The World's Great Sermons, Volume 07: Hale to Farrar
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 07: Hale to Farrar
Sermons
the spectator, and making a barricade with his spear, which he holds
horizontally, is a motley group of onlookers, not unlike that which
we may still see any day in one of our criminal courts. Of these,
one more furious than the rest is wildly gesticulating, and crying,
as we may judge from his whole attitude, "Crucify Him! crucify Him!"
and another, a little to the Savior's left, but in the second row
behind Him, is leaning forward with mockery in his leering look, and
making almost as if he would spit upon the saintly one. There is but
one really compassionate face in the crowd, and that is a face of a
woman who, with an infant in her arms, most fitly represents those
gentle daughters of Jerusalem who followed Jesus to Calvary with
tears. Then, over the heads of the on-lookers, and out of the upper
part of the doorway into the court, we get a glimpse of the quiet
light of the morning as it sleeps upon the walls and turrets of the
adjacent buildings. All these figures are so distinctly seen that
you feel you could recognize them again if you met them anywhere;
and a strange sense of reality comes upon you as you look at them,
so that you forget that they are only painted, and imagine that you
are gazing on living and breathing men.
But, as you sit awhile and look on, you gradually lose all
consciousness of the presence of the mere on-lookers and find your
interest concentrated on these two white-robed ones, as if they
were the only figures before you. The pose of Christ is admirable.
It is repose blended with dignity; self-possession rising into
majesty. There is no agitation or confusion; no fear or misgiving;
but, instead, the calm nobleness of Him who has just been saying,
"Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given
thee from above; therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the
greater sin." The face alone disappoints. Perhaps that may be owing
to the lofty ideal we have of the divine Man, so that no picture
of our Lord would entirely please. But tho the painter has wisely
abandoned the halo, and all similar conventionalisms of art, and has
delineated a real man, for all which he is to be highly commended,
yet the eyes which look so steadily at Pilate, as if they were
looking him through, seem to me to be cold, keen, and condemnatory,
rather than compassionate and sad. It is a conception of the Lord
of the same sort as that of Doré, in his well-known picture of the
leaving of the Prætorium, and the eyes have not in them that deep
well of tenderness out of which came the tears which He shed over
Jerusalem, and which we expect to see in them when He is looking at
the hopeless struggle of a soul which will not accept His aid. It
is said that the artist, dissatisfied with his first attempt, has
painted the Christ face twice; but this, also, is a partial failure,
and here, so at least it seemed to me as I looked upon it, is the
one defect in his noble work. But if there is this defect, it is one
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account