A Baptist Abroad: Travels and Adventures of Europe and all Bible LandsWhittle, Walter Andrew
Religion
A Baptist Abroad: Travels and Adventures of Europe and all Bible Lands
Whittle, Walter Andrew
Europe -- Description and travel; Middle East -- Description and travel
Let us now return to Brussels and enter the Wertz Museum. We find here
a picture which is truly illustrative of Belgium hatred of Napoleon.
It is a most wonderful picture. It represents Napoleon in hell. He is
in the bottomless pit, clad in his uniform. A great number of worn
and haggard widows and childless mothers, of ragged, weeping orphans,
of old men crippled, maimed and halt, are crowding around Napoleon,
scoffing, jeering, and grinning at him, holding up before his eyes and
under his nose shattered hands and arms and feet and legs, and broken
heads and bleeding hearts. The sulphurous flames are coiling up around
the unfortunate victim, while on his face there is a double expression
of agony and remorse. When asked if I believe this picture really
represents Napoleon’s present condition, I reply: “Judge not, that ye
be not judged.”
One could write a volume about this splendid collection of pictures,
but I will mention only two or three more. I am especially impressed
with two companion pictures, twenty by thirty feet each. The first
represents hell in revolt against Heaven. All the fiends of hell and
all the powers of darkness are arrayed against Christ and His holy
angels. Christ dismisses His angels; they fly away, leaving Him all
alone. This emboldens the enemy, who rush on to the conflict. The
second picture is “The Triumph of Christ.” He has hurled the fiends
back headlong to their native hell. And yet in this moment of victory
stands pitying His enemy rather than glorying in His own achievements.
I can but think: “Surely, His ways are not our ways; neither are His
thoughts our thoughts.”
Another picture that impresses me very much is “Age Offering the Things
of the Present to the Man of the Future.” An old man is holding out to
a young lad flags and sceptres representing Power and Dominion; also
glittering diamonds, a golden harp, a name and a book, emblematic,
respectively, of wealth, pleasure, fame and knowledge. He can take
any one, but only one. I am so afraid that the inexperienced youth
will make a wrong choice, that I want to whisper in his ear: “Take
wisdom; take understanding; forget it not. Forsake her not, and she
shall preserve thee; love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the
principal thing, therefore get wisdom. Exalt her, and she will promote
thee, she will bring thee to honor.”
CHAPTER XVI.
FROM BELGIUM TO COLOGNE AND UP THE RHINE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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