Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-24

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the heather nations. The gospels are inf.
nitely multiplied in beauty and power since
Robinson and Thompson and Burckhardt
have come back and talked TO us about ST.
loan and Capernaum and Jerusalem, point
ing out to us the lilies about which Jesus
preached, the beach upon which Paul was
shipwrecked, the fords at which Jordan was
passed, the Red Sea bank on which were
tossed the carcasses of the drowned Egyp-
tians A man said: "I went to the Holy
Land an infdel; 1 came back a Christian.
could not help it."
am not shocked at the idea of building
railroad to the Holy Land. 1 wish that
all the world might go and see Golgotha and
Bethlehem. If we cannot afford to pay for
muleteers now, perhaps when the rail train
goes we can afford to buy ticket from Con-
| stantinople to Joppa, and so we will get to
see the Holy Land. Then let Christians
travelI God speed the rail trains and guide
the steamships this night painting across the
deep in the phosphorescent wake of the
shining feet of Him who from wave cliff to
wave cliff trod the stormed Tiberias.
ALL TENDING ONE WAY.
The Japanese come across the water and
see our civilization and examine our Chris
tianity, and go back and tell the story, and
keep that empire rocking until Jesus shall
reign.
where'er the sun
Does his successive journeys run.
And the firearms, with which the infdel
traveller brought down the Arab horseman
and the jackals of the desert, have been sur
rendered to the church, and we reach forth
our hands, crying: There is none like that;
give it mel"
So it has always been with the learning
and the eloquence of the world. People
say: Religion is very good for women, it
is very good for children, but not for men,"
But we have in the roll of Christ's host
Mozart and Handel in music; Canova and
Angelo in sculpture; Raphael and Rey-
nolds in painting; Harvey and Boerhaave
In medicine; Cowper and Scott in poetry;
Crotius and Burke in craftsmanship; Boyle
and Leibnitz in philosophy; Thomas Chal
mers and John Mason in theology. The
most brilliant writings of worldly nature
are all aglow with scriptural sllusions.
Through Senatorial speech and through es-
sayists' discourse Sinai thunders and Cal
vary pleads and Sloan sparkles.
Samuel L. Southland was mighty in the
courtroom and in the Senate chamber, but
he reserved his strongest eloquence for that
day when he stood before the literary socie-
ties at Princeton commencement and plead
ed for the grandeur of our Bible. Daniel
Webster won not his chief garlands while
he was consuming Hayne, nor when he
opened the batteries of his eloquence on
Bunker Hill, that rocking Sinai Of the
American revolution, but on that day when,
in the famous Girard will case, he showed
his affection for the Christian religion and
eulogized the Bible. The eloquence and the
learning that have been on the other side
came over to our side. Where is Gibbons
historical pen? Where is Robespierre's
sword? Captured for COG. "There is none
like that; give it me!''
ANOTHER FEATURE.
So, also. has it been with the picture
making of the world. We are very anxious
on this day to have the printing press and
the platform on the side Of Christianity; but
we overlook the engraver's knife and the
painters pencil. The antiquarian goes and
looks at pictured ruins, or examines the
chiseled pillars of Thebes, and Ninevah,
and Pompeii, and then comes back to tell
us of the beastliness of ancient art; and it is
fact now. that mauy of the finest speci-
mens-merely artistically considered-of
sculpture and painting that are to be found
amid those ruins are not fit to be looked at
and they are locked up. How Paul must
have felt, when, standing amid those i'm
purities that stared at him from the walls
and the pavements and the bazaars of
Corinth, he preached of the pure and holy
Jesus. The art of the world on the side of
obscenity and crime and death.
In later days the palaces of kings were
adorned with pictures. But what to un-
clean Henry VIII. was beautiful picture
of the Madonna? What to Lord Jeffries,
the unjust Judge, the picture of the "Last
Judgment ?" What to Nero, the un-
washed, picture of the baptism in the
Jordan? The art of the world still on the
side of superstition and death. But that is
being changed now. The Christian artist
goes across the water, looks at the pictures
and brings back to his American studio
much of the power of those old masters.
The Christian minister goes over to Venice,
looks at the "Crucifxion of Christ" and
comes back to his American pulpit to talk
as never before of the sufferings of the
Savior. The private tourist goes to Rome
and looks at Raphael's picture of the Last
Judgment" The tears start and he goes
back to his room in the hotel and prays
God for preparation for that day when,
shrivsling like parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll.
Our Sunday school newspapers and walls
are adorned with pictures of Joseph in the
court, Daniel in the den, Shadrach in the
fire, Paul in the shipwreck, Christ on the
cross. Oh, that we might, in our families,
think more of the power of Christian pic
lures.
POWER OF PICTURES.
One little sketch of Samuel kneeling at
prayer will mean more to your children
than 20 sermons on devotion. One patient
face of Christ by the hand of the artist will
be more to your child than 90 sermons on
forbearance. The art of the world is to be
taken for Christ. What has become of
Thorwalsden's chisel and Ghirlandaio's
crayon? Captured for the truth. 'There is
none like that; give it mep'
So, remark, it is with business acumen
and tact. When Christ was upon earth. the
people that followed him, for the most part,
had no social position. There was but one
man naturally brilliant in all the apostle
ship. Joseph Of Arimathea, the rich man.
risked nothing when he offered hole in the
rock for the dead Christ. How many OF
the merchants in Asia Minor befriended
Jesus? think of only one, Lydia, How
many of the castles on the beach of Galilee
entertained Christi Notone When Peter
came to Joppa, he stopped with one Simon,
tanner. What power had Christ's name
on the Roman exchange, or in the bazaars of
Corinth? None. The prominent men of
the day did not want to risk their reputa-
tion for sanity by pretending to be one of
his followers. Now that is all changed.
Among the mightiest men In our great cities
to-day are the Christian merchants and the
Christian bankers; and If tomorrow, at the
Board of Trade, any man should get up and
malign the name of Jesus, he would be
quickly silenced or put out. In the front
rank Of all our Christian workers to-day
are the Christian merchants; and the enter