The Penn's Grove record., 1899-06-23

For Good or Evil as the Subjects Are
Good or Bad-Praise For Our Artists,
Copyright. Louis Klopsch, 1921
WAsHIseTos, 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, Tho day Of the
Lord OF Hosts shall be upon all
pleasant pictures"
Pictures are by some ~relegnted to the
realm OF the trivial, accidental, sentiment
tai or worldly, but my text shows that God
scrutinizes pictures, and whether they are
good or bad, whether used for right or
wrong purposes, is q matter Of divine OBJ
servatioh and Rrraignment. The divine
mission OF pictures is my subject. That the
artists pencil and the engraver's knife
nave sometimes been made subject to the
Kingdom OF the bad is frankly admitted.
After the ashes and scorla were removed
from Herculaneum and Pompeii the walls
OF those cities discovered to tho explorers
a degradation in art which cannot be ex-
aggerated. Satan and all his imps have
always wanted the lingering Of the easel;
they would rather nave possession of that
than the art OF printing, for types are not
so potent and quick for evil as pictures.
The powers of darkness think they have
gained n triumph, and they have, when in
some respectable parlor or public art gal
ierN they can hang a canvas embarrassing
to the good but fascinating to the evil.
IT Is not in a spirit Of prudery, but backed
mp by Gods eternal trdth, when l 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
Dgures pictured were alive in your parlor
and the guests OF your household. A pic
ture that you have to hang in n somewhat
secluded place, or that IN a public ball you
cannot with a group of friends deliberately
stand before and discuss, ought to have a
knife stabbed into It at the top and cut
clear through to the bottom, and q stout
finger thrust in on the right side, ripping
clear through to the left. Pliny the elder
lost his life by going near enough to gee
the inside Of Vesuvius, and the farther you
can stand of from the burning crater of
sin the better, Never til 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 n mere
Earcass. The show windows of English
and American cities, in which the low thea
tres have sometimes hung long lines OF
brRzen actors and actresses in style insult
Ing to nll propriety, have made u broad
path to death for multitudes OF people. Blu
so have all the other arts been at times SUBJ
orned of evil. How has music been be-
draggled? Is there any place so low down
in dissoluteness that into 1t has not been
carried David's harp, and HRndels organ,
and Gottschalk's piano, and Ole Bulls vio-
linz and the flute, which though named
after so Insignificant thing as the Sicilian
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 m de the worlds,
under its arches and across its floors, what
hacchanaIian reyelries have been enacted
1t Is not against nnyo OF these arts that they
have been so led into captivity
What a poor world this would be IL 1t
were not for what my text calls pleasant
picturesl' l refer TO your memory and
mine when l ask if 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 all
carry In our minds were not gotten from
the Bible typology. but from the Bible pic
lures. To prove the truth OF it in my wi
case, the other day ltook up the old family
Bible which / Inherited. Srre enough,
what | have carried In my mind Of jacobs
adder was exactly the Bible engraving OF
Jacobs ladder, and SO with Samson carry
ing oil the gates Of Gaza, Elisha restoring
the Shunammite's son, the massacre OF the
innocents. Christ blessing little children,
the cruciilxton and the last judgment. My
idea of all these is that Of the old Bible en-
cravings which I scanned before | could
read a 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 galir les. The great In
telligencc abroad about the Bible did not
come from the general reading OF the book,
for the majority Of the people read 1t but
little, II they read it at all; but all the
sacred scenes have been put before the
great masses, and not printer'sink but the
pictorial art, must have the credit Of the
achievement. First, painters pencil for
the favored few, and even enSraver's plate
or woodcut for millions on mt'lionsl
What overwhelming commentary on the
Bible, what achievements for patri-
arch's, prophets, apostles and Christ,
what distribution OF Scriptural knowledge
OF all nations, in the paintings and engrav-
ings therefrom Of Holman Hunts Christ
in the Temple" Paul Veronese's Mag
dalen Washing the Feet OF Christ" Ra-
phael's "Michael the Archangel," Albert
Michael Angeles Plague of the Fiery
serpents," Tintoretto's Flight Into
Egypt" Rubens's Descent From The
Cross" Leonardo Da Vincls Last Sup
per-" Claude's Queen Of Sheba." Belllni's
madonna" at Milan, Oreagna's Last
Judgment" and hundreds Of miles of pie
lures, II they were put In line, illustrating,
displaying, dramatialng, irradiating Bible
trutbs,until the Scriptures are not to-day
SO much on paper us on canvas, not so
mucn in ink as in all the eolors of the
spectrum. In 1888, forth from Strassburg,
Germany, there came a child that was TO
eclipse in speed and boldness anything and
everything tina, the world bad ever seen
since the first color appeared onthe sky ut
the creation, Paul Gustaye Dore, At eleven
years of age he published marvellous
Autographs OF his own. Saying moth
ing of what he did for Millions
Paradise Lost, - emblazoning it on the ut
tention OF the world, he takes up the boob
of books, the monarch Of literature, the
Light, " ''The Trial of Abrahamis Faith"
"The Burial of sarah,' Joseph Sold by
His Brethren ''The Brazen serpent, -
"Boaz and Ruth David and Goliath"
'The TRANSPORTATION, " 1.-The Marriage In
Cana" Babylon Fallen" and 2O5 Scrip
tural scenes in all, with a boldness and a
grasp and almost supernatural allatus that
make the heart throb and the brain reel
md the tears start and the cheeks hlanch