The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1899-06-30
.TALMAGE'S SERMON.
PICTURES GOOD AND BAD,
THE SUBJECT.
Isaiah, e;I2--10, the Text; "The Day of
the Lord Hosts Shall BE ............
Upon All Pleasant Picturos"-Divine
Mission of Paintings.

lnat COO ScrutlnlzeS pictures, ana
whether they are good or bad, whether
used for right or wrong purposes, is a
matter of divine observation and ar
raignment. The divine mission Of pic
lures is my subject That the artists
pencil and the engraver's knife have
sometimes been made subservient to
the kingdom of the bad is frankly ad-
mitted. After the ashes and scoria
were removed from Herculaneum and
Pompeii the walls of those cities dis
covered to the explorers a degradation
in art which cannot be exaggerated.
Satan and all his imps have always
wanted the lingering of the easel; they
would rather have possession of that
than that Of printing. for types are not
so potent and quick for evil as pic
lures. The powers of darkness think
they have gained a triumph, and they
have, when in some respectable parlor
or public art gallery they can hang
canvas embarrassing to the good but
fascinating to the evil.
1t is not in a spirit of prudery, 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 If the figures pictured
were alive in your parlor and the
guests of your household. A picture
that you have to hang in a somewhat
secluded place, or that in a public hall
you cannot with a group of friends de-
liberately stand before and discuss,
ought to have a knife stabbed into 1t
at the top and cut clear through to the
bottom, and a 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 see the
inside Of Vesuvius, and the further
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 har-
vest of evil pictorials and unbecoming
art galleries. Despoil a mans imagi-
nation and he becomes a mere carcass.
The show windows of English and
American cities, in which the low the
aters have sometimes hung long lines
of brazen actors and actresses in style
insulting to all propriety, have made a
broad path to death for multitudes of
people. But so have all the other arts
been at times suborned of evil. How
has music been bedraggled! Is there
any place so low down in dissoluteness
that into it has not teen carried Da-
vid's harp, and Handles organ, and
Gottschalk's piano, and ole Bulls vio-
lin?
What a poor world this would be If
It were not for what my text calls
pleasant pictures!" l refer to your
memory and mine when / ask if your
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures mas
not been nightly augmented by the
wood cuts 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 got
ten from the Bible typology. but from
the Bible pictures. To prove the truth
of 1t in my own case, the other day l
took up the old family Bible, which l
inherited Sure enough, what have
carried in my mind of Jacobs ladder
was exactly the Bible engraving of ia
cob's ladder; and so with Samson car
rying off the gates of GAIA; Elisha re-
storing the Shunammite's son. the
massacre of the innocents; Christ
blessing little children; the crucifixion
and the last judgment. My idea of all
these is that of the old Bible engrav-
ings, which l scanned before l could
read a word. That is true with nine
tenths Of you. If l could swing open
the door of your foreheads l would find
that you are walking picture galleries.
The great intelligence abroad about the
Bible did not come from the general
reading of the book, for the majority
OF the people read it but little, If they
read it at 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 then engrav-
er's plate or wood cut for millions on
millions!
What overwhelming commentary on
the Bible, what reinforcement for pa
triarchs, prophets. apostles. and
Christ. what distribution OF scriptural
knowledge of all nations, in the paint
ings and engravings therefrom OF
Holman Hunts Christ in the Tenn
ple," Paul Veronese's "Magdalen
Washing the Feet of Christ" Raphael's
Michael the Archangel," Albert Dur
er's Dragon of the Apocalypse" Mi
chael Angeles plague of the Fiery
Serpents," Tintoretto's Flight Into
Egypt" Rubens' Descent from the
Cross" Leonardo Da Vinci's Last
Supper" Claude's Queen of Sheba."
Bellinrs Madonna" at Milan, Orcag-
mas Last Judgment" and hundreds of
miles OF pictures, If they were put in
line, illustrating, displaying. dramatic
ing. irradiating Bible truths until the
scriptures are not today so much on
paper as on canvas, not so much in
ink as in all the colors OF the spec