Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1894-03-08
uncornbed, unwashei- d~isa-rcaabie men
or women. are a hin1rance TO religion
more than a

@~A
Now. my text suggests how we may,
independent Of features make ourselves
agreeable: "A mans wisdom Ulaketh
his face 70 shine and the s0ur1eSs Of his
face shall be gweetenei." What / say
may come too late for many. Their
c~ountenances may by long years OF
hardness have been frozen into stolbd-
isy; or by long years Of cruel behavior
they may have Herosiized Ill he ma
chinery Of expression; or by long years
Of avartce they may have been Shylock-
&c until their face is rs hard as the
precious metal they are boarding; but
/ am in time to help multitudes IL the
Lord viii That ii Is possible TO over
come Disadvantages of physngnomy
was in this country nightly illustrated
by one whose life recently closed after
having served in the presiderti3l cab!-
net at Washington. By accident by fire
In childhood his face had been o
~piteously Scared than any human Wis
age that I ever saw. By hard study he
rose from being a poor boy 70 the very
height of the legal profession. and
when an attorney general for the Unit
ed States was needed he entered the
presidential cabinet What a triumph
over destroyed human countenance! I
do not wonder that when an opposing
attorney in a Philadelphia court room
cruelty referred 10 this personal disfg-
urement, Benjamin F. Brewster replied
In these words: when / was a babe /
was a beautiful blue-eyed child. l
know this, because my dear dead moth
er told me so; but / was n day play
ing with my sister when her clothes
took fire and / ran 10 her relief and
saved her: but in Sd doing my clothes
took fire, and the fire was not put out
until my face was as black as the heart
CT the scoundrel who has just now re-
ferred 10 my Disagreement" Heroism
c~onquering physical disabilities, That
scholarly regular features are not nee
essary for making powerful impress
sion. witness Paul. who photographs
himself as in bodily presence weak"
and George Whitefield, whose eyes
we're strnck with strabismus; and Alex
ander H. Stephans. who sat with pale
and sick face in inyalid's chair while he
thrilled the American congress with his
e~loquence; and thousands Of invalid
preachers. and Sabbath-school teachers
and Christian workers. Aye, the most
glorious being the world eve saw was
foreseen by Isaish, who described his
face bruised and gashed, and scarified
and said Of him. His visage was so
marred more than any other man"
So you see that the loveliest face in the
universe was a Scared face.
And now / am going 10 tell you Of
some Of the chisels that work for the
designation Or irradiation OF the hu-
mac countenance. One Of the sharpest
and most destructive Of those chisels
OF the countenancc is cynicisn II. That
sours the disposition and then sours the
face. 1t gives a contemptuous curl TO
the lip. 1t draws down the corners Of
the mouth and initiates the nostrils as
with Il malodor. What David said in
haste they say in their deliberations:
"All men are liars everything is 90
ing TO ruin. All men and women are
bad, or going to be. Society and church
are OH the down grade. Tell them OF
an act of benevolence. and they say he
gave that TO advertise himself. They
do not like the present fashion of hats
for women, or Of coats for e They
are opposed TO the administration. mu-
nicipal. and state, and national. Some
how, food does not taste as 1t used 10,
and they wonder why there are no
poets, or orators or preachers as when
they were boys. Even Solomon, n
of the wisest, ard at one time one Of
the worst, of p:en. falls into the pessi-
mistie mood. and cries out in the
twenty-first chap.sr of Proverbs, Who
can find a r;S.aous woman?" If he had
behaved himself better and kept in
good association he would not have
written that Interrogation point imply
ing the scarcity Of good womanhoOd.
Cynicism. IL a habit, as ii is with tens
OF thousands of people. writes itself all
owe the feature =: hence so many sour
visagcs all up and down tho street. all
up and down the church Of the world.
good way 10 make the world worse
Is to say liz Is worse. Let a depressed
and foreboding opinion Of everything
take possession Of you for twenty years
and you will be a sight to behold. IL
= the chastise:pent Of God that when a
man allows his heart 10 be cursed with
cynicism his face becomes gioomed and
scOwled and lachrymosed and blasted
with III" same midnight.
But let Christian checrfulness try its
chlsel upon a mans countanance Feel
ing that all things are for his good. and
that God rules. and that the Bible be-
ing true the worlds foralization is re-
pidly approaching. and the dag when
beer-mug and demijohn and distillery
and bomb-shell and rife-pit and "a
Founders, and roulette-tables and cor
RIP; books. and satanic printing press
viii have quit work, the brightness that
comes from such anticipation % only
gives zest 10 his work. but shines in his
eyes and glows in his cheeks and kin
dies n morning in his entire counte-
II Those are the faces I look for
in an audience. Those c~ouDtenances
are sections of millennial glory. They
are heaven impersonated. They are
the sculpturing of Gods right hand.
They are hosannas in human flesh.
They are hallelujahs a-lighted. They
are Christ re-innCarnated. / do not
care what your features are or whether
You look like your father or -FOUR moth
er, or look like no one under the heIv-
enS-to God and man you are beauti-
fal. Michael Angelo, the sculptor, Wis
iting F~lonence. some one showed him
in a back yard a piece OF marble that
was so shapeless IL seemed of no use,
and Angelo was asked IL he could make
anything out Of II, and If so was told