Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-03-15

I pboslDie. Inc SlOucn, the SIONen, inc
man who does not care how he looks,
all such people lack equipment for use
fitness. A minister who has to throw
a quid of tobacco out of his mouth be-
fore he begins to preach, or Christians
with beard nntrimmed, making them
look like wild beasts come out of the
lar. yea. unkempt, uncombed, un-
washed, disagreeable men or women,
are hindrance to religion more than
a recommendation.
Now. my text suggests how we NAV.
independent of features, make our
selves agreeable: "A mans wisdom
maketh his face to shine and the sour
ness OF his face shall be sweetened.
what | say may come too late for
many. Their countenanee may by loaQ
| years of hardness have been frozen
into stolidity; or by long years OF cruel
behavior they may have Herodized all
the machinery ofexpression; or by long
years Of avarice they may have been
shyloeked until their face is as hard as
the precious metal they are boarding
but am in time 70 help multitudes if tie
Lord will. That it is possible to over
come disadvantages of physiognomy
was in this country nightly illustrated
by one whose life recently closed after
having served in the presidential cabi-
net at Washing ton BY accident of fire
IN childhood his face had been more
piteously scared than any human Wis
age that | ever saw. BY hard study he
rose from being poor boy to the very
height Of the legal profession, and
when an attorney general for the
United States was needed he entered
the presidential cabinet What a tri.
umph over destroyed human counte-
nance. l do not wonder that when
an opposing attorney in a Philadel
phia court room cruelty referred to
this Disagreement, benjamin +,
Brewster replied in these words:
when ! was babe | was a beautiful
blue-eyed child. | know this because
my dear dead mother told me so; but |
was one day playing with my sister,
when her clothes took fire, and ran
to her relief and saved her. but in &c.
ing so my clothes took fire, and the fir
was not put ont until my face was a
black as the heart of the scoundrel VIII
has just now referred to my disigure
ment." Heroism conquering physical
disabilities! That scholarly, regular
features are not necessary for making
powerful impression, witness Paul |
who photographs himself as in bodily
presence weak and George White
field, whose eyes were struck with
strabismus: and Alexander Fl. Steph |
ems, who sat with pale and sick fac in
invalid's chair while he thrilled the
American congress with his clolu nee
and thousands of invalid pseteaers
and Sabbath-school teachers, and |
Christian workers. Ave, the III lst glo-
rious being the world ever saw was
foreseen BY Isaiah, who described his |
face bruised, and gashed and scarf
fed and said of him, His visage was
SO married, more than any man So
you see that the loveliest face in the |
universe was a SCARED face.
And now / am going to tell you of
some of the chisels that work for the |
designation or irradiation of the hui
man countenance. One of the sharpest
and most destructive of these ehisels Of /
the countenance is cynicism. That
sours the disposition and then sours
the face 1t gives contemptuous curl
to the lip. 1t draws down the corners
of the mouth and initiates the nostril
as with malodor. What David said
in haste they say in their deliberations.
"AIl men are lars everything is go
ing to ruin. All men and women are
bad or going to be. Society ana the
church are on the down grade Tell
them of an act of benevolence. and
they say he gave that to advertise him
self They do not like the present
fashion of hats for women, or of coats
for men They are opposed to the adj
ministration. municipal, and state. and
national Somehow food does not
taste as it used to, and they wonder
why there are no poets or orators
or preachers as when they were
boys Even Solomon, one of the
wisest, and, at one time, one of
the worst of men, falls into the pessi-
mistic mood and cries out in the TWEEN
tv-first chapter of Proverbs, who can
find virtnous woman?' If he had be-
haved himse If better and kept in good
he would not have writ
ten that interrogation point implying
the scarcity of good womanhood. Cyni-
cism, if a habit. as it is with tens of
thousands of people, writes itself all
over the features: hence so many sour
visages all up and down the street all
up and down the church and the world.
One good way to make the world worse
is to say it is worse. Let depressed
and foreboding opinion of everything
take possession of you for twenty years
and YOU will be a sight to behold. 1t
is the chastisement of God that when
a man allows his heart to be cursed
with cynicism his face becomes
gloomed. and scowled, and lachry-
and biased with the same mid
night
But let Christian eheerfulness try its
chisel upon a mans countenance
Feeling that all things are for his