Milford chronicle., 1901-05-10

Universality of Religion.
So it has also been with the learning
and eloquence of the world. People say.
Religion is very good for aged women,
1t is very good for children, but not for
men, But we have in the roll of Christ's
host Mozart and Handel in music, Cano-
va and Angelo in sculpture, Raphael and
Reynolds in painting Harvey and Boer-
have in medicine, Cowper and Scott in
poetry, Grotius and Burke in statesman
ship, Boyle and Leibnitz in philosophy.
Thomas Chalmers and John Mason in
theology. The most brilliant writings OF
worldly nature are all aglow with Scrip
tural illusions. Through senatorial speech
and through essayist's discourse Sinai
thunders and Calvary speaks and Sloan
sparkles.
Samuel l.. Southland was mighty in the
courtroom and in the senate chamber.
but he reserved his strongest eloouence
for that day when he stood before the lit
erary societies at Princeton commence
ment and pleaded for the grandeur of our
Bible Daniel Webster won not his chief
garlands while responding to Hayne nor
when he opened the batteries of his elo-
Guence on Bunker Hill, that rocking Sinai
of the American Revolution, but on that
day when in the famous Girard will case
he showed his affection for the Christian
religion and eulOgized the Bible. The elo-
quence and the learning that have been
on the other side come over to our side.
Captured for God! "There is none like
that; give it me-"
So also has it been with the picture
making Of the world. We are very anx-
ious on this day to have the printing
press and the platform on the side of
Christianity, but we overlook the engrav-
er's knife and the painters pencil. The
antiquarian goes and looks at pictured
ruins or examines the chiseled pillars OF
Thebes and Nineveh and Pompeii and
then comes back to tell us Of the beastli
ness Of ancient art, and it is a fact now
. that many of the finest specimens-mere-
ly artistically considered-of sculpture
and painting that are to be found amid
those ruins are not fit to be looked at, and
they are locked up. How Paul must
have felt when, standing amid those i'm
purities that stared on him from the
walls and pavements and bazaars Of Cor
NTH, he preached of the pure and holy
Jesus. The art of the world on the side
of obscenity and crime and death.
Much of the art of the world has been
IN the possession of the vicious What to
unclean Henry VIII was a beautiful pic-
ture of the Madonna? What to Lord JEFF
treys, the unjust judge, the picture of the
Last Judgments" What to Nero, the
unwashed, a picture Of the baptism in
the Jordan? The art Of the world on the
wrong side. But that is being changed
now. The Christian artist goes over to
Rome, looks at the pictures and brings
back to his American studio much of the
power of these old masters. The Chris
tian minister goes over to Venice, looks
ut the "Crucihxion of Christ" and comes
back to the American pulpit to talk as
never before Of the sufferings of the Saw
Jour. The private tourist goes to Rome
and looks at Raphael's picture of the
Last Judgment" The tears start. and
he goes back to his room in the hotel and
prays God for preparation for that day
when
Shriveling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll.
Our Sunday school newspapers and
/ walls are adorned with pictures of Joseph
IN the court, Daniel in the den, Shadrach
] Al thS AASs L dul III the SllpWreck, Christ
on the cross. Oh, that we might in ouI
/ families think more Of the power Of
/ Christian pictures! One little sketch Of
Samuel kneeling in prayer will mean
more to your children than 20 sermons OF
| devotion. One patient face of Christ BY
the hand of the artist will be more tC
1 your child than so sermons on forbear
ance. The art of the world is to be taker
for Christ. What has become Of Thor
waldsen's chisel and Ghirlandajo's cray
on! Captured for the truth. ''There i,
none like that; give it me-"
Christ's Social Position.
So remark it is with business acu
men and tact. When Christ was upo1
earth, the people that followed him foi
the most part had no social position
There was but one man naturally bril-
liant in all the apostleship. Joseph O
Arimathea, the rich man, risked nothinl
when he offered hole in the rock for tn
dead Christ. How many Of the mer
chants in Asia Minor befriended Jesus
think Of only one-Lydia. How man!
Of the castles on tha beach. at Galilae en-