p. 102 | PICTURES IN THE HOME by G. B. Thompson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 18, 1902

PICTURES IN THE HOME.

By G. B. Thompson

ELDER G. B. THOMPSON.

There is nothing, perhaps, which contributes more to the cheerfulness of a home than a few nice pictures adorning the walls. But in the selection of these we feel sure the greatest care should be exercised. This may seemingly be a small and unimportant matter, but such is not the case. It is something, the writer believes, on which eternal consequences may depend. Pictures have lasting impressions. What we see we remember more readily than what we hear. The attention of children may be secured by means of a picture or other illustration when other means fail. Let a person attend a lecture illustrated with stereopticon views, and the impression made by the pictures will be the most lasting.

So in the home, pictures are exercising a molding influence on the inmates, especially on the children. I remember hearing of a lady who was bewailing to her pastor the sad fact that all her sons, seven in number, had chosen a seafaring life, although they had been raised away from the sea. She could not understand the cause. Her pastor pointed to a picture in her home, of a ship, battling with the wind on the ocean, and told her that that picture was the cause. By constantly beholding it, their youthful minds had been turned in that direction. This forcibly illustrates the point.

I have in mind a lady whose home I used to visit when a boy. She was one of the most crabbed, sour, and disagreeable persons, both to her family and to others, that it has ever been my lot to become acquainted with. I remember seeing in her bedroom a large picture of a man in a cage with a number of ferocious-looking tigers, apparently about to be devoured by them. She looked at this picture daily; it was the last thing she beheld at night, and the first thing on awakening in the morning. During the day she exercised the irritability and characteristics of a tigress. That the picture was wholly responsible I do not claim, but I believe it contributed toward this end.

If thought wise to adorn the walls of our homes with a few simple, inexpensive pictures, let them be carefully selected, and only those chosen which will direct the minds of both parents and children to the Saviour and the future home of the redeemed. Let lambs, rather than tigers, be chosen. By beholding we become changed; so let the pictures and mottoes be such as will elevate the mind, and suggest to us the greatness of God as displayed in nature, and the sweet, loving attributes of the Man of Calvary. It is possible many a boy or girl might have been in the kingdom of God who will be lost had they beheld the right kind of pictures in childhood. Witness the nude art everywhere displayed. The devil is behind all this, well knowing the powerful, corrupting influence it will have on humanity.

Somewhere I clipped the following, which so

beautifully illustrates the mighty power of pictures, that I am sure it will be read with interest by all:—

“Some of you have seen the great picture that was painted by Munkacsy of the Christ. That picture was being exhibited in Canada, at Toronto, I think, and there came a rude, rough, wicked sailor to see it. He entered the room at the time of day when there were no others there; and paying his money to the woman who sat inside the door, he came in and stood for a moment, looking at the canvas as though he would glance at it and go away. But as he looked, he could not turn. He stood there with his eyes fixed on that central figure of majesty and love. In a few moments he took off his hat, and let it fall upon the floor. After a few moments more he sat down upon a seat, and then he reached down and picked up a book that described the picture, and began to read; and every few seconds his eyes would turn toward the canvas and toward the figure of Christ. The lady who sat by the door saw him lift up his hand and wipe away the tears. Still he sat; five, ten, fifteen, sixty minutes went by, and still the man sat there as though he could not stir. At last he arose, and coming softly and reverently toward the door, he hesitated, to take one last look, and said to the woman who sat there: ‘Madam, I am a rough, wicked sailor; I have never believed in Christ; I have never used His name except in an oath; but I have a Christian mother, and my old mother begged me to-day before I went back to sea, to go and look at the picture of the Christ. To oblige her I said I would come, and I have come. I did not believe that anybody believed in Christ; but as I have looked at that form and that face, I have thought that some man must have believed in Him, and I am going out from this time to be a believer in Jesus Christ and a follower of His.’”