over all Egypt ; but the representation Gen 
 of his family by symbols of the most magnificent 5di - * x - 
 dominion, and yet as subject to him, must have been 
 afterwards felt by him as a distinctly prophetic indica- 
 tion of his own supreme power. It was not revealed to 
 him that the occasion of his brethren's special Gen. 
 humiliation before him should be their coming xlii - s> 6 
 to buy corn ; but when the event took place, must he 
 not have felt that there was prophetic purpose in the 
 form of the sheaves of wheat which first imaged Gen . 
 forth their subjection to him ? And these two xxxvii - 7- 
 images of the sun doing obeisance, and the sheaves 
 bowing down, narrowed and imperfect intimations of 
 great truth which yet could not be otherwise conveyed.
 
 206 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 . . . Even if the symbolic vision itself be not terrible, 
 the sense of what may be veiled behind it becomes all 
 the more awful in proportion to the insignificance or 
 strangeness of the sign itself; and, I believe, this thrill 
 of mingled doubt, fear and curiosity lies at the very root 
 of the delight which mankind take in symbolism. It 
 was not an accidental necessity for the conveyance of 
 truth by pictures instead of words, which led to its uni- 
 versal adoption wherever art was on the advance ; but 
 the Divine fear which necessarily follows on the under- 
 standing that a thing is other and greater than it seems ; 
 and which, it appears probable, has been rendered 
 peculiarly attractive to the human heart, because God 
 would have us understand that this is true not of in- 
 vented symbols merely, but of all things amidst which 
 we live; that there is a deeper meaning within them 
 i Cor. ^an eye hath seen, or ear hath heard ; and 
 " 9- that the whole visible creation is a mere perish- 
 
 able symbol of things eternal and true. It cannot but 
 have been sometimes a subject of wonder with thoughtful 
 men, how fondly, age after age, the Church has cherished 
 the belief that the four living creatures which 
 lv ' 7 ' surrounded the Apocalyptic throne were symbols 
 of the four Evangelists, and rejoiced to use those forms 
 in its picture- teaching ; that a calf, a lion, an eagle, and 
 a beast with a man's face, should in all ages have 
 been preferred by the Christian world, as expressive of 
 Evangelistic power and inspiration, to the majesty of 
 human form ; and that quaint grotesques, awkward and 
 often ludicrous caricatures even of the animals represented, 
 should have been regarded by all men, not only with 
 contentment, but with awe, and have superseded all 
 endeavours to represent the characters and persons of 
 the Evangelistic writers themselves (except in a few 
 instances, confined principally to works undertaken 
 without a definite religious purpose) ; this, I say, might 
 appear more than strange to us, were it not that we 
 ourselves share the awe, and are still satisfied with the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 207 
 
 symbol, and that justly. For, whether we are conscious 
 of it or not, there is in our hearts, as we gaze upon the 
 brutal forms that have so holy a signification, an ac- 
 knowledgment that it was not Matthew, nor Mark, nor 
 Luke, nor John, in whom the Gospel of Christ was 
 unsealed ; but that the invisible things of Him from the 
 beginning of the Creation are clearly seen, being under- 
 stood by the things that are made ; that the whole world, 
 and all that is therein, be it low or high, great or small, 
 is a continual Gospel ; and that as the heathen, in their 
 alienation from God, changed His glory into an R omans 
 image made like unto corruptible man, and to ' 2 3- 
 birds, and four-footed beasts, the Christian, in his ap- 
 proach to God, is to undo this work, and to change the 
 corruptible things into the image of His glory ; believing 
 that there is nothing so base in creation, but that our faith 
 may give it wings which shall raise us into companion- 
 ship with heaven ; and that, on the other hand, there is 
 nothing so great or so goodly in creation, but , Cor 
 that it is a mean symbol of the Gospel of Christ, " * 
 and of the things He has prepared for them that love 
 Him. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. hi., LXII., LXIII. 
 
 Satan. 
 
 In fearful truth, the Presence and Power of him is 
 here; in the world, with us, and within us, mock as 
 you may ; and the fight with him, for the time, sore, and 
 widely unprosperous. Do not think I am speaking meta- 
 phorically or rhetorically, or with any other than literal 
 and earnest meaning of words. Hear me, I pray you, 
 therefore, for a little while, as earnestly as I speak. 
 
 Every faculty of man's soul, and every instinct of it 
 by which he is meant to live, is exposed to its own 
 special form of corruption : and whether within Man, 
 or in the external world, there is a power or condition 
 of temptation which is perpetually endeavouring to 
 reduce every glory of his soul, and every power of his 
 life, to such corruption as is possible to them. And
 
 208 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 the more beautiful they are, the more fearful is the 
 death which is attached as a penalty to their degrada- 
 tion. . . . 
 
 Now observe I leave you to call this deceiving 
 spirit what you like or to theorise about it as you 
 like. All that I desire you to recognize is the fact of 
 its being here, and the need of its being fought with. 
 If you take the Bible's account of it, or Dante's or 
 Milton's, you will receive the image of it as a mighty 
 spiritual creature, commanding others, and resisted by 
 others : if you take ^schylus's or Hesiod's account 
 of it, you will hold it for a partly elementary and un- 
 conscious adversity of fate, and partly for a group of 
 monstrous spiritual agencies connected with death, and 
 begotten out of the dust ; if you take a modern ration- 
 alist's you will accept it for a mere treachery and want 
 of vitality in our own moral nature exposing it to 
 loathsomeness or moral disease, as the body is capable 
 of mortification or leprosy. I do not care what you 
 call it, whose history you believe of it, nor what you 
 yourself can imagine about it ; the origin, or nature, or 
 name may be as you will, but the deadly reality of the 
 thing is with us, and warring against us, and on our 
 true war with it depends whatever life we can win. 
 Deadly reality, I say. The puff-adder or horned asp 
 is not more real. Unbelievable, those, unless you 
 had seen them ; no fable could have been coined out 
 of any human brain so dreadful, within its own poor 
 material sphere, as that blue-lipped serpent working 
 its way sidelong in the sand. As real, but with sting 
 Isaiah * eterna ^ death this worm that dies not, and 
 ixvi- 24- fire that is not quenched, within our souls or 
 s. Mark around them. Eternal death, I say sure, that, 
 ** 44 ~ 48 whatever creed you hold ; if the old Scriptural 
 one, Death of perpetual banishment from before God's 
 face; if the modern rationalist one, Death Eternal for 
 MS, instant and unredeemable ending of lives wasted in 
 misery. Time and Tide, 51-2 ; 58.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 209 
 
 Schism and Heresy. 
 
 I believe that the root of almost every schism and heresy 
 from which the Christian church has ever suffered, has 
 been the effort of men to earn, rather than to receive, 
 their salvation ; and that the reason that rjreaching is 
 so commonly ineffectual is, that it calls on men oftener 
 to work for God, than to behold God working for them. 
 If, for every rebuke that we utter of men's vices,' we 
 put forth a claim upon their hearts ; if, for every asser- 
 tion of God's demands from them, we could substitute 
 a display of His kindness to them ; if side by side, with 
 every warning of death, we could exhibit proofs and 
 promises of immortality ; if, in fine, instead of assuming 
 the being of an awful Deity, which men, though they 
 cannot and dare not deny, are always unwilling, some- 
 times unable, to conceive, we were to show them a near, 
 visible, inevitable, but all beneficent Deity, whose pres- 
 ence makes the earth itself a heaven, I think there would 
 be fewer deaf children sitting in the market-place. 
 Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. xv., n. 
 
 Servant of Christ. 
 
 You are called simply to be the servant of Christ, 
 and of other men for His sake ; that is to say, to hold 
 your life and all its faculties as a means of service to 
 your fellows. All you have to do is to be sure it is 
 the service you are doing them, and not the service you 
 do yourself, which is uppermost in your minds. 
 
 Now you continually hear appeals to you made in 
 a vague way, which you don't know how far you can 
 follow. You shall not say that, to-day; I both can 
 and will tell you what Christianity requires of you in 
 simplest terms. Read your Bible as you would any 
 other book with strictest criticism, frankly determining 
 what you think beautiful, and what you think false or 
 foolish. But be sure that you try accurately to under- 
 stand it, and transfer its teaching to modern need 
 by putting other names for those which have become 
 
 o
 
 210 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 superseded by time. For instance, in such a passage 
 as that which follows and supports the ' Lie not one to 
 another ' of Colossians iii. ' seeing that ye have put 
 on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after 
 the spirit of Him that created him, where' (meaning 
 Coi. in that great creation where) ' there is neither 
 
 "* " Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, 
 barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free.' In applying that 
 verse to the conduct and speech of modern policy, it 
 falls nearly dead, because we suffer ourselves to remain 
 under a vague impression vague, but practically para- 
 lysing, that though it was very necessary to speak 
 the truth in the countries of Scythians and Jews, there 
 is rio objection to any quantity of lying in managing 
 the affairs of Christendom. But now merely substitute 
 modern for ancient names, and see what a difference 
 it will make in the force and appeal of the passage, 
 Col ' Lie not one to another, brethren, seeing that 
 
 iii. 9, 10. ve h ave put off the old man, with his deeds, 
 and have put on the new man, which is renewed to 
 knowledge,' eis firiyvaxriv, according to the knowledge 
 of Him that created him, in that great creation where 
 CoL there is neither Englishman nor German, bap- 
 
 iii. is. ti sm nor W ant of baptism, Turk nor Russian, 
 slave nor free, but Christ is all, and in all. On the Old 
 Road, vol. ii., 292, 293. 
 
 Service of Heaven. 
 
 Whatever may be the inability, in this present life, 
 to mingle the full enjoyment of the Divine works with 
 the full discharge of every practical duty, and confessedly 
 in many cases this must be, let us not attribute the in- 
 consistency to any indignity of the faculty of contem- 
 Gen plation, but to the sin and the suffering of 
 
 ii 15- the fallen state, and the change of order from 
 Gen. the keeping of the garden to the tilling of 
 UL 83- the ground. We cannot say how far it is 
 right or agreeable with God's will, while men are
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 211 
 
 perishing round about us ; while grief and pain, and 
 wrath, and impiety, and death, and all the powers of 
 the air, are working wildly and evermore, and the cry 
 of blood going up to heaven, that any of us should 
 take hand from the plough; but this we know, that 
 there will come a time when the service of God shall 
 be the beholding of Him ; and though in these stormy 
 seas where we are now driven up and down, 
 His Spirit is dimly seen on the face of the 
 waters, and we are left to cast anchors out of the stern, 
 and wish for the day, that day will come, when, with the 
 evangelists on the crystal and stable sea, all the R ev . 
 creatures of God shall be full of eyes within, iv - 6 - 8 - 
 and there shall be ' no more curse, but His R CV- 
 servants shall serve Him, and shall see His xxii - 3. 4- 
 face.' Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. xv., 12. 
 
 Seven Churches, The. 
 
 And so, out of the true earthly kingdom, in fulness of 
 time, shall come the heavenly kingdom, when Rev 
 the tabernacle of God shall be with men ; no xxi - 3- 
 priest needed more for ministry, because all the earth 
 will be Temple ; nor bread nor wine needed R CV . j^. 
 more for mortal food, or fading memory, but *?-** 
 the water of life given to him that is athirst, and the 
 fruits of the trees of healing. 
 
 Into which kingdom that we may enter let us read 
 now the last words of the King when He left us for His 
 Bridal, in which is the direct and practical warning of 
 which the parable of the Servant was the shadow. It 
 was given, as you know, to Seven Churches, that live no 
 more, they having refused the word of His lips, and 
 been consumed by the sword of His lips. Yet to Rev> 
 all men the command remains He that hath an " ** 
 ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches. 
 
 They lie along the hills, and across the plains, of 
 Lydia, sweeping in one wide curve like a flight of birds 
 or a swirl of cloud (if you draw them by themselves
 
 212 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 on the map you will see) all of them either in Lydia 
 itself, or on the frontier of it : in nature Lydian all 
 richest in gold, delicatest in luxury, softest in music, 
 tenderest in art, of the then world. They unite the capa- 
 cities and felicities of the Asiatic and the Greek : had 
 the last message of Christ been given to the Churches in 
 Greece, it would have been to Europe in imperfect age ; 
 if to the Churches in Syria, to Asia in imperfect age : 
 written to Lydia, it is written to the world, and for ever. 
 
 It is written ' to the Angels of the Seven Churches. 
 Rev. L >. These things saith He which hath the 
 Rev. i. 16 ; Seven Stars in His right hand, and ' (that is to 
 iii. i. sa y^ i the Seven Spirits of God.' 
 
 And the charge is from the Spirit of God to each 
 of these seven angels, reigning over and in the hearts 
 of the whole body of the believers in every 
 "' 7 ' Church ; followed always by the dateless ad- 
 juration, ' He that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the Churches.' 
 
 Rev. ii. a, The address to each consists of four parts : 
 Si. 1 ?,' I? 15. Observe, first, they all begin with the 
 same words, ' I know thy works.' 
 
 Not even the maddest and blindest of Antinomian 
 teachers could have eluded the weight of this fact, but 
 that, in the following address to each Church, its ' work ' 
 is spoken of as the state of its heart. Of which the in- 
 terpretation is nevertheless quite simple, that the thing 
 looked at by God first, in every Christian man, is his 
 work; without that, there is no more talk or thought 
 s. Luke f hi m - ' Cut him down why cumbereth he 
 xiii - 7- the ground ? ' But the work being shown, has 
 next to be tested. In what spirit was this done, in 
 faith and charity, or in disobedient pride ? . . . 
 s. Matt I. Ephesus. The attribute is essentially the 
 xxv- 1- spiritual power of Christ, in His people, the 
 v. 14. ' lamp ' of the virgins, the ' light of the world ' 
 of the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 The Declaration praises the intensity of this in the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 213 
 
 Church, and which is the notablest thing for us in 
 the whole series of the charges it asserts the burning 
 of the Spirit of Christ in the Church to be especially 
 shown because it ' cannot bear them which are 
 evil.' This fierceness against sin, which we are 
 so proud of being well quit of, is the very life of a 
 Church ; the toleration of sin is the dying of its lamp. 
 How indeed should it shine before men, if it mixed 
 itself in the soot and fog of sin ? . . . The pro- 
 mise is of fullest life in the midst of the Para- 
 dise and garden of God. Compare all the prophetic 
 descriptions of living persons, or states, as the trees 
 in the garden of God; and the blessing of the first 
 Psalm. 
 
 II. Smyrna. The attribute is that of Christ's endur- 
 ance of death. The declaration that the faithful Church 
 is now dying, with Him, the noble death of the righteous, 
 and shall live for evermore. The promise, that R CV 
 over those who so endure the slow pain of " " 
 death in grief, for Christ's sake, the second death hath 
 no power. 
 
 III. Pergamos. The attribute is of Christ the Judge, 
 visiting for sin ; the declaration, that the Church has in 
 it the sin of the Nicolaitanes, or of Balaam, using its 
 grace and inspiration to forward its worldly interest, 
 and grieved at heart because it has the Holy R CV 
 Ghost ; the darkest of blasphemies. Against " *4-* 6 
 this, ' Behold, I come quickly, and will fight against thee 
 with the sword of my mouth.' 
 
 The promise, that he who has kept his lips Rev 
 from blasphemy shall eat of the hidden manna : 7 
 the word, not the sword, of the lips of Christ. Psalm 
 ' How sweet is Thy word unto my lips.' 
 
 The metaphor of the stone, and the new name, I do 
 not yet securely understand. 
 
 IV. Tlrymll'a. ^Tne attribute : ' That hath Rev 
 his eyes like a flame of fire,' (searching the " x8 
 heart,) ' his feet like fine brass,' (treading the earth, yet in
 
 2i 4 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 purity, the type of all Christian practical life, unsoiled, 
 whatever it treads on) ; but remember, lest you should 
 think this in any wise opposed to the sense of the 
 charge to Ephesus that you may tread on foulness, yet 
 remain undented ; but not lie down in it and remain so. 
 Rev The praise is for charity and active labour, 
 ii. 26, 27. and the labour more than the charity. . . . 
 Rev. The reward of resistance is, to rule the nations 
 with a rod of iron (true work, against painted 
 clay) ; and I will give him the morning star, (light of 
 heaven, and morning- time for labour). 
 Rev V. Sardis. The attribute: 'That hath the 
 
 Ui " Seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars.' 
 
 Again, the Lord of Life itself the Giver of the Holy 
 S. John Ghost. (Having said thus, He breathed on them.) 
 ** ** He questions not of the poison or misuse of 
 Rev life, but of its existence. Strengthen the things 
 
 '" * that are left that are ready to die. The white 
 S. Mark raiment is the transfiguration of the earthly 
 * 3- frame by the inner life, even to the robe of it, 
 ' so as no fuller on earth can white them.' 
 
 The judgment : I will come unto thee as a thief (in 
 Rev. thy darkness, to take away even that thou hast). 
 " 3. s- The promise : I will not blot his name out of 
 the Book of Life. 
 
 VI. Philadelphia. The attribute: He that is holy 
 Rev. (separate from sin) He that is true (separate 
 *" ? from falsehood) that hath the key of David, 
 (of the city of David which is Zion, renewed and pure ; 
 Rev. conf. verse 12); that openeth, and no man 
 xxii. 15. shutteth, (by me if any man enter in) ; and 
 shutteth, and no man openeth, (for without, are forni- 
 cators, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie). 
 
 The praise for faithfulness with a little strength, as 
 of a soldier holding a little fortress in the midst of 
 Psalm assaulting armies. Therefore the blessing, 
 JDciv - 7, 8. a ft er that captivity of the strait siege the lifting 
 up of the heads of the gates, and setting wide of the
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 215 
 
 everlasting doors by the Lord, mighty in battle. The 
 promise : Him that overcometh will I make, R CV . 
 not merely safe within my fortress temple, but m - " 
 a pillar of it built on its rock, and bearing its vaults for 
 ever. 
 
 VII. Laodicea. The attribute : The Faith- Rev . 
 ful, witne'ss^Tlie Word the Beginning of *" J 4- 
 Creation. 
 
 The sin, chaos of heart, useless disorder of half- 
 shaped life. Darkness on the face of the deep, and 
 rejoicing in darkness, as in these days of ours to the 
 uttermost. Chaos in all things dross for gold slime 
 for mortar nakedness for glory pathless morass for 
 path and the proud blind for guides. 
 
 The command, to try the gold, and purge the raiment, 
 and anoint the eyes, this order given as to the Rev 
 almost helpless as men waked in the night, '" l8 - 
 not girding their loins for journey, but in vague wonder 
 at uncertain noise, who may turn again to their slumber, 
 or, in wistful listening, hear the voice calling Behold, 
 I stand at the door ! ' It is the last of the Rev 
 temptations, bringing back the throne of Ui - 20 - 
 Annihilation ; and the victory over it is the final victory, 
 giving rule, with the Son of God, over the recreate and 
 never to be dissolved order of the perfect earth. 
 
 In which there shall be no more death, neither 
 sorrow, nor crying, for the ' former things are R CV 
 passed away.' * xi - * 
 
 ' Now, unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, 
 and to present you, faultless, before the Pres- S- Jude 
 ence of His glory with exceeding joy ; * ** 
 
 ' To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and 
 majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. 
 Amen.' Fors Clavigera, Letter LXXXIV. 
 
 Shepherd's Tower, The. 
 
 Forty years ago, there was assuredly no spot of 
 ground, out of Palestine, in all the round world, on
 
 216 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 which, if you knew, even but a little, the true course 
 of that world's history, you saw with so much joyful 
 reverence the dawn of morning, as at the foot of the 
 Tower of Giotto. For there the traditions of faith and 
 hope, 'of both the Gentile and Jewish races, met for 
 their beautiful labour. The Baptistery of Florence is the 
 last building .raised on the earth by the descendants 
 of the workmen taught by Daedalus; and the Tower 
 of Giotto is the loveliest of those raised on earth under 
 the inspiration of the men who lifted up the tabernacle 
 in the wilderness. Of living Greek work there is none 
 after the Florentine Baptistery ; of living Christian work, 
 none so perfect as the Tower of Giotto. . . . Next to 
 declaration of the facts of the Gospel, its purpose (often 
 in actual work the eagerest,) was to show the power 
 of the Gospel. History of Christ in due place; yes, 
 history of all He did, and how He died : but then, 
 and often, as I say, with more animated imagination, 
 the showing of His risen presence in granting the 
 harvests and guiding the labour of the year. All sun 
 and rain, and length or decline of days received from 
 His hand ; all joy, and grief, and strength, or cessation 
 of labour, indulged or endured, as in His sight and 
 to His glory. And the familiar employments of the 
 seasons, the homely toils of the peasant, the lowliest 
 skills of the craftsman, are signed always on the stones 
 of the Church, as the first and truest condition of sacri- 
 fice and offering. Mornings in Florence, 120-1. 
 
 Sight. 
 
 Sight is an absolutely spiritual phenomenon ; accu- 
 rately, and only, to be so defined; and the 
 ' Let there be light,' is as much, when you 
 understand it, the ordering of intelligence as the order- 
 ing of vision. It is the appointment of change of what 
 had been else only a mechanical effluence from things 
 unseen to things unseeing, from stars that did not 
 shine to earth that could not perceive; the change,
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 217 
 
 I say, of that blind vibration into the glory of the sun 
 and moon for human eyes ; so rendering possible also 
 the communication out of the unfathomable truth, of 
 that portion of truth which is good for us, and ani- 
 mating to us, and is set to rule over the day and night 
 of our joy and sorrow. . . . 
 
 Have you ever considered how much literal truth 
 there is in the words ' The light of the body 5. Matt, 
 is the eye. If, therefore, thine eye be evil ' vi - 22 > *3 
 and the rest ? How can the eye be evil ? How, if evil, 
 can it fill the whole body with darkness ? 
 
 What is the meaning of having one's body full of dark- 
 ness ? It cannot mean merely being blind. Blind, you 
 may fall in a ditch if you move ; but you may be well, 
 if at rest. But to be evil-eyed, is not that worse than to 
 have no eyes ? and instead of being only in darkness, to 
 have darkness in us, portable, perfect, and eternal ? . . . 
 
 Literally, if the eye be pure, the body is pure; but, 
 if the light of the body be but darkness, how great is 
 that darkness ! . . . 
 
 You will find that, according to the clearness of 
 sight, is indeed the kindness of sight, and that at last 
 the noble eyes of humanity look through humanity, 
 from heart into heart, and with no mechanical vision. 
 And the Light of the body is the eye yes, and in 
 happy life, the light of the heart also. The Eagle's 
 Nest, 99, 1 06, 1 08, no. 
 
 Sons of Noah. 
 
 Remember that the three sons of Noah are, re- 
 spectively, Shem, the father of the Imaginative and 
 Contemplative races. 
 
 Japheth, Practical and Constructive. 
 
 Ham, Carnal and Destructive. 
 
 The sons of Shem are the perceivers of Splendour ; 
 they see what is best in visible things, and reach forward 
 to the invisible. 
 
 The sons of Japheth are the perceivers of Justice
 
 2i8 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 and Duty; and deal securely with all that is under 
 their hand. 
 
 The sons of Ham are the perceivers of Evil or Naked- 
 ness ; and are slaves therefore for ever ' servants of 
 servants ' : when in power, therefore, either helpless or 
 tyrannous. It is best to remember among the nations 
 descending from the three great sires, the Persians, as 
 the sons of Shem ; Greeks, as the sons of Japheth ; 
 Assyrians, as the sons of Ham. The Jewish captivity 
 to the Assyrians then takes its perfect meaning. Fors 
 Clavigera, Letter LXII. 
 
 Spirit of Prophecy, The. 
 
 It is to be noted that it is neither by us ascertain- 
 able what moments of pure feeling or aspiration may 
 occur to men of minds apparently cold and lost, nor 
 by us to be pronounced through what instruments, and 
 in what strangely occurrent voices, God may choose to 
 communicate good to men. It seems to me that much 
 of what is great, and to all men beneficial, has been 
 wrought by those who neither intended nor knew the 
 good they did ; and that many mighty harmonies have 
 been discoursed by instruments that had been dumb 
 or discordant, but that God knew their stops. The 
 Spirit of Prophecy consisted with the avarice of Balaam, 
 Num. an d the disobedience of Saul. Could we spare 
 xxiv. 4, 16. f r om its page that parable, which he said, who 
 saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, 
 but having his eyes open ; though we know that the 
 sword of his punishment was then sharp in its sheath 
 beneath him in the plains of Moab? or shall we not 
 2 Sam. lament with David over the shield, cast away 
 ' " on the Gilboa mountains, of him to whom 
 God gave another heart that day, when he turned his 
 back to go from Samuel ? It is not our part to look 
 hardly, nor to look always, to the character or the deeds 
 of men, but to accept from all of them, and to hold 
 fast, that which we can prove good, and feel to be
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 219 
 
 ordained for us. We know that whatever good there 
 is in them is itself divine; and wherever we see the 
 virtue of ardent labour and self-surrendering to a single 
 purpose, wherever we find constant reference made to 
 the written scripture of natural beauty, this at least we 
 know is great and good ; this we know is not granted 
 by the counsel of God without purpose, nor maintained 
 without result : their interpretation we may accept, into 
 their labour we may enter, but they themselves must 
 look to it, if what they do has no intent of good, nor 
 any reference to the Giver of all gifts. Selfish in their 
 industry, unchastened in their wills, ungrateful for the 
 Spirit that is upon them, they may yet be helmed by 
 that Spirit whithersoever the Governor listeth ; james 
 involuntary instruments they may become of "' * 
 others' good ; unwillingly they may bless Israel, doubt- 
 ingly discomfit Amalek ; but short-coming there Exodus 
 will be of their glory, and sure, of their punish- xvii - 8 ~ X 3- 
 ment. Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. xv., 8. 
 
 Spirit of Sacrifice. 
 
 Can the Deity be indeed honoured by the presen- 
 tation to Him of any material objects of value, or by 
 any direction of zeal or wisdom which is not immediately 
 beneficial to men ? For, observe, it is not now the 
 question whether the fairness and majesty of a building 
 may or may not answer any moral purpose; it is not 
 the result of labour in any sort of which we are speak- 
 ing, but the bare and mere costliness the substance 
 and labour and time themselves : are these, we ask, in- 
 dependently of their result, acceptable offerings to God, 
 and considered by Him as doing Him honour ? So 
 long as we refer this question to the decision of feeling, 
 or of conscience, or of reason merely, it will be contra- 
 dictorily or imperfectly answered ; it admits of entire 
 answer only when we have met another and a far dif- 
 ferent question, whether the Bible be indeed one book 
 or two, and whether the character of God revealed in the
 
 220 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Old Testament be other than His character revealed in 
 the New. 
 
 Now, it is a most secure truth, that, although the 
 particular ordinances divinely appointed for special pur- 
 poses at any given period of man's history, may be by 
 the same divine authority abrogated at another, it is 
 impossible that any character of God, appealed to or 
 described in any ordinance past or present, can ever be 
 changed, or understood as changed, by the abrogation 
 of that ordinance. God is one and the same, and is 
 pleased or displeased by the same things for ever, 
 although one part of His pleasure may be expressed 
 at one time rather than another, and although the mode 
 in which His pleasure is to be consulted may be by 
 Him graciously modified to the circumstances of men. 
 Thus, for instance, it was necessary that, in order to 
 the understanding by man of the scheme of Redemption, 
 that scheme should be foreshown from the beginning by 
 the type of bloody sacrifice. But God had no more 
 pleasure in such sacrifice in the time of Moses than He 
 has now ; He never accepted, as a propitiation for sin, 
 any sacrifice but the single one in perspective : and 
 that we may not entertain any shadow of doubt on this 
 subject, the worthlessness of all other sacrifice than this is 
 proclaimed at the very time when typical sacrifice was most 
 s. John imperatively demanded. God was a Spirit, and 
 iv - 4- could be worshipped only in spirit and in truth, 
 as singly and exclusively when every day brought its 
 claim of typical and material service or offering, as now 
 when He asks for none but that of the heart. 
 
 So, therefore, it is a most safe and sure principle that, 
 if in the manner of performing any rite at any time, 
 circumstances can be traced which we are either told 
 or may legitimately conclude, pleased God at that time, 
 those same circumstances will please Him at all times, 
 in the performance of all rites or offices to which they 
 may be attached in like manner; unless it has been 
 afterwards revealed that, for some special purpose, it is
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 221 
 
 now His will that such circumstances should be with- 
 drawn. And this argument will have all the more force 
 if it can be shown that such conditions were not essential 
 to the completeness of the rite in its human uses and 
 bearings, and only were added to it as being in themselves 
 pleasing to God. 
 
 Now, was it necessary to the completeness, as a type, 
 of the Levitical sacrifice, or to its utility as an explanation 
 of divine purposes, that it should cost anything to the 
 person in whose behalf it was offered ? On the contrary, 
 the sacrifice which it foreshowed, was to be God's free 
 gift ; and the cost of, or difficulty of obtaining, the sacri- 
 ficial type, could only render that type in a measure 
 obscure, and less expressive of the offering which God 
 would in the end provide for all men. Yet this costli- 
 ness was generally a condition of the acceptable- 2 Sam . 
 ness of the sacrifice. ' Neither will I offer unto xxiv - ** 
 the Lord my God of that which doth cost me Deut. 
 nothing.' That costliness, therefore, must be 3tvL l6 > X 7- 
 an acceptable condition in all human offerings at all 
 times ; for if it was pleasing to God once, it must please 
 Him always, unless directly forbidden by Him afterwards, 
 which it has never been. 
 
 Again, was it necessary to the typical perfection of 
 the Levitical offering, that it should be the best of the 
 flock ? Doubtless, the spotlessness of the sacrifice 
 renders it more expressive to the Christian mind; but 
 was it because so expressive that it was actually, and in 
 so many words, demanded by God ? Not at all. It was 
 demanded by Him expressly on the same grounds on 
 which an earthly governor would demand it, as a testi- 
 mony of respect. ' Offer it now unto thy 
 
 > A I xu i i ui cc Mal - ' & 
 
 governor. And the less valuable offering was 
 rejected, not because it did not image Christ, nor fulfil 
 the purposes of sacrifice, but because it indicated a feeling 
 that would grudge the best of its possessions to Him who 
 gave them ; and because it was a bold dishonouring of 
 God in the sight of man. Whence it may be infallibly
 
 222 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 concluded, that in whatever offerings we may now see 
 reason to present unto God (I say not what these may 
 be), a condition of their acceptableness will be now, as 
 it was then, that they should be the best of their kind. 
 
 But farther, was it necessary to the carrying out of 
 the Mosaical system, that there should be either art or 
 splendour in the form or services of the tabernacle or 
 temple ? Was it necessary to the perfection of any one 
 Exod ^ tne ^ r typic^ offices, that there should be that 
 xxvi. hanging of blue, and purple, and scarlet ? those 
 taches of brass and sockets of silver ? that 
 working in cedar and overlaying with gold ? One thing 
 at least is evident : there was a deep and awful danger 
 in it ; a danger that the God whom they so worshipped, 
 might be associated in the minds of the serfs of Egypt 
 with the gods to whom they had seen similar gifts offered 
 and similar honours paid. The probability, in our 
 times, of fellowship with the feelings of the idolatrous 
 Romanist is absolutely as nothing, compared with the 
 danger to the Israelite of a sympathy with the idolatrous 
 Egyptian; no speculative, no unproved danger; but 
 proved fatally by their fall during a month's abandon- 
 ment to their own will ; a fall into the most servile 
 idolatry ; yet marked by such offerings to their idol as 
 their leader was, in the close sequel, instructed to bid 
 them offer to God. This danger was imminent, per- 
 petual, and of the most awful kind : it was the one 
 against which God made provision, not only by com- 
 mandments, by threatenings, by promises, the most 
 urgent, repeated, and impressive; but by temporary 
 ordinances of a severity so terrible as almost to dim for 
 a time, in the eyes of His people, His attribute of mercy. 
 The principal object of every instituted law of that 
 Theocracy, of every judgment sent forth in its vindica- 
 tion, was to mark to the people His hatred of idolatry ; 
 a hatred written under their advancing steps, in the 
 blood of the Canaanite, and more sternly still in the 
 darkness of their own desolation, when the children and
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 223 
 
 the sucklings swooned in the streets of Jerusalem, and the 
 lion tracked his prey in the desert of Samaria. Lam 
 Yet, against this mortal danger, provision was - " 
 not made in one way, (to man's thoughts 2 Kings 
 the simplest, the most natural, the most effec- xvn- 2S- 
 tive,) by withdrawing from the worship of the Divine 
 Being whatever could delight the sense, or shape the 
 imagination, or limit the idea of Deity to place. This 
 one way God refused, demanding for Himself such 
 honours, and accepting for Himself such local dwelling, 
 as had been paid and dedicated to idol gods by heathen 
 worshippers. And for what reason ? Was the glory 
 of the tabernacle necessary to set forth or image His 
 divine glory to the minds of His people ? What ! purple 
 or scarlet necessary, to the people who had seen the 
 great river of Egypt run scarlet to the sea, under His 
 condemnation ? What ! golden lamp and cherub neces- 
 sary, for those who had seen the fires of heaven falling 
 like a mantle on Mount Sinai, and its golden courts 
 open to receive their mortal lawgiver ? What ! silver 
 clasp and fillet necessary, when they had seen the silver 
 waves of the Red Sea clasp in their arched hollows the 
 corpses of the horse and his rider ? There was but one 
 reason, and that an eternal one ; that as the covenant 
 that He made with men was accompanied with some 
 external sign of its continuance, and of His remembrance 
 of it, so the acceptance of that covenant might be marked 
 and signified by men, in some external sign of their love 
 and obedience, and surrender of themselves and theirs 
 to His will ; and that their gratitude to Him and con- 
 tinual remembrance of Him, might have at once their 
 expression, and their enduring testimony, in the presenta- 
 tion to Him, not only of the firstlings of the herd and 
 fold, not only of the fruits of the earth and the tithe of 
 time, but of all treasures of wisdom and beauty ; of the 
 thought that invents and the hand that labours; of wealth 
 of wood, and weight of stone; of the strength of iron, 
 and the light of gold.
 
 224 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 And let us not now lose sight of this broad and 
 unabrogated principle I might say, incapable of being 
 abrogated, so long as men shall receive earthly gifts 
 from God. Of all that they have, His tithe must be 
 rendered to Him, or in so far and in so much He is 
 forgotten : of the skill and of the treasure, of the strength 
 and of the mind, of the time and of the toil, offering 
 must be made reverently ; and if there be any difference 
 between the Levitical and the Christian offering, it is 
 that the latter may be just so much the wider in its 
 range as it is less typical in its meaning, as it is thankful 
 instead of sacrificial. There can be no excuse accepted 
 because the Deity does not now visibly dwell in His 
 temple ; if He is invisible it is only through our failing 
 faith : nor any excuse because other calls are more 
 immediate or more sacred ; this ought to be done, and 
 not the other left. undone. Yet this objection, as fre- 
 quent as feeble, must be more specifically answered. 
 
 It has been said it ought always to be said, for it 
 is true, that a better and more honourable offering 
 is made to our Master in ministry to the poor, in ex- 
 tending the knowledge of His name, in the practice 
 of the virtues by which that name is hallowed, than 
 in material presents to His temple. Assuredly it is 
 so : woe to all who think that any other kind or 
 manner of offering may in any wise take the place of 
 these ! Do the people need place to pray, and calls 
 to hear His word ? Then it is no time for smoothing 
 pillars or carving pulpits ; let us have enough first of 
 walls and roofs. Do the people need teaching from 
 house to house, and bread from day to day? Then 
 they are deacons and ministers we want, not architects. 
 I insist on this, I plead for this ; but let us examine 
 ourselves, and see if this be indeed the reason for our 
 backwardness in the lesser work. The question is not 
 between God's house and His poor : it is not between 
 God's house and His gospel. It is between God's 
 house and ours. Have we no tessellated colours on
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 225 
 
 our floors? no frescoed fancies on our roofs? no niched 
 statuary in our corridors? no gilded furniture in our 
 chambers ? no costly stones in our cabinets ? Has 
 even the tithe of these been offered? They are, or 
 they ought to be, the signs that enough has been 
 devoted to the great purposes of human stewardship, 
 and that there remains to us what we can spend in 
 luxury; but there is a greater and prouder luxury than 
 this selfish one that of bringing a portion of Psa i m 
 such things as these into sacred service, and bwi n. 
 presenting them for a memorial that our plea- Num. 
 sure as well as our toil has been hallowed by xxx1 ' **" 
 the remembrance of Him who gave both the strength 
 and the reward. And until this has been done, I do 
 not see how such possessions can be retained in happi- 
 ness. I do not understand the feeling which would 
 arch our own gates and pave our own thresholds and 
 leave the church with its narrow door and foot-worn 
 sill ; the feeling which enriches our own chambers with 
 all manner of costliness, and endures the bare wall and 
 mean compass of the temple. Seven Lamps of Archi- 
 tecture, The Lamp of Sacrifice, iii. vii. 
 
 Strength of Character. 
 
 All strength of character begins in temperance, pru- 
 dence, and lowliness of thought. Without these, nothing 
 is possible, of noble humanity : on these follow kind- 
 ness, (simple, as opposed to malice,) and compassion, 
 (sympathy, a much rarer quality than mere kindness) ; 
 then, self -restriction, a quite different and higher con- 
 dition than temperance, the first being not painful 
 when rightly practised, but the latter always p sa in, 
 so ; (' I held my peace, even from good ' xandx. a. 
 ' quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit, ab Dis plura feret '). 
 Then come pity and long-suffering, which have to deal 
 with the sin, and not merely with the sorrow, of those 
 around us. St. Mark's Rest, 130.
 
 226 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Superstition and Religion. 
 
 Superstition, in all times and among all nations, is 
 the fear of a spirit whose passions are those of a man, 
 whose acts are the acts of a man; who is present in 
 some places, not in others; who makes some places 
 holy and not others ; who is kind to one person, unkind 
 to another; who is pleased or angry according to the 
 degree of attention you pay to him, or praise you refuse 
 to him ; who is hostile generally to human pleasure, but 
 may be bribed by sacrifice of a part of that pleasure into 
 permitting the rest. This, whatever form of faith it 
 colours, is the essence of superstition. And religion is 
 the belief in a Spirit whose mercies are over all His 
 s. Luke works who is kind even to the unthankful and 
 ** 35- the evil ; who is everywhere present, and there- 
 fore is in no place to be sought, and in no place to be 
 evaded; to whom all creatures, times, and things are 
 everlastingly holy, and who claims not tithes of wealth, 
 nor sevenths of days but all the wealth that we have, 
 and all the days that we live, and all the beings that we 
 are, but who claims that totality because He delights only 
 in the delight of His creatures ; and because, therefore, 
 the one duty that they owe to Him, and the only service 
 they can render Him, is to be happy. A Spirit, there- 
 fore, whose eternal benevolence cannot be angered, cannot 
 be appeased ; whose laws are everlasting and inexor- 
 s. Matt. a ble, so that heaven and earth must indeed pass 
 "iv. 35. away if one jot of them failed : laws which attach 
 to every wrong and error a measured, inevitable penalty ; 
 to every Tightness and prudence, an assured reward; 
 penalty, of which the remittance cannot be purchased; 
 and reward, of which the promise cannot be broken. . . . 
 
 Religion proselytes by love, superstition by war ; 
 religion teaches by example, superstition by persecu- 
 tion. Religion gave granite shrine to the Egyptian, 
 golden temple to the Jew, sculptured corridor to the 
 Greek, pillared aisle and frescoed wall to the Christian. 
 Superstition made idols of the splendours by which
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 227 
 
 Religion had spoken : reverenced pictures and stones, in- 
 stead of truths ; letters and laws, instead of acts, and for 
 ever, in various madness of fantastic desolation, kneels 
 in the temple while it crucifies the Christ. On the Old 
 Road, vol. i., part i., 283, 284. 
 
 Symbolism. 
 
 Symbolism is the setting forth of a great truth by an 
 imperfect and inferior sign (as for instance, of the hope 
 of the resurrection by the form of the phcenix) ; and it 
 is almost always employed by men in their most serious 
 moods of faith, rarely in recreation. Men who use 
 symbolism forcibly are almost always true believers in 
 what they symbolize. . . . Thus symbolism constituted 
 the entire system of the Mosaic dispensation : it occurs 
 in every word of Christ's teaching; it attaches per- 
 petual mystery to the last and most solemn act of His 
 life. . . . And as we watch, thenceforward, the history 
 of the Church, we shall find the declension of its faith 
 exactly marked by the abandonment of symbolism. 1 
 Stones of Venice, vol. ii., ch. viii., LV. 
 
 Symbolism of the Thorn and Thistle. 
 
 All these lower organisms suffer and perish, or are 
 gladdened and flourish, under conditions which are in 
 utter precision symbolical, and in utter fidelity Gen 
 representative, of the conditions which induce L 
 adversity and prosperity in the kingdoms of Gen. 
 men : and the Eternal Demeter, Mother, and m ' x8 ' 
 Judge, brings forth, as the herb yielding seed, so also 
 the thorn and the thistle, not to herself, but to thee. 
 
 You have read the words of the great Law often 
 enough ; have you ever thought enough of them to 
 know the difference between these two appointed means 
 of Distress? The first, the Thorn, is the type of 
 
 1 The transformation of a symbol into a reality, observe, as in 
 transubstantiation, is as much an abandonment of symbolism as the 
 forgetfulness of symbolic meaning altogether.
 
 22 8 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 distress caused by crime, changing the soft and breath- 
 ing leaf into inflexible and wounding stubbornness. The 
 second is the distress appointed to be the means and 
 herald of good, Thou shalt see the stubborn thistle 
 bursting into glossy purple, which outreddens all volup- 
 tuous garden roses. . . . 
 
 How literally may we go back from the living soul 
 symbolized, to the strangely accurate earthly symbol, in 
 the prickly weed. For if, with its bravery of endurance, 
 and carelessness in choice of home, we find also definite 
 faculty and habit of migration, volant mechanism for 
 choiceless journey, not divinely directed in pilgrimage to 
 S. John known shrines ; but carried at the wind's will 
 m - a by a spirit which listeth not, it will go hard 
 but that the plant shall become, if not dreaded, at least 
 despised ; and, in its wandering and reckless splendour, 
 disgrace the garden of the sluggard, and possess the 
 inheritance of the prodigal : until even its own nature 
 seems contrary to good, and the invocation of the just man 
 be made to it as the executor of Judgment, ' Let thistles 
 job grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of 
 
 * xxi - 40- barley.' Yet to be despised either for men or 
 flowers may be no ill-fortune; the real ill-fortune is only 
 to be despicable. Proserpina, ch. vii., 7, 8, 10, u. 
 
 Tabernacle. 
 
 The Tabernacle of God is now with men ; in men, 
 Rev and women, and sucklings also ; which temple 
 *** 3- ye are, ye and your Christian sisters ; of whom 
 i Cor. the poorest, here in London, are a very un- 
 "i- decorated shrine indeed. They are the Taber- 
 nacle, fair friends, which you have got leave, and charge, 
 to adorn. Not, in anywise, those charming churches 
 and altars which you wreathe with garlands for God's 
 sake, and the eloquent clergyman's. You are quite 
 s. Matt wrong, and barbarous in language, when you 
 vi. s- call them ' Churches ' at all. They are only 
 Synagogues ; the very same of which Christ spoke, with
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 229 
 
 eternal meaning, as the places that hypocrites would 
 love to be seen in. Here, in St. Giles's, and the East, 
 sister to that in St. George's and the West, is the 
 Church ! raggedly enough curtained, surely ! . . . 
 
 You are yourselves the Church, and see that you 
 be finally adorned, as women professing godli- x Tim. 
 ness, with the precious stones of good works, " I0 - 
 which may be quite briefly defined, for the present, as 
 decorating the entire Tabernacle; and clothing your 
 poor sisters, with yourselves. Put roses also in their 
 hair, put precious stones also on their breasts; see 
 that they also are clothed in your purple and a Sam. 
 scarlet, with other delights ; that they also ' z * 
 learn to read the gilded heraldry of the sky ; and, upon 
 the earth, be taught, not only the labours of it, but 
 the loveliness. For them, also, let the hereditary jewel 
 recall their father's pride, their mother's beauty ; Exod. 
 so shall your days and theirs, be long in the ** " 
 sweet and sacred land which the Lord your God has 
 given you : so, truly, shall THE GOLD OF THAT Gen 
 
 LAND BE GOOD, AND THERE ALSO, THE CRYSTAL, " la - 
 
 AND THE ONYX STONE. Deucalion, ch. vii., 46. 
 
 'Thou God seest me.' 
 
 This Morning Service of all England begins with 
 the assertion that the Scripture moveth us in sundry 
 places to confess our sins before God. Does it so? 
 Have your congregations ever been referred to those 
 sundry places? Or do they take the assertion on 
 trust, or remain under the impression that, unless 
 with the advantage of their own candour, God must 
 remain ill-informed on the subject of their sins ? 
 
 ' That we should not dissemble nor cloke them.' Can 
 we then ? Are these grown-up congregations of the en- 
 lightened English Church in the nineteenth Gen 
 century still so young in their nurseries that the Jtvi - '3- 
 ' Thou, God, seest me ' is still not believed by them if they 
 get under the bed ? On the Old Road, vol. ii., 258.
 
 230 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Thou Shalt love the Lord thy God. 
 
 Men are guilty or otherwise, not for what they do, 
 but for what they desire, the command being not Thou 
 s. Matt, shall obey, bul Thou shall love, Ihe Lord 
 xxiL 37- thy God ; a vain command if men were nol 
 capable of governing and direcling Iheir affections. 
 Modern Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. in., 2. 
 
 Thy Kingdom come. 
 
 If you do nol wish for His kingdom, don'l pray for 
 it. But if you do, you must do more than pray for it ; 
 you must work for it. And, to work for it, you must 
 know whal il is ; we have all prayed for il many a day 
 without thinking. Observe, it is a kingdom lhal is to 
 come to us ; we are not to go to it. Also, it is not to 
 be a kingdom of the dead, but of the living. Also, it is not 
 s. Luke to come all at once, but quielly ; nobody knows 
 xvii. w>. how. ' The kingdom of God comelh nol wilh 
 observation.' Also, il is nol lo come oulside of us, 
 s. Luke bul in our hearls : ' Ihe kingdom of God is 
 *- " wilhin you.' And, being wilhin us, il is nol a 
 Ihing to be seen, but to be felt; and Ihough il brings 
 all subslance of good wilh it, il does nol consisl in lhal : 
 Rom. ' ^e kingdom of God is nol meal and drink, 
 v. 17. Du t righleousness, peace, and joy in Ihe Holy 
 Ghosl joy, lhal is lo say, in Ihe holy, healthful, and 
 helpful Spirit Now, if we wanl lo work for this kingdom, 
 and to bring it, and enter into it, there's one curious 
 s. Luke condition to be firsl accepled. You musl enler 
 xviii. 17. jt as children, or nol al all : ' Whosoever will not 
 receive il as a lillle child shall nol enler Iherein.' And 
 s. Mark again, ' Suffer litlle children lo come unlo me, 
 * x * and forbid Ihem nol, for of such is the king- 
 dom of heaven? The Crown of Wild Olive, 46. 
 s. Matt. ' Thy kingdom come,' we are bid to ask 
 Ihen! Bul how shall it come? Wilh power 
 
 o. Matt. ... 
 
 xxiv. 30. and great glory, it is written; and yel nol 
 with observation, il is also wrillen. Slrange kingdom !
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 231 
 
 Yet its strangeness is renewed to us with every 
 dawn. 
 
 When the time comes for us to wake out of the 
 world's sleep, why should it be otherwise than out of 
 the dreams of the night ? Singing of birds, first, broken 
 and low, as, not to dying eyes, but eyes that wake to 
 life, c the casement slowly grows a glimmering p sa i m 
 square ' ; and then the gray, and then the rose Jtix - 6 - 
 of dawn ; and kst the light, whose going forth is to the 
 ends of heaven. 
 
 This kingdom it is not in our power to bring ; but 
 it is, to receive. Nay, it is come already, in part ; but 
 not received, because men love chaos best; and the 
 Night, with her daughters. That is still the only ques- 
 tion for us, as in the old Elias days, ' If ye will s Matt 
 receive it.' With pains it may be shut out still ** "* 
 from many a dark place of cruelty ; by sloth it may be 
 still unseen for many a glorious hour. But the pain 
 of shutting it out must grow greater and greater : 
 harder, every day, that struggle of man with man in the 
 abyss, and shorter wages for the fiend's work. But it 
 is still at our choice; the simoom-dragon may still be 
 served if we will, in the fiery desert, or else 
 God walking in the garden, at cool of day. 
 Coolness now, not of Hesperus over Atlas, stooped 
 endurer of toil ; but of Heosphorus over Sion, p sa i m 
 the joy of the earth. 1 The choice is no vague xlviii - * 
 nor doubtful one. High on the desert mountain, full 
 descried, sits throned the tempter, with his old promise 
 the kingdoms of this world, and the glory 5. Matt, 
 of them. He still calls you to your labour, as iv - 8 - 
 Christ to your rest ; labour and sorrow, base desire, and 
 cruel hope. So far as you desire to possess, rather than 
 to give; so far as you look for power to command, 
 instead of to bless ; so far as your own prosperity seems 
 
 1 This joy it is to receive and to give, because its officers (governors 
 of its acts) are to be Peace, and its exactors (governors of its dealings) 
 Righteousness. Isa. Ix. 17.
 
 232 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 to you to issue out of contest or rivalry, of any kind, 
 with other men, or other nations ; so long as the hope 
 before you is for supremacy instead of love ; and your 
 desire is to be greatest, instead of least ; first, instead 
 of last ; so long you are serving the Lord of all that is 
 i Cor. l ast > an d least ; the last enemy that shall be 
 ** ** destroyed Death ; and you shall have death's 
 crown, with the worm coiled in it ; and death's wages, 
 j ob with the worm feeding on them ; kindred of the 
 
 xvii. 14. earth shall you yourself become ; saying to the 
 grave, ' Thou art my father ; ' and to the worm, ' Thou 
 art my mother, and my sister.' 
 
 I leave you to judge, and to choose, between this 
 labour, and the bequeathed peace ; these wages, 
 and the gift of the Morning Star; this obedi- 
 ence, and the doing of the will which shall enable you 
 s. Matt. to claim another kindred than of the earth, and 
 xii - s- to hear another voice than that of the grave, 
 saying, ' My brother, and sister, and mother.' Modern 
 Painters, vol. v., pt. be., ch. xii., 20. 
 
 Torcello, Cathedral of. 
 
 It has evidently been built by men in flignt and dis- 
 tress, who sought in the hurried erection of their island 
 church such a shelter for their earnest and sorrowful 
 worship as, on the one hand, could not attract the eyes 
 of their enemies by its splendour, and yet, on the other, 
 might not awaken too bitter feelings by its contrast with 
 the churches which they had seen destroyed. There is 
 visible everywhere a simple and tender effort to recover 
 some of the form of the temples which they had loved, 
 and to do honour to God by that which they were 
 erecting, while distress and humiliation prevented the 
 desire, and prudence precluded the admission, either 
 of luxury of ornament or magnificence of plan. The 
 exterior is absolutely devoid of decoration, with the 
 exception only of the western entrance and the lateral 
 door, of which the former has carved sideposts and
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 233 
 
 architrave, and the latter, crosses of rich sculpture; 
 while the massy stone shutters of the windows, turning 
 on huge rings of stone, which answer the double pur- 
 pose of stanchions and brackets, cause the whole 
 building rather to resemble a refuge from Alpine 
 storm than the cathedral of a populous city ; and, 
 internally, the two solemn mosaics of the eastern and 
 western extremities, one representing the Last Judg- 
 ment, the other the Madonna, her tears falling as her 
 hands are raised to bless, and the noble range of 
 pillars which enclose the space between, terminated by 
 the high throne for the pastor and the semicircular 
 raised seats for the superior clergy, are expressive at 
 once of the deep sorrow and the sacred courage of 
 men who had no home left them upon earth, a Cor 
 but who looked for one to come, of men ' per- iv - 9- 
 secuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed.' 
 I am not aware of any other early church in Italy 
 which has this peculiar expression in so marked a 
 degree; and it is so consistent with all that Christian 
 architecture ought to express in every age (for the 
 actual condition of the exiles who built the cathedral 
 of Torcello is exactly typical of the spiritual condition 
 which every Christian ought to recognise in himself, 
 a state of homelessness on earth, except so far as he 
 can make the Most High his habitation). . . . p sa in, 
 It is remarkable when we compare the Cathe- xci - ' 
 dral of Torcello with any of the contemporary basilicas 
 in South Italy or Lombardic churches in the North, 
 . . . they are all like sepulchral caverns compared 
 with Torcello, where the slightest details of the sculp- 
 tures and mosaics are visible, even when twilight is 
 deepening. And there is something especially touching 
 in our finding the sunshine thus freely admitted into 
 a church built by men in sorrow. They did not need 
 the darkness ; they could not perhaps bear it. There 
 was fear and depression upon them enough, without 
 a material gloom. They sought for comfort in their
 
 234 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 religion, for tangible hopes and promises, not for 
 threatenings or mysteries ; and though the subjects 
 chosen for the mosaics on the walls are of the most 
 solemn character, there are no artificial shadows cast 
 upon them, nor dark colours used in them : all is fair 
 and bright, and intended evidently to be regarded in 
 hopefulness, and not with terror. . . . 
 
 Most other early churches are covered with imagery 
 sufficiently suggestive of the vivid interest of the builders 
 in the history and occupations of the world. Symbols 
 or representations of political events, portraits of living 
 persons, and sculptures of satirical, grotesque, or trivial 
 subjects are of constant occurrence, mingled with the 
 more strictly appointed representations of scriptural or 
 ecclesiastical history ; but at Torcello even these usual, 
 and one should have thought almost necessary, succes- 
 sions of Bible events do not appear. The mind of the 
 worshipper was fixed entirely upon two great facts, to 
 him the most precious of all facts, the present mercy 
 of Christ to His Church, and His future coming to 
 judge the world. That Christ's mercy was, at this 
 period, supposed chiefly to be attainable through the 
 pleading of the Virgin, and that therefore beneath the 
 figure of the Redeemer is seen that of the weeping 
 Madonna in the act of intercession, may indeed be 
 matter of sorrow to the Protestant beholder, but ought 
 not to blind him to the earnestness and singleness of 
 the faith with which these men sought their sea-soli- 
 tudes; not in hope of founding new dynasties, or 
 entering upon new epochs of prosperity, but only to 
 humble themselves before God, and to pray that in His 
 R ev . infinite mercy He would hasten the time when 
 ** *3- the sea should give up the dead which were in 
 it, and Death and Hell give up the dead which were 
 job in them, and when they might enter into the 
 
 "* '? better kingdom, ' where the wicked cease from 
 troubling and the weary are at rest.' Stones of Venice, 
 vol. ii., ch. ii., 3, 4, 8, 9.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 235 
 
 Towers of the Bible. 
 
 I need not remind you of the effect upon the northern 
 mind which has always been produced by the heaven- 
 pointing spire, nor of the theory which has been founded 
 upon it of the general meaning of Gothic architecture 
 as expressive of religious aspiration. In a few minutes, 
 you may ascertain the exact value of that theory, and 
 the degree in which it is true. 
 
 The first tower of which we hear as built upon the 
 earth, was certainly built in a species of aspiration; 
 but I do not suppose that any one will think it was 
 a religious one. ' Go to now. Let us build _ 
 
 , , Gen. xi. 4. 
 
 a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. 
 From that day to this, whenever men have become 
 skilful architects at all, there has been a tendency in 
 them to build high ; not in any religious feeling, but in 
 mere exuberance of spirit and power as they dance or 
 sing with a certain mingling of vanity like the feeling 
 in which a child builds a tower of cards ; and, in nobler 
 instances, with also a strong sense of, and delight in the 
 majesty, height, and strength of the building itself, such 
 as we have in that of a lofty tree or a peaked mountain. 
 Add to this instinct the frequent necessity of points of 
 elevation for watch-towers, or of points of offence, as in 
 towers built on the ramparts of cities, and, finally, the 
 need of elevations for the transmission of sound, as in 
 the Turkish minaret and Christian belfry, and you have, 
 I think, a sufficient explanation of the tower-building of 
 the world in general. Look through your Bibles only, 
 and collect the various expressions with reference to 
 tower-building there, and you will have a very complete 
 idea of the spirit in which it is for the most part under- 
 taken. You begin with that of Babel; then you remember 
 Gideon beating down the tower of Penuel, in 
 order more completely to humble the pride of viiL 
 the men of the city ; you remember the defence judges 
 of the tower of Shechem against Abimelech, **. 48-53- 
 and the death of Abimelech by the casting of a stone
 
 236 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 from it by a woman's hand ; you recollect the husband- 
 s. Matt, man building a tower in his vineyard, and 
 s^Mar'k the beautiful expressions in Solomon's song, 
 xii. i. ' The tower of Lebanon, which looketh towards 
 Cant. Damascus ; ' ' I am a wall, and my breasts like 
 Cant. towers ; ' you recollect the Psalmist's expres- 
 viii. 10. sions of love and delight, ' Go ye round about 
 xivuTiz Jerusalem ; tell the towers thereof : mark ye 
 13- well her bulwarks ; consider her palaces, that 
 
 ye may tell it to the generation following.' You see in 
 all these cases how completely the tower is a subject of 
 human pride, or delight, or defence, not in any wise asso- 
 ciated with religious sentiment ; the towers of Jerusalem 
 being named in the same sentence, not with her temple, 
 but with her bulwarks and palaces. And thus, when the 
 tower is in reality connected with a place of worship, 
 it was generally done to add to its magnificence, but not 
 to add to its religious expression. Lectures on Archi- 
 tecture and Painting, 19. 
 
 Transfiguration, The. 
 
 We are all of us too much in the habit of passing it 
 by, as a thing mystical and inconceivable, taking place 
 in the life of Christ for some purpose not by us to be 
 understood, or, at the best, merely as a manifestation of 
 His divinity by brightness of heavenly light, and the 
 ministering of the spirits of the dead, intended to 
 strengthen the faith of His three chosen apostles. And 
 in this, as in many other events recorded by the Evange- 
 lists, we lose half the meaning, and evade the practical 
 power upon ourselves, by never accepting in its fulness 
 Heb the idea that our Lord was ' perfect man,' 
 iv - x * ' tempted in all things like as we are.' Our 
 preachers are continually trying in all manner of subtle 
 ways, to explain the union of the Divinity with the 
 Manhood, an explanation which certainly involves first 
 their being able to describe the nature of Deity itself, or, 
 in plain words, to comprehend God. They never can
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 237 
 
 explain, in any one particular, the union of the natures ; 
 they only succeed in weakening the faith of their hearers 
 as to the entireness of either. The thing they have to 
 do is precisely the contrary of this to insist upon the 
 entireness of both. We never think of Christ enough as 
 God, never enough as Man ; the instinctive habit of our 
 minds being always to miss of the Divinity, and the 
 reasoning and enforced habit to miss of the Humanity. 
 We are afraid to harbour in our own hearts, or to utter 
 in the hearing of others, any thought of our Lord, as 
 hungering, tired, sorrowful, having a human soul, a 
 human will, and affected by events of human life as a 
 finite creature is ; and yet one half of the efficiency of 
 His atonement, and the whole of the efficiency of His 
 example, depend on His having been this to the full. 
 
 Consider, therefore, the Transfiguration as it relates 
 to the human feelings of our Lord. It was the first 
 definite preparation for His death. He had s. Matt, 
 foretold it to His disciples six days before ; **" Ip 
 then takes with Him the three chosen ones s. Mark 
 into ' an high mountain apart.' From an 
 exceeding high mountain, at the first taking on f^ Matt 
 Him the ministry of life, He had beheld, and s Luke 
 rejected the kingdoms of the earth, and their . 28-32. 
 glory; now, on a high mountain, He takes upon Him 
 the ministry of death. Peter and they that were with 
 him, as in Gethsemane, were heavy with sleep. Christ's 
 work had to be done alone. 
 
 The tradition is, that the Mount of Transfiguration 
 was the summit 'of TaBoT; but "TaboFTs T neither a high 
 mountain, nor was it in any sense a mountain 'apart' ; 
 being in those years both inhabited and fortified. All 
 the immediately preceding ministries of Christ had 
 been at Cesarea Philippi. There is no mention of travel 
 southward in the six days that intervened between the 
 warning given to His disciples, and the going up into 
 the hill. What other hill could it be than the south- 
 ward slope of that goodly mountain, Hermon, which
 
 238 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 is indeed the centre of all the Promised Land, from 
 the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt ; the 
 mount of fruitfulness, from which the springs of Jordan 
 descended to the valleys of Israel? Along its mighty 
 forest avenues, until the grass grew fair with the moun- 
 tain lilies, His feet dashed in the dew of Hermon, He 
 must have gone to pray His first recorded prayer about 
 death ; and from the steep of it, before He knelt, could 
 see to the south all the dwelling-place of the people that 
 s. Matt. na d sat m darkness, and seen the great light, 
 iv. 16. the land of Zabulon and of Naphtali, Galilee 
 of the nations ; could see, even with His human sight, 
 the gleam of that lake by Capernaum and Chorazin, and 
 many a place loved by Him, and vainly ministered to, 
 whose house was now left unto them desolate ; and, 
 chief of all, far in the utmost blue, the hills above 
 Nazareth, sloping down to His old home : hills on which 
 yet the stones lay loose, that had been taken up to cast 
 at Him, when He left them for ever. 
 
 ' And as He prayed, two men stood by Him.' Among 
 S. Luke tne many ways in which we miss the help and 
 ix. 19, 30. h^ o f Scripture, none is more subtle than 
 our habit of supposing that, even as man, Christ was 
 free from the Fear of Death. How could He then 
 have been tempted as we are? since among all the 
 trials of the earth, none spring from the dust more 
 terrible than that Fear. It had to be borne by 
 Him, indeed, in a unity, which we can never com- 
 prehend, with the foreknowledge of victory, as His 
 sorrow for Lazarus, with the consciousness of the power 
 to restore him ; but it had to be borne, and that in 
 its full earthly terror ; and the presence of it is surely 
 marked for us enough by the rising of those two at 
 s. Matt. His side. When, in the desert, He was girding 
 iv. ii. Himself for the work of life, angels of life came 
 s. Matt, and ministered unto Him ; now, in the fair 
 *v- 3 . world, when He is girding Himself for the work 
 of death, the ministrants come to Him from the grave.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 239 
 
 But from the grave conquered. One, from that 
 tomb under Abarim, which his own hand had Num. 
 sealed so long ago; the other, from the rest fj 1 
 into which he had entered, without seeing ? Kings 
 
 corruption. There stood by Him Moses and "' "' , 
 
 T-i- j i f TT- j s - Luke 
 
 Ehas, and spake of His decease. . 30, 31. 
 
 Then, when the prayer is ended, the task accepted, 
 first, since the star paused over Him at Bethle- s Matt 
 hem, the full glory falls upon Him from heaven, xvii - s- 
 and the testimony is borne to His everlasting Sonship 
 and power. ' Hear ye him.' Modern Painters, vol. iv., 
 ch. xx., 47-49- 
 
 Do but try to believe that Moses and Elias are really 
 there talking with Christ. Moses in the loveliest heart 
 and midst of the land which once it had been denied 
 him to behold, Elijah treading the earth again, from 
 which he had been swept to heaven in fire; both now 
 with a mightier message than ever they had given in 
 life, mightier, in closing their own mission, s L uke 
 mightier, in speaking to Christ ' of His decease, ix - 3*- 
 which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.' Modern 
 Painters, vol. iii., ch. iv., 17, NOTE 2 . 
 
 Tree-legend. 
 
 { And Christopher said, How can I preach, for I have 
 no learning ? how can I persuade them ? and the child 
 told him to plant in the earth the dry fir tree that he 
 carried in his hand; and when he did so it became 
 green and was covered with fresh leaves. And the 
 child said, ' When you speak and they will not believe, 
 plant your staff in the ground and it will grow green 
 before their eyes, because with that staff in your hand 
 you carried the Lord ! ' . . . It is, I suppose, only by 
 the coincidence of thought which runs through all great 
 legend and literature that the putting forth of blossom 
 by the rod of Aaron, and of leaf by the staff of St. 
 Christopher, teach the life and beneficence of the 
 Sceptres of the just as the for ever leafless sceptre of
 
 240 
 
 Achilles, and the spear whose image was the pine, hewn 
 for ships of battle from the Norwegian hills, show in 
 their own death the power of the Kings of Death. 
 Roadside Songs of Tuscany, pp. 307, 308, 311, 312. 
 
 Tree Symbolism. 
 
 ' He shall be like a tree planted by the river side, 
 
 Psalm tnat be ars i ts ft" 1 " 1 i n i ts season. His leaf also 
 i. 3- shall not wither ; and you will see that what- 
 
 ever he does will prosper.' 
 
 I call it a curious statement, because the conduct to 
 which this prosperity is promised is not that which the 
 English, as a nation, at present think conducive to 
 prosperity : but whether the statement be true or not, 
 it will be easy for you to recollect the two eastern figures 
 under which the happiness of the man is represented, 
 that he is like a tree bearing fruit ' in its season ' ; (not 
 so hastily as that the frost pinch it, nor so late that no 
 sun ripens it;) and that 'his leaf shall not fade.' I 
 Ezekiel should like you to recollect this phrase in the 
 xivii. ia. Vulgate ' folium ejus non defluet ' shall not 
 fall away, that is to say, shall not fall so as to leave 
 any visible bareness in winter time, but only that others 
 may come up in its place, and the tree be always green. 
 . . . Notice next the word ' folium.' In Greek, 
 <vAAov, ' phyllon.' 
 
 ' The thing that is born,' or < put forth.' ' When the 
 s Matt branch is tender, and putteth forth her leaves, 
 iv. 32. ye know that summer is nigh.' . . . Wher- 
 s. Mark ever men are noble, they love bright colour ; 
 JUU> a8> and wherever they can live healthily, bright 
 colour is given them in sky, sea, flowers, and living 
 creatures. . . . There are, of course, exceptions to all 
 such widely founded laws ; there are poisonous berries 
 of scarlet, and pestilent skies that are fair. But . . . 
 lovely flowers, and green trees growing in the open air, 
 are the proper guides of men to the places which their 
 Maker intended them to inhabit; while the flowerless
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 241 
 
 and treeless deserts of reed, or sand, or rock, are 
 meant to be either heroically invaded and redeemed, or 
 surrendered to the wild creatures which are appointed 
 for them ; happy and wonderful in their wild abodes. 
 Proserpina, ch. iii., i, 3 ; iv., 22. 
 
 True Science. 
 
 All true science begins in the love, not the dissection, 
 of your fellow-creatures; and it ends in the love, not 
 the analysis, of God. Your alphabet of science is in 
 the nearest knowledge, as your alphabet of science is in 
 the nearest duty. ' Behold, it is nigh thee, even s Mark 
 at the doors.' The Spirit of God is around you xiii - 
 in the air that you breathe, His glory in the light that 
 you see; and in the fruitfulness of the earth, and the 
 joy of its creatures, He has written for you, day by day, 
 His revelation, as He has granted you, day by day, your 
 daily bread. Deucalion, ch. xii., 40. 
 
 Truth in Art. 
 
 Wheresoever the search after truth begins, there life 
 begins ; wheresoever that search ceases, there life ceases. 
 As long as a school of art holds any chain of natural 
 facts, trying to discover more of them and express them 
 better daily, it may play hither and thither as it likes on 
 this side of the chain or that ; it may design grotesques 
 and conventionalisms, build the simplest buildings, 
 serve the most practical utilities, yet all it does will 
 be gloriously designed and gloriously done; but let 
 it once quit hold of the chain of natural fact, cease to 
 pursue that as the clue to its work; let it propose to 
 itself any other end than preaching this living word, and 
 think first of showing its own skill or its own fancy, and 
 from that hour its fall is precipitate its destruction sure ; 
 nothing that it does or designs will ever have life Ecci. 
 or loveliness in it more ; its hour has come, and *. 10. 
 there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom 
 in the grave whither it goeth. The Two Paths, 23. 
 
 Q
 
 24 2 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Truth in Daily Life. 
 
 We may at least labour for a system of greater 
 honesty and kindness in the minor commerce of our 
 daily life. . . . Every person who tries to buy an 
 article for less than its proper value, or who tries to 
 sell it at more than its proper value every consumer 
 who keeps a tradesman waiting for his money and every 
 tradesman who bribes a consumer to extravagance by 
 credit, is helping forward, according to his own measure 
 of power, a system of baseless and dishonourable com- 
 merce, and forcing his country down into poverty and 
 shame. And people of moderate means and average 
 powers of mind would do far more real good by merely 
 carrying out stern principles of justice and honesty. . . . 
 There are three weighty matters of the law justice, 
 mercy, and truth; and of these the Teacher puts truth 
 last, because that cannot be known but by a course of 
 acts of justice and love. But men put, in all their 
 efforts, truth first, because they mean by it their own 
 opinions ; and thus, while the world has many people 
 who would suffer martyrdom in the cause of what they 
 call truth, it has few, who will suffer even a little incon- 
 venience, in that of justice and mercy. A Joy for 
 Ever, 152. 
 
 Truth, Early education of. 
 
 This is especially to be insisted on in the early educa- 
 tion of young people. It should be pointed out to them 
 with continual earnestness that the essence of lying is 
 in deception, not in words ; a lie may be told by silence, 
 by equivocation, by the accent on a syllable, by a glance 
 of the eye attaching a peculiar significance to a sentence ; 
 and all these kinds of lies are worse and baser by many 
 degrees than a lie plainly worded ; so that no form of 
 blinded conscience is so far sunk as that which comforts 
 itself for having deceived, because the deception was by 
 gesture or silence, instead of utterance. Modern Painters, 
 vol. v., pt. ix., ch. vii., 14.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 243 
 
 Truth spoken of in the Bible. 
 
 There is nothing more certain nor clear throughout 
 the Bible : the Apostles themselves appeal constantly 
 to their flocks, and actually claim judgment from them, 
 as deserving it, and having a right to it, rather than 
 discouraging it. But, first notice the way in which the 
 discovery of truth is spoken of in the Old Testament : 
 ' Evil men understand not judgment ; but they that 
 seek the Lord understand all things,' Proverbs xxviii. 5. 
 God overthroweth, not merely the transgressor or the 
 wicked, but even ' the words of the transgressor,' Pro- 
 verbs xxii. 12, and 'the counsel of the wicked,' Job v. 
 13; xxi. 16; observe again, in Proverbs xxiv. 14, 'My 
 son, eat thou honey, because it is good so shall the 
 knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul : when thou hast 
 found it, there shall be a reward ' ; and again, p sa in, 
 ' What man is he that feareth the Lord ? him xxv - ia - 
 shall He teach in the way that He shall choose.' On 
 the Old Road, vol. ii., 203. 
 
 Types. 
 
 I trust that some day the language of Types will be 
 more read and understood by us than it has been for 
 centuries; and when this language, a better one than 
 either Greek or Latin,~is again recognized amongst us, 
 we shall find, or remember, that as the other visible 
 elements of the universe its air, its water, and its 
 flame set forth, in their pure energies, the life-giving, 
 purifying, and sanctifying influences of the Deity upon 
 His creatures, so the earth, in its purity, sets forth His 
 eternity and His TRUTH. . . . The earth which, like our 
 own bodies, though dust in its degradation, is full of 
 splendour when God's hand gathers its atoms; and which 
 was for ever sanctified by Him, as the symbol no less of 
 His love than of His truth, when He bade the Exod 
 High Priest bear the names of the Children of xxviii'. 
 Israel on the clear stones of the Breastplate of IJ 
 Judgment. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. i., XLVII.
 
 244 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Unity. 
 
 It is the great principle of Brotherhood, not by 
 equality, nor by likeness, but by giving and receiving; 
 the souls that are unlike, and the nations that are 
 unlike, and the natures that are unlike, being bound 
 into one noble whole by each receiving something from 
 and of the others' gifts and the others' glory. . . . What- 
 ever has been made by the Deity externally delightful 
 to the human sense of beauty, there is some type of 
 God's nature or of God's laws; nor are any of His 
 laws, in one sense, greater than the appointment that 
 the most lovely and perfect unity shall be obtained by 
 the taking of one nature into another. . . . And it is 
 just because it is so vast and so awful a law, that it 
 has rule over the smallest things ; and there is not a 
 vein of colour on the slightest leaf which the spring 
 winds are at this moment unfolding in the fields around 
 us, but it is an illustration of an ordainment to which 
 the earth and its creatures owe their continuance and their 
 Redemption. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. i., xxvi. 
 
 Unity is often understood in the sense of oneness 
 or singleness, instead of universality; whereas the only 
 unity which by any means can become grateful or an 
 object of hope to men, and whose types therefore in 
 material things can be beautiful, is that on which turned 
 the last words and prayer of Christ before His crossing 
 S. John f the Kedron brook, ' Neither pray I for these 
 xvii.ao,ai. a lone, but for them also which shall believe on 
 Me through their word ; that they all may be one, as 
 Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.' Modern 
 Painters, vol. ii., sec. i., ch. vi., i. 
 
 Usury. 
 
 For those of us who are Christians, our own way is 
 Lev plain. We can with perfect ease ascertain what 
 *** 35-38- usury is, and in what express terms forbidden. 
 ' And if thy brother be poor, and powerless with his 
 hands, at thy side, thou shalt take his part upon thee,
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 245 
 
 to help him, as thy proselyte and thy neighbour; and 
 thy brother shall live with thee. Thou shalt take no 
 usury of him, nor anything over and above, and thou 
 shalt fear thy God. I am the Lord, and thy brother 
 shall live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy 
 money, for usury ; and thou shalt not give him thy food 
 for increase.' 
 
 There is the simple law for all of us ; one of those 
 which Christ assuredly came not to destroy, but s Matt 
 to fulfil : and there is no national prosperity to v - J 7- 
 be had but in obedience to it. Fors Clavigera, Letter 
 LXVIII. 
 
 Vainglory. 
 
 Throughout the whole of Scripture history, nothing is 
 more remarkable than the close connection of punish- 
 ment with the sin of vainglory. Every other sin is 
 occasionally permitted to remain, for lengthened periods, 
 without definite chastisement ; but the forgetfulness of 
 God, and the claim of honour by man, as belonging to 
 himself, are visited at once, whether in Hezekiah, Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, or Herod, with the most tremendous punish- 
 ment. Stones of Venice, vol. iii., ch. iii., xvm. 
 
 
 
 Venice, Fall of. 
 
 Need we go farther to learn the reason of the fall of 
 Venice ? She was already likened in her thoughts, and 
 was therefore to be likened in her ruin, to the Virgin of 
 Babylon. The Pride of State and the Pride of Know- 
 ledge were no new passions : the sentence against them 
 had gone forth from everlasting. ' Thou saidst, i sa j a h 
 I shall be a lady for ever, so that thou didst xlvii - ? * 
 not lay these things to thine heart. . . . Thy wisdom 
 and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee ; and thou hast 
 said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside i sa j a h 
 me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee ; . . . *IVH.H,IS. 
 thy merchants from thy youth, they shall wander every 
 one to his quarter ; none shall save thee.'
 
 246 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Thenceforward, year after year, the nation drank with 
 deeper thirst from the fountains of forbidden pleasure, 
 and dug for springs, hitherto unknown, in the dark 
 places of the earth. In the ingenuity of indulgence, in 
 the varieties of vanity, Venice surpassed the cities of 
 Christendom, as of old she had surpassed them in forti- 
 tude and devotion ; and as once the powers of Europe 
 stood before her judgment-seat, to receive the decisions 
 of her justice, so now the youth of Europe assembled in 
 the halls of her luxury, to learn from her the arts of 
 delight. 
 
 It is as needless as it is painful to trace the steps of 
 Ezek. h er fi na l rum - That ancient curse was upon 
 - 49- her, the curse of the Cities of the Plain, 
 ' Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness.' 
 
 By the inner burning of her own passions, as fatal as 
 Gen the fiery rain of Gomorrah, she was consumed 
 xix. 24. from her place among the nations ; and her 
 ashes are choking the channels of the dead, salt sea. 
 Stones of Venice, vol. in., ch. ii., LXXXV. ; in., LXXVI. 
 
 Virtues. 
 
 What is meant, in the Bible, by Righteousness, and 
 Faith; or in heathen literature by Righteousness, 
 Honour, and Piety ? All these virtues imply radically the 
 conception, they lead ultimately to the revelation, of 
 personal and governing Deity : but they begin, practi- 
 cally, and themselves consist to the end, in truthful 
 knowledge of human power and human worth; in re- 
 Lev spect for the natural claims and feelings of 
 *ix 36- others ; and in the precision and thoroughness 
 s Matt, of our obedience to the primary laws of probity 
 and truth, ' A just ephah, and a just hin ; ' 
 ' Let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay ; for what- 
 soever is more than these cometh of evil.' Modern 
 Painters, vol. ii., Preface, 8 6.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 247 
 
 Wealth. 
 
 Wealth ill used was as the net of the spider, en- 
 tangling and destroying : but wealth well used is as 
 the net of the sacred fisher who gathers souls of men 
 out of the deep. A time will come I do not think 
 even now it is far from us when this golden net of 
 the world's wealth will be spread abroad as the flaming 
 meshes of morning cloud are over the sky; bearing 
 with them the joy of light and the dew of the morning, 
 as well as the summons to honourable and peaceful 
 toil. What less can we hope from your wealth than 
 this, rich men of England, when once you feel fully 
 how, by the strength of your possessions not, observe, 
 by the exhaustion, but by the administration of them 
 and the power, you can direct the acts command 
 the energies inform the ignorance prolong the ex- 
 istence, of the whole human race; and how, even of 
 worldly wisdom, which man employs faithfully, p rov 
 it is true, not only that her ways are pleasant- '" J 7- 
 ness, but that her paths are peace; and that, for all 
 the children of men, as well as for those to p rov . 
 whom she is given, Length of days is in her iu - l6 - 
 right hand, as in her left hand Riches and Honour? 
 A Joy for Ever, 120. 
 
 Wild Flowers the Thyme and the Daisy. 
 
 The one, scented as with incense medicinal and 
 in all gentle and humble ways, useful. The other, 
 scentless helpless for ministry to the body; infinitely 
 dear as the bringer of light, ruby, white and gold ; the 
 three colours of the Day, with no hue of shade in it. 
 . . . Now in these two families you have typically 
 Use opposed to Beauty in wildness; it is their wild- 
 ness which is their virtue; that the thyme is sweet 
 where it is unthought of, and the daisies red, where 
 the foot despises them : while, in other orders, i sa iah 
 wildness is their crime, ' Wherefore, when I v - * 
 looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it
 
 248 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 forth wild grapes ? ' But in all of them you must 
 distinguish between the pure wildness of flowers and 
 their distress. It may not be our duty to tame them ; 
 but it must be, to relieve. Proserpina, ch. vii., i, 3. 
 
 Will of the Father, The. 
 
 Listen at least to the words of your children let us 
 in the lips of babes and sucklings find our strength ; 
 and see that we do not make them mock instead of 
 pray, when we teach them, night and morning, to ask 
 s. Matt. f r what we believe never can be granted ; that 
 ** I0 - the will of the Father, which is, that His 
 creatures may be righteous and happy, should be 
 done, on earth, as it is in Heaven. The Crown of 
 Wild Olive, 160. 
 
 Wisdom. 
 
 Wisdom stands calling at the corners of the streets, 
 and the blessing of Heaven waits ready to rain down 
 upon us, deeper than the rivers and broader than the 
 dew, if only we will obey the first plain principles of 
 humanity, and the first plain precepts of the skies : 
 Zech. ' Execute true judgment, and show mercy and 
 vii. 9, xo. compassion, every man to his brother ; and 
 let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your 
 heart.' A Joy for Ever, 112. 
 
 By only looking into your own hearts you may know 
 what a Man is, and know that his only true happiness 
 is to live in Hope of something to be won by him, in 
 Reverence of something to be worshipped by him, and 
 in Love of something to be cherished by him, and 
 cherished for ever. 
 
 Having these instincts, his only rational conclusion 
 is that the objects which can fulfil them may be by 
 his effort gained, and by his faith discerned; and his 
 only earthly wisdom is to accept the united testimony 
 of the men who have sought these things in the way 
 they were commanded. Of whom no single one has
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 249 
 
 ever said that his obedience or his faith had been 
 vain, or found himself cast out from the choir of the 
 living souls, whether here, or departed, for whom the 
 song was written : 
 
 God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and p sa i m 
 cause His face to shine upon us ; lxvii - 
 
 That Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving 
 health among all nations. 
 
 Oh let the nations rejoice and sing for joy, for Thou 
 shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations 
 upon earth. 
 
 Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, 
 even our own God, shall bless us. 
 
 God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth 
 shall fear Him. 77^ Stonn-Cloud of the Nineteenth 
 Century, pp. 140-42. 
 
 Word of God, The. ^ ** 
 
 By that Word, or Voice, or Breath, or Spirit, the 
 heavens and earth, and all the' host of them, 5. John 
 were made ; and in it they exist. It is your ' x - 
 life ; and speaks to you always, so long as you live 
 nobly ; dies out of you as you refuse to obey it ; leaves 
 you to hear, and be slain by, the word of an evil spirit, 
 instead of it. 
 
 It may come to you in books, come to you in 
 clouds, come to you in the voices of men, come to 
 you in the stillness of deserts. You must be strong in 
 evil, if you have quenched it wholly; very desolate in 
 this Christian land, if you have never heard it at all. 
 Fors Clavigera, Letter XXXVI. 
 
 Work. 
 
 It may be proved, with much certainty, that God 
 intends no man to live in this world without working : 
 but it seems to me no less evident that He Gen. 
 intends every man to be happy in his work. Ui - x * 
 It is written, ' in the sweat of thy brow,' but it was
 
 250 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 never written, ' in the breaking of thine heart,' thou shalt 
 eat bread : and I find that, as on the one hand, infinite 
 misery is caused by idle people, who both fail in doing 
 what was appointed for them to do, and set in motion 
 various springs of mischief in matters in which they 
 should have had no concern, so on the other hand, no 
 small misery is caused by over-worked and unhappy 
 people, in the dark views which they necessarily take up 
 themselves, and force upon others, of work itself. Were 
 it not so, I believe the fact of their being unhappy is in 
 itself a violation of divine law, and a sign of some kind 
 of folly or sin in their way of life. Now in order that 
 people may be happy in their work, these three things 
 are needed : They must be fit for it : They must not do 
 too much of it : and they must have a sense of success 
 in it not a doubtful sense, such as needs some testi- 
 mony of other people for its confirmation, but a sure 
 sense, or rather knowledge, that so much work has been 
 done well, and fruitfully done, whatever the world may 
 say or think about it. On the Old Road, vol. i., part 
 i., 1 66. 
 
 You cannot serve two masters : you must serve one 
 or other. If your work is first with you, and your fee 
 second, work is your master, and the lord of work, who 
 is God. But if your fee is first with you, and your work 
 second, fee is your master, and the lord of fee, who is the 
 Devil ; and not only the Devil, but the lowest of devils 
 ' the least erected fiend that fell.' So there you have it 
 in brief terms ; Work first you are God's servants ; Fee 
 first you are the Fiend's 
 
 And it makes a difference, now and ever, believe me, 
 Rev whether you serve Him Who has on His vesture 
 xbt - x6 - and thigh written, ' King of Kings,' and whose 
 service is perfect freedom ; or him on whose vesture and 
 thigh the name is written ' Slave of Slaves,' and whose 
 service is perfect slavery. The Crown of Wild Olive t 
 32-
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 251 
 
 Work of the Divine Master. 
 
 Look at the crest of the Alp, from the far-away plains 
 over which its light is cast, whence human souls have 
 communion with it by their myriads. The child looks 
 up to it in the dawn, and the husbandman in the 
 burden and heat of the day, and the old man in the 
 going down of the sun, and it is to them all as the 
 celestial city on the world's horizon; dyed with the 
 depth of heaven, and clothed with the calm of eternity. 
 There was it set, for holy dominion, by Him who 
 marked for the sun his journey, and bade the moon 
 know her going down. It was built for its place in 
 the far-off sky ; approach it, and, as the sound of the 
 voice of man dies away about its foundation, and the 
 tide of human life, shallowed upon the vast aerial shore, 
 is at last met by the Eternal ' Here shall thy Job 
 waves be stayed,' the glory of its aspect fades *vffi-"- 
 into blanched fearfulness ; its purple walls are rent into 
 grisly rocks, its silver fretwork saddened into wasting 
 snow : the storm-brands of ages are on its breast, the 
 ashes of its own ruin lie solemnly on its white raiment. 
 Stones of Venice, vol. i., ch. xxi., xvn. 
 
 I can hardly conceive any one standing face to face 
 with one of these towers of central rock, and yet not 
 also asking himself, Is this indeed the actual first work 
 of the Divine Master on which I gaze ? Was the great 
 precipice shaped by His finger, as Adam was shaped out 
 of the dust? Were its clefts and ledges carved upon 
 it by its Creator, as the letters were on the Tables of 
 the Law ? The only answer is yet again, Num 
 ' Behold the cloud.' No eyes ever ' saw its *vi * 
 substance, yet being imperfect ' ; its history is Psalm 
 a monotone of endurance and destruction : all CXX3UX - 16 - 
 that we can certainly know of it, is that it was once 
 greater than it is now, and it only gathers vastness, and 
 still gathers, as it fades into the abyss of the unknown. 
 Modern Painters, vol. iv., ch. xiii., 13, 14.
 
 252 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 World, Fighting with the. 
 
 I do not, in the book we profess to live by, find 
 anything very distinct about fighting with the world. 
 
 1 find something about fighting with the rulers of its 
 darkness, and something also about overcoming it ; but 
 it does not follow that this conquest is to be by hos- 
 tility, since evil may be overcome with good. But I 
 find it written very distinctly that God loved the world, 
 and that Christ is the light of it. 
 
 What the much-used words, therefore, mean, I can- 
 not tell. But this, I believe, they should mean. That 
 there is, indeed, one world which is full of care, and 
 desire, and hatred : a world of war, of which Christ is 
 not the light, which indeed is without light, and has never 
 _ . heard the great ' Let there be.' Which is, there- 
 fore, in truth, as yet no world ; but chaos, on 
 ren. i. 2. ^ j. ace o f ^j^ m0 ving, the Spirit of God 
 
 yet causes men to hope that a world will come. The 
 better one, they call it : perhaps they might, more wisely, 
 call it the real one. Also, I hear them speak continu- 
 ally of going to it, rather than of its coming to them ; 
 which, again, is strange, for in that prayer which they 
 had straight from the lips of the Light of the world, and 
 which He apparently thought sufficient prayer for them, 
 there is not anything about going to another world ; 
 only something of another government coming into 
 this ; or rather, not another, but the only government, 
 
 2 s. Peter tnat government which will constitute it a 
 " J 3- world indeed. New heavens and new earth. 
 Gen. i. a. Earth, no more without form and void, but 
 S. James sown with fruit of righteousness. Firmament, 
 iii. 18. no more o f passing cloud, but of cloud risen 
 out of the crystal sea cloud in which, as He was once 
 
 received up, so He shall again come with power, 
 and every eye shall see Him, and all kindreds 
 
 of the earth shall wail because of Him. Modern Painters, 
 
 vol. v., pt. ix., ch. xii., 18, 19.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 253 
 
 Zedekiah. 
 
 An Eastern custom, as we know : grave in judgment ; 
 in the perfectness of it, joined with infliction of grievous 
 Sight, before the infliction of grievous blindness; that 
 so the last memory of this world's light might a Kings 
 remain a grief. ' And they slew the sons of xxv - ? 
 Zedekiah before his eyes; and put out the eyes of 
 Zedekiah.' 
 
 Custom I know not how ancient. The sons of Eliab, 
 when Judah was young in her Exodus, like Venice, 
 appealed to it in their fury : ' Is it a small N Um- xv j 
 thing that thou hast brought us up out of a x * *4- 
 land that floweth with milk and honey, except thou 
 make thyself altogether a Prince over us ; wilt thou put 
 out the eyes of these men ? ' 
 
 The more wild Western races of Christianity, early 
 Irish and the like, Norman even, in the pirate times, 
 inflict the penalty with reckless scorn ; but Venice de- 
 liberately, as was her constant way; such her practical 
 law against leaders whom she had found spiritually blind : 
 ' These, at least, shall guide no more.' S/. Mark's Rest, 
 78.
 
 SAINTS
 
 SAINTS 
 
 Barbara, St. 
 
 St. Barbara, also an Egyptian, and St. Catherine's 
 contemporary, though the most practical of the mythic 
 saints, is also, after St. Sophia, the least corporeal : she 
 vanishes far away into the ' Inclusa Danse,' and her 
 ' Turris aenea ' becomes a myth of Christian safety, 
 of which the Scriptural significance may be enough 
 felt by merely looking out the texts under the word 
 'Tower,' in your concordance; and whose effectual 
 power, in the fortitudes alike of matter and spirit, 
 was in all probability made impressive enough to all 
 Christendom, both by the fortifications and persecutions 
 of Diocletian. . . . 
 
 As Gothic architecture becomes dominant, and 
 at last beyond question the most wonderful of all 
 temple-building, St. Barbara's Tower is, of course, its 
 perfected symbol and utmost achievement ; and whether 
 in the coronets of countless battlements worn on the 
 brows of the noblest cities, or in the Lombard bell- 
 tower on the mountains, and the English spire on Sarum 
 plain, the geometric majesty of the Egyptian maid 
 became glorious in harmony of defence and sacred with 
 precision of symbol. 
 
 As the buildings which showed her utmost skill were 
 chiefly exposed to lightning, she is invoked in defence 
 from it ; and our petition in the Litany, against sudden 
 death, was written originally to her. Pleasures of Eng- 
 land, Lecture IV., pp. 135-7. 
 
 3S7 R
 
 258 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Barnabas, St., and St. Mark. 
 
 ' And so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto 
 Acts Cyprus.' If as the shores of Asia lessened 
 xv. 39. upon his sight, the spirit of prophecy had 
 Acts entered into the heart of the weak disciple who 
 xul I3 ' had turned back when his hand was on the 
 plough, and who had been judged, by the chiefest of 
 Acts Christ's captains, unworthy thenceforward to 
 xv. 38, 39. g O forth with him to the work, how wonderful 
 would he have thought it, that by the lion symbol in 
 future ages he was to be represented among men ! how 
 woful, that the war-cry of his name should so often 
 reanimate the rage of the soldier, on those very plains 
 where he himself had failed in the courage of the Chris- 
 Acts tian, and so often dye with fruitless blood that 
 iv. 36. ver y Cypriot Sea, over whose waves, in repent- 
 ance and shame, he was following the Son of Consola- 
 tion ! Stones of Venice, vol. ii., ch. iv., i. 
 
 Benedict, St. 
 
 In that first year, 480, . . . there was born a boy of 
 a senatorial house, who was brought up during child- 
 hood amidst all the pleasures, and shames, of the most 
 godless city of the earth. . . . Such as it was, this 
 strange boy, at fifteen years old, could no longer endure 
 it ; resolved to break with it and have done with it, left 
 his father's house alone, and escaped to the hills beyond 
 the Campagna. What search was made for him by his 
 parents we know not. One person, however his nurse 
 sought for him indefatigably ; found him, was allowed 
 to stay with him for a while, and take care of him. . . . 
 Many a library shelf have I sifted, always in vain, to 
 find out who gave him, or how he got, his name. He 
 found his way to a hermit, who taught him the hope of 
 a better life than that in Rome ; and I suppose baptized 
 S. Luke him in such hope, and blessed him in the 
 l - 4 s - search for it. Thenceforth, for him also, the 
 verse of the Virgin's song became true, ' All generations
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 259 
 
 shall call me blessed.' Yet in a still higher sense, not 
 merely happy, which is all that the Madonna claims to 
 be called, but in the more solemn power of the 5 Lu t e 
 word in the Benedictus itself, ' Blessed be the L M - 
 Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed 
 His people.' 
 
 You will not, I think, find the working saints of 
 whom this one is the Captain of the Host, lean much 
 upon their miracles ; and I suppose no modern philo- 
 sophy could conceive the subsequent effect upon human 
 imagination of the belief in that extremely tiny miracle 
 with which St. Benedict's ministry traditionally begins : 
 mending a corn-sieve. . . . Make what you will of it 
 break what you will of it, the absolute fact remains fast, 
 that in all the choral services of the Church this legend 
 holds the first place in the praise of St. Benedict. It is 
 just as important in his life as the killing of the Nemean 
 lion is in the life of Heracles. And when we come to 
 reflect on the essential function of the Benedictine, I do 
 not think there will remain any difficulty in seeing how 
 this myth became the popular symbol of it. ... 
 
 Finally, however, St. Benedict determines that Chris- 
 tian men ought not to be hermits, but actively helpful 
 members of society : that they are to live by their own 
 labour, and to feed other people by it to the best of 
 their power. He is the apostle, first, of the peasant's 
 agriculture, and secondly, of the squire's agricultural 
 machines for whatever good there is in them. The 
 corn and the corn-sieve are alike sacred in his eyes. 
 And once understanding that, and considering what part 
 of the ' library ' of his day, the Bible of St. Jerome's 
 giving, would either touch himself most closely, or 
 would be looked to by others as most descriptive of him, 
 you will feel that the especially agricultural prophecy of 
 Amos would become the guide of Benedictine expecta- 
 tion, and you may even, in thinking of him, Amos 
 find a weight in the words of it yourselves, ** 9- 
 unperceived before. ' For lo, I will command, and I
 
 260 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as 
 corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall 
 upon the earth.' 
 
 ' Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the 
 
 Amos ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the 
 
 treader of grapes, him that soweth seed, and 
 
 the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all 
 
 the hills shall melt. 
 
 ' And I will bring again the captivity of my people, 
 and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them, 
 they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them, 
 and I will plant them upon their land, and they shall 
 no more be plucked up out of their land which I have 
 given them, saith the Lord thy God.' 
 
 This is the efficient practical Benediction with which 
 the active Saint begins the second sera of Christendom. 
 Verona, pp. 124-8. 
 
 Bernard, St. 
 
 He was the first of the noble Puritans, in the rejection of 
 all that was unseemly, luxurious, or vain in the pretended 
 service of God. He was the head and captain of the 
 great race of northern farmers, who themselves preached, 
 and to purpose, their more than one sermon a week, and 
 stubbed Thornaby Waste as well. But all this he was 
 because he loved God, and believed with all his heart and 
 soul and strength. And whatever in the fullest glow of 
 unsullied Christianity whatever of comforting or puri- 
 fying in the thoughts of a future state, we have associated 
 most intimately with our social affections and earthly 
 work, you will find to have been first rooted in the 
 conviction and the benevolence of St. Bernard. . . . 
 Looking from his native rock down the vast vale of the 
 Saone, where, only fifteen miles to the south, the lines 
 of poplar and aspen that soften the horizon, grow by 
 the idle streams of what was once Oteaux. Nothing 
 is left of the abbey walls. . . . Tl'-e first brothers who 
 settled there, those from the abbey of Molesnes, had hard
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 261 
 
 times for many a day. The marshes would not drain, 
 the seeds would not grow; the monks themselves died 
 one by one, of damp and fatigue. ... At last Bernard 
 heard of them then a youth just back from Paris Uni- 
 versity. Gathered a few more fiery ones of his own sort, 
 and plunged into the marsh to the rescue. The poor 
 Abbot and his forlorn hope of friars went out to meet 
 them, singing songs of deliverance. In less than twenty- 
 five years there were more than sixty thousand Cister- 
 cian monks, at work on any bit of trenchable ground 
 they were allowed to come at, between the bay of Genoa 
 and the Baltic. 
 
 In 1090 he is born at La Fontaine, and whatever 
 is loveliest in chivalry and ladyhood comes after that. 
 . . . ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we , Cor 
 die : ' the exact contradiction to St. Bernard's xv - 3*- 
 ' Let us watch and pray, for to-morrow we live.' Verona, 
 pp. 138-43. 
 
 Catherine, St. 
 
 Of St. Catherine of Egypt there are vestiges of personal 
 tradition which may perhaps permit the supposition of 
 her having really once existed, as a very lovely, witty, 
 proud, and ' fanciful ' girl. She afterwards becomes the 
 Christian type of the Bride, in the ' Song of Solomon,' 
 involved with an ideal of all that is purest in the life of 
 a nun, and brightest in the death of a martyr. It is 
 scarcely possible to overrate the influence of the con- 
 ceptions formed of her, in ennobling the sentiments of 
 Christian women of the higher orders. Pleasures of 
 England, Lecture IV., pp. 134-5. 
 
 Cecilia, St. 
 
 With much more clearness and historic comfort we 
 may approach the shrine of St. Cecilia. . . . 
 
 The ruling conception of her is deepened gradually 
 by the enlarged study of Religious music ; and is at its
 
 2 6 2 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 best and highest in the thirteenth century, when she 
 rather resists than complies with the already tempting 
 and distracting powers of sound ; and we are told that 
 ' cantantibus organis, Cecilia virgo in corde suo soli 
 Domino decantabat, dicens, " Fiat, Domine, cor meum 
 et corpus meum immaculatum, ut non confundar." ' 
 
 ('While the instruments played, Cecilia the virgin 
 sang in her heart only to the Lord, saying, " Oh Lord, 
 be my heart and body made stainless, that I be not 
 confounded." ') 
 
 .This sentence occurs in my great Service-book of the 
 convent of Beau-pre, written in 1290, and it is illus- 
 trated with a miniature of Cecilia sitting silent at a 
 banquet, where all manner of musicians are playing. I 
 need not point out to you how the law, not of sacred 
 music only, so called, but of all music, is determined by 
 this sentence; which means in effect that unless music 
 exalt and purify, it is not under Cecilia's ordinance, and 
 it is not, virtually, music at all. 
 
 Unconfessed, she is of all the mythic saints for ever 
 the greatest ; and the child in its nurse's arms, and every 
 tender and gentle spirit which resolves to purify in itself, 
 as the eye for seeing, so the ear for hearing, may 
 still, whether behind the Temple veil, or at the fireside, 
 and by the wayside, hear Cecilia sing. Pleasures of 
 England, Lecture IV., pp. 138-40. 
 
 Firmin, St. 
 
 At the birth of Christ, all this hillside, and the 
 brightly-watered plain below, with the corn-yellow cham- 
 paign above, were inhabited by a Druid-taught race, 
 wild enough in thoughts and ways, but under Roman 
 government, and gradually becoming accustomed to 
 hear the names, and partly to confess the power, of 
 Roman gods. For three hundred years after the birth 
 of Christ they heard the name of no other God. 
 
 Three hundred years ! and neither apostles nor in- 
 heritors of apostleship had yet gone into all the world
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 263 
 
 and preached the gospel to every creature. Here, on 
 their peaty ground, the wild people, still trusting in 
 Pomona for apples, in Silvanus for acorns, in Ceres 
 for bread, and in Proserpina for rest, hoped but the 
 season's blessing from the Gods of Harvest, and feared 
 no eternal anger from the Queen of Death. 
 
 But at last, three hundred years being past and 
 gone, in the year of Christ 301, there came to this 
 hillside of Amiens, on the sixth day of the Ides of 
 October, the Messenger of a new Life. 
 
 His name, Firminius (I suppose) in Latin, Firmin 
 in French, so to be remembered here in Picardy. 
 Firmin, not Firminius; as Denis, not Dionysius; 
 coming out of space no one tells what part of space. 
 But received by the pagan Amienois with surprised 
 welcome, and seen of them Forty days many days, 
 we may read preaching acceptably, and binding with 
 baptismal vows even persons in good society : and 
 that in such numbers, that at last he is accused to 
 the Roman governor, by the priests of Jupiter and 
 Mercury, as one turning the world upside-down. And 
 in the last day of the Forty or of the indefinite many 
 meant by Forty he is beheaded. . . . 
 
 The old, old story, you say ? Be it so ; you will the 
 more easily remember it. ... 
 
 Following in the meantime the tale of St. Firmin 
 as of old time known, his body was received, and 
 buried, by a Roman senator, his disciple, (a kind of 
 Joseph of Arimathea to St. Firmin,) in the Roman 
 senator's own garden. Who also built a little oratory 
 over his grave. The Roman senator's son built a 
 church to replace the oratory, dedicated it to Our 
 Lady of Martyrs, and established it as an episcopal 
 seat the first of the French nation's. Our Fathers 
 Have Told Us, pp. 6-8. 
 
 Genevieve, St. 
 
 Not for dark Rialto's dukedom, nor for fair France's
 
 264 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 kingdom, only, are these two years (421 and 481) to 
 be remembered above all others in the wild fifth cen- 
 tury ; but because they are also the birth-years of a 
 great Lady, and greater Lord, of all future Christendom 
 St. Genevieve, and St. Benedict. 
 
 Genevieve, the ' white wave ' (Laughing water) the 
 purest of all the maids that have been named from the 
 sea-foam or the rivulet's ripple. . . . 
 
 White wave on the blue whether of pure lake or 
 sunny sea (thenceforth the colours of France, blue 
 field with white lilies), she is always the type of purity, 
 in active brightness of the entire soul and life (so 
 distinguished from the quieter and restricted innocence 
 of St. Agnes), and all the traditions of sorrow in the 
 trial or failure of noble womanhood are connected with 
 her name. . . . 
 
 A shepherd maid she was a tiny thing, barefooted, 
 bareheaded such as you may see running wild and 
 innocent, less cared for now than their sheep, over 
 many a hillside of France and Italy. Tiny enough ; 
 seven years old, all told, when first one hears of 
 her. . . . The little thing keeps her flock, not even 
 her own, nor her father's flock, like David; she is the 
 hired servant of a richer farmer of Nanterre. . . . Seven 
 years old she was, then, when on his way to England 
 from Auxerre, St. Germain passed a night in her village, 
 and among the children who brought him on his way 
 in the morning in more kindly manner than Elisha's 
 convoy, noticed this one wider-eyed in reverence than 
 the rest ; drew her to him, questioned her, and was 
 sweetly answered That she would fain be Christ's hand- 
 maid. And he hung round her neck a small copper 
 coin, marked with the cross. Thenceforward Genevieve 
 held herself ' as separated from the world.' . . . More 
 than Nitocris was to Egypt, more than Semiramis to 
 Nineveh, more than Zenobia to the city of palm trees 
 this seven-years-old shepherd maiden became to Paris 
 and her France. You have not heard of her in that
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 265 
 
 kind ? No : how should you ? for she did not lead 
 armies, but stayed them, and all her power was in peace. 
 . . . The first thing, then, you have to note of her, is 
 that she is a pure native Gaul. She does not come as 
 a missionary out of Hungary, or Illyria, or Egypt, or 
 ineffable space ; but grows at Nanterre, like a marguerite 
 in the dew, the first ' Reine Blanche ' of Gaul. ... It 
 is lovely to see how, even thus early, the Feudal chivalry 
 depended for its life on the nobleness of its womanhood. 
 There was no vtsio> seen, or alleged, at Tolbiac. The 
 King prayed simply to the God of Clotilde. . . . 
 
 But over Clovis, there was extended yet another in- 
 fluence greater than his queen's. When his kingdom 
 was first extended to the Loire, the shepherdess of 
 Nanterre was already aged, no torch-bearing maid of 
 battle, like Clotilde, no knightly leader of deliverance 
 like Jeanne, but grey in meekness of wisdom, and now 
 ' filling more and more with crystal light.' Clevis's 
 father had known her ; he himself made her his friend, 
 and when he left Paris on the campaign of Poitiers, 
 vowed that if victorious, he would build a Christian 
 Church on the hills of Seine. He returned in victory, 
 and with St. Genevieve at his side, stood on the site 
 of the ruined Roman Thermae, just above the ' Isle ' of 
 Paris, to fulfil his vow : and to design the limits of the 
 foundations of the first metropolitan church of Prankish 
 Christendom. The King ' gave his battle-axe the swing,' 
 and tossed it with his full force. Measuring with its 
 flight also, the place of his own grave, and of Clotilde's 
 and St. Genevieve's. 
 
 There they rested, and rest, in soul, together. 
 Our Fathers Have Told Us, pp. 43-47, 87, 88. 
 
 Geoffrey, St. 
 
 St. Geoffrey was born in the year of the battle of 
 Hastings, at Molincourt in the Soissonais, and was 
 Bishop of Amiens from 1104 to 1150. A man of 
 entirely simple, pure, and right life : one of the
 
 266 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 severest of ascetics, but without gloom always gentle 
 and merciful. Many miracles are recorded of him, 
 but all indicating a tenour of life which was chiefly 
 miraculous by its justice and peace. Consecrated at 
 Rheims, and attended by a train of other bishops and 
 nobles to his diocese, he dismounts from his horse 
 at St. Acheul, the place of St. Firmin's first tomb, 
 and walks barefoot to his cathedral, along the causeway 
 now so defaced : at another time he walks barefoot from 
 Amiens to Picquigny to ask from the Vidame of Amiens 
 the freedom of the Chatelain Adam. He maintained 
 the privileges of the citizens, with the help of Louis le 
 Gros, against the Count of Amiens, defeated him, and 
 razed his castle; nevertheless, the people not enough 
 obeying him in the order of their life, he blames his 
 own weakness, rather than theirs, and retires to the 
 Grande Chartreuse, holding himself unfit to be their 
 bishop. The Carthusian superior questioning him on 
 his reasons for retirement, and asking if he had ever 
 sold the offices of the Church, the Bishop answered, 
 ' My father, my hands are pure of simony, but I have 
 a thousand times allowed myself to be seduced by 
 praise.' Our Fathers Have Told Us, pp. 198, 199. 
 
 George, St. 
 
 St. George's ' true ' story, how far literally true is of 
 no moment; it is enough for us that a young soldier, 
 in early days of Christianity, put off his armour, and 
 gave up his soul to his Captain, Christ : and that his 
 death did so impress the hearts of all Christian men 
 who heard of it, that gradually he became to them the 
 leader of a sacred soldiership, which conquers more 
 than its mortal enemies, and prevails against the poison, 
 and the shadow, of Pride, and Death Fors Clavigera, 
 Letter XXVI. 
 
 Jerome, St. 
 
 Thus much you should be clear in knowing about
 
 OF JOHN RUSKTN 267 
 
 him, as not in the least doubtful or mythical, but 
 wholly true, and the beginning of facts quite limitlessly 
 important to all modern Europe namely, that he was 
 born of good, or at least rich family, in Dalmatia, 
 virtually midway between the east and the west; that 
 he made the great Eastern book, the Bible, legible in 
 the west; that he was the first great teacher of the 
 nobleness of ascetic scholarship and courtesy, as opposed 
 to ascetic savageness : the founder, properly, of the 
 ordered cell and tended garden, where before was but 
 the desert and the wild wood ; and that he died in the 
 monastery he had founded at Bethlehem. St. Mark's 
 Rest, 178. 
 
 At earlier dates, the teaching of every master trained 
 in the Eastern schools was necessarily grafted on the 
 wisdom of the Greek mythology; and thus the story 
 of the Nemean Lion, with the aid of Athena in its 
 conquest, is the real root-stock of the legend of St. 
 Jerome's companion, conquered by the healing gentle- 
 ness of the Spirit of Life. 
 
 I call it a legend only. Whether Heracles ever slew, 
 or St. Jerome ever cherished, the wild or wounded 
 creature, is of no moment to us in learning what the 
 Greeks meant by their vase-outlines of the great con- 
 test, or the Christian painters by their fond insistence 
 on the constancy of the Lion-friend. Former tradition, 
 in the story of Samson, of the disobedient Prophet, 
 of David's first inspired victory, and finally of the 
 miracle wrought in the defence of the most favoured 
 and most faithful of the greater Prophets, runs always 
 parallel in symbolism with the Dorian fable : but the 
 legend of St. Jerome takes up the prophecy of the 
 Millennium, and foretells, with the Cumaean Sibyl, and 
 with Isaiah, a day when the Fear of Man shall be laid 
 in benediction, not enmity, on inferior beings, i^ai, 
 when they shall not hurt nor destroy in all xi - * 
 the holy Mountain, and the Peace of the Earth shall 
 be as far removed from its present sorrow, as the
 
 268 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 present gloriously animate universe from the nascent 
 desert, whose deeps were the place of dragons, and 
 s. Matt. i ts mountains, domes of fire. Of that day 
 xxiv. 36. knoweth no man ; but the Kingdom of God 
 is already come to those who have tamed in their 
 own hearts what was rampant of the lower nature, 
 and have learned to cherish what is lovely and human, 
 in the wandering children of the clouds and fields. 
 Our Fathers Have Told Us, pp. 135, 136. 
 
 Margaret, St., of Antioch. 
 
 St. Margaret of Antioch was a shepherdess ; the 
 St. Genevieve of the East ; the type of feminine gentle- 
 ness and simplicity. Traditions of the resurrection of 
 Alcestis perhaps mingle in those of her contest with 
 the dragon ; but at all events, she differs from the other 
 three great mythic saints, in expressing the soul's vic- 
 tory over temptation or affliction, by Christ's miraculous 
 help, and without any special power of its own. She is 
 the saint of the meek and of the poor ; her virtue and 
 her victory are those of all gracious and lowly woman- 
 hood ; and her memory is consecrated among the gentle 
 households of Europe ; no other name, except those of 
 Jeanne and Jeanie, seems so gifted with a baptismal 
 fairy power of giving grace and peace. Pleasures of 
 England, Lecture IV., p. 137. 
 
 Martin, St. 
 
 Somewhere about this spot, or in the line between 
 it and St. Acheul, stood the ancient Roman gate of 
 The Twins, whereon were carved Romulus and Remus 
 being suckled by the wolf; and out of which, one 
 bitter winter's day, a hundred and seventy years ago 
 when Clovis was baptized had ridden a Roman sol- 
 dier, wrapped in his horseman's cloak, on the cause- 
 way which was part of the great Roman road from 
 Lyons to Boulogne. 
 
 And it is well worth your while also, some frosty
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 269 
 
 autumn or winter day when the east wind is high, to 
 feel the sweep of it at this spot, remembering what 
 chanced here, memorable to all men, and serviceable, 
 in that winter of the year 332, when men were dying 
 for cold in Amiens streets : namely, that the Roman 
 horseman, scarce gone out of the city gate, was met by 
 a naked beggar, shivering with cold; and that, seeing 
 no other way of shelter for him, he drew his sword, 
 divided his own cloak in two and gave him half of it. 
 
 No ruinous gift, nor even enthusiastically generous : 
 Sidney's cup of cold water needed more self-denial. . . 
 But this Roman soldier was no Christian, and did his 
 serene charity in simplicity, yet with prudence. Never- 
 theless, that same night, he beheld in a dream the Lord 
 Jesus, who stood before him in the midst of angels, 
 having on his shoulders the half of the cloak he had 
 bestowed on the beggar. 
 
 And Jesus said to the angels that were around Him, 
 ' Know ye who hath thus arrayed me ? My servant 
 Martin, though yet unbaptized, has done this.' And 
 Martin after this vision hastened to receive baptism, 
 being then in his twenty-third year. Whether these 
 things ever were so, or how far so, credulous or incre- 
 dulous reader, is no business whatever of yours or mine. 
 What is, and shall be, everlastingly, so, namely, the 
 infallible truth of the lesson herein taught, and the 
 actual effect of the life of St. Martin on the mind of 
 Christendom, is, very absolutely, the business of every 
 rational being in any Christian realm. 
 
 You are to understand, then, first of all, that the 
 especial character of St. Martin is a serene and meek 
 charity to all creatures. He is not a preaching saint 
 still less a persecuting one : not even an anxious 
 one. Of his prayers we hear little of his wishes, 
 nothing. What he does always, is merely the right 
 thing at the right moment ; Tightness and kindness 
 being in his mind one. Converted and baptized 
 and conscious of having seen Christ he nevertheless
 
 270 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 gives his officers no trouble whatever does not try 
 to make proselytes in his cohort. ' It is Christ's busi- 
 ness, surely ! if He wants them, He may appear to 
 them, as He has to me,' seems the feeling of his first 
 baptized days. He remains seventeen years in the 
 army on those tranquil terms. At the end of that 
 time, thinking it might be well to take other service, 
 he asks for his dismissal from the Emperor Julian, 
 who, accusing him of faintheartedness, Martin offers, 
 unarmed, to lead his cohort into battle, bearing only 
 the sign of the cross. Julian takes him at his word, 
 keeps him in ward till time of battle comes ; but, 
 the day before he counts on putting him to that war 
 ordeal, the barbarian enemy sends embassy with irre- 
 fusable offers of submission and peace. The story is 
 not often dwelt upon : how far literally true, again ob- 
 serve, does not in the least matter ; here is the lesson 
 for ever given of the way in which a Christian soldier 
 should meet his enemies. . . . 
 
 But true in some practical and effectual way the 
 story is; for after a while, without any oratorizing, 
 anathematizing, or any manner of disturbance, we find 
 the Roman Knight made Bishop of Tours, and be- 
 coming an influence of unmixed good to all mankind, 
 then, and afterwards. And virtually the same story- 
 is repeated of his bishop's robe as of his knight's cloak 
 not to be rejected because so probable an invention ; 
 for it is just as probable an act. . . . 
 
 Gentleness was his strength; and the issue of it is 
 best to be estimated by comparing its scope with that 
 of the work of St. Firmin. ... St. Martin teazes no- 
 body, spends not a breath in unpleasant exhortation, 
 understands, by Christ's first lesson to himself, that 
 undipped people may be as good as dipped if their 
 hearts are clean; helps, forgives, and cheers, (com- 
 panionable even to the loving-cup). . . . And somehow 
 the idols totter before him far and near the Pagan 
 gods fade, Ms Christ becomes all men's Christ his
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 271 
 
 name is named over new shrines innumerable in all 
 lands ; high on the Roman hills, lowly in English fields ; 
 St. Augustine baptized his first English converts in 
 St. Martin's church at Canterbury; and the Charing 
 Cross station itself has not yet effaced wholly from 
 London minds his memory or his name. . . . 
 
 As gathering years told upon him, he seems to have 
 felt that he had carried weight of crozier long enough 
 that busy Tours must now find a busier Bishop that, 
 for himself, he might innocently henceforward take his 
 pleasure and his rest where the vine grew and the lark 
 sang. For his episcopal palace, he takes a little cave 
 in the chalk cliffs of the up-country river : arranges all 
 matters therein, for bed and board, at small cost. Night 
 by night the stream murmurs to him, day by day the 
 vine leaves give their shade ; and, daily by the horizon's 
 breadth so much nearer Heaven, the fore-running sun 
 goes down for him beyond the glowing water ; there, 
 where now the peasant woman trots homewards between 
 her panniers, and the saw rests in the half-cleft wood, and 
 the village spire rises grey against the farthest light. 1 
 
 And be this much remembered by you, of the power over 
 French souls, past and to come, of St. Martin of Tours. 
 Our Fathers Have Told Us, pp. 22-6; 28, 29 ; 31, 33. 
 
 Matthew, St. Carpaccio's Picture of. 
 
 For, indeed, the Gospel which the publican wrote for us, 
 with its perfect Sermon on the Mount, and mostly more 
 harmonious and gentle fulness, in places where St. Luke 
 is formal, St. John mysterious, and St. Mark brief, this 
 Gospel according to St. Matthew I should think, if we 
 had to choose one out of all the books in the Bible for a 
 prison or desert friend, would be the one we should keep. 
 
 And we do not enough think how much that leaving 
 the receipt of custom meant, as a sign of the s 
 man's nature, who was to leave us such a not- '* 9- 
 able piece of literature. 
 
 1 In Turner's Loire-side.
 
 272 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 Yet, observe, Carpaccio does not mean to express 
 the fact, or anything like the fact, of the literal calling 
 of Matthew. What the actual character of the publicans 
 of Jerusalem was at that time, in its general aspect, its 
 admitted degradation, and yet power of believing, with 
 the harlot, what the masters and the mothers in Israel 
 could not believe, it is not his purpose to teach you. 
 This call from receipt of custom, he takes for the symbol 
 of the universal call to leave all that we have, and are 
 s. Luke doing. ' Whosoever forsaketh not all that he 
 xiv - 33- hath, cannot be my disciple.' For the other 
 calls were easily obeyed in comparison of this. To 
 leave one's often empty nets and nightly toil on sea, 
 and become fishers of men, probably you might find 
 pescatori enough on the Riva there, within a hundred 
 paces of you, who would take the chance at once, if any 
 gentle person offered it them. James and Jude Christ's 
 cousins no thanks to them for following Him ; their 
 own home conceivably no richer than His. Thomas 
 and Philip, I suppose, somewhat thoughtful persons on 
 spiritual matters, questioning of them long since ; going 
 out to hear St. John preach, and to see whom he had 
 seen. But this man, busy in the place of business 
 engaged in the interests of foreign governments think- 
 ing no more of an Israelite Messiah but only of Egyptian 
 finance, and the like suddenly the Messiah, passing 
 s. Matt, by, says ' Follow me ! ' and he rises up, gives 
 '** 9- Him his hand. ' Yea ! to the death ' ; and ab- 
 sconds from his desk in that electric manner on the 
 instant, leaving his cash-box unlocked, and his books 
 for whoso list to balance ! a very remarkable kind of 
 person indeed, it seems to me. 
 
 Carpaccio takes him, as I said, for a type of such 
 sacrifice at its best. . . . 
 
 For do not think Christ would have called a bad or 
 s. Luke corrupt publican much less that a bad or 
 xix. 10. corrupt publican would have obeyed the call. 
 . . . That which is lost He comes to save, yes ; but not
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 273 
 
 that which is defiantly going the way He has forbidden. 
 He showed you plainly enough what kind of publican 
 He would call, having chosen two, both of the best : 
 ' Behold, Lord, if I have taken anything from S- L U IS 
 any man, I restore it fourfold ! ' a beautiful xix - 8 - 
 manner of trade. Carpaccio knows well that there 
 were no defalcations from Levi's chest no oppressions 
 in his tax-gathering. This whom he has painted is a 
 true merchant of Venice, uprightest and gentlest of the 
 merchant race ; yet with a glorious pride in him. What 
 merchant but one of Venice would have ventured to 
 take Christ's hand, as his friend's as one man takes 
 another's ? Not repentant, he, of anything he has 
 done ; not crushed or terrified by Christ's s. Luke 
 call ; but rejoicing in it, as meaning Christ's M< I7> 
 praise and love. 'Come up higher then, for ^^ att ' 
 there are nobler treasures than these to count, , *s- 
 and a nobler King than this to render account to. 
 Thou hast been faithful over a few things ; enter thou 
 into the joy of thy Lord.' 
 
 A lovely picture, in every sense and power of painting ; 
 natural, and graceful, and quiet, and pathetic ; divinely 
 religious, yet as decorative and dainty as a bank of violets 
 in spring. S/. Mark's Rest, 173-4-5. 
 
 Saints, Mythic. 
 
 The most mythic is of course St. Sophia ; the shade 
 of the Greek Athena passing into the ' Wisdom ' of the 
 Jewish Proverbs and Psalms, and the Apocryphal ' Wis- 
 dom of Solomon.' She always remains under- , Kings 
 stood as a personification only ; and has no iv - * 3. 
 direct influence on the mind of the unlearned multitude 
 of Western Christendom, except as a god-mother, in 
 which kindly function she is more and more accepted as 
 times go on. Pleasures of England, Lecture IV., p. 134. 
 
 Sophia, Santa. 
 
 ' Invocavi, et venit in me Spiritus Sapientiae' ' I 
 
 s
 
 274 THE BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 prayed, and the Spirit of Wisdom came upon me.' 
 wisdom The personal power of Wisdom : the ' o-o<ia ' 
 viL ? or Santa Sophia, to whom the first great Chris- 
 tian temple was dedicated. This higher wisdom, gover- 
 ning by her presence, all earthly conduct, and by her 
 teaching, all earthly art. Mornings in Florence, 91. 
 
 Theodore, St. 
 
 St. Michael is the angel of war against the dragon of 
 sin ; but St. Theodore, who also is not merely a saint, 
 but an angel, is the angel of noble fleshly life in man 
 and animals, leading both against base and malignant 
 life in men and animals. He is the Chevalier, or 
 Cavalier of Venice, her first of loving knights, in war 
 against all baseness, all malignity ; in the deepest sense, 
 St. Theodore, literally ' God gift,' is Divine Life in 
 nature ; Divine Life in the flesh of the animal, and in 
 the substance of the wood and of the stone, contending 
 with poison and death in the animal, with rottenness 
 in the tree, and in the stone. He is first seen (I can 
 find no account of his birth) in the form of a youth of ex- 
 treme beauty ; and his first contest is with a dragon very 
 different from St. George; and it is fought in another 
 manner. Fors Clavigera, Letter LXXV. 
 
 He differs from St. George in contending with material 
 evil, instead of with sinful passion : the crocodile on 
 which he stands is the Dragon of Egypt ; slime-begotten 
 of old, worshipped in its malignant power, for a God. 
 St. Theodore's martyrdom was for breaking such idols ; 
 and with beautiful instinct Venice took him in her 
 earliest days for her protector and standard-bearer, re- 
 presenting the heavenly life of Christ in men, prevailing 
 over chaos and the deep. 
 
 With far more than instinct, with solemn recogni- 
 tion, and prayerful vow, she took him in the pride of 
 her chivalry, in mid-thirteenth century, for the master 
 of that chivalry in their gentleness of home ministries. 
 The ' Mariegola ' (Mother- Law) of the school of St.
 
 OF JOHN RUSKIN 275 
 
 Theodore, by kind fate yet preserved to us, contains 
 the legend they believed, in its completeness, and their 
 vow of service and companionship in all its terms. 
 
 Either of which, if you care to understand, several 
 other matters and writings must be understood first; 
 and, among others, a pretty piece of our own much 
 boasted, how little obeyed, Mother-Law, sung still 
 by statute in our churches at least once in the month ; 
 the eighty-sixth Psalm. ' Her foundations are in the 
 Holy Mountains.' S/. Mark's Rest, 23-4. 
 
 Ursula, St. 
 
 Of that legend of St. Ursula, you remember, I doubt 
 not, that the one great meaning is the victory of her 
 faith over all fears of death. It is the laying down of 
 all the joy, of all the hope, nay of all the Love, of this 
 life, in the eager apprehension of the rejoicing and the 
 love of Eternity. What truth there was in such faith I 
 dare not say that I know ; but what manner of human 
 souls it made, you may for yourselves see, . . . This 
 maid in her purity is no fable; this is a Venetian maid, 
 as she was seen in the earthly dawn, and breathed on 
 by the breeze of her native sea. And here she is in her 
 womanhood, in her courage and perfect peace, waiting 
 for her death. ... St. Ursula kneels, as daily she knelt, 
 before the altar, giving herself up to God for ever. . . . 
 
 Such creatures as these have lived do live yet, thank 
 God, in the faith of Christ. 
 
 You hear it openly said that this, their faith, was a 
 foolish dream. Do you choose to find out whether it 
 was or not ? You may if you will, but you can find it 
 out in one way only. On the Old Road ', vol. ii., 290-1. 
 
 Zita, Santa. 
 
 In reading the legends of the saints, the reader who 
 cares for the truth that remains in them must always 
 observe first, whether the saint is only a symbolic one, 
 like St. Sophia and St. Catherine ; or a real one, like
 
 276 BIBLE REFERENCES 
 
 St. Genevieve and St. Benedict. In the second place, 
 if they are real people, he must observe whether the 
 miracles are done by them, or for them. Legends of 
 consciously active miracles are rare : the modesty of the 
 great saints prevents them from attempting such, and all 
 the loveliest and best witnessed stories are of miracles 
 done for them or through their ministry, often without 
 their knowledge, like the shining of Moses' face, or the 
 robing of St. Martin by the angels. 
 
 Now Santa Zita, ' St. Maid,' was a real, living, hard- 
 worked maid-servant, in the town you still know as a 
 great oil mart, in the thirteenth century. As real a 
 person as your own kitchen-maid, and not a bit better, 
 probably, than yours is, if she's a good one ; only, liv- 
 ing in the most vital and powerful days of Christianity, 
 she was made to feel and know many things which your 
 kitchen-maid can never feel, nor even hear of; and 
 therefore, having also extremely fine intellect as well as 
 heart, she became a very notable creature indeed, and 
 one of wide practical power throughout Europe; for 
 though she lived and died a servant of all-work at a 
 clothier's, thirty years after her death, Dante acknow- 
 ledges her the patron saint of her city : and she has ever 
 since been the type of perfectness in servant life, to the 
 Christian world. Roadside Songs of Tuscany, pp. 1 7, 18.
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 I. SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 
 
 II. THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE AS QUOTED OR 
 REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 WORK QUOTED 
 
 BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 Abbot 
 
 VERONA, p. 131 
 
 ( Rom. xii. 13. 
 
 
 
 \ i Tim. iii. 2. 
 
 
 
 (Gen. xiii. 18. 
 
 
 
 ,, xiv. 13. 
 
 /tram's mountain ) 
 home . . . . j 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixv. . 
 
 Joshua xv. 17, 18. 
 xiv. 15. 
 Deut. xi. 10, 12, 
 
 
 
 17- 
 
 
 
 (Ephes. vi. 14-17. 
 
 Advent, Second ) 
 
 ,, ,, ,, xlviii. 
 
 J i S. John ii. 14. 
 
 Sunday . . . ) 
 
 
 j Psalm xcvi. i, 
 
 
 
 V 10, ii, 13. 
 
 Ahab's sin .... 
 
 | THE STONES OF VENICE, ) 
 I vol. ii. , ch. viii. , 90 . j 
 
 ( i Kingsxxi. 2-16. 
 ( Col. iii. 5. 
 
 Alabaster .... 
 
 DEUCALION, ch. vii., 150. 
 
 1 S. Matt. ii. ii. 
 t S. Mark xiv. 3. 
 
 Apostolic words . . 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ( 
 1 ii. , sec. i. , ch. ii. , 8 . ) 
 
 Ephes. iv. 18, 19. 
 
 Arab's faith . . . 
 
 j OUR FATHERS HAVE ) 
 I TOLD Us, pp. 101-102 . ) 
 
 ( Gen. xvi. 7. 
 \ ,, xii. i. 
 
 Authority, Two ) 
 great forms of . ) 
 
 ARIADNE FLORENTINA, 198 . 
 
 ( S. James i. 17. 
 < Rev. xix. 16. 
 ( S. Matt. vi. 10. 
 
 
 
 ( Exod. xx. 17. 
 
 Avarice 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixii. . 
 
 s S. Luke xii. 15.^ 
 
 
 
 (Gen. ii. ii, 12. 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 Barnabas' Confes- ) 
 siou of Faith . 1 
 
 TIME AND TIDE, 109 . . . 
 
 ( S. Mark iii. 17. 
 ( Acts iv. 36, 37. 
 
 
 ("MODERN PAINTERS, vol. } 
 
 
 Bramble .... 
 
 < v., pt. ix., ch. iii., 13, V 
 14 J 
 
 S. Luke vi. 44. 
 
 Brotherly law. . . 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) 
 ( iii. , ch. xviii. , 38 . . j 
 
 i Cor. x. 24. 
 
 
 279 

 
 8o 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 WORK QUOTED 
 
 BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 Buildings . . . 
 
 ( LECTURES ON ARCHITEC- ) 
 ( TURE AND PAINTING, 28 j 
 
 Her. i. 18. 
 < Ephes. ii. 20. 
 (.S. Luke xiv. 28. 
 
 Burden of Tyre . 
 
 . S. MARK'S REST, 40 ... 
 
 Isa. xxiii. 2, 3. 
 
 
 C 
 
 
 Chief of Cities . . 
 
 . VAL D'ARNO, 31, 32 . . . 
 
 Isa. Ix. 18. 
 
 
 
 ( Psalm viii. 4. 
 
 Christians . . . 
 
 . FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixxxii. 
 
 J ,, xxxvi. 6. 
 
 
 
 [ Eccles. vii. 12. 
 
 Christmas carols . 
 
 ,, ,, ,, xlviii. 
 
 Psalm xciv. 
 
 
 
 Eph. v. 25, 27, 
 
 
 
 32. 
 
 
 
 Col. i. 18. 
 
 
 
 i Cor. x. 32. 
 
 
 
 ,, xv. 9. 
 
 
 
 Gal. i. 13. 
 
 
 {ON THE OLD ROAD, vol. ) 
 
 J i Tim. iii. 5. 
 
 
 11., 184-185 . . . . f 
 
 | Acts vii. 38. 
 
 
 
 ,, xiii. i. 
 
 
 
 i Cor. i. 2. 
 
 
 
 ,, xvi. 19. 
 
 
 
 Acts xix. 32, 41. 
 
 
 
 S. Matt. xvi. 18. 
 
 
 
 , ,, xviii. 17. 
 
 Colour, Joy and 
 
 {LAWS OF FSOLE, Letter ^ 
 vii., n 1 
 
 ( Rev. xxi. ii. 
 
 J T 
 
 Nobleness of . 
 
 STONES OF VENICE, vol. j 
 ii, ch. v., 3 o, 31 . . J 
 
 < Lam. i. 12. 
 \ Prov. xiv. 13. 
 
 Creed .... 
 
 f THE CROWN OF WILD ) 
 
 ( Eccles. ix. 10. 
 
 
 1 OLIVE, 13, 14 . . . } 
 
 S. John iv. 36, 37. 
 
 
 
 {Job xxviii. 16, 17. 
 
 
 
 Ezek. i. 22. 
 
 Crystal .... 
 
 DEUCALION, ch. vii., 13 . . 
 
 Rev. iv. 6. 
 
 
 
 ,, xxii. i. 
 
 
 
 ,, xxi. 2. 
 
 f FORS CLAVIGERA, Letters ) / Ex ?!?' * V1> * 9 ' 
 Daily bread . . . \ j j j . \ < S. Matt. xx. 2. 
 
 (.Actsii. 46, 47. 
 
 Day is coming, The . ,, ,, ,, Ixxxii. Isa. xxxiii. 14-17. 
 
 Dead, The , ,, ,, xlv. . Rev. xiv. 13. 
 
 ( XX. 12. 
 
 < Exod. xv. 10. 
 (. Rev. xx. 13. 
 ( Joshua x. 12, 13. 
 t Psalm cxlvii. 8. 
 Divine power . . . STORM-CLOUD, p. 4 . . . . Acts xiv. 17. 
 
 Death 
 
 Desolate souls. 
 
 Ixvi.
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 281 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 WORK QUOTED 
 
 BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 ( 2 S. Peter i. 4. 
 
 Divinity In nature . S. MARK'S REST, 66 . . . < 2 Cor. iii. 18. 
 
 (. Amos v. 18. 
 ,2 Sam. i. 24. 
 I Lev. xiv. 4. 
 I Prov. xxxi. 21, 22. 
 J 2 Sam. i. 24. 
 | Psalm xlv. 13, 14. 
 I Prov. xxxi. 15. 
 V. ,, xxii. 25. 
 (Gen, i. 9. 
 < Exod. xiv. 22 
 ( Psalm xcv. 5. 
 
 1 Cor. iii. n. 
 
 S. Matt. vi. 5, 6. 
 
 2 Kings vi. 17. 
 Rom. xii. 21. 
 Isa. liv. 13. 
 
 , Iv. 12. 
 xxxv. i. 
 
 Dress 
 
 Dry land 
 
 ( VERONA, p. 49 
 
 < ARROWS OF THE CHACE, ) 
 ( vol. ii., p. 227 . . . . ) 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) 
 \ iv. , pt. v., ch. vii. , i . J 
 
 Duty of loving God . FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xcvi. 
 
 Education .... TIME AND TIDE, 92 ... 
 Egyptian slavery . FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixiv. . 
 
 Entombment 
 Christ 
 
 it of ) ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) 
 . . . j ( ii. , sec. ii. , ch. iii. , 16 . ) 
 
 Esdras FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xlix. . 
 
 Ezekiel's vision . , J M P ER N PAINTERS, vol. ) 
 ( in., ch. vin., 21 . . . f 
 
 1 Cor. xv. 36 
 
 {Acts viii. 36, 37. 
 Psalm Ixviii. 31. 
 Isa. xlv, 13, 14. 
 Gen. xlii. i, 2. 
 ,, 1. 10, ii. 
 Hosea xi. i. 
 Isa. liii. 9. 
 S. Matt. viii. 20. 
 S. Luke ix. 58. 
 
 2 Esdras xv. 16, 
 
 Ezek. i. 19, 20. 
 
 Faith . | MODERN PAINTERS vol. ) Rev ^ 6> 
 
 ( v., pt. vm., ch. i., 17 . ) 
 
 Father . . . . . FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixx. . 
 Fold, One great . . { l^^ AD ' ^ 
 Freedom, Nation's . VAL D'ARNO, 197 . . . 
 
 Psalm Ixxiii. 25. 
 
 S. John xiv. 27. 
 Psalm cxix. 
 
 Genesis, Book of . 
 Give . 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xli. 
 Ixi. 
 
 ( Psalm xxvii. 36. 
 ( Gen. v. 24. 
 ( S. Matt. v. 42. 
 ( S. Luke xiv. 33.
 
 282 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 WORK QUOTED BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 
 
 
 Gen. ii. 12. 
 
 
 
 
 Exod. xxvii. 7. 
 
 Gold and precious ) 
 
 ( DEUCALION, ch 
 
 vii., 10 
 
 ,, xxxv. 27. 
 
 stones . . . ( 
 
 1 ch 
 
 . vii., 14-16 " 
 
 Ezek. xxviii. 13. 
 
 
 
 
 Exod. xxviii. 9, 
 
 
 
 
 k IO, 2O. 
 
 Good for evil . . . 
 
 j ARROWS OF THE CHACE, ) 
 
 i 1 " ' 
 
 Exod. xxi. 24. 
 
 
 ( vol. 11., p. 93 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 !S. Luke ix. 62. 
 
 Grain of com . . . 
 
 PROSERPINA, ch. 
 
 xiv.,3 . . < 
 
 S. Matt. xxiv. 
 41. 
 
 
 
 
 S. Matt. vi. 30. 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 EGen. ii. i. 
 
 Heavenly host, The 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA 
 
 , Letter xii. . 
 
 S. Luke ii. 13. 
 14. 
 
 Heavens .... 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. 1 
 \ iv. , ch. vi. , 6 . . . . J 
 
 Psalm xviii. 9, n. 
 [ civ. 3. 
 
 Helpful 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. 1 
 < v., pt viii., ch. i., 5, > 
 ( NOTE j 
 
 [ S. James v. 4. 
 [ Rom. xi. 16. 
 
 
 Heraldry of our ) 
 Faith . . . . f 
 
 DEUCALION, ch. vii., 30 . . 
 
 Gen. ix. 13, 16. 
 
 Heritage .... 
 
 ( Judges xvii. i. 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xlv. . < Micah i. i. 
 ( i. i-3- 
 
 
 
 
 (Gen. xxiii. 19, 20. 
 
 Holy Field .... 
 
 VAL D'ARNO, 2 
 
 7. < 
 
 ,, xlix. 31. 
 S. Matt, xxvii. 7, 
 
 Q 
 
 
 House of God . . . 
 
 {ON THE OLD ROAD, vol. V 
 ii., 185, NOTE. . . . J 
 
 o. 
 i Tim. iii. 15. 
 i Cor. iii. 16, 17. 
 
 
 
 
 Psalmxlix.i2,2O. 
 
 
 
 
 S. Matt. x. 16. 
 
 Humanity and \ 
 
 f STONES OF VENICE, vol. ) . 
 
 Prov. vi. 6. 
 
 Immortality . J 
 
 ( i., ch. ii., 10 . . . . | 
 
 ,, XX. 12. 
 
 
 
 
 S. John vi. 40, 
 
 
 
 
 * 44. 54- 
 
 Hypocrisy .... 
 
 {ON THE OLD 
 ii . 8 2^1 . 
 
 ROAD, voL \ 
 
 Her. xxiii. 6. 
 ( Exod. xx. 7. 
 ( i Sam. xvi. 7. 
 
 
 
 Hyssop . 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) 
 \ v., pt. ix., ch. xi., 8 . J 
 
 (Exod. xii. 22, 24. 
 Psalm 1L 7. 
 
 
 Idealism, Grotesque . 
 
 I 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) T ; 
 
 ( iii. , ch. viii. , 5 . . . ) ' 
 
 i MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) ( Hosea iv. 12, 13, 
 
 I iii., ch. v., 13 . . . ) ( 19.
 
 ' 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 283 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 WORK QUOTED 
 
 BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 Infidelity .... 
 
 ( STONES OF VENICE, vol. ) 
 ( iii., ch. ii. , 103 . . . ) 
 
 (Job xxxviii. n. 
 < Ezek. vii. 10, n, 
 
 ( 12. 
 
 Israelites, True . . 
 
 j FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter ) 
 1 xlix. . 
 
 ( S. Luke xviii. 
 
 1 IO 14.. 
 
 
 J 
 
 \ pl * **T* 
 
 Jeremiah, Promise of 
 
 TIME AND TIDE, 45 ... 
 
 Jer. xxxi. 4, 5. 
 
 Jewish altar . . . 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. \ 
 \ iii. , ch. ix. , 6 . . . J 
 
 Exod. xx. 25. 
 
 Jewish womanhood . 
 
 f MORNINGS IN FLORENCE, ) 
 t 60, 61 j 
 
 ( Apocrypha, ch. 
 < viii. ix. x. xiii. 
 
 
 
 I xv. xvi. 
 
 Joab 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xl. . 
 
 ( 2 Sam. x. 12. 
 
 
 
 ( 2 Chron. xix. 2. 
 
 Justice or righteous- 
 ness 
 
 ,, viii. 
 
 Isa. liv. ii, 14, 17. 
 
 
 K 
 
 
 
 
 {Isa. xliv. 24. 
 
 Kingdoms, Chris- ") 
 tian and > 
 
 ( MORNINGS IN FLORENCE, ) 
 
 1 8 63 et sea. . . f 
 
 ,, xiv. 13. 
 i Esdras vi. 24. 
 
 heathen . . . ; 
 
 
 Ezra i. 3. 
 
 
 
 2 Esdras ii. 3. 
 
 Kinghood and priest- 
 hood 
 
 j ROADSIDE SONGS OF Tus- ) 
 \ CANY, p. 109, NOTE . f 
 
 ( i Sam. xv. 33. 
 ( 2 Kings i. 10. 
 
 Knowledge . . . 
 
 EAGLE'S NEST, 80 . . . . 
 
 Eccles. i. 18. 
 
 
 L 
 
 
 Law of the cove- ) 
 nant . . . . J 
 
 DEUCALION, ch. vii. , 32 . . 
 
 Gen. ix. 8-13. 
 
 Liberty 
 
 VAL D'ARNO, 197 .... 
 
 Psalm cxix. 45. 
 
 Light 
 
 EAGLE'S NEST, 115, 116. . 
 
 ( Mai. iv. 2. 
 
 
 
 ( S. John i. 9. 
 
 Light and sound . . 
 
 C STORM -CLOUD OF THE \ 
 < NINETEENTH CENTURY, V 
 \ pp. 34, 35 j 
 
 Psalm xciv. 9. 
 
 Lord of hosts . . . 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xiv. . 
 
 Isa. vi. 3. 
 
 
 
 /Heb. xiii. 8. 
 
 Love . . . . 
 
 ( ON THE OLD ROAD, vol. ) 
 
 J Job xxxviii. 7. 
 
 
 1 i., pt. i., 235 . . . f 
 
 j Jer. xxxi. 13. 
 
 
 
 Visa. Ixii. 5. 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 Mn 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) 
 
 S. Matt. v. 14. 
 
 
 1 v., pt. ix., ch. ii., i . f 
 
 
 Mental State . . . 
 
 EAGLE'S NEST, 68, 69 . . 
 
 S. Mark v. 3-15.
 
 284 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 WORK QUOTED 
 
 BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 
 
 iS John iii. n. 
 
 
 
 , , ii. i. 
 
 Message, The . . 
 
 . FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixxxi. -. 
 
 ', iii.' 8. 
 
 
 
 , , iii. 7. 
 
 
 
 . , , iv. 2-20. 
 
 
 
 S. John ii. 7-10. 
 
 
 
 Psalm civ. 15. 
 
 
 
 S. Mark xiv. 12, 
 
 Miracles . . . 
 
 Ixxiv. 
 
 13- 
 
 S. Matt. iii. 13. 
 
 
 
 Heb. ix. 19. 
 
 
 
 ,, xii. 24. 
 
 
 
 .1 Cor. x. 2. 
 
 
 
 rGen. xxviii. ii. 
 
 Monastic life . . 
 
 ( OUR FATHERS HAVE ) 
 ( TOLD Us, p. 109 . . J 
 
 ' Exod. iii. 3. 
 1 i Sam. xvii. 28. 
 
 
 
 (.S. Lukei. 80. 
 
 Mosaic Law . . 
 
 . FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter liii. . 
 
 Heb. i. 3. 
 
 
 
 'Gen. iii. 8. 
 
 
 
 Psalm cxxi. 4. 
 
 
 
 Jer. iii. 6. 
 
 Mountain gloom . 
 
 j MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) 
 1 \ iv., ch. xix., 33 . . . j 
 
 Isa. ii. 2. 
 Exod. xxiv. i-io. 
 
 
 
 Micah vi. 2. 
 
 
 
 Hosea x. 8. 
 
 
 
 >. Psalm Ixxii. 3. 
 
 Mountains . 
 
 , MODERN PAINTERS, vol. -i 
 iv., ch. vii., 3 . . . 1 
 "j MODERN PAINTERS, vol. j 
 (. iv. , ch. vii. , 10 . . . J 
 
 'Gen. iii. 19. 
 Job xiv. 18, 19. 
 [ Psalm xxxvi. 6. 
 
 National worship 
 
 N 
 
 vol. i., Pref. 
 
 } Is" 
 
 Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
 j Psalm xiv. i. 
 t ,, liii. i. 
 / 2 Sam. xxiv. 24. 
 
 ON THE OLD ROAD, vol. ) J S. Matt. x. 6. 
 i., pt. ii., 556 f ) S. Luke x. 35. 
 \.Prov. xix. 17. 
 
 Order \ MoDE N . PAI . NT .? RS I vo1 ' I Isa. Ixi. n. 
 
 ( v., pt. vi., ch. in., 14 . f 
 
 Our Common Prayer FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xxx. . Rom. ii. 3-11. 
 
 Obedience 
 
 Offering to God 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter liv. 
 
 Patience 
 
 ( ON THE OLD ROAD, vol. ) ( S. Mark iv. 28. 
 ( i., pt. ii., 340-41 . . J ( Psalm Ixv. 13.
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 285 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 WORK QUOTED 
 
 BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 Peace-makers . . . 
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST, 204-205 
 
 S. Matt. v. 9. 
 
 Peace, Song of . . 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xii. . 
 
 ( S. James v. 4. 
 ( Isa. vi. 3. 
 
 Perfect work . . . 
 
 ( STONES OF VENICE, vol. ) 
 t ii., ch. vi., 40 . . . J 
 
 Gen. i. 31. 
 
 Perfume .... 
 
 S. MARK'S REST, p. 86 . . . 
 
 ( Prov. vii. 5. 
 \ Psalm xlv. 8. 
 
 Pharisee, The . . . 
 
 SESAME AND LILIES, 140 . . 
 
 S. Luke xviii. n. 
 
 
 
 / Exod. xxiv. 9, 10, 
 
 Precious stones . . 
 
 DEUCALION, ch. vii., 32, II. . 
 
 J ii. 
 
 
 
 j Rev. iv. 3. 
 
 
 
 V ,, xxi. 21. 
 
 Precious Stones. 
 
 See Gold. 
 
 
 Priest and King . . 
 
 j ROADSIDE SONGS OF Tus- ) 
 
 ( CANY, p. I08 . . . . J 
 
 Jude i, 13. 
 
 
 {xxxvi. 
 
 Psalm xiv. 
 
 Psalm . . . . ) 
 
 xxxvi. 
 
 ,, XV. 
 
 Psalter . . . . j 
 
 liii. 
 
 , , cxix. 
 
 
 liii. . 
 
 , i viii. 
 
 
 R 
 
 
 Rahab .... 
 
 S MARK'S REST, 26 . . . 
 
 Psalm Ixxxvii. 
 
 Reed 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) 
 \ Hi., ch. xiv., 53 . . . ) 
 
 ( S. Matt, xxvii. 
 1 29, 48. 
 
 
 
 
 (" Psalm viii. 4. 
 
 Religious service . . 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixxxii. 
 
 s ,, xxxvi. 6. 
 
 
 
 { Eccles. vii. 12. 
 
 Renaissance builders 
 
 j STONES OF VENICE, vol. ) 
 
 Psalm cxxiii. 4. 
 
 
 ( iii. , ch. ii. , 45 . . . j 
 
 
 Rock 
 
 /'MODERN PAINTERS, vol. \ 
 } iv. , ch. xviii. , 26 . . (_ 
 
 /'Deut. xxi. 4. 
 J Amos vi. 12. 
 
 
 j MODERN PAINTERS, vol. j 
 
 ) Isa. Ivii. 5, 6. 
 
 
 V, iv. , ch. xii. , 23 . . . / 
 
 I Psalm cxiv. 5, 6. 
 
 Rose and Lily . . . 
 
 ( OUR FATHERS HAVE ) 
 I TOLD Us, ch. iv. , 32 . j 
 
 {Cant. ii. i. 
 S. John xv. i. 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 Sabbath .... 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xl. . 
 
 ( S. Matt. xii. 8. 
 ( S. Mark ii. 27, 28. 
 
 
 
 (STONES OF VENICE, vol. ) 
 iii., ch. ii. , 9. . . . j 
 
 Psalm xix. 5, 6. 
 
 Science ... 
 
 | MODERN PAINTERS, vol. \ 
 iii., ch. xvii. , 40. . . f 
 
 Hob xl. 1 8. 
 < ,, xii. 18, 22. 
 (.S. Matt. vi. 28. 
 
 
 Sermon on the Mount 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ^ 
 ( iii., App. ii J 
 
 ( S. Matt. v. 29, 30. 
 ( ,. vii. 5.
 
 286 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 SUBJECT 
 
 WORK QUOTED BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 Sin 
 
 (MODERN PAINTERS, vol. ) (~ Matt -.. vn - * 
 
 { ,..&*..*.*..,., i te.Tj."- 
 
 Solomon's song . 
 
 Psr^'^ 1 : } -* 
 
 
 , S. John xiv. 9. 
 
 
 
 S. i Cor. i. 24. 
 
 
 
 S. Matt. xxvi. 39. 
 
 
 
 xxiv. 30. 
 
 
 
 Exod. xiii. 21. 
 
 
 
 ,, xvi. 10. 
 
 Son of Man . . 
 
 {ON THE OLD ROAD, voL -\ 
 
 ,, xix. 9. 
 ,, xxiv. 16. 
 ,, xxxiv. 5. 
 Levit. xvi. 2. 
 Num. x. 34. 
 
 MODERN PAINTERS, vol. f 
 iv., ch. vi., 5, NOTE J 
 
 
 
 Judges v. 4. 
 
 
 
 i Kings viii. 10. 
 
 
 
 Ezek. i. 4. 
 
 
 
 Dan. vii. 13. 
 
 
 
 i Thess. iv. 17. 
 
 
 
 Rev. i. 7. 
 
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST, 29, 30 . i Cor. viii. i. 
 
 Soul and body . 
 
 ( STONES OF VENICE, vol. ^ j S. Luke xiv. 23. 
 ' ( iii., ch. iv., 7, 8 . . ) \ Rom. xii. 15. 
 
 Spiritual change . 
 
 ( ARROWS OF THE CHACE. i Acts H 2g 
 ( vol. i., p. 241 . . . . j 
 
 
 ( Psalm xix. 5. 
 
 
 DEUCALION, ch. vii., 32, I. . < Prov. iv. 18. 
 
 
 (S. Matt. v. 16. 
 
 Syria . . 
 
 ( OUR FATHER'S HAVE ) 
 ' { TOLD Us, ch. iii., 14 . ( Deut. xxvi. S . 
 
 Teaching of Heaven . 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter xlii. . 
 
 ( S. Luke vii. 47. 
 I Psalm 1. 18 
 
 Terror 
 
 f MODERN PAINTERS, voL \ 
 < i., pt. i., sec. ii., ch. iii., s 
 
 1 8 2 , 1 
 
 (S. Luke xxiii. 30. 
 < Hosea x. 8. 
 v. Job xix. 26. 
 
 
 
 {S. Matt, xxvii. 38. 
 
 Theft, Sin of . . . 
 
 TIME AND TIDE, 85 ... 
 
 S. Mark xv. 27, 
 28. 
 
 
 
 S. John xviii. 40. 
 
 Theoretic faculty, ) 
 The .... J 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. \ 
 1 ii. , sec. i. , ch. xi. , 4 . j 
 
 Psalm Ixv. ii. 
 
 Theory, Ancient . . 
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST, 121 . . 
 
 ( Job xix. 26. 
 \ S. Matt. v. 8. 
 
 
 
 /Psalm xlii. 2. 
 
 Thirst after God . . 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter liii. . 
 
 J ,, Ixiii. i. 
 J ,, cxliii. 6. 
 
 
 
 V, ,, Ixvii. 2.
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 287 
 
 SUBJECT 
 Trespasses . . 
 
 Trust 
 
 WORK QUOTED 
 
 BIBLE REFERENCE 
 
 ON THE OLD ROAD, vol. ) (2 Sam. xii. 13. 
 J tSbl" 
 
 Matt. xxv. 42. 
 
 ( MODERN PAINTERS, vol. \ I Rev. xix. n. 
 
 . < v., pt. viii., ch. i. , 17 v < ,, xxii. 6. 
 
 (, and NOTE } (i Tim. i. 15. 
 
 U 
 
 Usurer, 
 tbo 
 
 Parable of ) ( S - Matt - vi - 2a 
 
 > FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixviii. < S. Luke xii. 33 
 
 ( S. Mark x. 23. 
 
 Vanity 
 
 ( STONES OF VENICE, vol. 
 I ii. , ch. viii. , 92 . . . 
 
 {Job xv. 31. 
 Eccles. i. 2. 
 Psalm xciv. n. 
 i Cor. iii. 20. 
 
 W 
 
 Wages of Sin . 
 
 Wandering Israel 
 
 Wisdom 
 
 Words and actions 
 
 VERONA, ch. iii., 8, 9 . 
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST, 19 
 
 ON THE OLD ROAD, vol. 
 ii., 201, NOTE . . . 
 
 'S. Mark ix. 43, 
 
 44- 
 
 Isa. Ixvi. 24. 
 . Rom. vi. 23. 
 ( S. James i. i. 
 
 FORS CLAVIGERA, Letter Ixxvi. < Micah vi. 8. 
 
 ( Exod. xv. 2. 
 i Prov. iii. 15. 
 
 ,, viii. 30, 31. 
 i Tim. vi. 4-20. 
 : ,, ii. 14, 19- 
 
 22, 23. 
 Titus i. jo, 14, 
 
 16. 
 Titus iii. 8, 9. 
 
 Work of the hand . CROWN OF WILD OLIVE, 36 
 
 i. 4-7- 
 ( Gen. iii. 19. 
 ( Rev. xiv. 13. 
 
 / 
 
 Zacoheus' portion . TIME AND TIDE, 109 . 
 
 S. Luke xix. 18.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE 
 
 AS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME 
 
 GENESIS PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 CHAP. i 3, 4, 12, 49, 50, 59, 103, 112, 125, 148, 211, 
 
 216, 227, 252. (Appendix I.) 281, 285. 
 II 22, 87, 88, 89, 148, 157, 177, 210, 229. (Appen- 
 dix I.) 282. 
 Ill 40, 87, 88, 210, 227, 231, 249. (Appendix I.) 
 
 284, 287. 
 
 v (Appendix I.) 282. 
 vill 65, 113, 161. 
 IX 85. (Appendix I.) 282. 
 XI 235. 
 
 Xii (Appendix I.) 279. 
 xni (Appendix I.) 279. 
 Xiv 8. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 xv 3,8. 
 
 XVI ; 229. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 xvni 24, 135. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 xix 162, 246. 
 
 xxn 9 X > l62 - 
 xxin 8. 
 xxvii I 157, 1 80. 
 xxvin 130, 131. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 xxix 91. 
 xxxvn 115, 205. 
 
 XLI 137, 205. 
 
 XLII 205. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 XLIX 148.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 289 
 
 EXODUS PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 CHAP. II 
 
 92. 
 
 HI 
 
 114, 124. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 IV 
 
 203. 
 
 XII 
 
 (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 XIII 
 
 50, 66, 124, 163. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 XIV 
 
 84, 163. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 XV 
 
 163. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 XVI 
 
 157. (Appendix I.) 280, 286. 
 
 XVII 
 
 1 60, 203, 219. 
 
 XIX 
 
 50. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 XX 
 
 170, 229. (Appendix I.) 282, 283. 
 
 XXI 
 
 (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 XXIV 
 
 (Appendix I.) 284, 285, 286. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 222. 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 203, 243. 
 
 XXX 
 
 48. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 162. 
 
 XXXII 
 
 164. 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 9, 108. 
 
 XXXIV 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 xxxv j 108. 
 
 xxxvi 115. 
 
 LEVITICUS 
 
 V 
 
 53- 
 
 XIV 
 
 204. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 XVI 
 
 50, 53. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 XIX 
 
 246. 
 
 XXV 
 
 244. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 53- 
 
 NUMBERS 
 
 V 
 
 53- 
 
 X 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 XI 
 
 157, 160. 
 
 XVI 
 
 48, 251, 253. 
 
 XVII 
 
 203. 

 
 290 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 NUMBERS (contd.) PAGES OF THIS VO 
 
 CHAP. XX 2, 214. 
 
 XXIV 
 
 96, 218. 
 
 XXVII 
 
 239- 
 
 XXXI 
 
 225. 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 66. 
 
 DEUTERONOMY 
 
 III 
 
 138. 
 
 VIII 
 
 148. 
 
 XI 
 
 98, 152. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 
 XIV 
 
 28. 
 
 XVI 
 
 221. 
 
 XXI 
 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 XXVII 
 
 152. 
 
 XXXII 
 
 61, 127, 157, 160. 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 114. 
 
 XXXIV 
 
 114, 161. 
 
 JOSHUA 
 
 II 
 
 32, 204. 
 
 VII 
 
 54- 
 
 VIII 
 
 152. 
 
 IX 
 
 93- 
 
 X 
 
 133, 134. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 XXIV 
 
 29. 
 
 JUDGES 
 
 III 8. 
 
 VI 134, 179, 181. 
 viii j 179, 235. 
 ix , 134, 235. 
 xi 114, 164. 
 
 1 SAMUEL 
 
 XIV 
 XV 
 
 109. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 283.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 291 
 
 1 SAMUEL (contd.} 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 CHAP. XVII 
 
 90. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 
 XVIII 
 
 164. 
 
 
 XXV 
 
 176, 200. 
 
 2 
 
 SAMUEL 
 
 
 I 
 
 96, 204, 218, 229. (Appendix I.) 281 
 
 
 V 
 
 69. 
 
 
 VI 
 
 165. 
 
 
 X 
 
 (Appendix I.) 283. 
 
 
 XII 
 
 58, 86. (Appendix I.) 287. 
 
 
 XIII 
 
 115. 
 
 
 XIX 
 
 91. 
 
 
 XXII 
 
 84. 
 
 
 XXIV 
 
 8, 221. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 1 
 
 KINGS 
 
 
 II 
 
 48. 
 
 . 
 
 IV 
 
 140, 273. 
 
 
 VI 
 
 63- 
 
 
 VIII 
 
 52. 
 
 
 XVII 
 
 71, 114, 138- 
 
 
 XIX 
 
 124. 
 
 
 XXI 
 
 (Appendix I.) 279. 
 
 2 
 
 KINGS 
 
 
 I 
 
 72. (Appendix I.) 283. 
 
 
 II 
 
 161, 239. 
 
 
 V 
 
 122, 204. 
 
 
 IX 
 
 60, 178. 
 
 
 XII 
 
 4 8. 
 
 
 XV 
 
 179. 
 
 
 XVII 
 
 223. 
 
 
 XXV 
 
 253. 
 
 1 
 
 CHRONICLES 
 
 
 XI 
 
 92.
 
 292 
 
 2 CHRONICLES 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 EZRA 
 
 JOB 
 
 I 147. 
 
 v 50. 
 
 vi 52. 
 
 XIX (Appendix I.) 283. 
 
 I -j (Appendix I.) 283. 
 x I 54. 
 
 i 
 in 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 XIV 
 
 XVII 
 
 XIX 
 
 XXI 
 
 XXIV 
 
 XXVI 
 
 XXVII 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 XXXI 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 XXXVIII 
 
 XL 
 
 XLII 
 
 PSALMS 
 
 I, VIII, XII, 
 XIV, XV, 
 XIX, XXIII, 
 XXIV 
 
 139- 
 
 153, 234. 
 193- 
 140, 145, 243. 
 
 139- 
 
 71, 139- 
 139. 
 
 140, 145. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 232. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 243- 
 
 183. 
 
 46. 
 
 121 
 
 43, 140. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 198, 228. 
 
 10, 108. 
 
 106. 
 
 132, 157, 251. 
 
 52, 121. 
 
 193- 
 
 1 8. 
 
 I I 90, 192, 213, 240.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 293 
 
 PSALMS (contd.) 
 
 IV 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 X 
 
 XIV 
 
 XV 
 
 XVIII 
 
 XIX 
 
 XXIII 
 
 XXIV 
 
 XXV 
 
 XXVII 
 
 XXIX 
 
 XXXII 
 
 XXXIV 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 XXXXVII 
 
 XXXIX 
 
 XLI 
 
 XLII 
 
 XLIV 
 
 XLV 
 
 XLVIII 
 
 XL1X 
 
 L 
 
 LI 
 
 LIII 
 
 LV 
 
 LVIII 
 
 LXIII 
 
 LXV 
 
 LXVII 
 
 LXVIII 
 
 LXXII 
 
 LXXII1 
 
 LXXIV 
 
 LXXVI 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 46, 75, 108. 
 158. 
 
 80, 174, 175. 
 
 175, 176. (Appendix I.) 285. 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 51. (Appendix I.) 282. 
 63, 80, 85, 101, 106, 133, 231. 
 286. 
 
 12. 
 
 157, 214. 
 12, 158, 243. 
 
 84. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 ii. 
 
 53- 
 
 101. 
 
 51. (Appendix I.) 284, 285. 
 
 120, 175. 
 
 147, 225. 
 
 29. 
 
 12. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 169. 
 
 24. (Appendix I.) 281, 285. 
 
 170, 231, 236. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 282 
 
 57, 154. 
 65. 
 
 175- 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 87, 199. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 249. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 51,65,85. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 175. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 66. 
 
 225. 
 
 (Appendix I.)
 
 294 APPENDIX II 
 
 PSALMS (conld.) PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 LXXVII 
 
 51. 
 
 LXXX 
 
 196. 
 
 LXXXVI 
 
 275. 
 
 LXXX VII 
 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 LXXXIX 
 
 198. 
 
 XC 
 
 51, 146, 156. 
 
 XCI 
 
 1 59, 233. 
 
 XCIV 
 
 (Appendix I.) 280, 283. 
 
 xcv 
 
 45. 59, 145- (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 XCVI 
 
 (Appendix I.) 279. 
 
 XCVII 
 
 51- 
 
 CIV 
 
 (Appendix I.) 282, 284. 
 
 CVII 
 
 181, 184. 
 
 CXIV 
 
 139. (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 CXIX 
 
 24, 63, 72, 84, 213. (Appendix I.) 281, 283, 
 
 
 285. 
 
 CXXI 
 
 162. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 CXXIII 
 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 CXXIX 
 
 149. 
 
 cxxx 
 
 184. 
 
 CXXXVII 
 
 151. 
 
 CXXXIX 
 
 184, 185, 251. 
 
 CXLI 
 
 72. 
 
 CXLIII 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 CXLV 
 
 101. 
 
 CXLVII 
 
 103. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 CXLVIII 
 
 130. 
 
 PROVERBS 
 
 I 
 
 1 86, 192. 
 
 II 
 
 43- 
 
 III 
 
 132, 138,247. 
 
 iv 120. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 VI (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 VII (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 xxi 136. 
 
 xxil 243. (Appendix I.) 281.
 
 PROVERBS (contd.) 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 295 
 
 CHAP. XXIV 
 
 XXVIII 
 
 XXX 
 
 XXXI 
 
 30, 41, 243. 
 
 243- 
 
 122. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 ECCLESIASTES 
 
 I 
 III 
 
 V 
 
 VII 
 IX 
 
 (Appendix I.) 283. 
 94- 
 
 55- 
 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 241. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 SONG OF SOLOMON 
 
 41. (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 II 
 
 IV 
 
 v 
 
 VI 
 VII 
 VIII 
 
 39- 
 
 1 80. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 236. 
 
 236. 
 
 ISAIAH 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 IX 
 
 XI 
 
 XIV 
 
 XXIII 
 
 XXV 
 
 XXXII 
 
 XXXIII 
 
 XXXV 
 
 XL 
 
 XI.II 
 
 XLIV 
 
 204. 
 
 1 80. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 191, 247. 
 
 90, 146. 
 
 148. 
 
 6. 
 
 80, 203, 267. 
 
 139- 
 
 (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 74- 
 
 118, 137, 184- 
 
 (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 103, H3- 
 103, 156. 
 35, 103, 104. 
 (Appendix I.) 283.
 
 296 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 ISAIAH (contd.) 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 CHAP.XLVII 
 
 LII 
 
 Lin 
 
 Liv 
 
 LV 
 
 LVll 
 
 LVIII 
 
 LIX 
 
 LX 
 
 LXI 
 
 LXII 
 
 LXIII 
 
 LXV 
 
 LXVI 
 
 245. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 73. (Appendix I.) 281, 283. 
 
 56, 128. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 183. 
 
 191. 
 
 47, 231. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 283. 
 
 142. 
 
 167. 
 
 208. 
 
 JEREMIAH 
 
 I 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VIII 
 
 XVII 
 
 XVIII 
 
 XXIII 
 
 XXXI 
 
 (Appendix I.) 280, 282 
 
 164. 
 
 179. 
 
 73, 179- 
 
 74- 
 
 60, 74. 
 
 22, 122. (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 164. (Appendix. I.) 283. 
 
 LAMENTATIONS 
 
 II | 223. 
 
 XI 
 
 XVI 
 
 XXXI 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 XL 
 
 XLVII 
 
 5i, 8i. (Appendix I.) 280, 281. 
 
 83. 
 
 246. 
 
 89. 
 
 187. 
 
 104. 
 
 240.
 
 DANIEL 
 
 CHAP. Ill : 2O2. 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 297 
 
 HOSEA 
 
 JOEL 
 
 AMOS 
 
 JONAH 
 
 MICAH 
 
 IV 
 VI 
 
 IV 
 
 XI 
 
 III 
 
 VI 
 IX 
 
 1 68. 
 116. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 185. (Appendix I.) 284, 286, 
 
 130. 
 
 191. 
 195- 
 
 (Appendix I.) 285, 
 259, 260. 
 
 IV | 91. 
 
 VI | 189. (Appendix I.) 284 
 
 ZECHARIAH 
 
 VI 
 VII 
 
 2O 
 248. 
 
 ix ! 75. 
 
 MALACHI 
 
 III 
 IV 
 
 221. 
 
 187, 188, 192. 
 
 71, 94, 128. (Appendix I.) 283. 
 
 8. MATTHEW 
 
 II 
 III 
 
 33, 36. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 (Appendix I.) 284.
 
 298 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 S. MATTHEW 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 X 
 
 XI 
 
 XII 
 
 XIII 
 
 XIV 
 
 XVI 
 
 XVII 
 
 XVIII 
 
 XIX 
 
 XX 
 
 XXI 
 
 XXII 
 
 XXIV 
 
 XXV 
 
 XXVI 
 XXVII 
 
 (contd.) PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 114, 148,231,237,238. 
 
 27, 86, 87, 114, 158, 167, 193, 212, 245, 246. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 281, 286. 
 55, 79, 86, 93, 100, 103, 119, 131, 139, 147, 150, 
 
 217, 228, 230, 248. (Appendix I.) 281, 282, 
 
 285. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 147. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 271, 272. 
 
 36, 37, 156, 158, 171. (Appendix I.) 281, 284. 
 66, 81, 99, 178, 201, 231. 
 103, 104, 116, 196, 232. (Appendix I.) 285. 
 43, 190, 196. 
 
 154, 155- 
 
 17, 136, 142. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 71, 114, 163, 237, 238, 239. 
 
 31, 80, 131. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 105, 189, 198. 
 
 91, 122, 152. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 21, 75, Uo, 200, 236. 
 
 4, 55, 68, 75, 230. 
 
 4, 51, 125, 142, 198, 226, 230, 240, 268. (Ap- 
 pendix I.) 282, 286. 
 
 28, 39, 158, 177, 178, 188, 190, 212, 273. (Ap- 
 pendix I.) 287. 
 
 114, 174, 200. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 S. MARK 
 
 II 
 III 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 X 
 
 65. 
 
 91. (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 172. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 
 4, 44, 190, 192. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 283. 
 
 102, 155, 159. 
 
 17, 2OI. 
 
 208, 214, 237. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 17, 39, 189, 230.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 299 
 
 S. MARK (contd.) 
 236. 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 XII 
 XIII 
 
 XIV 
 
 58, 125, 240, 241. 
 
 180. (Appendix I.) 279, 284. 
 
 8. LUKE 
 
 ',; 
 
 IV 
 V 
 VI 
 VII 
 VIII 
 IX 
 X 
 XI 
 XII 
 XIII 
 XIV 
 XV 
 XVI 
 XVII 
 XVIII 
 XIX 
 XXI 
 XXII 
 XXIII 
 XXIV 
 
 99, 122, 156, 158, 258, 259. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 32, 99, 176. (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 148. 
 
 119. 
 
 226. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 
 38, 87, 1 80. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 44, 78, 120, 190. 
 
 41,114,161,237,238,239. (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 4, 7, 27, 73, 81, 97, 99, 200. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 29, 86. 
 
 5 6 , 6 9, 93. I0 2, H2, 143, I5 6 , l68 - 
 
 212. 
 
 9, 272. (Appendix I.) 280, 281. 
 
 165, 185, 189, 190. 
 
 15,26, 55,176, 189, 205. 
 
 230. 
 
 105, 189, 230. 
 
 157, 177, 197, 202, 272, 273. 
 
 125 
 
 114, 174. 
 
 182, 185. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 34- 
 
 S. JOHN 
 
 I , 63, 94, 134, 249. (Appendix I.) 283. 
 
 II 
 
 ill 
 
 IV 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 X 
 
 141. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 228. 
 
 28, 84, 92, 1 54, 220. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 20, 28, 29. (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 44- 
 
 3, 38, 94- 
 
 44, 94- 
 
 20.
 
 300 APPENDIX 11 
 
 
 8. JOHN (contd.) PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 CHAP. XII 
 XIV 
 XV 
 
 75, 92, 1 80, 183. 
 6, 36, 201. (Appendix I.) 281, 286. 
 (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 XVII 
 
 244. 
 
 
 XX 
 XXI 
 
 34, 40, 142, 214. 
 29, 34, 37, 38, loo. 
 
 
 ACTS 
 
 
 I 
 II 
 IV 
 VII 
 XIII 
 XIV 
 XV 
 XVII 
 
 22, 51. 
 
 21, 202. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 172, 258. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 (Appendix I.) 280. 
 258. 
 (Appendix I.) 280. 
 258. 
 154, 194. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 
 XX 
 
 31. 
 
 
 XXIV 
 
 53- 
 
 
 ROMANS 
 
 
 I 
 
 68, 152, 207. 
 
 
 II 
 III 
 
 41. 
 80. 
 
 
 V 
 
 118. 
 
 
 VIII 
 XI 
 XII 
 
 14. 
 ^Appendix I.) 282. 
 168. (Appendix I.) 279, 281. 
 
 
 XIII 
 
 5- 
 
 
 XIV 
 
 230. 
 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS 
 
 
 I 
 II 
 III 
 
 35, 69. (Appendix I.) 286. 
 206, 207. 
 125, 228. (Appendix I.) 281, 
 
 287. 
 
 VI 
 VIII 
 X 
 
 125, 194. 
 (Appendix I.) 286. 
 69. (Appendix I.) 280, 284. 

 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 301 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS (contd.) 
 
 CHAP. XIII I 128, 159. 
 
 XV i 22 3 23, 91, 125, 232, 261. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 2 CORINTHIANS 
 
 Ill 
 
 IV 
 XIII 
 
 GALATIANS 
 
 II 
 III 
 
 144. (Appendix I.) 281. 
 
 233- 
 
 75. 101. 
 
 36, 77- 
 152. 
 
 67. 
 
 EPHESIANS 
 
 II 16, 129, 172. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 iv 125. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 
 yj 
 
 16, 76, 122, 125. 
 
 17, 170. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 
 PHILIPPIANS 
 
 iv | 68, 159. 
 
 COLOSSIANS 
 
 I 112. 
 II | 125. 
 in ! 16, 67, 122, 210. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 
 1 THESSALONIANS 
 
 IV | (Appendix I.) 286. 
 
 2 THESSALONIANS 
 
 II | 125. 
 
 1 TIMOTHY 
 
 (Appendix I.) 287. 
 229.
 
 302 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 1 TIMOTHY (contd.) PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 CHAP. in i 25. (Appendix I.) 279. 
 IV 
 v 
 VI 
 
 2 TIMOTHY 
 
 III 
 IV 
 
 TITUS 
 
 173- 
 
 173- 
 52, 55- 
 
 55- 
 173- 
 
 HEBREWS 
 
 in 
 iv 
 
 IX 
 
 xii 
 xiii 
 
 25. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 125. 
 
 236. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 152. 
 
 101, 124. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 52,99. 
 
 JAMES 
 
 12. 
 
 32. 
 
 in 96, 1 88, 219, 252. 
 iv | 194. 
 V ! 54. (Appendix I.) 282. 
 
 1 PETER 
 
 III 
 
 1 66. 
 
 173- 
 
 44- 
 
 25, 173- 
 
 2 PETER 
 
 I | (Appendix I.) 281. 
 ill 52, 156, 252.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 33 
 
 1 JOHN 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 JUDE 
 
 PAGES OF THIS VOLUME 
 
 (Appendix I.) 284. 
 ill 54. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 IV 127, 196. (Appendix I.) 284. 
 
 I | 215. (Appendix I.) 285. 
 
 REVELATION 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 III 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VII 
 
 XI 
 
 XIV 
 
 XVII 
 
 XVIII 
 
 XIX 
 
 XX 
 
 XXI 
 
 XXII 
 
 4, Si, 173, 212, 252. 
 
 211, 212, 213, 214, 232. 
 
 149, 186, 212, 214, 215. 
 
 46, 76, 112, 146, 201, 206, 211. (Appendix I.) 
 280, 285. 
 
 77- 
 
 3- 
 
 199. 
 
 (Appendix I.) 280, 282. 
 
 1 66. 
 
 204. 
 
 250. (Appendix I.) 287. 
 
 66, 173, 234. (Appendix I.) 280. 
 
 4, 24, 52, 184, 195, 201, 211, 215, 228. (Appen- 
 dix I.) 280. 
 
 89,9, 137, H3. 149, 193. 195, 211, 214. (Ap- 
 pendix I.) 280, 281, 287. 
 
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