The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-07-05
DIR, TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BLYTHE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: Art Mighty Agency For the Sal
walton of Mankind - Pictures Potent
For Good or Evil as the Subjects Are
Good or Bad-Praise For Our Artists.
rcopyrishs. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON. D. CDR. Talmage shows
IN this discourse how art may become one
of the mightiest agencies for the elevation
and salvation OF the human race. The
text Is Isaiah H., IL, 16, "The day OF the
Lord of Hosts shall be ""~ upon all
pleasant pictures"
Pictures are by some relegated to the
realm of the trivial, accidental, sentimen.
tai or worldly, but nv text shows that God
scrutinizes pictures, and whether they are
good or bad, whether used for right or
wrong purposes, Is a matter OF divine OBJ
servation and arraiGnment. The divine
mission Of pictures Is my subject. That the
artists pencil and the engraver's knife
have sometimes been made subject to the
kingdom OF the bad Is frankly admitted;
After the ashes and scoria were removed
from Herculaneum and Pompeii the walls
of those cities discovered to the explorers
Il degradation In art which cannot Do ex-
acgerated. Satan and all his tmps have
always wanted the lingering of the easel;
they would rather have possession OF that
than the art Of printing, for types are not
50 potent and quick for evil as pictures.
The powers OF darkness think they have
gained triumph, and they have, when IN
some respectable parlor or public art GAL
lery they can hang a canvas embarrassing
to the good but fascinating to the evil.
It Is not In spirit Of prudery, but backed
M by Gods eternal truth, when say that
YOU have no right to hang In your art
rooms or your dwelling houses that which
would be offensive to good people II the
figures pictured were alive in your parlor
and the guests OF your household. A pic
ture that YOU have to hang IN somewhat
secluded place, or that in public hall you
cannot with q group Of friends deliberately
stand before and discuss, ought to nave
knife stabbed into 1t at the top and cut
clear through to the bottom, and stout
finger thrust in on the right side, ripping
clear through to the left. Pllny the elder
lost his life by going near enough TO see
the inside OF Vesuvius, and the farther you
can stand off from the. burning crater OF
sin the better. Never till the books Of the
last day are opened shall we know what
has been the dire harvest OF evil pictorials
and unbecoming art galleries. Despoil q
mans imagination and he becomes a mere
carcass. The show windows OF English
and American cities, In which the low thea-
tres have sometimes hung long lines OF
brazen actors and actresses In style insult
ing to all propriety, have made broad
path to death for multitudes OF people. But
SO have oil the other arts been at times SUBJ
orned Of evil. How has music been be-
draggled? Is there any place 80 low down
in dissoluteness that into 1t has not been
carried David's harp, and Handlers organ,
and Gottschalk's piano, and Ole Bulls rio.
lin? and the fute, which though named
after so Insignificant thing as the Siciltan
eel, which has seven spots on the side like
flute holes, yet for thousands OF years has
had an exalted mission? Architecture, born
in the heart OF Him who made the worlds,
under its arches and across its floors, what
bacchanalian revelries have been enacted!
It is not against any Of these arts that they
have been so led into captivity
What a poor world this would be II It
were not for what my text calls pleasant
pictures!" I refer to your memory and
mine when ask II your knowledge OF the
holy Scriptures has not been nightly
augmented by the woodcuts or engravings
in the old family Bible which father and
mother read out of and laid on the table In
the old homestead when you were boys
and girls. The Bible scenes which We oil
carry in our minds were not gotten from
the Bible typology, but fro m the Bible pic
lures. To prove the truth Of 1t in my own
case, the other day took up the old family
Bible which I inherited. Sure enough,
what have carried In my mind of Jacobs
ladder was exactly the Bible engraving OF
jacobs ladder, and so with Samson carry.
ing of the gates OF GAIA, Elisha restoring
the Shunammites son, the massacre OF the
innocents. Christ blessing little children,
the crucifxion and the last judgment. My
idea of all these is that Of the old Bible en-
tah r hat II Nn1I
read word. That Is true with nine-tenths
OF you. II could swing open the door of
your foreheads, would find that you are
walking picture galleries. The great In
telllgence abroad about the Bible did not
come from the general reading OF the book,
for the majority OF the people read It but
little, il they read it ut all; but all the
sacred scenes have been put before the
great masses, and not printers ink, but the
pictorial art, must have the credit Of the
achievement. First, painters pencil for
the favored few. and even engraver's plate
or woodcut for millions on millions!
What overwhelming commentary on the
Bible, what re-entorcements for patrl-
arch's, prophets, apostles and Christ,
what distribution OF Scriptural knowledge
OF all nations, in the paintings and eDgrav-
ings therefrom Of Holman Hunts "ChrIst
in the Temple" Paul Veronese's Mag
dslen Washing the Feet OF Christ" Ra-
phael's Michael the Archangel,'' Albert
Durer's dragon OF the Apocalypse"
Michael Angeles plague Of the Fiery
Serpents," Tintoretto's "Flight Into
Egypt" Rube,s's Descent From the
per-" Claude's Queen Of Sheba," Bellini's
Madonna" at Milan, Orcagna's Last
Judgment" and hundreds OF miles OF pic
lures, II they were put in line, illustrating,
displaying, dramatizing, irradiattng Bible
truths.until the Scriptures are not to-day
so much on paper as on canvas, not 80
mucn in ink as in all the colors OF the
spectrum. In 1888, forth from Strassburg,
Germany, there came child that was to
eclipse in speed and boldness anything and
everything that the world had ever seen
since the first color appeared on the sky at
the creation, Paul Gustave D ore. At eleven
years Of age he published marvellous
Autographs OF his own. Saying moth
ing OF what he did for Milton'o
Paradise Lost" emblazoning 1t on the ut
tention OF the world, he takes up the book
OF books, the monarch OF literature, the
Bible, and in his pictures, "Tie Creation OF
Light" ""The Trial OF Abraham's FAITH"
"The Burial of Sarah" Joseph Sold by
His Brethren" The Brazen Serpent,
"Boaz and Ruth" David and Goliath"
uo 1E6uSuSutdtlou, 1uo oudEliaSo IL
Cana" Babylon Fallen" and 205 Scrip.
tural scenes in all, with boldness and
grasp and almost supernatural afaatus that
make the heart throb and the brain reel
and the tears start and the cheeks blanch
and the entire nature quake with the tre-
mendous things OF God and eternity and
the dead. I actually staggered down the
steps Of the London Art Gallery under the
power OF Dores Christ Leaving the Prae-
torium." Profess you to be a Christian