The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-04-25


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 cornet, while by new vocabu-
larry and fresh imagery DR.. Talmage pre-
scented the gospel The subject Of the
sermon was ''Fairest of the Fair" the
text chosen being Solomon's Song V, Is,
He is altogether lovely"
The human race has during centuries
been improving. For awhile il 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 direction. The physical appear
ance Of the human race is IS per cent.
more attractive than in the sixteenth.
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
From the pictures on canvas and the
faces and forms in sculpture of those
who We're considered the grand looking
men and the attractive women of 200
years ago l conclude the superiority Of
the men and women Of our time. Such
looking people Of the past centuries
painting and sculpture have presented
as fine specimens Of beauty would be in
our time considered defOrmity and re-
pulsiveness complete. The fact that
many men and women in antediluvian
times We're eight and ten feet high tend
ed 70 make the human race obnoxious
rather than winning. Such portable
mountains of human flesh did not add
TO the charms Of the world.
But in no climate and in no age did
there ever appear any one who i'll
physical attractiveness could be COM
pared 10 Him whom my text celebrates
thousands of years before he put his in
fantile foot on the hill back of Bethle-
ham He was and is altogether lovely.
The physical appearance of Christ is, for
the most part, an artistic guess. Some
writers declare Him 10 have been
brunette, or dark cOmpleXioned. and
others blond. or light cOmpleXioned. st.
John of Damascus writing LOO years
ago and 50 much nearer than ourselves
70 the time Of Christ, and hence with
more likelihood Of accurate tradition,
represents Him with beard black and
curly, eyebrows Joined together and 'yel-
low complexion and long fingers. like his
mother" An author writing 1900 years
ago represents Christ as a blond: His
hair 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 divided down the center after
the fashion Of the NaZarenes. His fore
head Is even and smooth, His face with
out blemish and enhanced by a 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 a 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. 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? Polyg-
notus, the painter, put down his pen
Gil 400 years before Christ. Why did
not some one take 1t up and give us at
least the eye OF our Lord. the eye, that
sovereign Of the face? Donysius the
literary artist, who saw at HeliOpOlis,
Egypt, the strange daTkening of the
heavens at the time Of Christ's cruel
hxiOn near Jerusalem, and not knowing
what it was. but describing it as
peculiar eclipse of the sun, and saying
Either the Deity suffers or sympa-
thiZeS with some sufferer" that
DiOnysiuS might have put his pen to the
work and drawn the portrait Of our
Lord. But, no. the fine arts We're busy
Of the worlds favorltes only, and not
the form and appearance of the peas
antry, among whom Christ appeared
soulful Face.
II was not until the fifteenth century
or until more than fourteen hundred
years after Christ, that talented paint
ers attempted by pencil to give rs the
idea of Christ's face. The pictures be-
fore that time We're so offensive that the
council at Constantinople forbade their
exhibition. But Leonardo da NinCi in
the fifteenth century presented ChriSts
face on two canvases yet the one was a
repulsive face and the other an effem-
mate face. RaphaePs face of Christ is
a weak face Albert Durer's face Of
Christ was savage face. Titian's face
OF Christ is an expresSiOnless face. The
mightiest artists. either with pencil or
chisel have made signal failure in at
tempting TO give the forehead. the cheek
the eyes, the nOstril, the mouth OF our
blessed Lord.
But about His face [ can tell YOU
something positive and beyond con-
troversy. I am sure it was a soulful
face. The face IS only the curtain OF
the soul 1t was impossible that a dis
position like Christs should not have
demonstrated itself In his physiOgnOmy.
Kindness as an occasional impulse may
give no illumination TO the features but
will produce attracdveness of coun-
tsnance as certainly as the shining OF
the sun produces flowers Children are
afraid Of a scOwling OF hard visaged
man. They cry out if he proposes to
take them. If he try to csress them, he
evokes a slap rather than a kiss.
All mothers know how hard it is TO
get their children to go to man or
woman of fOrbidding appearance. But
no sooner did Christ appear in the do
nestle group than there was an infantile
excitement. and the youngsters began to
struggle TO get out of their mothers
arms. They could not hold the children
back. stand back with those Children
scolded some OF the disciples. Perhaps
the little ones may have been playing in
the dirt, and their faces may not have
been clean, or they may not have been
well clad. or the disciples may have
thought Christ's religion was a religion
chiefly for big folks. But Christ made
the infantile excitement still liVelier by
his saying that he liked children better
than grown people. declaring, Except
We become as a little child We cannot
enter into the kingdom Of God"
Alas for those people who do not like
childreni They had better stay out Of
heaven. for the place is full of them
That, / think, is one reason why the vast
majority OF the human race die in in
fancy. Christ is so fond of children that
he takes them to himself before the