The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-02-28

been kept in bureau or closet Your
mother face. your mothers smile, your
mothers tears! What an overpowering
memory Though you have come on 10
midlife or old age. how you would like
Just once more TO bury your face in her
lap and have a good cry
But l can tell YOU of a more symDa-
thetic. and more tender. and more loving
lace than any Of the faces | have men
uoned. No, you cannot" says some
one. l can, and / will. 1t is the face of
Jesus Christ as he was on earth and is
now I'm heaven. When preparing my
life of Christ entitled From Manager TO
Throne / ransacked the art galleries
and portfolios Of the world to find
picture Of our Savior's face that might
francesca Francia painted il in the six
teenth century, and as the emerald
intaglio of the sixth century presented
II, and as a freSco in the catacombs near
Rome preserved it. and as Leonardo da
Ninci showed if in The Last Supper,
and / looked in the Louvre and the
Luxembourg, and the Vatican. and the
Dresden. and the Berlin. and Neapoli-
tan and London galleries for the most
inspiring face Of Christ, and many OF
the presentations were wonderful for
pathos and maj esty and power and exc
cution; but, although / selected that by
AIRY Scheffer as in some respects the
most expressive. | felt as we all feel,
that our Christ has never yet been pre-
sented either in sculpture or painting,
and that we will have 10 wait until we
rise to the upper palace, where we shall
see Him as He is.
What a gentle face it must have been
to induce the babes to struggle out of
their mothers arms into his arms What
an expressive face il must have been
when one reproving look of il threw
Stalwart Peter into u fit of tearsi What
a pleading face it must have been 10
lead the psalmists in prayer 10 say OF
it, Look upon the face of thine
anointedI' What a sympathetic face
it must have been TO encourage the sick
woman who was beyond amy help from
the doctors to touch the hem of his
garment,
What a suffering face il must have
been when suspended on the perpendicu>
lar and horizontal pieces of the wood OF
martyrdom. and his antagonists slapped
the pallid cheek with their rough hands
and befOuled it with the saliva of their
blasphemous lips, What a tremendous
face it must have been 10 lead St John
to describe it in the coming judgment
as scattering the universe when he says,
Prom whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away
The saving Face.
Christ. once the Nazarene. but now
the celestial! Once OF cross, but now of
throne Once crowned with singing
bramble, but now coroneted with the
jewels Of ransomed empires. Turn on Us
Thy pardoning face and forgive US; Thy
sympathetic face and console US; Thy
suffering face and have Thy atonement
avail for US; Thy Omnipotent face and
rescue us.
Oh. what face! So SCARED. so lac
Grated, so resplendant, so overwhelm-
ingly glorious that the seraphim put
wing to wing, and with their conjoined
piniOns keep off some OF the luster that
is too mighty even for eyes cherubic or
archangelic and yet this morning turn
ing upon US with sheathed splendor
like that with which He appeared when
He said to the mothers bashful about
presenting their children. suffer them
To come" and 10 the poor waif Of the
street. Neither do l condemn thee,
and to the eyes of the blind beggar OF
the waySide. BE opened
] think my brother John. the returned
foreign missionary, dying summer before
last a Bound Brook, caught a glimpse
Of that face Of Christ when in his dying
hour my brother said Il shall be salts
fed when | awake in His likeness. And
now unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood and
hath made rs kings and priests unto
God and His Father to Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen
and amen. Amen and amen!