News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-11-08
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DR.. TALMAGES
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject 1.-The Living Mission of
Pictures"

Isaiah IL, parts of the 18th and 10th verses.
Pictures are by some relcgated to the realm
of the trivial, accidental, sentimental or
worldly, but my text shows that God scru-
tini1eS pictures and whether they are good
are bad whether used for right or wrong
purposes is a matter of Divine observation
and arraignmeHt. The divine mission of
pictures is my subject.
That the artist pencil and the engravers
knife have sometimes Eeen made subSeryient
to the kingdom of the lad is frankly admit
ted. After the ashes and scOria were re-
moved from Herculaneum and Pompeii the
walls of those cities discovered to the eXplor-
erS degradation in art which cannot be ex-
Rggerated Satan and all his imps have al
ways wanted the lingering of the easel; they
would rather have possession of that than the
art of printing, for types are not so potent
and quick for evil as pictures The powers
of darkness think they have gained tri-
umph, and they have, when in some respect
able parlor or public art gallery they can
hang canvas embarrassing to the good, but
fascinating to the evil
1t is not in spirit of prudery, but backed
up by Gods eternal truth when l say that
you have no right to hang in your art rooms
or your dwelling houses that which would
be offensive to good people if the figures pic
tured We're alive in your parlOr and the
guests of your househo d. A picture that
you have to hang in a somewhat secluded
place, or that in a public hall you cannot with
group of friends deliberately stand before
anu DISCUSS, ought TO nave a knife stabbed
INTO 1t at the top and cut clear through to
the bottom, and a stout finger thrust in on
the right side ripping clear through to the
left Pliny, the elder. lost his life by going
near enough to see the inside of Nesuvius,
and the further you can stand off from the
Never TIL the Books of the Last Day
are opened shall we know what has
been the dire harvest of evil pictorials and
unbccomng art galleries DeSpoil n mans
ba harOD1nS
The show windows of English and American
cities in which the low theatres have some
times hung long lines of brazen actors and
actresses IN style insulting to all propriety,
have made broad path t. death for multi
tudes of people. But SO have all the other
arts Eeen at times Suborned of evil. How
has music been bedraggledl Is there any
place so low down in di>soluteneSs that into
it has not teen carried Davids harp and
HandeIs organ, and Gottschalk'S D ano and
Ole Bulls violin; and the flute, which though
named after so insignificant thing as the
Sicilian eel, which has seven spots on the
side Ike flute holes, vet for thousands of
years has had an exalted mission. Architec-
ture, born in the heart of Him who made the
worlds, under its acres and across its floors
what bacchanalian revelries have been en-
acted! lt is not against any of these arts
that they have been so led into captivity
What poor world this would be if it were
not for what my text calls pleasant pct-
ureS" L refer to your memory and
mine when l ask if your knowledge
of the Holy Scriptures has not
been nightly augmented by the woodcuts
or engraVinss i'll the old family Bible which
father and mother read out of, and laid on
the table in the old homestead when YOU
were boys and girls The Bible scenes which
We all carry in our minds were not gotten
from the Bible typoogy, but from the Bible
pictures To prove the truth of it in my
own case, the other day | took up tie old
family Bible, which inherited. Sure enough,
what L have carried in nv mind of Jacobs
ladder was exactly the Bible engraving of
Jacobs ladder; and so with Samson CARRYING
off the gates of GAIA; Elisha restoring
the Summarizes son; the massacre of
the innocents; Christ blessing little
children; the Crucifxion and the
Last Judgment My idea of all these is that
of the old Bible engravings which j scanned
before could rend word That is true
with nine tenths of You. II could swing
open the door of your foreheads | would find
that you are walking picture galleries. The
great intelligence abroad about the Bible
did not come from the general reading of the
book, for the a.ority of the people read it
but little, If they read it at all: but all the
sacred scenes have been put before the great
masses, and not printers ink but the
pictorial art must have the credit of tho
ach evement First, painters pencil for the |
favored few, and then engraver's plate or |
woodcut for millions on millionsI What |
overwhelming commentary on the Bible
what reinforcement for patriarchs prophets, |
apostles and Christ, what distribution of
Scriptural knowledge of all nations in the
paintings and engravings therefrom of
Holman Hunts "Christ in the Templs;n Paul
Y erOnese's -'Magdaltn Washing the Feet of
Christi Raphael's Michael the Archangel:n
N Ai,.Haa pureET Dragon OF the Apocalypse
Fiery Serpents.'' Tintorets Flight into !
Egypt Ruben's Descent from the Cross - !
Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper Claude's |
Queen of Sheba;" Bellini's Madonna at |
Milan" Orcagnas Last Judgment" and |
hundreds of miles of pictures if they were
put IN line, illustrating, displaying, drama
tizing. irradiating Bible truths until the
ecrlptures are not to day so much on paper
Is on canvas, not so much in ink as in all the
colors of the spectrum. In 1898 forth from
Strasburg, Germany, there came a child that
was to eclipse in speed ami boIduess and
anything and everything that the
world had seen since the nrss color
appeared on the sky at the crea-
ton, Paul Gustav Dore. At eleven
years of age he published marvellous ltho.
graphs Of his own. Saying nothing Of what
he did for Millions Paradise Lost, "emblnznn-
ing it on the attention of tho world he takes
up tbs Book OF Books, the monarch or litera-
ture, the Bible, and in his pictures, Tho
Creation of Light The Trial OF Ahraham's
Faith" ''The Burial of Sarah, "Joseph Sold
by his Brethren 'Tho Rrayen Serpent
.'Boaz and Ruth, , David and Goliath, 4" The
Transformation" The Marriage in Cana"
Babylon Falen,n and two hundred and
five SCrptural scenes in all. with boldne,s
and a grasp aud almost superna 'ural afTiatus
that make the heart throb. and the brain
reel, and the tears start, and the cheeks
blanch, and the entire natu~ -,IaIe with the
tremendous things of Col q. Il eternity and
the dead. l actually staggered down the
steps of the London Art Gallery under the
power of DOres Christ leaving the
PrRtorium." Profess you to be Christian
man or woman. and see no divine mission in
art, and acknowledge you no obligation
either in thanks to God or mani
1t IS no more the word of God when put
before US in printers ink than by skilfuly !
laying on of colors or designs on metal
through incision or corrosion. What lesson
IN morals was presented by Hogarth, the
painter, in his two pictures, "The Rakes
Progress, and THE Miser's Feast" and Inv
Thomas Coles engravings of the Voyage Of
Human Life, and the Course of Empire: n
and by Turner's Slave Ship" God in Art
Christ in Art! Patriarcbs. prophets and
apostles IN art! Angels in art! Heaven in
art
The world and the church ought to come
to the higher appreciation of the divine
mission OF pictures, yet the authors of them
have generally been left to semi starvation.
West, the great painter. toiled in unappre-
citation till, being a great skater, while on
the ice he formed the acquaintance of General
Howe, of the English army, and through
coming TO admire West as skater
they gradually came to appreciate as
much that which he accomplished by his
nduI DY Ills Ueel- IOuSSln, the mighty
painter, was pursued and had nothing with
which to defend himself against the mob but
the artists portfolio, which he held over his
head to keep off the stones hurled at him.
The pictures of Richard Wilson, of England
were sold for fabulous sums of money after
his death. but the living painter
was glad TO get for his "Alcyone' piece OIL
StiltOn cheese. From 1910 to 1913 there were
400 pictures willfully destroyed In the
reign If Queen Elizabeth it was the habit of
TO Of fI,air ~, /
reign of Char'es the First it was
ordered by Parliament that all pictures
If Christ be burnt Painters were so
1adly treated and Inundated in the begin
hing of the eighteenth century that they
we're lowered clear down out of the sublimity
If their art, and obliged to give :1inute
accounts of what they did with their colors,
Is painters bill which came to publication
n Scotland, in 1907, indicated. The painter
lad been touching up some old pictures
n the church, and he sends in this itemized !
.hink in the Red Sea and repairing the dam
Iges to Ptaroah's host" ito new pair of
lands for Daniel in the lions den, and a new
ct of teeth for the liOness:" ito repairing
beard :" ito giving a blu
o the cheek of Eve on presenting the apple
o ADAM" ito making a bride for the Good
Samaritan's horse, and mending one of his
egS;" ito putting on a new handle on
Noses basket and fitting bulrushes, and
dding more fuel to the fire in Ncbuchad.
lezzars furnace So painters were humil.
ated clear down below the majesty of their
TT The Oldest picture in England, a por-
RAFT OF Chaucer, though now of great value, ,
vas picked out of a lumber garrett. Great
we're the trials OF Quentin Matsys, who tOiIed
n from blacksmiths anvil. till as painter
q won wide recognition. The first mission ,
ries to Mexico made the fatal mistake
destroying pictures, for the loss of which !