The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-11-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Weekly Disoourses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: 'sThc Divine Mission
Of Pictures.,
TEXT: "7he ,cav of the Lord of Hosts
shall be upon all pleasant pictures. b.
Isaiah H., parts of the 10Th and 18th verses.

TEXT: "The tpav of the Lord of Hosts
shdu De upon all pleasant pictures.h-
Isaiah H., parts of the 18th and 10th verses.
Pictures are by some relegated to the realm
OF the trivial, accidental sentimental or
worldly, but my text shows that God scru-
tinizes pictures, and whether they are good
are bad, whether used for right or wrong
purposes, is matter Of Divine observation
and arraignment. The divine mission of
pictures is my subject.
That the artists pencil and the engraver's
knife have sometimes been made subservient
to the kingdom of the had is frankly admit
ted. After the ashes and scoria were re,
moved from Herculaneum and Pompeii tho
walls OF those cities discovered to the explor-
ers degradation in art which cannot be ex-
aggerated 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-
uinph, 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 / say that
you have no right to hang in your art rooms
or your dwelling houses that which would
be offensive ogood 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 public hall you cannot with
group of friends deliberately stand before
and discuss, ought to have knife stabbed
into it at tine top and cut clear through to
the bottom, and 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 Vesuvius,
and the further you can stand off from the
Never till the Books of the Last Day
are opened shall we know what has
been the dire harvest of evil pictorials and
unbecoming art galleries Despoil a mans
imagination and he becomes moral carcass.
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 to death for multi
tudes 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 teen carried Davids harp and
Handel's organ, and Gottschalk's PIANO 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 like flute holes, yet 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! 1t 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 pict-
uresm | refer to your memory and
| mine when l ask if your knowledge
of the Holy Scriptures has not
\ .sr~l.t l..- IL.
| 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 our minds were not gotten
from the Bible typology, but from tho 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 carrying
off the gates of GAIA; Elisha restoring
the Summarizes son; the massacre of
the innocents; Christ blessing little
Last Judgment. My idea of all these is that
of the old Bible engravngs which | scanned
; before | could read word That is true
with nine-tenths of You. If could swing
! open the door of your foreheads would find
that you are walking picture galleries. The
! SIedO iIleIllSbnCS uDTOau dUOuU Ine BlDl6
did not come from the general 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
ach evement First, painters pencil for the
favored few, and then engraver's plate or
woodcut for millions on millions! 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 Temple;n Paul
Christi" Raphael's michael the Archangel;'
Albert Dlrer's Dragon of the Apocalypse;' p
Michael Angeles plague Of the
Fiery Serpents" Tintoret's "Flight into
Egypt" Ruben's descent from tho Cross'
Leonardo Da Vincis Last Supper Claude.
Queen of Sheba;" Belni's Madonna al
Milan" Orcagna's Last Judgment" and
hundreds of miles of pictures if they were
put in line, illustrating, displaying, drama
tizing. irradiating 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 1883 forth from
Strasburg, Germany, there came a child that
grandeur anything and everything that tht
world had seen since the first colol
appearei on the SKY at the crea-
years of age he published marvellous litho
graphs of his own. Saying nothing of what
he did for Millions Paradise Lost, emblazon
ing it on the attention of the world, he take
up the Book of Books, the monarch of litera
ture, the Bible, and in his pictures, "Th,
Creation of Light, 1.-The Trial of Abraham'
Faith" The Burial of Sarah, "Joseph Solt
by his Brethren "The Brazen Serpent,
"Boaz and Rnth,' David and Goliath, I" 9Th,
transformation THE Marriage in Cana,
Babylon Fallen,n and two hundred ant
five Scrptural scenes in all, with boldnes
and grasp and almost supernatural affIatu
that make the heart throb. and the braiI
reel, and the tears start, and the cheek
banch, and the entire nature quake with th
tremendous things of God and eternity ant
the dead. / actually staggered down tn
steps of the London Art Gallery under tn
power of Dore's ''Christ leaving tn
Pratorium." Profess you TO be Christian
man or woman. and see no divine mission il
art, and acknowledge you no obligation
either in thanks to God or MANI
It is no moro the word of God when pu
before us in printers ink than by skillfull,
laying on of colors or designs on meta
through incision or corrosion. What lessol
in morals was presented by Hogarth, tn
painter, in his two pictures, "The Rake
|
Thomas Coles engravings of the Voyage o
Human Life, and the Course of Empire;
and by Turner's Slave Ship God in Art
Christ in Artl Patriarchs, prophets an,
apostles in art! Angels in art! Heaven il
ert'
The world ana the church ought 70 CON
to the higher appreciation Of the divin
mission OF pictures, yet the authors of then
have generally been left to semi istarvation
West, the great painter, toiled in unappre
ciation till, being a great skater, while OF
the ice he formed the acquaintance of Genera
Howe, of the English army, and throug
coming to admire West as a skater
they gradually came to appreciate a
much that which he accomplished by hi
hand as by his heel. Poussin, the might,
painter, was pursued, and had nothing witt
which to defend himself against the mob bu
the artists portfolio, which he held over hi
rad TO keep off the stones hurled at him
The pictures of Richard Wilson, of England
were sold for fabulous sums of money afte
his death. but the living painte
was glad to get for his "Alcyono" piece o
Stilton cheese. From 1910 to 1913 there wer
400 pictures willfully destroyed In tb
reign Of Queen Elizabeth it was the habit o
some people to spend much of their time il
knocking pictures to pieces. In tn
rein of Char,es the First it wa
ordered by Parliament that all picture
of Christ be burnt Painters were s