The Baptist headlight. (Topeka, Kan.) 1893-1894, 1894-03-14

comes the canvas Oh WulCA Oil UAAO
artists of Heaven begin to 'nt thelr
finest strokes. and on the small COM
pass of that face are put pictures y.
sunrise over the sea, ana angels VI
mercy going up and down ladders ali
aAash. and mountains of TRANSPORTATION
and MONDAY in Heaven. Kindness.
1t is the most magnificent sculptor tha1
ever touched human Countenance.
Here comes another chlsel, ana tnat
belongs to the old-fashiOned religion
It first takes possession OF the Wnole
soul, washing out its sins by the o!ooo
of the Lamb and starting Heaven right
there and then. This done, deep down
in the heart religions says; NOW let
me go up to the windows and front gaze
of the face and set up some signal tnaC
I have taken possession of this castle.
will celebrate the victory by an IL
Illumination that no one can mistake l
have made this man happy, and now
will make him look happy. L Will
draw the corners of his mouth as far
I'D as they were drawn down. L Will
take the cOntemptuOus curl away from
the lip and nostril. [ will make his
eyes flash and his cheeks glow at every
mention of Christ and Heaven. L Will
make even the wrinkles OF his face
look like burrows plowed for the harv-
est of JOY. | 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 sanctitied. There may be scars
of battle on that face, but they will be
scars of campaigns won.
Power of a Face.
"Now," says some one, Il know very
good people who have no such religion
in their faces" My friend, the reason
probably is that they were not con-
verified until late in life. Worldliness
and sin had been at work with their
cnisels 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 Greenough with their fine
chisels cannot in short while remove
all the marks of the stone mason's
crow bar, which has been busy there
for long while. l say to all the young,
if you would have sympathetic face,
hopeful face, courageous face, cheerful
face, kind face; at the earliest possible
moment by the grace of God have
planted in your soul sympathy and
hope and courage and good cheer and
kindness. No man ever INDUCED a
gracious feeling or was moved by a
righteous Indignation or was stirred
by benevolent impulse but its effect
was more or less indicated in the cOun-
tenance, while David noticed the physi-
ognomic effect of a bad disposition
when he said, ga wicked man harden
eth his face" and Jeremiah must have
noticed it when he said of the cruel,
"They have made their faces harder
than rock"
Oh, the power of the human face!
warrant that you have known faces so
magnetic and impressive that, though
they vanished long ago, they still hold
you with holy spell. How long since
your child went? well, you say,
''if she had lived she would have been
10 years old now, or 20 or 80 years. "
But does not that infant face still have
tender supremacy over your entire ma
ture? During many an eventide does
it not look at you? In your dreams do
you not see it? What a sanctifYing,
hallowing influence it has been in your
life! You can say in the words of the
poet, Better to have loved and lost
than never to have loved at all" Or
it may have been sisters face. Per
haps she was the invalid of the family.
Perhaps she never went out except on
very clear days. and then she had to
be carried down the stairs to the plaz-
"a or for snort ride, but she was Sc
patient and cheerful under it all. AS
that face looks at you through the
wears with what an elevated and heav-
emily emotion you are filled. Or was il
a fathers face? The storms of life had
somewhat rOughened it. A good deaI
of the brightness of the eye had been
uuenched. and the ear was turned
with the hand behind it in order tC
hear at all. But you remember that
| face so wildly that if you were ar
artist you could put it on canvas, and
| it would mean to you more than any
| face that Rembrandt ever sketched
| That face, though long ago yelled from
human sight, is as plain in your mem
| ory as though you this moment saw il
moving gently forward and backward
| in the rocking chair by the stove in the
/ old farmhouse. Or was it your mothers
/ face? A good mothers face is never
hOmely to her boys and girls. 1t is &
Madonna in the picture gallery o
the memory. What a sympathetic face
it was! Did you ever have a JOY ant
that face did not respond to it? Did
you ever have grief and no tears
/ trickled down that maternal cheek,
Did you eyer do bad thing and ,
| shadow did not cross it? Oh, it was
sweet face. The spectacles with large
round glasses through which she looked
at you, how sacredly they have beer
kept in bureau or closet. Your mother
face, your mothers smile, you
mothers tears. What an overpower
ing memory. Though you have come
on to midlife or old age, how you woulC
like just once more TO bury your face
in her lap and have a good cry