The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-23
THE FATREST OF THE FAIR.
IalmaSe breaches a Sermon Based on
One Of SOlOmOn'S Songs.

Appearance of the Human Race rs
Per Cent. More Attractive Than in
the Sixteenth, Seventeenth or EiEh
teenth Centuries-Christ as Repre-
scented in Pictures.
Brooklyn, April 22.-Mrs. Prentiss S
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 SIG:
"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 tOWaTt
barbarism. But under the ever widening
and deepening influence of Christianity
the tendency is now IN the upward direc-
ton. The physical appearance of the
human race is seVenty-hve per
cent. more attractive than in the
sixteenth, seventeenth or 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
two hundred years ago, ! conclude the
superiority of the men and women of our
time Such looking people of the past
centuries as painting and sculpture have
presented as fine specimens of beauty and
dignity, 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 human race
-. IL
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 nhySi-
cal attractiveness could be compared to
him whom my text celebrates, thousands
of years before he put his infantile 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 writer's declare
him TO have been brunette or dark COM
pleXloued, and others a blonde or light
compleXioned. St John. of Damascus,
writing eleven hundred years ago and so
much nearer than ourselves to the time
of Christ, and hence, with more likelihood
of accurate tradition represents him
with beard black and curly, eyebrows
OILed together. anu yellow complexion,
and long fingers like his mother" AN
author writing fifteen hundred years ago
represents Christ as a blonde: His hair
the color of wine and golden at the root;
straight and without lustre; but from the
level of the ears curling and glossy, and
divided down the center after the fash
ion of the Nazarenes. His forehead is
even and smooth his face without blem-
ish, and EXCHANGED 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 a Jewish face. His
mother was Jewess, 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 10 our times the
forehead, the nostril, the eye, the lips of
our Lord. Phidias the sculptor put down
his chisel of enchantment 800 years before
Christ came. Why did not some one take
up that chlsel, and give US the side face
OF full face of our Lord? Polygnotus, the
painter, put down his pencil four hun
dred years before Christ. Why did not
some one take il up, and give US at least
the eye OF our Lord, the eve, that sOver-
eign of the face Dionysius. the literary
artist who saw at Heliopolis, Egypt, the
strange darkening of the heavens at the
time of Christ'S crucihxiOn near Jerlsa-
lem, and not knowing what it was, but de-
scrlblng 1t as peculiar eclipse of the sun,
and saying, Either the Deity suffers or
sympathIzes with some sufferers that
DiOnysius might have put his pen to the
work, and drawn the portrait of our
Lord. But not the fine arts were busy
perpetuating the form and appearance of
The worlds favorites only, and not the
form and appearance of the peasantry.
among whom Christ appeared
1t was not until the fifteenth century. or
until more than fourteen hundred years
after Christ, that talented painters at
tempted by pencil to give us the idea of
Christ's face. The pictures before that
time were so offensive that the
council of Constantinople forbade
their exhibition. But Leonardo Da Vinci.
in the fifteenth century, presented
Christ's face on two canvases. yet the one
was repulSive face, and the other an
etfieminate face Raphael's face of Christ
is weak face. Albert Durer's face of
Christ was savage face. Titians face
OF Christ Is an cXpressionless face The
mlghtlest artists, either with pencil or
chisel, have made signal failure in at
tempting TO give the forehead, the cheek.
the eyes, the nostrils, the mouth of our
But about his face | can tell you some
thing positive and beyond controversy. 1
am sure it was a soulful face The face is
only the curtain of the soul 1t was impos-
slble that a disposition like Christ's
should not have demonstrated itself in
his physigonOmy. Kindness as an occa-
sional impulse may give no illumination
TO the features, but kindness as the life
long dominant habit will produce at
tractivness of countenance as certainly as
the shining of the sun produces flowers
Children are afraid of a scowlng or hard
visaged man. They cry out if he pro
poses to take them. If he try to caress
them, he evOkes a slap rather than a
kiss. All mothers know how hard it is
TO get their children to go to a man or
woman of forbiding appearance.
But no sooner did Christ appear
in the domestic 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 re-
llgion was religion chiefly for big folks
But Christ made the infantile excitement
still livelier by his saying that he liked
children better than grown people. de-
al ont t41