The Progress., 1894-04-28


ries been improving For while It
DETECTED and degcncrated, and from
I'll can read for ages the whole tend
ency was toward barbariSm But
ander the ever widening and deepen
ing influence Of Christianity the tend
ency is nov in the upward direction.
The physical appearance of the human
race is - per cent more attractive
than in the sixteenth. seventeenth or
eighteenth centuries, From the pic.
tures on canvas and the faces and
forms in scul pture Of those who were
considered the grand looking men and
the attractive women Of zoo years ago,
/ conclude the superiority of the men
and women Of our time. Such look
ing people of the PAST centuries as
painting and sculpture have presented
as fine specimens of beauty and dig
nifty would be in our time considered
deformity and responsiveness complete,
The fact that many men and women
in antediluvian times were eight and
ten feet high tended TO make the hui
man race obnoxious rather than win
ming, 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 in
physical attractivcncss could be COM
pared to him whom my text celebrates,
thousands Of years before ne put his
infantile foot on the hill back of
Bethlehem. He was, and is alto
gether lovely. The physical appear
ance of Christ is, for the most part, an
artistic guess. Some writer's declare
him to have been brunette or dark
complexioned, and others Il blonde or
light conpleXioned. st John, of
Damascus, writing l.l0Oyears 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,
eye brows joined together, and vel
low complexion, and long fingers like
his mother" An author writing | 800
years ago represents Christ as blonde:
His hair 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 forehead is even and
smooth, his face without blemish, and
EXCHANGED by tempered bloom; his
rcountenance ingenious and kind. Nose
and mouth are in no way faulty. His
beard is full, of the same color as his
hair, and forlled in FORM his eyes blue
and extremely brilliant
My opinion is it was Jewish face.
His mother was a Jewese and there is
no womanhOod on earth more beauti-
fui than Jewish womanhoOd. Alas!
that he lived 50 long before the
Daguerrean and Photographic arts
were born, or we might have known
his exact features. ! know that sculp-
ture 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 eve. the
lips of our Lord Phidias the sculptor
put down his tbisel 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? Polygnotus 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 sovereign of the
face? Dionysius the literary artist
who saw at Heliopolis, Egypt, the
strange darkening of the heavens at
the time of Christs crucfXion near
Jerusalem, and not knowing what it
was, but describing it as peculiar
eclipse of the sun, and saying, Either
the Deity suffers or sympathizes with
some sufferer" that Dionysius might
have put his pen to the work, ard
drawn the portrait Of our Lord. But
no! the fine arts were busy perpetual
ing the form and appearance of the
worlds favorites only, and net the
form and appearance of the peasan-
try, among whom Christ appeared
1t was not until the fifteenth CEN
tury, or until more than fourteen hun
tlred years after Christ that talented
painters attempted by pencil to give
us the idea of Christ's face The pict-
ures before that time were so offensive
that the council at Constantinopie for,
babe their exhibition. But Leonardo
Da Vinci, in the fifteenth century pre-.
scented Christ's face on two canvases,
yet the one was repulsive face, and
the other an etfeminate face. Raphael's
face of Christ is weak face Albert
Durer's face of Christ was Il savage
face. Titian's face of Christ is an ex
pressioness face. The mig htiest artists
either with pencil or chisel, have made
signal failure in attempting 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
troversv. am sure it was soulful
face. The face is only thecurtain of tn;
soul. 1t was impossible that adisposi
ton like Christ's should not have de
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