Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-03-02

Sald; some OF our generals complain
that impair discipline and subordina-
ton in the army by my pardons and
respites, but il makes me rested after u
hard days work if / can find some good
excuse for saving mans life, and i
go'to bed happier as think how joyous
the signing of my name will make him
and his family" Kindnessl 1t makes
the face to shine while life lasts, and
after death puts summer sunset be
tween the still lips and the smoothed
hair. that makes me say sometimes at
obsequics, "She seems too beautiful to
bury"
But mere comes another chisel, and
its name is hypocrisy. Christ with one
terrific stroke in his Sermon on the
Mount described this character
when We fast be not as the 'hypo-
critics, of n sad countenance; for they
dis6gure their faces that .ney may APP
pear unto men TO fast" Hypocrisy
having taken possession of the soul it
immed lately appears in the counte-
nance. Hypocrites are always solemn.
They carry several country grave
yards in their faces. They are fearful
when there is nothing to cry about,
and in their prayers they catch for
their breath, and have such general
dolefulness that they disgust young
people with religion. We had one
of them in one of my churches
When he exhorted he always de-
plored the low state of religion in
other people, and when he prayed it
was an attack of hysteria, and he went
into n paroxysm of obs and abs that
seemed to demand resuscitation. He
went on in that way until we had to
eXpel him from church for stealing the
property intrusted to him rs admins
traitor. and for other vices that l will
not mention, and he wrote me several
letters not at all complimentary from
the west saying that he was daily
praying for my everlasting destruc-
ton. a man can not have hypocrisy
in his heart without somehow showing
it in his face. All intelligent people
who witness it know it is nothing but
a dramatization.
Here comes another chisel, and that
belongs to the old fashioned religion.
1t first takes possession of the whole
soul washing out its sins by the blood
of the Lamb and startling heaven right
there and then. This done deep down
in the heart, religion says: Now let
me go up to the windows and front
gate of the face and set up
some signal that have taken
possession of this castle. will
celebrate the victory b. an illumina-
ton that no one can mistake. l have
made this man happy and now
will make him look happy.
Will draw the corners of his
mouth as far up as they were drawn
down. will take the contemptuous
curl away from the lip and nostriL l
will make his eyes flash and his checks
glow at every mention of Christ and
heaven. | will make even the wrinkles
of his face look like burrows plowed
or the harvests of JOY. j will make
what we call the crows feet around
his temples suggestive that the dove
of peace has been alighting there. "
There may be signs of trouble on that
face, but trouble sanctificd There
may be sears of battle On that face,
but they Will be scars of campaigns
won.
Now" says some one, al know
very good people who have no such re-
ligion in their faces" My friend, the
reason probably is that they were not
converted until late in life Worldli-
ness and sin had been at work with
their chisels on that face for thirty or
forty years, and Grace, the divine
sculptress, has been busy with her
chisel only five or ten years Do not
be surprised that Phidias and Gree
nough with their fine chisels can not
in short while remove all the marks
of the stonemGson's crowbar which
has been busy there for a long while.
j say to all the young, if you would
have sympathetic face, hopeful face,
courageous face, cheerful face, kind
face. at the earliest possible mo-
ment, by the grace of God. have
planted in your soul sympathy. and
hope, and courage, and good cheer,
and kindness. Ne man ever indulged
gracious feeling, or was moved by a
righteous indignation, or was stirred by
benevolent impulse, but It's effect was
more or less indicated in the counte-
nance while David noticed the phys
iognomic effect of bad disposition
when ne said, "A wiclsed man harden
eth his face" and jeremiah must have
noticed it when he said of the cruel,
They have made their faces harder
than a rock" Oh, the power of the
human face! warrant that you have
known faces SO magnetic and Impress
i've that, though they vanished long ago,
they still hold you with holy spell.
How bng since your child went?
WELL" you say, 'if she had lived she
would have been ten years old now, or
twenty. or thirty years But does not
that infant face still have tender SUI
premacy over your entire nature? Dur
ing many an eventide docs it not look
at you? In your dreams do you not
see 1T? What a sanctifying, hallowing
influence it has been in your life. You
oap eau In tho words NJ the noat. 'Rat :