Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-11-09
MISSION OF PICTURES.
A SERMON ny THE REV. T. DE WITT
TAlMAGE
American Cities Need Great Galleries of
Paintinss-Men of Wealth Should Build
in the Place of Their Residence Thrones
for American Art,

subject-"The Divine Mission Of Pictures .
Textile day of the Lord of Hosts shall be
upon all pleasant pictures Isaiah 2, Xii-AVi.
Pictures are by some relegated to the
realm of the trivial. accidental. senti-
mental, or worldly, but my text shows
that God scrutinizes pictures, and
whether they are good or bad, whether
used for right or wrong purposes, is a
matter of divine observation and ar
raignment.
That the artist IS pencil and the engrav-
er's knife have sometimes been made
subservient to the kingdom of the bad
is frankly admitted. After the ashes
and scoria were removed from Hercu-
1aneum and Pompeii the wall of those
cities discovered to the explorers a deg
radiation in art which cannot be exagger-
'ated. Satan and all his imps have al
ways wanted the lingering of the easel;
they would rather have possession of
are not so potent and quick for evil as
pictures. The powers of darkness think
they have gained triumph. and they
have. when in some respectable parlor
or public art gallery they can hang q
canvass embarrassing to the good, but
fascinating to the evil.
It is not in spirit of prudcry, but
backed up by Gods eternal truth, when
1 say 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 pictured were alive in your
parlor and the guests of your household.
A picture that you have to hang ill y
somewhat secluded place, or that in a
public hall you cannot with group of
friends deliberately stand before and dis
cuss, 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 see the in
side 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 arc opened shall We know
what has been the dire harvest of evil
Epictorials and unbecoming art galleries.
lDespoil a mans imagination and he be-
comes a moral carcass. The shop VIM
dows of English and American cities in
which fife low thentres have sometimes
hung long lines of braZen actors and
spriety have made Il broad path to deaf
for multitudes of people. But so have
all other arts been at times suborned of
evil. How has music been bedraggled!
Is there any place SO low down i'll dis
soluteness that into it has not been car
ried David's harp, and Handels organ,
Gottschalk' S piano. and Ole Bulls violin;
and the flute, which. though named after
$50 insignificant a 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 rev.
elries have been enacted. 1t is not
against any of these arts that they have
world this would be if it were not for
what my text calls pleasant pictures!
i refer to your memory and mine when I
ask if your knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures has not been nightly aug
mented by woodcuts or engravings in
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 oul
minds were not gotten from the
Bible typology, but from the Bible
pictures. To prove the truth of it in my
own case. the other day 1 took up the
old family Bible which 1 inherited
Sure enough. what have carried in my
mind Of Jacobs ladder was exactly the
Bible engraving of Jacobs ladder: and
SO with Samson carrying of the gates OF
son: the massacre Of the innocents;
Christ blessing little children; the cru
cifxion and the last Judgment. My ides
of all these is that of the old Bible en-.
cravings which 1 scanned before [ coulc
read a word. That is true with nine.
tenths of you. If 1 could swing oper
the door of your foreheads 1 would fine
that you are walking picture galleries
The great intelligence abroad about the
Bible did not come from the genera
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, ant
not printers ink, but the pictorial art
must have the credit ofthe achievement
First, painters pencil for the favored
cut for millions on millions! VIVA
overwhelming commentary on the Bible
what enforcement for patriarchs
prophets, apostles, and Christ, what dis
tribution of scriptural knowledge of al
nations, in the paintings and engraving
therefrom of Holman Hunts Christ il
the Temple" Paul Veronese's "Magdale1
Washing the Feet Of Christ" Raphael.
Michael, the Archangel," Albert Durer'.
Dragon of the Apocalypse" Nichae
Angeles Plague of the Fiery Serpents,
Tintorets Flight into Egypt" Rubens
Descent from the Cross" Leonardo d.
Vinci's Last Supper" Claude's "Quee,
of Sheba." Bellini's Madonna at Milan.
Orcagna's Last Judgment" and hun
dreds of miles of pictures if they wcr,
put in line, illustrating, displaying
dramatizing, irradiating Bible truths
until the Scriptures are not to- day s,
much on paper as on canvas. not so mucl
in ink as in all the colors of the spec
trum. In 1888 forth from Strasburs
Germany, there came child that was t,
eclipse i'll speed and boldness an.
grandeur anything and everything tina
the world had seen since the first colo
appeared on the sky at the creation. Pan
Gustav Dore. At IL years of age he pub
lished marvellous Autographs of hi
own. Saying nothing of what he did TO
Millions Paradise Lost" emblazonin,
it on the attention Of the world. lie take
up the Book of books, the monarch o
literature, the Bible, and in his pictures
THE Creation of Light, The Trial o
Abrahsm's Faith, "The Burial of Sarah,
Joseph Sold by His Brethern," 9TH
Braxen Serpent" -Boaz and Ruth,