Sharp County record., 1888-11-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Pointed Discourse on the Divine
Mission OF Art.
Good Pictures sermons in Themselves
Those Pandering to Depraved> >IABeS
Had Better Never Have
Seen Light.

IlCluEOS. Ills ICAt was
The way of the Lord OF hosts shall be upon
all pleasure pictures.-Isaiah, H., l2-l6,
Pictures are by some relegated to the
realm OF the trivial, accidental, sentl-
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
matter of Divine observation and ar
raignment.
The Divine mission of pictures IS my
subject.
That the artists pencil and the en-
gravey's knife have sometimes been made
subservient to the kingdom Of the bad IS
frankly admitted After the ashes. and
scoria were removed from Herculdneum
and Pompeii the walls of those cities dis
covered to the explorers degradation in
art which can not be exaggerated Satan
and all his imps have always wa 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 gathered
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 evil.
1t 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 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 in a somewhat secluded place, or
that in a public hall you can not with
group of friends deliberately stand be-
fore and discuss ought to have knife
stabbed into it at the 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 bum
ing 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 unbecoming art
galleries. Despoil mans imagination
and he becomes a moral carcass. The
show window Of English and American
cities in which the low theaters have some-
times hung long lines of brazen actors and
actresses in style insulting to all pro-
priety, have made broad path to death
for multitudes Of people. ButsO have all
the other arts been at times suborned of
evil. How has music been bedraggled! Is
there any place so low down in dissolute-
ness that into it has not been carried
David's harp, and HandePs organ, and
Gottschalk's piano and Ole Bulbs violin;
and the flute, which though named after
so insignificant thing as the Sicllian
eel, which has seven spots on the side
like flute holes, yet for thousands of yes I
has had an exalted mission. Architect
ure, born in the heart of Him who made
the worlds, under its arches and across
its floors what bacChanalian revelries
have been enacted? 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 pheasant picturesw l refer toyOur
memory and 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 tho 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 the Bible pictures. To
prove the truth OF it in my own case, the
other day took up the old family Bible
which | inherited Sure enough, what l
have carried iu my mind of Jacobs lad
der was exactly the Bible engraving of
Jacobs ladder; and so with Samson car
rying off the gates Of GAIA; Elisha re-
storing the Summarizes son; the mas
sacre of the innoCents; Christ blessing
little children; the Crucifixion and the
last Judgment. My idea of all these is
that of the old Bible engravings which
scanned 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 ma
jority 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 achieve
ment. First, painters pencil for the IA
vored few, and then engraver's plate or
wood cut for millions on millions. What
overwhelming commentary on the Bible;
what reinforcement for patriarchs,
prophets, apostles and Christ; what dis
tribution of Scriptural knowledge Of all
nations, iu the paintings and engravings
therofrom of Holman Hunts "Chris in
the Temple;" Paul Veronese's Mag
dalen Washing the Feet of Christi"
Raphael's michael the Archangel;"
Albert Durer's dragon Of the ApOca-
lypse;" Michael Angelo's plague of the
Fiery Serpents;" Tintoret's "Flight into
Egypt" Rubens' Descent from the
Cross" Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Sup
per;" Claude's Queen of Sheba;"
Bellini's "Madonua at Milan" Orcagna's
"Last Judgment" and hundreds of miles
of pictures if they were put in line, illus.
trating, displaying, dramatizing, IL
rsdiating 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 grandeur any thing and
tI,4 tln ho1
seen since the first color APP