Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-06-28
SERMONS Of THE DAY.
Preached by Rev. DR.. Talmage.

ULluIVlvU VI I'LL Dul.
Preached by Rev. Dr.. Talmage.
Copy-right. Louis Klopsch, 1899.
Subject: Art . Mighty Agency For the Sal
vatisn of Mankind - Pictures Potent
For Coed or Evil ~ the Subjects Are
Coed or Bad-Praise For Our Artists.
ICopyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, D. CDR. Talmage shows
In this discourse how art may become one
of the miRhtiest agencies for the elevation
and salvation Of tho human race. The
Lord OF Hosts shall be - upon ali
pleasant pictures"
Pictures are by some relegated to the
realm OF the trivial, accidental, sentiment
tai or worldly, but nv text shows that God
scrutinizes pictures, and whether they are
wrong purposes, is q matter Of divine OBJ
servatfon 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
degradation In art which cannot be ex-
a1gerated. Satan and all his imps have
always wanted tho 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 canvas embarrassing
to the good but fascinating to the evil.
It Is not In a spirit Of prudery, but backed
up by Gods eternal truth, whom 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 tho guests OF your household. A pic
ture that you have to hang in o somewhat
secluded place, or that in a public hall you
cannot with group of friends deliberately
stand before and discuss, ought to have a
knife stabbed into it at tho top and cut
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 farther you
can stand on from the burning crater OF
sin tho 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 q mere
carcass. The show Windows. OF English
and American cities, in which the low thea
tres have ometimcs hung long lines of
brazen actors and actresses in style insult
ing to all propriety, have made q broad
path to death for multitudes OF people. But
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 Handel's organ,
and Gottschaik's 8 piano, and Ole Bulls vio-
lin? and the hute, 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 mission2 Architecture, born
in the heart of Him who made the worlds,
under its arches and across its floors, what
bacchaDaltan reveiries have been enactedi
1t Is not against any of these arts that they
have been SO led into captivity
What a poor world this would be IL It
were not for what my text calls pheasant
picturesp' i refer to your memory and
mine when ask II your knowledge of the
f1eoAeJ-8effptQxHa- -haa not been nightly
augmented by the woodcuts or engravings
in tho old family Bible which father and
mother road 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 fro IN 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 Shunammite's son, the massacre of the
fnnocents. Christ blessing little children,
the crucifixion and the last judgment NJ,
Idea Of all these Is that of the old Bible en-
cravings which I scanned before 1 could
read a word. That is true with nine-tenths
Of you. II could swing open the door of
fnrAhauhS I unnlh find that
walking picture galleries. The great in
telligence abroad about the Bible did not
come from the general reading of the book.
for the majority of the people read 1t 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 even engraver's plate !
or woodcut for millions on miilIonsi
What overwhelming commentary on the !
Bible, what re-entorcrments 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 "Cnrist
in the Temple" Paul veronese's Mag
phael's Michael the ArchanSel," Albert
Durer's Dragon of the Apocalypse"
Michael AnRelo's plague of the Fiery
serpents." Tintoretto's "Flight Into
Egypt" Rubens's Descent From the
Cross, /" Leonardo Da vincrs Last Sup
''Madonna" at Milan, Orcagna's Last
and hundreds of miles OF pic
lures, II they were put in line, illustrating,
displaying, dramatizing, irradiating Bible
the Scriptures are not to-day
SO much on paper as on canvas. not SO
much in ink as in all the colors of the
spectrum. In 1888, forth from Strassburg,
Germany, there came a 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 Dore. At eleven
years Of age he published marvellous
ing of what he did for Millions
Paradise Lost" emblazoning it on the at
tention Of the world, he takes up the book
of books, the monarch OF literature. tie
Bible, and in his pictures, 1.-The Creation of
Light, - 1.-The Trial of Abraham's Faith"
''The Burial Of Sarah," "Joseph Sold by
"Boaz and Ruth" David and Goliath"
'The TRANSPORTATION, THE Marriage In
Cana" Babylon Fallen" and 2O5 Scrip
tural scenes in all, with n boldness and a
grasp and almost supernatural affiatus 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-
the dead. l actually staggered down the
steps of the London Art Gallery under the
power OF Dore's "Christ Leaving the Prae-
torium." Profess you to be Christian
man or woman and see no divine mission
In art and acknowledge you no obligation
either In thanks to God or man?
1t is no more the word of God when put
before us in printers ink than by skiliful
laying on Of colors or designs on metal
through incisiOn or corrosion What a