The Penn's Grove record., 1894-04-27
REV, DIR. TALMAGE.
TIE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Tairest of the Fair.''

Suijcct: "Tairest OF the FAR"
fExT: "He is altogether loUely."-Solo
mons Song ". 16.
The human race has during centuries beef
Improving. For avhile IL DETECTED and de
generated, and from all l can read for age
the whole tendency was toward barbarism
but under the ever widening and deepenini
influence Of Christianity the tendency is nov
In the upward direction. The physical ap
pearance OF the human raca is seventy-nv'
per cent. more attractive than in h six
teenth. sew nteenth and eighteenth centuries
From the pictures on canvas and the faces an
forms in sculpture o. those who were consid
cred the grand looking men and the attrac
tive women o. 200'yenrs g l conclude thu
suueriorfty of the men and women of on
time. Such looking people OF the past cen
turias as painting and sculpture have pre-
sented as fine specimens OF beauty and dig
nity would be in our time considered eform
ity and responsiveness complete. The fact
that many men and women in antediiuvian
times were eight AMI ten feet high tende to
make the human race obnoxious rather than
winning. Such portable mountains of hu.
man 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 at
trnctiveness 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 WIS mt is altogether
lovely. The physical appearance OF Christ
is, for the most part, an artistic guess. Some
writers declare HIM TO nave been a brunette
or dark complexioned. st. John, of Damas-
Gus, writing HOO 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 together, and
''yellow complexion, and long fingers like
His mother" An author, writing 1900 years
ago, represents Christ as n blond: 'His hair
Is the color OF wine and golden Mt the root,
straight and without luster, but from the
level of the ears, curling n glossy, and
divided down the enter after the fashion of
the Nazarenes. His forehead is even and
smooth, His face without blemish and en-
HANGED by a tempered bloom, His counten-
ance ingenious and kind. Nose and mouth
the same color rs His hair and forlSed In
form His eyes blue and extremely brill
liant"
Ny opinion is, it was a Jewish face. His
mother was a Jewess, and there is no wo-
manhood or earth more beautiful than Jew
ish womanhood. Alas that He lived so long
before the daguerrean and Photographic
arts were DOEu, Vi We niiSll uhNS huOWh lie
exact features. know that scripture and
painting were born long before Christ, and
they might nave transferred from olden
times to our times the forehead, the nostril,
the eye, the lips OF our Lori.
Phidias, the sculptor, put down his chisel
of enchantment 600 years before Christ came.
Why did not some one y up that chlsel
and give us the side face or full face OF our
Lord? Polygnotis, the painter, put down
hi, rapniI Ann xyaor a hafnra ChrtEf Whv did
not some n taKe it up and give us at least
the eye of our Lord-the eye, that sovereign
Oh the facet Dionysius, the literary artist
who saw at Heliopolis, Egypt, the strange
darkening of the heavens at the time of
Christ's cruciflxion near Jerusalem, and not
knowing what it was, but describing it as a
peculiar eclipse of the sun, and saying,
fEither the Diety suffers or sympathiges
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 ap-
pearance of the worlds favorites only, and
not the form and appearance ofthe peasantry,
among whom Christ appeared.
It was not until the fifteenth century, or
until more than 1400 years after Christ, that
talented painters attempted by pencil to give
before that time were so offensive that the
council at ~Constantinople forbade their ex-
hibition. But Leonardo da Vinci, in the Ar
teenth century, presented Chrlsts face on
two canvases, yet the ons was a repulsive
face AMI the other an effeminate face. Raph-
ael's face of Christ Is a weak face. Albert
Durer's face of Christ was a savage face.
Titian's face of Christ is an expressionless
face. The mightiest artists, either with PEN
ell 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 I can tell you something
positive and beyond controversy. l am sure
it was a soulful face. The face is only the
of the soul. 1t was impossible that
a disposition like Christ'5 should not have
demonstrated itsslf in His ~physlognomy.
Kindness as an occasional impulse may give
illumination to the features, but kindness
as the lifelong, dominant habit will produce
attractiveness OF c~ountenance as certainly as
the shining OF the sun produces flowers.
Children are afraid OF a scowling or hard
man. They cry out ii he proposesto
take them. II he try to caress them, he
a slap rather than a kiss. All mothers
know how hard it is to get their children to
go to a man or of forbidding appear
ance. But no sooner did C~hrlstsappear in
the domestic group than there was IN in
excitement and the youngsters began
TO struggle to get out oftheir mothers arms.
They could not hold the children back.
't.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
nave been we'll clad, or the disciples may
have thought Christ's religion was a religion
for big folks. But Christ made the
infantile excitement still llvelier by His say
ing that H liked children better than grown
people, declaring. Except ye become as a
child ye cannot enter into the kingdom
Of God"
They had better stay out of heaven,
for the place is full OF them. That, I think,
is one reason why the vast majority OF the
human race die in infancy. Christ is SO
OF children that He takes them to Him
self before the world has time to despoil and
them, and so they are now at the
windows of the palace and on the doorsteps
aud playing on the green. Sometimes
or Mark or Luke tells a story OF
Christ, and only one tells 1t, but Matthew,
Mark and Luke all join in that picture OF
Christ girdled by children, and 1 know by
what occurred at that time that Christ had a
lace full Of geniality.
Not only was Christ altogether lovely In
His c~ountenanee, but lovely in His habits. I
know, without being told, that the Lord who
made the rivers and lakes and oceans was
clChlilJ Al L1lb oppOotdhOos Nv olbAAhou lhC
disease Of leprosy not only because it was
distressing, but because 1t was not clean, and
curative words were 81 will. Be thou
He declared Himself In favor OF
washing and opposed to super
fetal washing when He denounced the hypo-
for making clean only s'the outside OF
the platter" and He applauds His disciples
by saying, CHOW are ye elean," and giving
directions to those who tasted, among other
things, He says, "Wash thy face" and to q
blind man whom He was doctoring, go,
wash In the pool of SLOAN" and He Himself
washed His disciples feet, / suppose
not only to demonstrate His own humility,
but probably their feet needed to be washed.
The fact is, the Lord was a great friend oil
/ know that from the fact that most
of the world Is water. But when l find
Christ in such constant co~mmendation Of
/ know He was personally neat,
although He mingled much among very
rough populations and took such lona
on dusty highways. He wore His
hair long, according to the custom OF His
land and time, but neither trouble nor old
age had Trimmed or injured His locks, which
neyer worn shaggy or unkempt Yea,
al His, habits Of personal appearance were
Sohriety was also an established habit OF
His life. In addition to the water, He drank