LXXV.

BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB.

ART THE HANDMAID OF RELIGION.

EXODUS XXxvi. 1.

"THEN WROUGHT BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB, AND EVERY WISE HEARTED MAN, IN WHOM THE LORD PUT WIS

DOM AND UNDERSTANDING TO KNOW HOW TO WORK ALL MANNER OF WORK FOR THE SERVICE OF THE SANCTUARY, ACCORDING TO ALL THAT THE LORD HAD COMMANDED."

1. THE distinct statement "that GOD filled with wisdom of heart Aholiab" to work all manner of work of the engraver and cunning workman; and that "Bezaleel and Aholiab" were men into whose heart the LORD put wisdom and understanding "to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary," is sufficient to trace the possession of those gifts and talents which arrange what is beautiful in form and colour to a divine origin. As much

as Solomon's wisdom, which enabled him to be deep and accurate in the knowledge of practical science, was the result of the operation of the Holy Spirit; so was the taste which governed Bezaleel and Aholiab the direct gift of God.

Now my work, of course, does not lie with the characters of these two good men of which we know little enough, so much as with the idea which this mention of them suggests.

That idea is large, and pregnant with deep import.

The works of art may be the fruits of the Spirit. Then a beautiful taste may be the gift of the Holy One; and painting, sculpture, and music become direct and almost necessary instruments of Christianity.

2. The history of the past alone would show us how important this subject is; religion has as a fact been aided and advanced through the instrumentality of art; through it her doctrines have been impressed on the minds of men and her peculiar practices rendered clear and intelligible. If the power which has achieved this be only and merely human-if it be simply one which is derivable from a corrupt and unregenerate nature without consecration by the gift of grace, then it may become a weapon

most formidable in the hands of error; but if that power be capable of consecration, by the neglect of it we may be casting aside a weapon of incalculable temper and aptitude for achieving the ends of truth.

This is apparent enough. But the reasons of this influence I will refer to hereafter.

The history of God's people shows the influence of art and science over the minds of those whom GOD was forming for Himself, and over the infant condition of the Church which He was gathering from the early races of mankind. This alone would be enough to show that He intended to make use of these powers in affecting the souls of men. The fervour of imagination, the flash of fancy, purity of taste, are as surely means of feeding and supporting the spiritual nature as the keenness of the intellect, the width of the intelligence, the soundness of the reason, or the warmth of the feelings.

In earliest days Jubal and Jabal were renowned, and their renown is recorded on the page of sacred history as the fathers of architecture and music; among the forms of those dim old shadowy giants of the earlier world stand out alike the pious faith of Abel and the

consistent walk of Enoch, the vast longevity of Methuselah, with Jabal, father" of such as dwell in tents and have cattle," and Jubal, father" of all such as handle the harp and organ." But the flood swept its desolating waves across the world, and with it bore away the traces of art and scientific arrangement.

The progenitors of the postdiluvian world left the ark with the germs of the same powers, and the children of Shem became clever in adaptation of colour and observers of the heavenly bodies, while those of Japhet studied the beauty of form and the relative forces of matter.

If we have no mention of some arts which are famous among us to-day, at least the polished gem glittered and flashed upon the camel's neck of Zeba and Zalmunna; and the artificers of Lebanon were needed to erect a temple to the living GOD. The lions and the sea, the knops and the pomegranates, were carved from the cedar or the stone at the bidding of the designer and by the will of the Owner. The trace of art as the system of the arrangement of God's works in such manner as may delight the eye or elevate the soul by what is beautiful in form or colour may be continually found throughout the sacred narratives; and more than that, the

evident recognition of the work of art being also a religious work, and the energies of those who pursue it being directed and conducted by the HOLY SPIRIT, stands out still more prominently. It is with this as a principle that I

have to do.

The history of Christianity is the history of art; painting, music, poetry, and architecture, owe their noblest illustrations and their deepest intentions to the spirit and genius of Christianity. Whatever may have been the first rude effort of painting traceable to the earlier periods of heathen antiquity, or however true or false, the fable of the first effort at delineation by colour discovered within the walls of Troy, it would take but little time to show that the course of historic painting has been the history of Christianity. Italy, Spain, and Holland assert their pre-eminence in this line over the world, and nearly every name connected with the history of art has been at the same time synonymous with the development of Christianity too.

If we pass in review the names illustrious for painting, we naturally pause on Francia and Ghirlandaio; Michael Angelo and Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Correggio; or our eye wanders to northern climes and we rest on