The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-05-19
AT THE TABERNACLE
nR rALNAoE pREAcHts ON cHRsrs
PHYSICAL BEAUTY

~ 30 Age or Cino nid tive onr whe .
Could Compare WIN nhu In Comciipes.. /
Ne lowed Home aud sohrioiy aud clean /
Illness Christ's Pace On Canvas.
BnooRtYs. April aa Mrs. Prontiss
hymn, Morn Love o. Thee ~ Christ, "
vas never morc effectively rendered than |
It's morning by the thousands ~ voices in I
tic Brooklyn Tabernacle, led ON by organ
aud coruet, while 10y new vocabulary and
fresh imagery DR. Talmagc presented the
gospel The subject ct the sermon was
Fnircst of tho Fair, " tho text chosen be
ing Solomon's song v, 49, "He is alto
r'thcr lovely
The human race has during centuries
been improving. For awhile &c DETECTED
and degcnoratcd, and from all / can read
for ages the whole tendency was toward
hirbarism But under the over widen.
ing and deepening influence Of Chris
tianity the tendency is now in the up
ward direction. The physical appearance
OF the human race Is 20 per cent moro
attractive than I'm the sixteenth, seven
tacnth and eighteenth centuries. From the
pictures on canvas and the faces and forms
IN sculpture of those who were considered
the grand looking men and the attractive
women Of 200 years ago I conclude the
hUlHIlbllAN VI lllf lllt'n anu NOllltu VI our
time Such looking people of the past cen
turtles as painting and sculpture have Pre-
scntcd AS fine specimens of beauty would
BE- in our time considered doformity and
repulsiveness 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 win
ming. Such portable mountains of human
flesh did not add to the charms of the
world
Christs Beauty.
But in no climate and in no age did
there oven appear any one who in physical
attractiveness could be compared to him
whom my text celebrates thousands of
years before he put his infantilo foot on
the hill back of Bethlehem. He was and is
altogether lovely The physical appear
ance of Christ Is, for the most part, an
artistic guess. Some writers declare him
to have been IA brunette or dark complex
toned, and Others blond, or light com
plexioncd. st. John of Damascus, writing
/, 100 years ago and so much nearer than
ourselves to the time of Christ, and hence
with more likelihood of accurate tradi-
ton, represents him with beard black and
curly, eyebrows Joined together and ''yel-
low complexion and long fingers, like his
mother" An author writing !, 800 years
ago represents Christ as n blond His bair
is the color of wine and golden at the root
straight and without luster, but from the
level Of the ears curling and glossy and di-
vidcd down the center after the fashion Of
the Nazdrenes. His forehead is even and
smooth, his face without blemish and en-
HANGED by n tempered bloom; his counte-
nance ingenious and kind. Nose and
mouth are in no way faulty. His beard is
full Of the same color as his hair and
forkcd in form; his eyes blue and extreme
ly brilliant"
My opinion is, it was Jewish face His
mother was .IcwesS and there is no
womanhood on earth more beautiful than
Jewish womanhood. Alas that he lived so
long before the daguerrean and photo
graphic arts were born, or we might have
known his exact features. | know that
sculpture and painting were born long be
fore Christ, and they might have trans
ferred from olden times to our times the
forehead, the nostril, the eye, the lips of
or Lord
Phidias, the sculptor, put down his chisel
of onchantment 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? Polygnotus, the painter, put
down his pencil 400 years before Christ.
WY did not some one take it up and give
us at least the eye of our Lord, the eye,
literary artist, who saw at Heliopolis,
Egypt, the strange darkening of the
heavens at the time of Christ's crucitixion
near Jerusalem, and not knowing what II
was, but describing it as a peculiar eclipse
of the sun, and saying, Either the Deity
suffers or sympathzes with some sufferer, u
that Dionysius might have put his pen tC
the work and drawn the portrait of oul
Lord. But, no. the fine arts were busy per
pe;uating the form and appearance of the
worlds favorites only, and not the form
and appearance Of the peasantry, among
whom Christ appeared.
A Soulful Face.
1t was not until the fifteenth century
or until more than l, 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 Constantinople forbade
their exhibition. But Leonardo da Vinci
In the fifteenth century presented Christ's
face on two canvases, yet the one was a re-
pulsive face and the other an effeminatC
face. Raphaels face of Christ is a weak
face. Albert Durer's face of Christ was
savage face Titian's face of Christ is al
expressionless face The mightiest artists
either with pencil or chisel, have made sig
nal failure in attempting to give the fore
head, the cheek, the eyes, the nostril, the
mouth of our blessed Lord.
But about his face can tell you some
thing positive and beyond controversy.
am sure it was soulful face The face II
only the curtain of the soul. 1t was impos
sible that disposition like Christ's SHOULD
not have demonstrated itself in his phys
iognomy. Kindness as an occasional i'm
pulse may give no illumination to the fea
lures but kindness as the lifelong, domi
habit will r,po11lra att N
countenance as certainly as the shining o
the sun produces flowers. Children ar
afraid of "a scowling or hard visaged man
They cry out If he proposes to take them
If he try to caress them, he evokes slaI
rather than kiss.
All mothers know how hard it is to ge
their children to go TO "a man or woman o
forbidding appearance. But no sooner die
Christ appear in the domestic group thai
there was an infantile excitement, and thu
youngsters began to struggle TO get out o
their mothers arms. They could not holC
the children back. "Stand back will
those childrenl" scolded some of the dis
ciples. Perhaps the little ones may hav'
been playing in the dirt, and their faces ma,
not have been clean, or they may not hav'
been well clad, or the disciples may hav
thought Christ's religion was a religion
chiefly for big folks. But Christ made thu
infantile excitement still livelier by hi
saying that he liked children better thar
grown people, declaring, Except ye be
come as little child We cannot enter int
the kingdom Of God. "
Alas for those people who do not like
children They had better stay out o.
heaven, for the place is full Of them, That
Ithink, is one reason why the vast major
ity Of the human race die in infancy
Christ is so fond of children that he takes
thom to himself before the world has time
to dospoil and harden them, and so they