The Brookhaven leader., 1888-11-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Pointed Discourse on the Divine
Mission of Art.
Good Pictures Sermons in Themsselmcs-
Those Panderlng to Depraved Tastes
Had Better Never Have
Seen Light.

lyn Tabernacle THE Divine Mission OF
Pictures" His text was:
The way OF the Lord OF hosts shall be upon
all pleasure pctures-Isaiah, H., 1915.
Pictures are by some relegatS Il to the
realm OF the trivial, accid.ental, senti-
mental or worldly, but my text shows
that God scrutpizes pictures, and
whether they are good or bad, whether
used for righ.t or wrong purposes. is a
matter 81 Divine observation and ar
raignynent.
The Divine mission of pictures is my
subject.
That the artists pencil and the en-
graver's knife have sometimes been made
subservient TO the kingdom OF the bad is
frankly admitted. After the ashes and
scoria were removed from Herculaneum
and Pompeii the walls of those cities dis
covered TO the explorers degradation In
art which can not be exaggerated. Satan
aud all his imps have always wanted the
lingering of the easel; they would rather
have possession of that than the art of
printing, for types are not so potent aud
quick for evil as pictures. The powers of
darkness think they have gathered a
triumph, and they have, when, in some
respectable parlor or public art gallery,
they can hang a canvas embarrassing TO
the good, but fascinating to the OWL.
1t is not in spirit of prudery, but
backed up by Gods eternal truth, when |
say that you have no right to hang in
your art rooms or your dwelling houses
thst which would be offensive to good
people il the figures pictured were alive
in your parlor and the guests of your
household. A picture that you have to
hang in a somewhat secluded place, or
that in a public hall you can not with a
group of friends deliberately stand be-
fore and discuss ought to have n knife
stabbed into it at the top AMI cut clear
through to the bottom, and stout a ger
thrust in on the right side ripping
clear through to the lefts. Pliny, the
elder lost his life by p.Jing near enough
to see the inside OF Vesuvius, and the
further you car. stand off from the hui u
Ing crater e. sin tho better. Never till
the oooE5 of tie last day are opened shall
we kp0w what has been the dire harvest
OF evil pictorials and unhe coming art
galleries. Despoil q mans Imagination
and he becomes moral carcass. The
show window os English and Am srica"
sites in which the low theaters have come
dimes hung long lines of braaen actors and
actresses in style insulting to all pro-
priety. have made q broad path to death
tor multitudes of people. But so have all
the other arts becn at times suborned of
hviL How hos music been bedragSled' Is
shere any place 50 low down in dissoluteA
uess THAT into it has not been carried
DaviG's harp, and Hauders organ, and
Gottschalk's piano and Ole Bulls violin {
and the flute, which though named after
SO insignificant a thing rs the Sicllian
eel, which has seven spots on the side
like flute holes yetfor thousands of years
has had an exalted mission. Architect
ure, born in the heart of Him who made
the worlds, under its arches and across
Its toors what haccAanalian revelrie 5
have been cnactel$ II is not against any
of these arts that they have been SO led
Into captivity. What n poor world this
would be if it were not for what my text
calls pheasant pictures :" l refer to your
memory ami mlne when l ask If your
knowledge Of the Holy Scriptures has not
been nightly augmented by the wood
cuts or engraving in the old family Bible,
which father and mother read out of and
laid on the table in the old homestead
when YOU We're boys and girls?
The Bible scenes which we all carry in
Dur minds were not gotten from the Bible
typology, but from the Bible pictures, To
other day took up the old family Bible
which l inherited. Sure enough, what |
have carried in nay mind OF Jacobs lad
Ter was exactly the Bible engraving of
Jacobs ladder; and so with Samson carr
Tying off the gates of GAIA; Elisha re-
storing the Summarizes sons the mas
sacre of the innocentsi Christ blessing
little children; the CrucifixiOn and the
last judgment My idea OF all these is
that of the cid Bible engravings which ]
scanned before | could read word. That
is true with nine tenths of you. If | could
swing open the door OF your forehcads
would find hat you are walking picture
galleries. The great int lligenoe abroad
about the Bible did not come from the
general reading of tho book, for the IN a.
iority of the people read it but little, if
they re ad 1t 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 the achieve
plent. First, painters pencil for the IA
vored few, and then epgraver's plate or
wood cut for millions on millions. What
overwhelming commentary on the Bible;
what enforcement for patriarchs,
prophets. apostles and Christ; what dis :
ribution Of Scriptural knowledge of all
nations, in the paintings and engravings
therefrom of Holman Hunts Christ in
the Temple;" Paul Veroneso's Mag
dalen Washing the Feet OF Christi"
Raphael's michael the Archaugel;"
Albert Durer's Dragon Of the Apoca-
lypse;" Michael Angeles plague of the
Fiery Serpents;" Tintoret's "Flight into
Egypt;" Rubens' "Descont from the
Cross" Leonardo da Vinc.'s 'Iast Sup
per;" Claude's Queen OF Sheba;"
Bellini's "Madonna ut Milan;" Orcagna's
Last Judgment" and hundreds of miles
of pictures if they were put in line, illus =
trating, displaying, dramatizing, If =
radiating Bible truths until the Scriptures
are not to-day SO much on paper as on
canvas, not SO much in ink as in all the
colors of the spectrum. In 1888, forth
from Stra sburg, Germany, there came a
child that was to eclipse in speed and
boldness and grapdeur any thing and
every thing tn the world had
seen since the first color APP
peared on the sky at the creation,
Paul Gustav Dore. At eleven years of
age he published marvellous Autographs
Of his own. Saying nothing of what he
did for Milton's paradise Lost" en-
blazoning it on the attention Of the
world, he takes up the Book of books, the
monarch of literature, the Bible and in
his pictures, 'The Creation of Llght, A"
"The Trial of Abraham's Faith" The
Burial of Sarah" Joseph Sold by His
Brethren" "The Brdzen Serpent" "Boaz
and Ruth" David and Goliath" The
TRANSPORTATION" "The Marriage in
Cana and turn hun