The Penn's Grove record., 1888-11-17
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON:
The Divine Mission of Pictures.

upon all pleasant pictures. -ish. " E ID, ~
PICTURES are by some relegated to
the realm of the trivial, accidental,
sentimental. or worldly, but my text
shows that God scrutiniZes pictures,
and whether they are good or bad,
whether used for right or wrong pur-
poses. is a matter of Divine observation
and arraignment.
The divine mission of pictures is my
subject.
That the artists pencil and the en-
graver's knife have sometimes been
made subservient to the kingdom of the
bad is frankly admitted. After the
ashes and scoria were removed from
Herculaneum and Pompeii, the walls
of those cities discovered to the explor-
ers
DEGRADATION IN ART
which cannot be exaggerated. Satan
and all his imps have always 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 q triumph, and they have,
when in some respectable parlor or pub
lie art gallery they can hang a canvas
embarrassing to the good but fascinat-
ing to the evil.
1t is not in a spirit of prudery, but
backed up by Gods eternal truth, when
l say that you have no right to hang i'll
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 cannot with a
group of friends deliberately stand be-
fore and discuss, ought to have a knife
stabbed into 1t ut the top and cut clear
through to the bottom, and a stout fin
ger thrust in OH the right side ripping
through to the left. Pliny the
elder lost his life by going near enough
to see the inside of Vesuvius, end the
yOu can stand Oft from the burn
iug 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 unbecom-
ing art galleries. Despoil "a mans inn
aginatlon and he becomes a moral car
cass. The show-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 prOpriety, have
made
ABROAD PATH TO DEATH
for multitudes of people. But SO have
oil tln N4tta. nIfg huQn nt fln4G GnhnIn-
ed of evil. How has music been be-
draggled? Is there any place SO low
down in dissoluteness that into it has
not been carried David's harp, and
Handel's organ, and Gottschalk's piano
and Ole BULBS violin? and the flute,
though named after so insight
ficant 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? Architecture,
born in the heart of Him who made the
worlds, under its arches and its
floors, what bacchaIalian revelries have
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 picturesl' l 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 fam
lily 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've not gotten
from the Bible typology, but from the
BIBLE PICTURES.
To prove the TRUTH of it in my own
case, the other cay l took up the old
Bible, which / inherited. Sure
enough, what l 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 Shuna-
son; the massacre of the inno-
cents; Christ blessing little children;
the Crucifixion, and the Last Judg-
.ent. My idea OF all these is that of
the old Bible eugravings which l scan
ned before l could read a word. That
is true with nine-tenths of you. If /
could swing open the door of your fore
heads | would find that you are walk
ing picture-galleries. The great intel
abroad about the Bible 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 achieve
ment. First, painters pencil for the
favored few, and then engravers' plate
OF woodcut for millions en- millions!
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 engrav-
ings tnerefrom of Holman Hunts
"Christ in the Temple"; Paul Vero-
"Magdalen Washing the Feet of
Christi; Raphael's ''Micnael the Arch
ANGEL; Albert Durer's dragon of the
Apocalypse";Michael Angeles plague
of the Fiery Serpents"; Tlntoret's
"Flight into Egypt; Rubens' "De-
scent from the Cross; Leonardo Da
Vinci's Last Supper; Claude's
"Queen of Sheba"; Bellini's 'Madon-
ma at Milan"; Orcagna's LAST Judg-
ment''; and hundreds of miles of pic
lures, if they were put in line, illustrat-
ing, displaying, dramatizing, irradiat-
ing Bible truths until the Scriptures
are not to-day 10 much on paper IS on
canvas, not so much in ink as in all the
colors of tine spectrum. In 1888, forth
from Strasburg, Germany, there came
child that was to eclipse in speed and
boldness and grandeur anything and
everything that the world had seen
since the first color appeared OH the sky
at'the creation.
PAUL GUSTAV DORE.
At leven years of age he publishede
marvellous Autographs of his own.
nothing of what he did for Mil
toms paradise Lost" e~mblazoning it
on the attention of the world. lie takes
up the Book of Books, the monarch OF
literature, the Bible, and in his pic
lures 1.-THE Creation of Light" "The
Trial Of Abraham's Faith, "''rhe Bur
ial of Sarah" ''Joseph Sold by his
Brethren" 1.-THE Brazen Serpent"
"Boaz and Ruth" David and Col
1.-The TRANSFORMATION" 1.-THE
NJ orr;ana in Cana - Eallan >,