Evangelists of Art Part 1

Evangelists of Art.

by James Patrick.

CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE

_How is it that ye sought Me? Wist ye not that I must be in My Father's house?_--LUKE ii. 49 (Revised Version).

The Bible story from which the text is taken has been ill.u.s.trated by a famous picture. The artist is Mr. Holman Hunt, who has painted many pictures on Bible subjects, and has spent many years in Palestine in connection with his work. His painting of "The Finding of Christ in the Temple" is well worth seeing for the rich beauty of its colouring and the delicate fineness of its workmans.h.i.+p, and every one who loves the Bible must feel that it is still more worth seeing for the sake of the scene which it represents.

As you look at the picture you have before you the interior of a s.p.a.cious portico in the Temple at Jerusalem. The roof is supported on graceful pillars, and from it there hang many lamps of beautiful metal-work. The farther end is closed by an ornamental lattice-screen.

At the right hand side a wide doorway opens on the steps which lead down to one of the Temple courts. A beggar sits on the steps just outside the opening, and beyond him there are workmen busy at the building of the Temple, which, as you know, was not finished for many years after the boyhood of Jesus. You remember that when He had grown to manhood, the Jews said to Him, _Forty and six years was this Temple in building_,[1] and even then we know that it was not completed. In our picture we see the scaffolding of the masons, and one of the cranes by which they raised the stones into position. The workmen themselves are engaged with a large marble block which is lying on the ground, and for which there is a vacant s.p.a.ce in the wall above. Beyond the unfinished building there is a grove of trees, and in the further distance we get a glimpse of the roofs of the city and of the hills behind. Coming back to the interior of the portico we see an interesting group of figures at the farther end. A father and mother have come to present their child in the Temple, and they have bought a lamb to offer in sacrifice. The father, with the lamb on his shoulder, and the mother, with the little one in her arms, are following a priest and another attendant who are leading the way further into the Temple, while the man who has sold them the lamb is holding back the mother-sheep. Doves are flying in by the doorway or hovering about inside. They are among the

"Happy birds that sing and fly Round Thine altars, O Most High."

A boy near one of the pillars is waving a long streamer in the air to frighten them away. But our attention is princ.i.p.ally drawn to the foreground of the picture. This part of the portico is richly carpeted, and here a number of Jewish Rabbis--the doctors or teachers of the Law--are sitting in a half-circle, facing the doorway. They are grave men, with long beards and flowing robes. Many of them are old and grey. The Rabbi nearest us has a specially withered face, and eyes that have become sightless with age. The one next him holds in his hand a little metal box with leather thongs hanging down from it. This is a phylactery, containing texts of Scripture written on parchment, and the thongs are for fastening it on the forehead. Another of the group wears his phylactery in its proper position. The blind Rabbi clasps in his arms a great roll of the Law, richly mounted and carefully wrapped up. A little boy, with a brush to drive away the flies, kneels beside him, and another boy behind him is reverently kissing the covering of the roll, which he has raised to his lips. One of the younger Rabbis holds a smaller roll spread out before him. An attendant is pouring out wine from a jar under his arm, for one of the older men to drink. The Temple musicians, with youthful faces, and with various instruments in their hands, stand behind the Rabbis and watch the scene with much interest. But the central figure in the picture is the boy Jesus, who has risen from the place where He has been sitting, and is preparing to go away with Joseph and Mary. He stands just inside the doorway, tightening His girdle with one hand, while the other hand clasps His mother's arm. His bright, earnest face is turned a little away from her, and His eyes glance towards the Rabbis as if He were eager to hear the last of their words. Mary is smiling with gladness because she has found Him, and is drawing Him gently and lovingly away. Behind her, Joseph, a powerful and n.o.ble-looking man, holds with one hand the broad strap by which his wallet is slung over his shoulder, while his other hand rests beside Mary's on the shoulder of Jesus. Just above his head there is a large sun-shaped design on the side of the doorway, around which run the words, both in Latin and in Hebrew, _The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His Temple_.[2]

Now there are at least two lessons which the story and the picture teach us. There are two things in which the boy Jesus sets an example to the boys and girls of to-day.

I

First of all, there is _Love of heavenly wisdom_. You can well understand that there must have been many places and many things in the great and ancient city of Jerusalem which would be full of interest for a boy of twelve, who had just come for the first time from His distant village home. But there was no place so attractive to Jesus as the Temple of G.o.d. There was nothing that pleased Him so much as to hear what the wise men of the Temple had to say about G.o.d's truth and G.o.d's service. He had thought a great deal about these matters Himself though He was only a boy. He had a great many questions to ask. Three days had not been long enough for Him to find out all that He wanted to know. He thought that Joseph and Mary would have understood what He liked best, that they would have known exactly where to find Him, that they would never have thought of looking for Him in any other place than His Father's house.

You see that the love of heavenly wisdom is as natural and as beautiful in a young mind as in an older one. The picture that I have been describing shows Jesus with a real, bright, boyish face, which is earnest and thoughtful at the same time. And you boys and girls who read these pages will be able to make the best of the happy days of your youth if you love your Heavenly Father and His house, if you are eager to know and to obey His will.

II

Secondly, there is _Obedience to earthly parents_. It was not with any intention of disobeying Joseph and Mary that Jesus stayed behind in the Temple. He did not think of their losing Him, or of their being anxious about Him. He did not mean to grieve or vex them. He was so carried away by His interest in the teaching of the wise Rabbis that He thought about nothing else. This was just like a boy, and Jesus was a real boy. But as soon as Joseph and Mary found Him and called Him, He obeyed them. He rose from His seat among the doctors and went with His parents towards the doorway. He would have liked to stay longer, and He could not help looking back and listening to the last. But He never once dreamed of remaining against Mary's or Joseph's will. He never thought of making His love for G.o.d's wisdom and truth an excuse for disobeying them. _He went down with them, and came to Nazareth: and He was subject unto them_.[3]

And so the boys and girls who are the most earnest and thoughtful, those who love G.o.d's house and G.o.d's Word most deeply, ought to be the most obedient boys and girls at home. G.o.d does not want to take your mind and heart away from your parents and from what you owe to them.

He wants you to serve Him by your loving obedience to them. When you honour your father and your mother you are honouring G.o.d's commandment, and so honouring G.o.d Himself in the very best way.

[1] John ii. 20.

[2] Mal. iii. 1.

[3] Luke ii. 51 (Revised Version).

LUTHER AT ERFuRT

By THE LATE SIR J. NOeL PATON, R.S.A.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LUTHER AT ERFuRT. By permission of the executors of Sir Noel Paton, and Mr. R. H. Brechin, Glasgow]

LUTHER AT ERFuRT

_I rejoice at Thy word, as one that findeth great spoil_.--Ps. cxix.

162.

I wish to connect this text with a picture which is thought by many judges to be among the greatest of the late Sir Noel Paton's works.

Its t.i.tle is "Dawn," and its subject is a well-known incident in the life of the famous German Reformer, Martin Luther.

As we see Luther in this picture he is a young man between twenty and thirty years of age. He has had a brilliant career at the University of Erfurt, and has taken his degree with the highest honours, but he has disappointed all his friends by refusing to become a lawyer, and by choosing to become a monk instead. He has already entered the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt. Luther's reason for taking this unexpected step has been anxiety about his soul. He has begun to do his best to gain salvation by performing all the duties of a monk. He has fasted, and scourged himself, and done without sleep. He has once spent three whole days without eating or drinking. He has been found fainting on the floor of his cell. But with all this he does not feel that G.o.d has forgiven his sins. In this monastery, however, he has found something which he has never seen before, and that is a Bible.

You would think it strange nowadays if a man were over twenty years old, and a Master of Arts, and yet had never seen a Bible; but that was quite common in Luther's time. Well, in this monastery there is a Bible, a great Latin book bound in red leather. The other monks have shown it to Luther, though they have not cared much about it themselves. He has begun to read it eagerly. The first thing he has read in it has been the story of Hannah and the little Samuel, and this has made him think of his own mother Margarethe and himself. Night and day he studies this precious book, but at first it only makes him more anxious. It seems to speak to him only of the righteous and jealous G.o.d, who hates and punishes sin. But he gets some advice from a wise friend, and begins to read the Epistle to the Romans over again. And at length the glad meaning of the gospel dawns upon him. His own account of it is, _Straightway I felt as if I were born anew. It was as if I had found the door of Paradise thrown wide open. Now I saw the Scriptures altogether in a new light. That pa.s.sage of Paul was to me the true door of Paradise_.

Sir Noel Paton's picture represents Luther reading the Bible and finding his restlessness and anxiety giving place to gladness and peace of heart. He is sitting at a reading-table with the great leather-covered book open before him. He wears his monk's dark robe and cowl. His hands are thin and wasted. His cheeks are pale and hollow with fasting. His eyes are bloodshot and fevered with anxiety and sleeplessness. Near his left hand a richly carved crucifix stands on the table, and beside it are an hour-gla.s.s and a skull. An ink-pot with pens is at the other side. A lamp hangs from the roof above his head, but it is giving no light. Only a thin blue trail of smoke rises from the wick, showing that the oil has been burnt out. The fresh morning air is coming in at a half-opened window above the crucifix.

The bright morning sun s.h.i.+nes through the richly stained gla.s.s, and makes a strange blur of coloured light on the wooden shutter behind.

The front of the reading-table is adorned by a picture of the Garden of Gethsemane, with Christ praying, and the disciples sleeping. On the wall behind Luther is a portrait of Pope Alexander VI., who died not long before this time, and was one of the worst of men. In a recess beyond a curtain we see on another stained-gla.s.s window, the figure of Augustine, one of the great teachers of the early Church, after whom the monastery at Erfurt was named. A number of old parchment-covered books are visible, and it is interesting to notice the t.i.tles of some of them, and the places where they lie. Away on a shelf are the works of Aristotle, a great philosopher of ancient heathen Greece. On the floor beside the reading-table is a book by a man called Thomas Aquinas, a famous Roman Catholic teacher of the thirteenth century.

And on the table is a book by Augustine about the City of G.o.d. A rosary, that is, a string of black beads with a cross at the end, has been thrust between the leaves of this last book, as if to mark the page. We seem to see that Luther has come from the heathen philosopher to the Roman Catholic doctor, and then to the earlier Christian teacher, and last of all to the Bible itself. For the Bible is the only open book; and the pale, worn, young monk, who has been reading it all night, is still bending over it in the early morning, with a wonderful earnestness in his look. The sunrise outside is an emblem of the light that is beginning to dawn upon his soul.

Now what can this picture teach you? Two things, I think, at least.

I

The first is _to prize the Bible and study it earnestly_. You can understand what a surprising and precious discovery the Bible was to Luther, how glad he was to read it, how he _rejoiced_ in G.o.d's Word _as one that findeth great spoil_. And one of the first things he did when he had an opportunity was to translate the Bible into the common speech of the German people, that every one might be able to have it, and that no one might grow to manhood or womanhood without having seen it or read it.

Bibles are common and cheap in these days, but I am afraid that there are still some people who are as old as Luther in our picture, and yet do not know very much about the truths which the Scriptures contain.

Be sure that you do not despise the Bible because it is so familiar.

It is still the best of all books. Try to take as much interest in it as if it were a book you had never seen before, and you will always find something new and fresh in it to reward you.

II

The second is _to discover in the Bible G.o.d's message of love and peace to your own heart_. Luther's case shows that you cannot win G.o.d's forgiveness by punis.h.i.+ng yourself, by fasting, and scourging, and sleeplessness, and things like these, while you can get forgiveness for nothing just by taking it from G.o.d. Jesus Christ has won it for you.

He has loved you and given Himself for you. You simply need to believe that G.o.d pardons you and saves you freely for Jesus Christ's sake.

This was what Luther found in his Bible. It is the best thing you can find in yours. And when you do find it I am sure that you also will _rejoice as one that findeth great spoil_.

HERCULES WRESTLING WITH DEATH FOR THE BODY OF ALCESTIS

BY THE LATE LORD LEIGHTON, P.R.A.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HERCULES WRESTLING WITH DEATH FOR THE BODY OF ALCESTIS.

By permission of the Fine Art Society, 748 New Bond Street, London, the owners of the copyright]