The Red Cloud chief., 1894-04-27
FAIREST OFTHE FAIR
REV. DR.. TALMAee's SERMON AT THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.

NV
butes Of Christ-The Great. the Good, the
Fair, tho Sublime-A characteristic Ser
mon-Praise From n Thousand Voices.
BROOKLYN, April 22.-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 cornet, while by new vocabu.
larry and fresh imagery DR.. Talmagc
presented 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 1t DETECTED
and degenerated, and from oil I 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-
r~ection. The physical appearance Of the
human race is rs per cent moro 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 ut.
tractive women Of 200 years ago I con.
clude tho superiority Of the men and
women of n time. Such looking peo.
pie Of the past centuries as painting and
sculpture have presented rs fine speci.
mems Of beauty and dignity would DO in
our time considered deformity and re.
p~ulsivencss complete. Tho fact that
many men and women in antediluvian
times were 8 and 10 feet high tended to
mako 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 n who in phys.
ical attractveness could be compared
to him whom my text celebrates thou.
sands Of years before he put his infan.
tile foot on tie hill back Of Bethlehem.
He was ahd Is altogether lovely. The
physical appearance Of Christ is. for tho
most par an artistic guess. Some writ.
ers declae him to have been O brunette
or dark complcxioned, and others q
blond oilight complexioncd. st. John
Of Danscus, writing /, 100 years ago,
and sdnuch nearer than ourselves to
tho tin Of Christ, and hence with more
likelilSd Of accurate tradition, repre-.
scnts IN with beard black, and curly
eycbrd, joined together, and yellow
compton, and long fingers like his
mothei\ An author, writing 800
years aArepresents Christ as o blond:
Ellis hay the color Of wine and golden
at tho 1. straight and without lus.
~MbTom the level Of the ears, curl
ing AID glossy, and divided down tho
center after the fashion Of tho Naza.
rcnes. His forehead is wen and smooth,
his face without Flemish and enhanced
by q tempered bloom, his countenance
ingenious and kind. Nose and mouth
are in no way faulty. His beard is full,
Of tho Same color as his hair and forked
in form; his eyes blue and extremely
brilliant"
My opinion is, 1t was o Jewish face.
His mother was o Jewess, and there is
no womanhood OH 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 We're
born long before Christ, and they might
have transferred from olden times to
u times tho forehead, tho nostril, the
Eye, the lips of II Lord.
Phidias, the sculptor, put down his
chisel Of cnchantment 500 years before
Christ came. Why did not some one
take up that chisel and give us tho sido
face or full face Of u Lord? Polygno-
tus, the painter, put down his pencil
400 years before Christ. Why did not
some one tako it up and give US at least
the ego Of our Lord-the eye, that SOW
ereign Of tho facc2 Dionysius, the litera-
~ artist who saw mt Hcliopolis, Egypt,
the strange darkening Of the heavens ut
the time pf Christ's crucifixiOn near Jc-
rusalem. and not knowing what 1t was,
but describing 1t as q peculiar eclipse
of the sun, and saying, EITHER tho Del
nv suffers or sympathizes with some suf.
ferer." that Dionysius might have put
his pen to tho work and drawn the por.
trait Of our Lord. But, no; the fine arts
were busy perpctuating the form and
appearance of the worlds favorites only,
and not the form and appearance OF the
peasantry, among whom Christ appear
cd.
Portraits Of Christ.
It was not until the fifteenth century,
m until more than l,4OO years after
Christ, TINT talented painters attempted
by pencil to give us the idea OF Christie
face. Tho pictures before that time were
80 offensive that the council at Constan'
tinople forbade their exhibition. But
Leonardo da Vinci, in the fifteenth cen
fury, presented Christ's face on two can
vases, yet the one vas q repulsive face
and tho other an effeminate face. Raph
ael's face of Christ Is q weak face
Albert Durcr's face Of Christ was % saw