Christian Nation Vol. 18 1893 - Rparchives.org

6. CHRISIIAN NATION. Tolume 18.T h e GhPistian flatioQAJou nal of Christian Civilization.WEDNESDAY, APEIL 12,1893.Nbw Yokk.Terms: 5 cents a copy ; $ 1 50 a year, in advanceJohn W. Pritchard,Editob and Manages.Associate Editors:Eev. W. J. Coleman,Eev. 0. D. Trumbull, D. D.,Prof. J. M. Coleman.Department Editors :Department of Missions, Eev. F. M. Foster.Sabbath School Lesson, Eev. T. P. Eobb.Primary S. S. Lesson, Grace Hamilton George.Prayermeeting Topic, Eev. T. H. Aoheson.Christian Endeavor, Eev. T. Holmes Walker.The 'Week in Review, Prof. J. M. Littlejohn.Literary, Educational, Harriet S. Pritchard.Helpful Comer, Eev. Wm. Littlejohn.Children's Comer:Mrs. Eev. E. J. George, Mrs. M. S. Gibson,Beaver Falls, Pa.New Oastle, Pa.AN APPEAL FOR PURITY IN ART AT THECOLUMBLA.N FAIR.Not idleness, but industry ; not illiteracyand ignorance, but edncation and intelligence ;not vice, but virtue ; not licentiousness nor infidelity,but morality and Christianity ;—thesehave made America and lifted it to its proudplace among the nations of the world, and theseare the qualities in our national life whichshould be emphasized, which should be honored,in any exhibit of American progress.Any prominence given to the liquor interestsin our Columbian exhibition will be given tointerests that have impeded and prevented agreater national progress that we would havekrown had the resources which that businesshas consumed been expended in legitimatetrade. For the development of the better interestsof our nation the saloon has done asmuch as, an 1 no more than, the bagnio—" thesecond story room of the saloon." They arecurses, both of them, and they are one and inseparable.And that which feeds the businessof the bagnio—the hidden chamber of the harlot—isthe influences which have developedthe lustful impulses in tbe blood of the youngman. What are these influences ? The youngman who will tell the truth, will say, " Theindecent picture which a comrade showed tome." Or he will say it was the sight of nudefemale figures among a collection of "reproductionsof the old masters," in his father's parlor,or the portraits which he saw of nakedwomen in suggestive attitudes in the saloonalbum. Not a man who will read these linesthat has been so unfortunate as to have seenone such picture in his youth, but will confessto himself that it burned itself into his memorylike a red-hot iron.It is monstrous that in Christian America,in an exhibition prepared for the display to the " The report that an attempt would be made by prudishor puritanical bnaybodies to prevent the exhibition of nndeworld of those things in which God has signallyblessed us, there should be placed these tliere should be diversity jf mind on this as on all otherfigures at the Fair is doubtless withont foundfttion. That(devil's) '•masterpieces," the sight of which subjects is the natural outcome of a salutary freedom ofhave driven countless souls to perdition. And thought: but that the uncultivated, or more properly theyet such is the design of those in charge of the uninformed taste, should seriously threaten to imposd itaelfIS not to be believed. People who resist the exhibition ofArt exhibit in Chicago.artistic repre-eniation of the hnman form mnst be dealtFriends of purity have been busy in every with gently but firmly. They are not so muoh perverse asstate endeavoring to prevent the acceptance of simply ignorant.paintings and marble and bronze images of . . . The effort to circumscribe the sphere of art by consciouslymoral motives would be very vexatious if it werenude figuresof either sex for exhibition ; andnot BO absurdly foolish. For what do the ' moralists' ask nsthey have comforted themselves with the hopeto accept ?—a limitation, a definition ofthe proviice of art.that our youth would not be endangered as Very well; by all means, let us have it. Granted that thethey were in visiting the art rooms of the Centennialexhibition, where many were debauched ity ? Whenever the 'moralists ' have answered that ques-sphere of art shall be defined by morality—What is moral.by the shameless sights beheld. But these tion satisfactorily, it will be time enough to consider theirpretension to settle the confines of > rt. , ., It is here thathopes are in vain, for it is now evident that thethe ignorance of onr would be critics of the nude in artChief of this department at Chicago has been comes,—their acquaintance is limitea to the style that usedselected without sufficient care as to his judgmentin these matters. To the bead of this out now on finewhite paper with all the accessories of theto be confiaed in this country to yellow sheets, bnt comesdepartment the workers for Purity in Art have engraver's and printer's craft. But indecency is a questionbeen looking, as a sort of court of finalappealof taste, and is better d> alt with by the artist than by the'moralii-t.'"in case their efforts were fruitless with the statecommittees. How completely they have beendeceived will appear. For even should theyprove successful in protecting our youth fromlurking peril in the state exhibits, there are exhibitsbeyond the control of the various statecommittees, the exhibits from abroad, and forthe character of these we seem to be wholly atthe mercy of the head of this department, ArtChief Halsey C. Ives. The Christian Statesmansays :Our worst fears are ofScially confirmed by the letter followingfrom the Art Chief of the Columbian Exposition,whioh, under its soft, slick phrases, declares that not theAmerican BtandaTd.^a8 to pnrity in art is to be maintained,but in the Freiich gallery the Frenoh : in tbe German, theGerman. He lalks loftily of nude art, entirely ignoring itsrelatiou to the passions of youth and to law. Now that thisfearful menace to purity is of&oially known, we hope therewill be an end of the apathy of Ameripan womanhood, andmanhood, too, in regard to this assault of foreign art uponpnrity. The finestart of Europe, that ofthe 'Vatican Gallery,is draped. Let not the greatet