The Penn's Grove record., 1894-03-02
REV. DIR. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIyINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Human Face"

Text: "A mans Ttsdon, m1keth has .frc
y shine. and The boldaess of his fd"9 stdI be
changed" or as IL MAY be rem tered, 'the
sourness of his face shall BE- s,1eetened. =
Eeclesiastes viii, /.
Thus n little change in our English trans
Iation brings ont the better meaning OF the
the face is decided by the character of the
soul. The main features Of our countnnance
were decided by the Almighty. and VS. an
not change them, hut under God we decide
whether we shall have c-ountenanees he
nignant or baleful, sour or sweet, wrathful
or genial, benevolent or mean, honest or
scoundrelly. impuient or modest, courage
Gus or cowardly, frank or sneaking. In all
the works OF Col there is nothing more
| wonderful than the human countenance.
Though the longest face Is less than twelve
inches from the hair line of the forehead to
| the bottom of the chin and the broadest face
is less than eight inches from cheek bone TO
/ cheek bone, YET in that small compass Col
has wrought such differences that the 1 $780,
900, 900 of the human race may be dis
| tinguished from each other by their facial
appearance.
The face is ordinarily the index OF chnrac-
ter. 1t is the throne of the emotions. It is
the battlefield of the passions. 1t is the
| catalogue OF character. 1t is the map OF the
mind. 1t is the geography of the soul. And
while the Lord decides before our birth
whether we shall be handsome or homely,
we are by the character we form deciding
whether our countenance shall be pleasant
| or disagreeable. This is SO much so that
some 9th most beautiful faces are unattrlc-
tive because of their arroganceo or their de-
| %ceitfulness. and some of the most rugged
and irregular features are attractive because
| of the kindness that shines through them.
Accident or sickness or scarilcation may
veil the face so that 1t shall not express the
soul, but in the majority OF cases give me a
deliberate look at a mans countenance
and l will tell you whether he is n
| cynic or an optimist, whether he
is a miser or a philanthropist, whether he is
noble or ignominious, whether he is good or
| bad. Our first impression of q man or
woman is generally the accurate impression.
You at the first glance make up your mind
that some man is unworthy of your friend-
| ship. but afterward. by circumstances beiny
put into intimate association with him, you
come 10 like him AMI trdst him.. Yet stay
witt him long enough, and you will be COM
PEELED to return TO your original estimate of
his character. but 1t will be after he has
| cheated you out OF everything he could lay
| his hands on. It is of Gods mercy that we
have these outside indexes of character.
~Phrenology is one index, and while 1t nay
be carried to an absurd extent there is no
doubt that you can judge somewhat of a
mans character by the shape of his head.
| Pllmistry is another index, and while it may
be carried int the fanaiful and necromantic
there is no doupt that certain lines in the
palm of the hand are indicative OF mental
and moral traits.
Ph~ysioznon.y IS another index, and while
the contour OF the human face may some
times misIead us We can generally, after
looking into the eye an | noticing the curve
o. the lip and the spread Of the %nostrll, and
the correlation Of all the features, come TO a
right estimate of a mans character. II 1t
were not so, how would we know whom to
trust and whom to avoid? Whether we will,
or not, ~physiognomy decides a thousand
things in commercial and flnancia and So
cial and religious domains. From one lid
of the Bible to the other there is no science
30 recognized as that OF physiognony, and
uothing more thoroughly taken for granted
than the power of the soul to translgure the
face. The Bible speaks of the ''face
Of God" the 'face of Jesus Christ"
the 'face of Esau," the "face of
Israeli" the '''ace of JOB" the 'face
OF the old man, the shining "face of Moses"
the wrathful .i.ace of Pharaoh, - the ashes
On the face of humiliation, the resurreetion-
ary stat on the face of the dead child, the
hypocrites ~disfiguring their face, and in my
text the Bible declares, ga mans wisdom
maketh his face to shine, and the sourness
Of his face shall be sweetened." II the Bible
has so much TO say about phySiognomY, we
10 not wonder that the world has made it a
study from the early ages. In vain the Eng
fish Parliament in the time of George Ii.
ordered publicly whipped and imprisoned
| hose who studied ~physiognomy. Intelligent
people always have studied it and always
will study it. The pens OF Moses and Joshua
and Job and John and Paul as well as of
Homer and Hippocrates and Galen AMI
Aristotle and Socrates and Plato and Lavater'
have been dipped into It, and whole libraries
Of wheat and chafr have been garnered IN
his theme.
Now, what practical religious ani eternal
nse would / make of this subject? am GO
ing to show that while we are not response
ole for our features, the Lord Almighty hav-
ing decided what they shall be prenatally, as
he psalmist declares when he writes, 'In
ny boo all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned when
IS vet there was none of Them yet the
character which under God we form will
ohisel the face most NIGHTLY. Every man
would like to nave been made in appearance
an Alcibiades, and every woman would like
o have been made a Josephine, We all want
10 be agreeable. Our usefulness depends so
much upon it that 1 consider it important
and Christian for every man and woman to
be as agreeable as possible. The SLOUGH, the
sioven, the man who does not care how he
looks, all such people lack equipment for
usefulness. A minister who has 10 throw q
1uid of tobacco out of his mouth before ne
begins to preach or Christians with beard un-
trimmed, making them to look like wild
beasts come out of the lair-yea, unkempt,
uncombed, unwashed, disagreeable men or
women-are a hindrance to religion more
than a recommendation.
Now, my text suggests how we may, indie
pendent of features, make ourselves agree
able, "a mans wisdom maketh his face to
! shine, and the sourness of his face shall be
sweetened.' What I say may come too late
for many. Their countsnance may by long
years of hardness have been frozen into stol-
Idity, or by long years of cruel behavior they
may have Herodized all the machinery OF ex-
preston, or by long years OF avariee they
may nave been Shylocked until their face is
as hard as the precious metalthey are hoard
ing, but / am in time to help multitudes II
the Lord will. That it Is possible to over
come disadvantages OF p~hysiognomy was in
this country nightly illustrated by one
whose life recently closed after having
served in the Presidential cabinet
at Washington. By accident OF fire in
| childhood his face had been more piteously
| Scared than any human visage that l ever
/ saw. By hard study he arose from being a
poor boy to the very height OF the legal pro-
~fession, and when an Attorney General for
the United States was nAeied he entered the
Presidential cabinet. What a triumph over
| destroyed human countenance
/ do not wonder that when an opposing at
torney in a Philadelphia courtroom cruelty
referred to this personal Disagreement Ben
jamin +. Brewster replied in these words E
"When I was a babe, I was a beautiful blue
eyed child. I know this because my dear
dead mother told me SO, but 1 was one day
playing with my sister when her clothestook
fire, and / ran to her relief and saved her,
but in doing so my clothes ook fire, AMI the
fire was not put out until my face was as
black rs the heart OF the %scoundral who has
Just now referred to my Disagreement"
Heroism eonquering physical disabilities
That scholarly regular features are not nee
essary Tor making powerful impression wit
ness Paul, who photographs himself as in
bodily presence weak" and George White
field, whose eyes were struck with strabis-
mus, and Alexander H. Stephens. who sat
with pale and sick face In invalid's chair
while he thrilled the American congress with
his ~eloqusnce, and thousands of invalid
preachers and Sab5ath-school teachers and
Christian workers. Aye, the most glorious
being the world ever saw was f~oreseen by
Isaiah, who described His face bruised ant
gashed and scarided and said of Him, "His
yisage was SO marred, more than any man.