The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-04-27
FAIREST OF THE FAIR
Q REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON AT THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

The Eloquent Pastor Discusses the Attri
butes of Christ-The Great, the Good, the
Fair, the Sublime-A Characteristic Ser
mon-Praise From Thousand Voices.
BROOKLYN, April %. Mrs. Prentiss'
hymn, more Love to Thee, O Christ, "
was never more effectively rendered than
this morning by the thousands of voices
in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, led on by
organ and oornet, while by new vocabu-
larry and fresh imagery DR.. Talmage
presented the gospel The subject of the
sermon was "Fairest of the Fair" the
text chosen being Solomon's Songv, 16,
''He is altogether lovely"
The human race has during centuries
been improving. For awhile it DETECTED
and degenerated, and from all can read
for ages the whole tendency was toward
barbarism, but under the ever widening
and deepening influence of Christianity
the tendency is now in the upward di-
rection. The physical appearance of the
human race is rs per cent more attract
i've than in the sixteenth, seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. From the pic
lures ON canvas and the faces and forms
in sculpture Of those who were consid-
cred the grand looking men and the at
tractive women of 200 years ago 1 con-
clude the superiority of the men and
women of our time. Such looking peo-
pie of the past centuries as painting and
sculpture have presented as fine speci-
mems of beauty and dignity would be in
our time considered deformity and re-
pulsiveness complete. The fact that
many men and women in antediluvian
times were and 10 feet high tended to
make the human race obnoxious rather
than winning. Such portable mountains
of human flesh did not add to the charms
of the world.
The Physical Christ.
But in no climate and in no age did
there ever appear any one who in phys
ical attractiveness could be compared
to him whom my text celebrates thou
sands of years before he put his infan
tile foot on the hill back of Bethlehem.
He was and is altogether lovely. The
physical appearance Of Christ is, for the
most part, an artistic guess. Some writ
ers declare him to have been brunette
or dark complexioned, and others
blond or light complexioned ST. John
Of Damascus, writing 1, 100 years ago,
and so much nearer than ourselves to |
the time of Christ, and hence with more
likelihood Of accurate tradition, repre-
sents him with beard black, and curly
eyebrows joined together, and yellow
complexion, and long fingers like his
mother. :" An author, writing 1900
years ago, represents Christ as a blond:
Ellis hair is the color Of wine and golden
at the root, straight and without lus-
ter, but from the level of the ears, curl
ing and glossy, and divided down the
center after the fashion of the Naza-
renes His forehead is even and smooth,
his face without blemish and enhanced
by tempered bloom, his countenance
ingenious and kind. Nose and mouth
are in no way faulty. His beard is full,
of the same color as his hair and forked
In form; his eyes blue and extremely
brilliant"
My opinion is, it was Jewish face.
His mother was a Jewess, and there is
no womanhood on earth more beautiful
than Jewish womanhood. Alas that he
lived so long before the daguerrean and
Photographic arts were born, or we
might have known his exact features. l
know that sculpture and painting were
born long before Christ and they might
have transferred from olden times to
our times the forehead the nostril, the
eye, the lips Of our Lord.
Phidias, the sculptor, put down his
chisel of enchantment 500 years before
Christ came Why did not some one
take up that chisel and give us the side
face or full face of our Lord? Polygno-
tus, the painter, put down his pencil
400 years before Christ. Why did not
some one take it up and give us at least
the eye of our Lord-the eye, that SOW
ereign of the face? Dionysius, the litera-
ry artist who saw at Heliopolis, Egypt
the strange darkening of the heavens at
the time Of Christ's crucifXion near Je-
rusalem, and not knowing what it was
but describing it as peculiar eclipse
of the sun, and saying, EITHER the Del
ty suffers or sympathizes with some suf-
ferer," that Dionysius might have put
his pen to the work and drawn the por-
trait of our Lord. But, no; the fine arts
were busy perpetuating the form and
appearance of the world s favorites only,
and not the form and appearance of the
peasantry, among whom Christ appear
ed.
Portraits of Christ.
1t was not until the fifteenth century,
or until more than /, 400 years after
Christ, that talented painters attempted
by pencil to give us the idea of Christ's
face The pictures before that time were
so offensive that the council at Constan-
tinople forbade their exhibition. But
Leonardo da Vinci, in the fifteenth CEN
tury, presented Christ's face on two can
vases, yet the one was a repulsive face
and the other an effeminate face. Raph-
aels face of Christ is a weak face.
Albert Durer's face of Christ was saw
ACE face Titian's face of Christ is an !