The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-01-11
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINEs SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: THE Divine Mission of
Pictures

Text: 1.-THE tcdy of the Lord of Hosts
shdH be upon all pleasant pictures ~
Isaiah H., parts Of the 18th and 10th verses.
Pictures are by some relocated 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 a 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 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 a degradation in art which cannot be ex-
Rggerated. 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-
umph, 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 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 pic
tured We're 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
group OF friends deliberately stand before
and discuss, ought TO have a knife stabbed
into 1t at the top and cut clear through TO
the bottom, and a 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 Vesnvius
ana 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 EDITORIALS and
unbeeoming art galleries. Despoil a mans
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 styls 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 bedraggledi 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 aud
Ole Bulls violin; and the flute, which though
named after so insignificant a thing as the
Slclllan 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 lift were
not for what my text calls pleasant pict-
uresm refer to your memory and
mine when l ask Il your knowledge
Of the holy Scriptures has not
been nightly augmented by the woodcuts
or engrayings 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 whicd
we all carry in our minds were not go.6-n
from the Bible typology, but from the Bible
pictures. To prove the truth Of il in my
own case, the other day ! took up the old
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
children; the Cruciixion and the
Last Judgment. Ny idea of all these is that
of the old Bible engravings which l scanned
before l could reed 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 tho 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 ;sfySsa.D o,;,fcs,sdit of the
achievement siss-Aa - cVeos che
favored fsgegEaal sa.A.i -