Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1894-05-17
FAIREST OF THEFAIR.
CHRIST IN PERSON AND HK8JTs
WAS ALTOGETHER LOvELlkM
=
characteristics Of the snvior-Hc
Believed In Cleanlincss-SObrie
and DOmesticity-His Great Love
and Sympathy.

Brooklyn, N. T., Special.-Nlrs. Prem
tiss's hymn, "More Love to Thee, o
Christ" was never more effectively rcN-
dered than this morning, by the thou
sands of voices in the Brooklyn tater-
naclc, led on by organ and cornet, while
by new vocabulary and fresh imagery,
Or. Talmage presented the gospel. The
subject of the sermon was: "Fair-
est of the Fair" the text chos N being:
Solomon's Song ", 1G: Gle is alto
gcther lovely"
The human race has during centuries
been improving. For while it de-
fected 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 ap-
pearance of the human race is rs per
cent more attractive than in the six
teenth, seventeenth or eighteenth CEN
turtles. 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. 1 conclude the superb
GRITTY 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 repul-
siyeness complete. The fact that many
men and women in antediluvian times
were eight and ten feet high tended
to 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 in
physical attractiveness could be COM
pared to him whom my text celebrates,
thousands Of years before he put his
infantile foot on the hill back Of Beth
lehem. He was, and is, altogether love-
~. The physical appearance Of Christ
Is, for the most part, an artistic guess.
Some writers declare him to have been
q brunette or dark complexioncd, and
others blonde or light complexioned.
st. John Of Damascus, writing 1,1OO
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 joined to-
gether, and yellow complexion, and
long fingers like his MOTHER An au-
thor writing 1,5OO years ago, represents
Christ as blonde: Ellis hair the color
of While and golden at the root; straight
and without lustre; but from the level
of the ears curling and glossy, and di-
vided down the center after the fash
ion Of the NaZarenes. His forehead is
even and smooth, his face without
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"
NY opinion is it was Il Jewish face.
His mother was Jewess, and there is
no wonanhood on earth more beautiful
than Jewish womanhood. Alas! that
he lived so long before the Daguerrean
and Photographic arts were BON, or we
might have known his exact features.
l know that sculptor 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 en-
chantment 500 years before Christ
came. Why did not some one take up
that chisel, and give us the side face
and full face of our Lord? Polyg-
notus, the painter, put down his pen
Gil 400 years before Christ. Why did
not some one take it up and give us
at least the eye of the Lord, the eye,
that sovereign of the face? Dionysius,
the literary artist who saw at Heliop-
oils, Egypt, the strange darkening Of
the heavens at the time Of Christ's
crucifiNion near Jerusalem, and not
knowing what it was, but describing
it as a 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 and drawn the portrait of our
Lord. But no! the fine arts were busy
perpetuating the form and appearance
Of the worlds favorttes only, and not
the form and appearance of the peas
antry. among whom Christ appeared.
1t was not until the fifteenth century,
or until more than 1,40O years after
Christ. that talented painters attempted
by pencil to give us an 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 repulsive
face and the other an effeminate face.
Raphael's face Of Christ is weak face.
Albert Durcr's face Of Christ was a
savage face. Titian's face of Christ is
an eXpressionless face. The nightiest
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 I can tell YOU
something positive, and beyond contro-
versy. am sure it was soulful face.
The face is only the curtain of the soul
1t was impossible that a disposition
like Ohrist's should not have demon
strated itself in his physiognomy.
Kindness as an occasional impulse may
give no illumination to the features,
but kindness as the lifelong, dominant
habit will produce attractiveness Of