JOTTINGS OF OLD LIM JUCKLIN
OPPORTUNITY
FOR THE
AGED
had begun to creep up
out of the valley. The day was
breathful \>f scents not yet quite
ripe enough for perfume. It was
as a youth, delightful in promises. In
the courthouse yard, in the county
town, beneath the locust trees, there
sat the County Judge, several old law
yers, the oldest man in the village and
Limuel Jucklin. In the spring, when
we see the renewal of nature's pur
poses, we talk of opportunity. We feel
that we are to have one more chance.
The old man's blood, the reminiscent
sap of a declining life, is quicker. "Op
portunity ,is ever present," said Juck
lin. "It is one of the staples in life's
storehouse. Man doesn't need to make
opportunity. It's here anyhow. He
can't make it. He can sometimes ar
range combinations, but he doesn't
have to create the material. Opportu
nity throws its light into the eye of the
young fellow. It's like the glow
worm. He can't help seem' it, more
or less. It is the old feller that
needs to have opportunity pointed out
to him. His 6ight has failed him and
he cant see the light. Youth don't
need encouragement. It's own swift
blood encourages it. What we ought to
do is to encourage age."
■Then you think the old man ought
to have a chance?" said the County
Judge.
"That's exactly what I think. And
th« young chap ought to be interested,
since if he lives he is soon to be old. It
won't be half as long a-comin' as he
thinks it will, lookin* forward. We are
too much inclined to compliment the
old folks for what they have done and
then politely, and sometimes even im
politely, tell them to stand aside to
keep from being run over by the pro
cession. It is true that the okl man
ain't supple enough for a drum major,
but he can beat a bass drum a. long
time after some people think he can't
and out of the fife he may get a mighty
sweet tune. But of course the proces- i
sion is in a hurry and can't be expected
to wait on him. I don't say it should
wait. However, it ought not to tread
on the Md man simply because it is in
a hurry."
"A feller came in one of drivin* a
horse over me the other day," said an
old man, too literal to see a spiritual
Inference. "And I yelled at him, I did,
and told him that if I could call back
about twenty years I'd give him a,
thrashin*. That's what I told him."
"And right there was where you '
were doin" yourself an injustice," L'm i
replied. "You were makin' yourself
older. You went back into the past. It
would have been better if you had told
him' that if he were twenty years older ,
you would thrash him. Never go back
to where you were, but bring things
to where you now stand. Remember
one thing— that it is mind instead of
physical activity that has made this
world great, and that as long as a
man feeds his mind it will grow. One '
of the greatest of men that lived away
before the Savior paid that age ai- (
ways has youth enough left to learn.
And as long as we learn we' grow. If
we forget old things let us learn new
ones. The egotist gets old quicker
than anybody else for the reason that '
he thinks he knows it all. Ignorance is
always old; wisdom is always young.
Many y<?ars ago there lived a man
named Louis Canaro. At 40 he
thought himself old enough to die.
His health was bad. He had worn him
self out. But he had sense enough not
to believe that he knew it all. So he
began to diet himself. He ate Just as
much as was good for him. He discov
ered that his appetite was treacherous
and called for more food than was
necessary. Then he took up a system
of readltig. He made it a point to
learn somethin' out of a book or out
of nature every day. Well, at 90
he wrote ;t book, and It was a good'
one. too. It was filled with the keen-
THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL 1 .
OPIE READ
est sense. .No one that has ever writ
ten on life has beaten it. Then he
waited ten years and wrote another
book, just to see if he could. The book
was strong, full of fun— a smile. And
it tickled him so that he laughed for
three years before he died. He never
did anything until he was old. The
your-gsters could thrust aside his body,
but his mind wouldn't be thrust. He
kf-pt it active with learnin' things."
"E*ut," said the County Judge, "don't
you believe that a man's brain grows
old?"
"Oh, yes; and so does his hair, if
he keeps it; and so does his house.
But the brain isn't the mind and the
house is not his life. If the brain
were the mind, the man with the
heaviest brain would have the great
est mind. Webster had a heavy
brain, and these fellers that make
much of that sort of thing raised a
great to-do over it; but while they
■were in the midst of their wonder a
negro was hanged for murder. They
THE LIKENESSES OF CHRIST
f~*y INCE Christ lived and moved up-
Vot on the earth men have tried to
Vl visualize him with their inner
eyes; since there has been a
Christian church at all there ha«
been an ideal of Christ. And by the
ideal of Christ we do not mean only the
spiritual ideal, not the material, not
merely the soul, not the body. Who
can read the tender and terrible record
of the Galilean peasant without won
dering whet he looked like— in what
guise he appeared to Mary and Martha
and the disciple* who loved him and to
Pilato who judged him?
In his manger doubtless he looked like
other babies— we like to think so. And
we may even fancy him while he grew
up to be a slender boy. with the wis
dom of many worlds shining in his eyes
as he taught the doctors in the temple.
But what manner of man was lie who.
bent abo-ve the Magdalen with divinest
pity and raised Lazarus from the dead?
What was the face that the adoring
disciples saw at" the Last Supper, that,
in its godlike patience, broke the heart
of his mother as she looked up into it
upon the eross — that tortured the
memory of Judas so that "he went and
hanged himself"?
We all know the "conventional
Christ," which has been co-pied and re
created through the centuries. We
clothe, the vision of our inspirations in
the form and likeness of this type, hav
ing no other, and being able to picture
no nobler Ideal. Yet we ask ourselves
sometimes, "Is this Indeed the Christ
of Gaiilee, the Christ of Jerusalem, the
Christ of Calvary? Why," we question,
"<-ho"Jld the pictures resemble him
these paintings by men who were born
centuries after he died?"
But now comes the artist, a thinker
and a rarely devout follower of Christ,
who asserts that these are not imagin
ary likenesses, built up by artists upon
a conventional ideal, but solemn wit
nesses of an indestructible tradition—
unchanging reproductions of one divine,
never to be forgotten Face — that they
one and all are based upon a likeness
which, by easy, burden of proof, may
be hailed as authentic— the portrait of
Christ.
The man who has undertaken to
prove this- to the world is Sir Wyke
Bayliss, K. 8., F. S. A., president of
the Royal Society of British Artists He
has written several valuable books up
on art and its history, but the volume
in which he has presented the surpris
ing and interesting theory which we
art at present considering is called
"Rex Regum, a Palmer's Study of the
Likeness of Christ from the Time of
the Apostles to the Present Day."
Sir Wyke Bayliss is an enthusiast and
h-j Is also- a logician of the idealist type
He is possessed of a fine fervor of con
viction himself, and seems anxious to
communicate it to a doubting and un
certain world. While admitting that no
article of the creed, and no essential
principle of the church hangs upon the
truth or falsity of the likeness i/f Christ
weighed his brain and found that it
was a third heavier than Webster's.
He was not only a murderer, but was
little short of bein' an idiot. No, sir;
the mind isn't physical. It doesn't
have much c-f kinship with the body.
Alexander Stephens was almost a
dwarf. The poet Byron wore a six
and a auarter hat. But old Bill San
derson thf£ lives out here hasn't more
than sense enough to drive up the
calves and he- can't get a hat in town
big enough for him. A man is use
ful as long as he can think. He
thinks as long as he .learns. When
he gives up his mind, why, his mind
gives him up. Old men talk too
much and read too little. -The mind
needs food. And this mind food is
not to be raked up out of tire past —
of, your own life. The past is wonh
nothin' except as it serves as a light
for the future. This has been said
more than once, but that doesn't make
it less true. An old man dreams that
he is young. It is rare that he dreams
of bein' older. And In his dream of
youth great ideas sometimes come to
him. He awakes younger, but his
disappointment at findin' himself still
old robs his mind of the freshness it
drew from the dream. Sometimes a
suddenly awakened determination
will make a man younger. There
was old Buck Jamieson. He was
not only shoved aside, but jammed
he seems to feel that the face of the
Master should be a reality to every
Christian; that a knowledge of what
he looked like as a man has a deep
rooted value in the worship of him as.
a god.
The fact, too, that this matter has
been the object of su much discussion
and conjecture In the past has strength
ened his determination to establish the
facts forever. To do this he has in the
course of some two hundred odd papers
forged a chain, of which some links are
or gold, some irc.-n and some, as he ad
mits, of wire-like fragility — a chain of
testimony.
He has met with great opposition,
even with a storm of protest, the Ag
nostic Journal in England taking a
particularly keen pleasure in deriding
his theories, but he has also received
the appreciation of numbers of great
and good, wise i nd witty men, as well
as awakened the interest of the worlfl
at large.
This theory of his is of importance, or
should be. not only to churchmen but
to all who are interested in the Scrip
tures from a historical or literary
standpoint, and artists all over the
world will read attentively the testi
mony of countless generations of reli
gious painters. The painters are Sir
Wyke Bayliss' chief witnesses, "for,"
he says, quoting the great Farrar,
" 'Art cannot deceive.' "
Sir Wyke tells of a certain "venerable
minister" who protested against his
theory on the ground that he could
never beiieve that the Holy Spirit could
have permitted an artist to paint the
face of Christ.
"It does not seem to have occurred
tc- this clergyman." remarks Sir Wyke.
"that the Holy Spirit has permitted the
face of Christ to be painted. * * *
and that the only question at issue is
whether the representations thus per
mitted are true or false!" He also adds
that in othor questions the Holy Spirit
is generally considered to be on the
side of truth!
A certain English Bishop, who was a
professor of archaeology as well, says
that the artist "has a power of seeing
resemblances and detecting a prevalent
type" which he is quite without. He
adds that he is willing to trust Sir
Wyke's esthetic -perceptions in the
. matter. Most persons, as a matter of
fact, are able to trace the similarities
perceived by Sir Wyke. if not by the
Bishop, and a perusal of "Rex Regum "
leaves the most skeptical in a frame
of m'nd closely bordering upon convic
tion—a conviction which may have in
it, of course, as much cnthifsiasm as
reason.
Sir Wyke's argument is carried on
along the following lines:
"A man born a~d educated in a
Christian country is in the position of
(,-ne who inherits his father's house — a
mansion built centuries ago, containing
many rooms, in the chief of which, and
occupying the place, of honor, hangs
a beautiful picture which from his
childhood he has believed to be the
portrait of the founder of his family.
This portrait is an heirloom of price
less value and goes with the title deeds
of his estate.
"But a day comes when the man
finds that he has outgrown his estate
or his inheritance is disputed. The
against the fence. Well, one day he
got into a row with a feller younger
than himself — forgot his age and
whipped him. Then he went home
and caught his horse and put thi plow
gep.r on him.
" 'Why, Buck,' said his wife, 'what
on earth are you goin' to do?'
" 'I'm goin' out in the field to \ low.
Th;<t bottom ffeld is mightil; in the
grns«=.'
" 'Why, Buck,' says she. 'you cant
plo\v.' #
" 'Can't? who said so?'
"But you're too old.'
"'ls that so?' said Buck, find v.ith
that he went on out into the fir d and
plowed. The neighbors were astonished;
but Buck kept on a ntowin' ii.d 1 leck
on if he hadn't been killed tiyin' to
break a colt he would have b.en plow
in" till yet."
"Tried to. break a colt/ 1 said the
Judge. '"That shows that ag? went tou
far."
"Yes, but it showed also that ajrr
was young again or it wouldn't have
gone too far. Nothin' is a better proof
of youth than to go too far. And that
brings us down to an important point.
Youth goes too far and age doesn't go
far enough as a general thing. It is
when a man strikes a compromise be
tween the two that he has reached his
best. But his best lasts longer than
some folks suppose. It is said that the
house is appraised and with it the por
trait. Then arises the question of its
authentic-it j. "It is naught, it is
naught.' saith the buyer, as he has al
ways been saying since the days of the
wise king. The picture was painted so
long ago that nobody living has ever
seen the painter or the face which it
represents. Perhaps it was manufac
tured in Wardour street fc/r the purpose
of giving a semblance of reality to a
doubtful pedigree, as they say the like
ness' of Christ was made up in the dark
ages for the purpose of giving sub
stance to the story of the divine life
on earth. Perhaps it is the fictitious
substitute for an original long ago lost
ot stolen or sold by the family, or de
stroyed by fire.
"It may even be the very painting
mentioned in the title deeds, and yet so
decayed by time or changed by so
called restoration as to have become
worthless as a picture and unrecog
nizable as a likeness.
"Mow shall any certainty be attained
as to the value or th« authenticity of
this portrait? The following questions
are asked and have to be answered. I
place them side by side with similar
questions touching the likeness of
Christ. In either case reasonable an
swers shouid carry conviction:
"I— The tradition of the family— How
far is it to be trusted? The witness of
the church— how far is it to be believed?
"II — Portraits, said to be of the same
man, are possessed by other branches
•A the family— do they bear a common
itsemblance? Likenesses, believed to be
of <"hrist, are regarded as authentic by
different churches — do they bear a com
mon similitude?
"Ill— Were the artists of the period
when this man lived capable of paint
ing such a picture? Were the artists
of the first century capable of paint
ing the likeness of Christ?
"IV — Is there any reason to think
that the heir had any interest in con
cealing or in falsifying this man's like
ness? Is there any reason for suppos
ing that the early Christians desired
the face of Christ to be unknown or to
be forgotten?
"V — Is it a question between this por
trait and another, or is it betweeSi this
and :iofte? Is it a question between
this and some other likeness, dr is it
between this and none?
"VI — What is the opinion of acknowl
edged experts in the art of portraiture '
How was the likeness of Christ regard
ed by the masters of the Renaissance?
. "Vll— Here is a miniature. It has
been hidden away in a secret drawer,
and is inscribed with the man's initials.
Is it the same likeness? Here are some
portraits from the graves of the first
Christian martyrs. They are inscribed
with Christ's initials. Is the UKeness
the same?
"VIII — Is there any theory to ac
count for the poj trait except that it is
a likeness? Is there any theory to ac
count for the likeness except that it Is
a portrait?"
One by one Sir Wyke answers the
foregoing questions in such a way as to
leave them no longer open. He proves
: that for twenty centuries all Christian
churches and Christian peoples have
preserved the one tradition as to
Christ's likeness: that its history is an
I integral part of the history of the
most of the poetry is written by young
men. I reckon this is true. But the
must of the poetry isn't worth readin'
aud doesn't live much longer than it
takes them to write it. The most
valuable. writin' comes out of experi
ence,, which is wisdom; and without
age the re 'Can be no very great experi
ence. . 1 : reckon the ,best. prizefighters
are . between- 20 and 30, certainly not
much -more than -30; but the world
could manage to get along .; without
-Pinters. Old Oliver Cromwell was
son.eihin' c-f a 'fighter, but he was un
kno i .1 until he was gettln' old.; I have
; noticed that- ■»• \ makes -a bigger liar
of a liar. As long as a liar can grow
h- is improvin' and if a lie can grow
it; > urns, to me that * wisdom ran : man
age to move up a few pegs as we go
auui Let the old man take his mind
on" bis ailments and .put it on "a book.'
And the first thing he knows his mind
will be bigger and his | ailments less.
Yonder. comes" old Jerry Dabs. Now
Jerry ,is nearing SO and 'nobody ever
caught him in a. truth. : And suppose
he should make an effort now and tell
the truth. Wouldn't that be an im
provement? Wouldn't it show.- an ad
vance- even at his . age? " I .want to tell
you, gentlemen, we've all got an oppor
tunity to do somethin'. /We can at
least go home and tell our wives that
business detained us."
py righted, 1905. by . Opie Read.)
cnurcn. - and that from first to last
through all the whirl and clash of
changing creeds and warring dogmas
no '• man has ever been able to change
the accepted ideal ;of the Nazarene.
From the beginning, when the word of
Christ was not yet a world- wide essen
tial of civilization and fact of life.' the.
likeness was ?■ -nevertheless : recognized,
whether daubed upon a fresco or
wrought curiously in fine metal.
For the question, often put and by
many persons, as to whether the artists
of the first century were capable of
painting a portrait of Christ there
seems to be such an overwhelming
cloud of affirmative answers that one
hardly knows where to begin in the
enumeration of them. As a matter of
fact, the' era of. Christ was an era of
no mean artistic production. Polydorus
sculptured his celebrated Laoeoon at
Cue very time that the apostles were
preaching in the Catacombs. Indeed.
Woman art never reached a higher point
than during the first centuries. And in
one direction particularly was Roman
art • pre-eminently fine— was in
portraiture.-
The picture of the Roman youth to
which some persons have tried to af
,X, X ™ C Ut le °* Chrlst is palpably that
of Dionysius. . In the basilicas, limned
in time dulled mosaic, we see the great
lik«!«s— in . : the imperfect frescoes and
painted cloths ' and - curtains of those
wonderful lost, centuries, in carven
wood and laboriously, engraved t metal
in glass, in stone, in .colors, in rough
sculpture— everywhere the likeness, the
likeness of Christ. '
Likeness, be it understood, is some
thing deeper than a . merc "arrangement
of ha'r and beard." as some . skeptics
express it. Likeness is a trick of ex-
P.ession. a line °'' lip. a curve of no",
a droop of eye. . -..
T From the early ' unknown painters to
X it Angel °- lhe siant among art
ists, the. song runs the same,, and for
many a; year: after. Now an d again
.some: modern .attempts -an imaginary
'5"h al 1 h a "W- bUt do€san y 'ne ever feel
that he has painted Christ? . Moreover
it is.only the moderns who so" dare to
« S ntur"s. the immutable Portrait of the
! Vi ** b> ° lose empathy with that
:that^e believe-most. fully and less, m
that we believe most fully in Sir Wv™
Bayhss' idea, concerning the likens of
; chrirt. :: Those men. preaching work
; ing. praying, hoping, had seen the Naz
into his eyes, heard him speak of every
n^a^de^n 3 ™S' *
mrnmSmM
.warning. ,nd i, of - resSrVeS-an2
,awakenlng. and itlarouaes In the^ hearts
.of the-lea S t : religious specuiatfonTnd
.conjecture jas^tb- sfome idimly -lorion,
future ; day^when we? may^Srhapl see
• that c, glory - whereof -the 3 kH
known only the r.lnt and ImDerflrt
ig^^P wearv-centurie^S