Connecticut western news., 1899-06-22
enough to embarrass n serapn.

leaving to the whim of .others your monumental commemoration and epi- taphology, to be looked at when people are going to and fro at the burial of others, build right down in the heart of our great city, or the city where you live, an immense free reading room or free musical conservatory or a free art gallery, the inches for sculpture and the walls abloom with the rise and fall of nations and lessons of courage for the disheartened and rest for the weary and life for the dead and 150 years from now you will be yielding influences in this world for good. How much better than white marble, that chills you if you put your hand on 1t when you touch it in the cemetery, would be a monument in colors, in beaming eyes, in living possession, in splendors which under the chandelier would be glowing and warm and look ed at by strolling groups with cata- logue in! hand, on the January night when the metropolis where the body sleeps is all showed under! The tower of David was hung with 1000 dented shields of battle, but you, oh man of wealth, may have a grander tower named after you, one that shall be hung not with the symbols of carnage, but with the victories of that at which was so long ago recognized in my text as pleasant pictures" Oh, the power of picturesi I cannot de ride, as some have done, Cardinal Ma zarin, who, when told that he must die, took his last walk through the art gal lery of his palace, saying: Must quit all this? Look at that Titan! Look at that Correggio. Look at that del uge of Caracci! Farewell, dear pic turesr' ..-...
 A Universal Language.
 As the day of the Lord of hosts, ac- cording to this text, will scrutinize the pictures, I implore all parents to see that in their households they have neither in book nor newspaper nor on canvas anything that will deprave. Pictures are no longer the exclusive possession of the aff1uent. There Is not a respectable home In these cities that has not specimens of woodcut or steel engraving, if not of painting, and your whole family will feel the moral uplifting or depression. Have nothing on your wall or in books that will familiarize the young with scenes of cruelty and wassail. Have only those sketches made by artists In ele- yated moods and none of those scenes that seem the product of artistic de lirium tremens. Pictures are not only a strong but a universal language. The human race is divided into almost as many languages sas there are na- tions, but the pictures may speak to people of all tongues. Volapuk many have hoped, with little reason, would become a worldwide language. But the pictorial is always a worldwide language, and printers types have no emphasis compared with 1t. We say that children are fond of pictures; but notice any man when he takes up book and you will see that the first thing that he looks at is the pictures. Have only those in your house that ap- peal to the better nature. One en- craving has sometimes decided an eternal destiny. Under the title of fine arts there have come here from France a class of pictures which elaborate argument has tried to prove irreproachable. They would disgrace a barroom and they need to be confis- cated. Your children will carry the pictures of their fathers house with them clear on to the grave, and, pass ing that marble pillar, will take them through eternity.
 Furthermore, let all reformers, and all Sabbath school teachers and all Christian workers realize that, if they would be effective for good, they must make pictures, If not by chalk on blackboards,' or. kindergarten designs, or by pencil on canvas, then by words. Arguments are soon forgotten, but pie lures, whether in language or in colors, are what produce strongest effects. Christ was always telling what thing was like, and his sermon on the mount was great picture gallery, beginning with a sketch of ''city on hill that cannot be hid" and ending with a tempest beating against two houses, one on the rock and the other on the sand. The parable of the prodigal son, a picture; parable of the sower who went forth to SOW, a picture; parable of the unmerciful servant, picture; parable of the ten virgins, picture; parable of the talents, picture. The world wants pictures, and the appe- tite begins with the child, who con sehts to go early to bed if the mother will sit beside him and rehearse a sto- ry, which is only picture. When we see how much has been accomplished in secular directions by pictures Shakespeare's tragedies picture; Vic tor Hugo's writings, all pictures; John Ruskin's and Tennyson's and Longfel- lows works, all pictures-why not en- list as far as possible for our churches and schools and reformatory work and evangelistic endeavor, the power of thought that can be put into word pie lures, if not pictures in color? Yea, why not all young men draw for them selves on paper with pen or pencil their coming career. of virtue if they prefer that, of vice if they preferSthat. After making the picture put it on the wall or paste it on the fly leaf of some favor ite book that you may have 1t before you.
 I read of a man who had been exc CuLcu lOI hho lhC JohOA AOoh1 afterward picture made on the wall of the cell by the assassin's own hand, a picture of a flight of stairs. On the lowest step he had written: Dis obedience to parents;" on the second, Sabbath breaking;;' on the third, drunkenness and gambling;" on the fourth, murder" and on the fifth and top step, "a gallows." If that man had made that picture before he took the | first step, he never would have taken ! any of them! Oh, man, make another | picture, a bright picture, an evangelic- l al picture and I will help you make it! | I suggest six steps for this flight of | stairs. On the first step write the | words, "A nature changed by the Holy | Ghost and washed in the blood of the | lamb;" on the second step, Industry l ,,;,~ Z1,i,