men. I became increasingly impressed with the potentiality and the relative idealism of American youth. I have noticed that in nine times out of ten when they fail of reaching worthy goals of character and achievement it is because of a lack of vital religion, and that this is particularly noticeable where home life has been shipwrecked as a result of impurity or other form of parental selfishness. I consequently plead with you today to see the danger that threatens our country from conditions which are disrupting home life, especially in our urban commu

nities. I hope that you will all realize in particular the seriousness of the divorce problem and try to meet it in every way in your power, but especially through upholding the sanctity of marriage, and through emphasizing Christian training. It is as true today as it was when it was originally stated by St. Paul, that "Other foundation [that is sure foundation] can no man lay than that is laid; namely, Jesus Christ." This foundation-the only sure basis for later character and service-can, speaking generally, be effectively laid only in the home.

M

ODERN revival of the art of symbolic interpretation is apparent in the work of sculptors at Washington Cathedral and in the plans for a more comprehensive scheme of Christian symbolism than exists in any American cathedral.

The finished product will be the work of many hands and minds. Clergy, architects, builders, modelers, and sculptors will contribute their ideas and technique. It will be diffi cult to segregate individual glory, to identify the Christopher Wrens, but that is not essential, for in the cathedral tradition the aim is always to build to the glory of God.

As an initiative force in art, religion was stronger in the past than

The time has passed when all education, all artistic interpretation, centered around the cathedral with which they began. Americans are not, perhaps, willing to consider seriously the influence upon art of cathedrals because there have been no outstanding cathedrals in the United States.

Reprinted from The Living Church, Milwaukee.

The center of artistic appreciation in the United States is still the home.

Yet as an agency for expressing in lasting monumental form the nation's religious faith the cathedral has no substitute, and to do this in the most artistic manner possible is the aim of Washington Cathedral Chapter. The philosopher projects his religious ideals in contemplation and translates them in word symbols. The artist communicates his ideas by pictorial symbols in sculpture, painting, and architecture. In cathedral figure sculpture the tradition of centuries of religious experience has developed an art somewhat unique in its modes of expression. Physical beauty, the ideal of the Greeks, is not the motif of Gothic religious art. The spiritual message is of primary importance; spiritual grace and beauty the ideal.

To understand what part symbolism plays in modern religious expres sion one must go to the Old Testament. The symbolism of the Jews was one of the most striking features of their religion. A mystical signi ficance was given even to the stones in the breastplates. The Flood, the

Architecture also has its figurative adaptations. The foundation is the Rock of Ages. Lime is fervent charity. Water is an emblem of the Spirit. The four walls are the Evangelists or the four cardinal virtues. The towers are the preachers. The glass windows are the Holy Scriptures. The lattice work represents the prophets. The door of the church is Christ. The piers are Bishops and Doctors.

Certain symbolic expressions belong to all peoples. The language of flowers illustrates this point. The possibilities of symbolic representation in stone are infinite. Its study is essential to the background of the artist who would work for cathedrals and churches.

Gothic lavishes exquisite detail in places where the eye must be raised to look for it. The general effect of the design is not lost by ornate and superficial adornment. Its subtleties are a decided contrast to much of our modern architecture in which every element of merit is made as conspicuous as a false mantelpiece. But of course a cathedral is designed as a place in which to linger, to observe, and to attune oneself to the infinite. The longer one lingers the greater the delight in fresh details. A finished cathedral teaches by its art that the beauty of God cannot be comprehended in a glance, and the vaulting bosses are a vital part of this lesson.

Sculptured ceilings five hundred feet long east and west, and two hundred and fifteen feet across at the

septs will greet the visitor to ngton Cathedral five years

hence. One thousand vaulting bosses will tell the story of Christianity. Even the heroic figures on five-ton stones will not reveal all their detail when viewed from the main floor of the nave ninety-three feet below. To tell a message at that distance there must at times be exaggerations of face and figure. A saint may drape himself around a boss in a miraculous manner in order that the person looking from far below may see all of him in one glance. Even such liberties toward saints may be excused in the cause of art.

The Nicene and Apostles' creeds will be the primary theme for the principal bosses in the nave vaulting. Each boss will represent an individual thought, ending in the apse in the east with a symbol of the gates of Heaven to represent "the life of the world to come. Subsidiary bosses will be ornamented with the emblems of the Apostles, the symbols of the Fathers of the early church, the nine orders of angels, from serphim and cherubim to archangels, and other groups of symbols. Volumes have been written on Christian symbolism, but now volumes will be carved in stone. Carved bosses have been a part of churches in the United States heretofore, but they have been purely decorative, the themes consisting mainly of plant forms based upon Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century examples. This will be the first time in American church architecture that a scheme of symbolism utilizing human figures has been used in vaulting bosses. The plan accepted by the Chapter of Washington Cathedral represents much research work by the cathedral clergy, by Frohman, Robb and Little, architects, and by Cram and Ferguson, consulting architects.

Recently a group of sculptors and carvers, under Lualdi, Incorporated, of Cambridge, transformed to the limestone vaults of the completed (Continued on page 29)