One of the marginal headings in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy consists of these three words (p. 516): "Love imparts beauty." The paragraph having this significant caption reads in part as follows: "God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light." We note at once that the beauty which Love imparts is spiritual, or, in other words, eternal. This beauty never fades. The passing of time has no effect upon it. No signs of age, no blight of imperfection, no implanting of the seeds of erroneous belief that would tend towards discord or decay, are included in this impartation. Love's manifestation is wholly divine.
The beauties of so-called nature are temporal and finite, yet in their promise they furnish to the human sense an abundance of inspiration. Who in contemplating them has not found lessons of spiritual beauty and loveliness? At early dawn one may see the rose-tinted hues of the eastern sky betokening the coming of day. As the rays of light grow brighter and brighter, it is as though myriads of diamonds were sending forth their scintillations, for the sun, now above the horizon, is mirrored in each tiny dewdrop. There is gladness in the azure sky as the morning unfolds towards the noontide. Look wherever one may, there is beauty— beauty in the landscape, beauty in the rose bud and bloom, beauty in the trees, in the plumage of birds and in their exultant songs of gladness; beauty in the smiles and in the laughter of children at play. What wondrous beauty! And the lovely colorings of the rainbow, the sheen upon the surface of the placid lake, as the moon gently sends forth its soft light, reflecting faithfully the splendor of the sun! What inspiration may one receive from contemplating the ocean's depths, the vastness of space, the steadfastness of the stars. And yet, through contemplating these things, we discern but dimly the beauty of that which is spiritual, permanent, abiding.
In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 86) our beloved Leader has written, "My sense of the beauty of the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is something to be desired;" and, "The pleasant sensations of human belief, of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and earth, the harmony of body and Mind." And again: "Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the grandeur of Spirit."
