purposes. The strangest thing, however, is that this baby's face is the only one of Jesus that I have seen in which something like force and dominion break from the eyeballs; and there they are out of placeso, at least, it appears to my poor judgment. FROM THE REV. PERCY S. GRANT Of the Church of the Ascension (P. E.), New York City The traditional face of Christ in art does not seem to me to be a strong face. It is not the face of a man capable of successful struggle with other men. It has not the power of blood and iron-of a Bismarck. It is not the face of one who has had to wrestle with temptation-of a St. Paul. It does not denote patient endurance and sufering in a great cause nobly contended for-that is to say, it is not the face of a Lincoln. Nor do we find in the traditional face of Jesus a moral superiority so great that it could dominate material and physical forcescalm a tempest, heal the sick, raise from the dead. The kind of · strength of char strong according to our common definition. Neither did his character unfold through temptation-that is to say, as the average man understands temptation. The temptations in the wilderness were either typical or they were local. Jesus's life was not spent in resisting evil, but in realizing the good. His character developed, therefore, more as a woman's character develops -in innocence, sweetness, and love. are not, therefore, to expect the Christ face to exhibit moral struggle. Nor can we look for that sadness which creeps into the eyes of great men who die without HEAD OF CHRIST accomplishing the reforms upon which they their hearts. set It is true that Jesus was cut off and thwarted in his earthly career, but he could see the accomplishment of his purpose in its apparent defeat. The joy that was set before him must have robbed his face of melancholy, of weary endurance, and of hopelessness. The Christ of the New Testament had spiritual power that was as elemental as the power of God, flowing indeed from the same source. We have no conception of a face that could match such a nature. The face of Christ in art will always, therefore, be disappointing. A Painting at the Antwerp Cathedral, ascribed to Da Vinci, but really by a Flemish artist. acter that we are most familiar with is that which is developed by the force of a competitive civilization. Among college athletes, among soldiers, young business men, and even city roughs we find this typical modern strong face. It is resolute, determined, firm. In middle life such faces are apt to become stern. In old age they are fierce, as Gladstone's was called, or they are hard. But Jesus took no part in the competitive life of his time, and he lived when competition was not as strenuous as to-day. He fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy, "He did not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street." We should not expect, then, the face of Jesus to be FROM THE REV. E. M. HARDCASTLE, JR. Assistant Rector Grace Church (P. E.), New York City The strength of the Christ face as portrayed in the Scriptures would lie, it seems, in the union of the elements that characterize his two natures. The divine strength would reside in holiness, while the human would be evidenced by an association of the strong elements of justice and truth with the gentler qualities of tenderness, loving-kindness, and patience. These have not been combined in due proportion in art, too much emphasis being laid on the FROM THE REV. CHARLES CUTHBERT HALL, President of Union Theological Seminary, New York The question is one which I steadily. unique personality as the Godman. If Christ were only a man, I see no reason why the great artists of the centuries could not satisfy our noblest thought concerning his personal appearance; but because of that infinite element of deity which blends with his manhood, no human hand FROM THE REV. JAMES M. KING, D.D. Formerly Pastor of St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, New York City In looking at master pictures of Jesus the man, I find my idea of a strong face realized; but when I think of him as the Christ, no picture conveys to me an idea of adequate strength. To me ancient and modern art representations of the Christ are relatively satisfactory as they most perfectly portray some phase of his humanity illustrated by his teachings and BUST OF CHRIST Made by Hiram Powers in 1866. has yet been able to accomplish what ers in 1879, and it has FROM THE REV. DAVID H. GREER, D.D. Of St. Bartholemew's Church (P. E.), New York City In reply to your question concerning the face of Christ in ancient and modern art, I beg to say that no representation of it with which I am familiar is satisfactory to me. In the attempt to make it divine, the artist in almost every case has simply made it weak. by the relations which he sustained to the humanity which he came to uplift and redeem. For me as satisfactory a face of Christ as art has produced is in marble by Hiram Powers. I was in Mr. Powers's stu-· dio in Florence when he was completing this work. The conceptions of the Christ by other artists were arranged about him. Mr. Powers devoutly expressed to a number of friends his judgment that this bust was the best work of his chisel. I secured a photograph of this work of Mr. Powhung on the walls FROM THE REV. WILLIAM WILMERDING MOIR "Does Christ's face, as depicted in ancient and modern art, realize your idea of a strong face?" It does not. Strangely enough, in answer to your question, I only last Sunday preached on the last clause of the sixth verse of the fourth chapter of the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, "The Face of Jesus Christ." What I said then I think in part explains Painted by Titian in 1514. Now in the Dresden Gallery. This conception illustrates the Venetian School. why the Christ face in both modern and ancient art does not realize our idea of a strong face. In the first place, no representation is given us in Holy Scripture, in any one of the many scenes of our Lord's life, of how he looked his birth, the adoration of the wise men, the Christ in the Temple, the temptation in the wilder ness, the many scenes of his ministry, his death upon the cross, his burial, his resurrection, his risen life (during the forty days after), nor yet of his ascension; in no one is there a word said of his personal appearance; nor has any representation come down to us of how he looked. The only apparent description of his appear |