The Odessa herald. (Odessa, Del.) 1888-1892, 1888-11-03
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject, 'Thc Divine Mission of
Pictures.n

isaiah L., parts Of the 18th and 10th verses.
Pictures are by some relegated TO the realm
1f the trivial, accidental sentimental or
but my text shows that God scru-
tinizes pictures, and whether they are good
are bad, whether used for right or wrong
and arreignment. The divine mission OF
pictures is my subject
That the artists pencil and the engrayer's
knife have sometimes been made subservient
to the Kingdom of the bad 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-
aggerated Satan and all his imps have all
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-
unph, and they have, when In some respects
able parlor or public art gallery they can
hang canvas embarrassing to the good, but
fascinating to the.evil
It is not in a 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 togood people il the figures pic
tured were alive in your parlor and the
guests Of your household A picture that
you have to hang in somewhat secluded
place, or that in public hall you cannot with
and discuss, ought to have a knife stabbed
into it at the top and cut clear through to
the bottom, and q 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
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 and
al arf
imagination and he becomes a 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 a 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 been carried Davids harp, and
Handels 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
1 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 IL 1t were
not for what my text calls pleasant pict-
uresm l refer to your memory and
mine when / ask II your knowledge
Of the Holy Scriptures has not
been nightly augmented by the woodeuts
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
pictures. To prove the truth of il in my
own case, the other day tQok up the old
family Bible which inherited NSure enough,
what have carried in my mi, 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 Crucifixion and the
Last Judgment. My idea of all these is that
before could read a 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
great intelligence abroad about the Bible
did not come from the general reading of the
! book, for the majority Of the people read il
but little if they read it at ALL but all thu
sacred scenes have been put before the great
| masses, and not printers ink but tht
: pictorial art must have the credit of til.
achievements First, painters pencil for thu
,, favored few, and then engrayer's plate, o.
woodcut for millions on millonsi Wtia
overwhelming commentary on the Bible
t. what reinforcement for patriarchs, prophets
apostles and Christ, what distribution 0
: 6criptural knowledge of all nations, in tn
a paintings and engravings therefrom o
:, Holman Hunts "Christ in the Temple;n Pau
Veronese's 'Magdalen Washing the Feet Q
r CHRISTI Raphaefs michael the Archangel;
d Albert Durer's dragon of the Apocalypse;
! Michael Angeles "Plague OF tn
9 Fiery Serpentsm Tintoret's "Flight int
Egypt;n' Rnbens Descent from the Cross:
Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper;n Claude
) sQuoen of Sheba;n Bellini's Madonna Q
It hundreds Of miles Of pictures if they WEI
l. put in line, illustrating, displaying, drami
tizng, irradiating Bible truths until IL
Scriptures are not to-day so much on papt
n as on canvas, not SO much in ink as in all ii
colors of the spectrum. In 1888 forth fro
Strasburg, Germany, there came child tht
Is was to eclipse in speed and boldness an
ia grandeur anything and everything that Il
ar world had seen since the first COLI
y appeared on the sky at the cret
y ton, Paul Gustav Dore. At elevt
years of age he published marvellous 18th
graphs of his own. Saying nothing of VIII
in he did for Millions Paradise Lost, emblazo
n ing it on the attention of the world, he tax
A up this Book of Books, the monarch of liter
ture, the Bible, and in his pictures, "T
Creation of Light" 1.-THE Trial of Abraham
Faith" 1.-THE Burial Of Sarah" Joseph So
by his Brethren" The BraSen Serpent IG
L
TRANSPORTATION "The Marriage in Cana
m Babylon Fallen" and two hundred al
A five Scriptural scenes in all, with boldnt
and grasp and almost supernatural afat
3D. that make the heart throb, and the bra
reel, and the tears start, and the chez
'rs blanch, and the entire nature quake with t
tremendous things of God and eternity al
rec the dead. actually staggered down t
steps of the London Art Gallery under t
iaS Prntorium." Profess you to be Christi
g., man OF woman, and see no divine mission
for art, and acknowledge you no obligati
either in thanks to God or mani
ids IL is no more the word of God when T
before us in printers ink than by skillfu
WIN laying on of colors, or designs on me
in through incision or corrosion. What less
in morals was presented by Hogarth, I
;.L painter, In his two pictures, "The Rak
l1n Progress, and "The Misers Feast:n and
'ne Thomas Coles engravings Of the Voyage
Human Lie. and the Course of Empir
de- and by Turner's Slave Ship.n God in A
.esirt Christ in Artl Patriarchs, prophets a
apostles in artl Angels in artl Heaven
, in artl
ON
The world and the church ought to CO
,Ilv to the higher appreciation of the div
TO mission of pictures, yet the authors Of tn
have generally been left to semi-starvati
;m West, the great painter, toiled in unapp
vi VII citation till, being great skater, while
IL the ice he formed the acquaintance of Gene
Howe, of the English army, and thror
no coming to admire West as a skat
ing they gradually came to appreciate
ton much that which he accomplished by
:, hand as by his heel. Poussin, the migl
lion painter, was pursued, and had nothing W
un- which to defend himself against the mob
in the artists portfolio which he held over
head to keep off the stones hurled at h
ems The pictures of Richard Wilson, of Engla
zen were sold for fabulous sums Of money al
Dor his death. but the living pair
was glad to get for his "Alcyone' piec,
Y at Stilton cheese. From 1910 to 1913 there "
mass 400 pictures willfully destroyed, In
the reign Of Queen Elizabeth it was the habi
some people to spend much Of their time
pest knocking pictures to pieces In
!; at reign Of Charles the First it
ling ordered by Parliament that all pictl
of Christ be burnt. Painters were
ion badly treated and Inundated in the be
, 10y ming of the eighteenth century that
;ned were lowered clear down out of the sublin
,ar;. of their art, and obliged to give mir
accounts of what they did with their col
ms a Dainter's hill which came to publica