Milford chronicle., 1888-11-02

l.
Talmage, D. D., preached at the Tabernacle
this morning. A vast congregation attended
the service. The pastor expoundeda a chapter
about the room Of imagery in Ezekiel after
which the hymn beginning;
Thine earthly sabbaths, Lord, we love,
But there's a nobler rest above,
was sung Professor Browne presided at the
grand organ and rendered a concerto in B
fat by Handel The subject of DIR. Tai
mage's discourse was "The Divine Mission Of
Pictures His text was Isaiah, chapter 2,
parts Of the Twelfth and sixteen verses: "The
day Of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon all
pleasant pictures" He said
Pictures are by some relegated to the realm
Of the trivial, accidental, sentimental or
worldly, but my text shows that God scruti-
nizes pictures, and whether they are good or
bad, whether used for right or wrong pur-
poses, is a matter Of divine observation and
Rrraignment.
That the artists pencil and the engraver's
knife have sometimes been made subservient
70 the kingdom Of the bad is frankly adj
mitted. After the ashes and scoria were re-
moved from Herculaneum and Pompeii the
walls OF those cities discovered to the explor
ers a degradation in art which cannot be e2-
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 a triumph,
and they have, when in some respectable
pArlor or public art gallery they can hang
canvas embarrassing to the good, but fas-
cinating to the evil.
1t is not in a spirit Of prudery, but backed
up by Gods eternal truth, when I 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 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 cannot
with a group of friends deliberately stand
before and discuss, ought to have knife
stabbed into it 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 sec
the inside of Vesuvius, and the further
you can stand off from the burning crater
of sin, the better. Never till the Books of
the Last Day are opened shall we know what
has been the dire harvest of evil pictorials
mans imagination and he becomes moral
carcass. The shop windows Of English and
American cities in which the low theatres
have sometimes hung long lines Of brazen
actors and actresses in style insulting to all
propIiety have made broad path to death
for multitudes of people. But so have all
the other arts been at times suborned of evil.
How has music been bedraggledl Is there
any place so low down in dissOluteness that
into it has not been carried David's harp and
Handels organ and Gottschalks piano and
Ole Bulls violin; and the flute, which though
named after so Insignificant Il thing as the
Sicilian eel, which has seven spots on the
side like flute holes yet for thousands of
years has had an exalted mission. Archi-
lecture, born in the heart of Him who made
the worlds, under its arches and across its
floors what bacchanalian revelries have been
enactedl 1t is not against any Of these arts
that they have been so led into captivity.
What a poor world this would be if it were
not for what my text calls pleasant pict-
uresr' 1 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 engravings 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 we're not gotten from
the Bible typology, but from the Bible
pictures To prove the truth of it in my
own case, the other day l took up the old
family Bible which inherited. Sure enough,
what have carried in my mind Of Jacobs
ladder was exactly the Bible engraving of
Jacobs ladder; and so with Samson carry
D fnor OFT ba # forF
the Shunamites son; the massacre of tho
innocents; Christ blessing little children; the
crucifxion and the last Judgment My idea
of all these is that Of the old Bible engrav-
ings which 1 scanned before 1 could read a
word. That is true with nine-tenths of you.
If l could swing open the door of your fore
I heads l would find that you are walking pict-
ure galleries. The great intelligence abroad
about the Bible did not come from the gen
eral reading Of the book, for the majority 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 the achievement. First, painters
pencil for the favored few, and then en-
graver's plate or wood cut for millions on
millionsl What overwhelming commentary
/ on the Bible, what reinforcement for patri-
archs, prophets, apostles and Christ, what
distribution of scriptural knowledge Of all
nations, in the paintings and engravings
therefrom of Holman Hunts "Christ in the
Temple Paul Veronese's "Nagdalen Wash
/ ing the Feet Of Christ" Raphaels Michael,
/ the Archangel," Albert Durer's dragon Of
the Apocalypse" Michael Angeles "Plague
| OF the Fiery Serpents;' Tintoret's "Flight
into Egypt;n Rubens' descent from the
I - &
| Claude'S "Queen of Sheba;n Bellini's MA
donna at Milan;n Orcagna's "Last Judg-
ment,n and hundreds Of miles of pictures if
they were put in line, illustrating, display
ing, dramatizing, irrradiating Bible truths
until the Scriptures are not today so much
on paper as 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 and bold
ness and grandeur anything and everything
that the world had seen since the first color
appeared on the sky at the creation, Paul
Gustav Dore. At IL years Of age he pub
lished marvellous Autographs Of his own.
Saying nothing of what he did for Millions
"Paradise LOST emblazoning it on the at
tention-of the world, he takes up the Book OF
books, the monarch Of literature, the Bible,
and in his pictures "The Creation Of Light,
''The Trial Of Abraham's Faith, " "The Burial
of Sarah" Joseph Sold by His Brethren, !"
'Tho Brazen Serpent" "Boaz and Ruth,
"David and Goliath, !" "The TRANSPORTATION, u
''The Marriage in Cana, ~ Babylon Fallen,
Gnd eos scriptural scenes in all. with Q bold.
ness and grasp and almost supernatural
nfiintus that make the heart throb, and the
brain recl, and tho tears start, and
the cheeks blaneh, and the entire nature
quake with the tremendous things Of God
and eternity and the dead. actually stag
gered down the steps Of the London Art Gal
lery under the power Of Dore's Christ Leav
ing the Pretorium" Profess you to be a
Christian man or woman, and see no divine
III ission in art, and acknowledge you no obi
CATION either in thanks 10 God or mann
It is no more the word of God when pu
before US in printers ink than by skilitul lay
ing on Of colors, OF designs on metal through
4 iucisiou or cOrrosiOn What a lesson II