Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-04-23

hymn, more Love to Thee, o, Christ,
was never more effectively rendered
than this morning, by the thousands Of
voices in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, led
on by organ aud cornet while by
new vocabulary aRd fresh imagery, DR..
Talmage presented the Gospel. The
subject Of the sermon was: "Fairest Of
the Fair" the text chosen being:
solomon's Song 8: 10: he is Alto
gethsr Lovely"
The human race has during centuries
been improving. For awhile it defect
cd and degenerated, and from all can
read, for ages the whole tendency was
towards barbarism. But under the ever
widening and deepening influence Of
Christianity the tendency is now in the
upward direction. The physical appear
ancs Of the human race is seventy-fve
per cent mere attractive than 10 the
sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth
centuries. From the pictures on canvas
and the faces and forms 10 Scul pture OF
those who were considered the grand
looking men and the attractive women
Of two hundred years ago, / conclude
the superiority OF the men and women
Of our time. Such looking people Of
the past centuries as painting and
sculpture have presented as due spsci-
mems OF beauty aud dignity, would be
in our time considered deiormity and
responsiveness complete. The fact thai
o.. Il d 'rrrr N
times were eight and tea feet high tend
ed 70 make the human race obnoxious
rather than winning. Such portable
mountains Of human flesh did not add
70 the charms Of the world.
But 10 no climate and in no age did
there ever appear any one who 10 phys
zeal attractiveness could be compared
70 him whom my text celebrates, thou
sands of years before he put his infant
lie foot on the hill back of Bethlehem.
He was, and Is, altogether lovely.
THE PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
OF Christ is, for the most part, an ar
tistic guess. Some writer's declare him
TO have been a brunette or dark com-
plexloned, and others blonde or light
complexioned. ST. John, of Damascus,
so much nearer than ourselves TO the
time Of Christ, and hence with more
likelihood OF accurate trad tiOn, repre-
sents him with beard black and curly,
eyebrows Joined together, and yellow
complexion, and long fingers Ike his
mother" An author writing hfteen
hundred years ago represents Christ as
a blonde: "His hair the color OF wine
and holden az the root; straight and
withou& lpstre; but from the level OF
the ears cutting aRd glossy, and divided /
down the centre after the fashion Of tho
Nazarenes His forehead is even and
smooth, his face without bIemiSh, and
enhanced by a tempered bloom; his
cOuntenance ingenious and kind. Nose
and month are in no way faulty. His
beard Is fun, OF the same color as his
hair, and forked 10 form; his eyes blaze
and extremely brilliant"
My opinion is it was a Jewish face.
His mother was a Jewess, and there IS
no Womanhood on earth more beauti-
full than Jewish womanhood. Alas.
that he lived so long before the Daguer-
can and photographic arts were born,
we might have known his exact fea-
NJ. as.
=, it about his face I can tell you
me. hing positive, and beyond coDtro-
-orsy. p I am sure 10 was a soulful face.
vbs face Is only the curtain of the
toul. It was impossible that q disposi-
hon ike Christ's should not have dem
onstrated Itself TO mis- phySOgnOmy.
Kiudness as an occasional impulse may
give no illumination TO the features,
but kindness as the lifelong, dominant
habit will produce attraCtivenesS OF
countenance az certainly as the shining
Of the sun produces flowers. Children
are afraid Of a scOwling or hard-yisaget
man. They cry out IL he proposes 20
take them. IL be try 20 caresS them be
evokes slap rather than a kiss. All
mothers know how hard 10 is 90 get
their children 10 90 10 a man or wo-
man Of forbldding appearance. But 20
sooner did Christ appear in the domeS-
tic group than there was an iufantile
excitement, and the youngsters began
10 struggle to get out of their mothers
arms They could not hold the chill
dren back. Stand back with those
children scolded some of the disci-
pies. Perhaps the little ones may have
been
PLAYING IN THE DIRT,
and their faces may not have been
clean, or they may not have been well /
clad, or the disciples may have thought /
Christs religion was religion chiefly /
for big folks. But Christ made the in /
fantile excitement still liveier By his /
saving that he liked children better
shan grown people, declaring, Except /
Va becOme as a little child We cannot en-
Ter into the kingdom of God. Alas. for /.
those people who do not like children. /
They had better stay out OF heaven, for /
the place Is full OF them. That think, /
is one reason why the vast majority Of /
the human race die in infancy. Christ I
is go fond OF children that he takes /
them TO himself before the world has /.
time 20 despoii and harden them, aud so I
they are now at the windows OF the /
Palace. aud on the dOOrSteps, and play /.
ing on the green. Sometimes Matthew, I
or Mark, or Luke tells story OF Christ /
aud only one tells il, but Matthew, /
Mark and Luke all Join ia that picture /
OF Christ girdied by children, aud l 4
know BY what occurred at that time /
that Christ had face full of geniallty. /
Sobriety was an established habit OF /
his life. To addition to the water, be 4
drank the Juice of the grape. When 81 I,
a wedding party this beverage gave out /
he made gallons on gallons Of grape /
Juice, but 10 was as unlike what the /
world makes TO our time as
health is different from disease, and rs !
calm pulses are different from tae par |
oxysms of delirium tremeus. There /