e Redeemer!"

The holy Grail, the symbol of the Savior, has at last been rescued
from hands defiled by guilt--has been redeemed.

Such is the short sketch of the grand as well as profoundly
significant dramatic action of the artist's last work! It is easy to
see that the figures and actions are but a parable. They symbolize the
ideas and periods of human development. Nay more, the phases and
powers of human nature are here disclosed to view. It is the inner
history of the world which ever repeats itself and by which mankind is
always rejuvenated. The pure and restored genius of the nation arises
anew to its real nature. Its lance heals the wound which we have
received at the hands of the other--the evil and foreign genius. It is
this pure genius which all, even the dead and the dying, hail as King,
and do homage to new deeds of blessing. Next to religion itself,
it was art which more than all else constantly brought to the
consciousness of humanity the ideals which originated with the former,
and here art even entered literally into the service of divine truth.
The lance, which signifies the mastery over the spirits, was wrested
from the dominating powers. Serious harm indeed and spiritual
starvation have followed as the consequence of our falling in every
sphere of life under the control of the elements that frivolously play
with our supreme ideals. Art, which springs from the purest genius of
mankind, seems destined now to be the first to regain the lance and
heal the wasting wound. For is not religion divided into warring
factions and science into special cliques, jealous of each other? The
church does not prevail in the struggle against the evil powers here
or elsewhere, and has long ceased to satisfy the mind. The increasing
tendency to pursue special studies creates indifference for such
supreme ethical questions. It is art alone that has gained new
strength from within itself. We have seen it in portraying this one
mighty artist, in the irresistible force, in the longing and hoping,
in the indestructible, faithful affection for his people, which must
dominate all who have retained the feeling for the purely human.
Should not art then be destined to awaken, among the cultured at
least, a vivid renewal of the consciousness of the sublime for which
we are fitted and in whose slumbering embrace we are held? Eternal
truth ever selects its own means and ways to reveal itself anew to
mankind. "The ways of the Lord are