The Globe-republican., 1894-03-02
THE HUMAN FACE.
Er. Ialmege Tells How It Nav Be
Made Beautiful
Goodness VIII Make 1t Attractive No
Matter How Misshapen the Features
What May Disfgure or Ira
diate the COuntenance.

The subject of late sermon preache
at Brooklyn by Rev. T. Dewitt Ia
mage was THE Human Face" and tn
text was from Ecclesiastes viii 1: g.
mans wisdom maketh his face to shin
and the boldness of his face shall b
changed" or, as it may be rendered
"the sourness of his face shall b
sweetened." Dr. Talmage said:
Thus little change in our Englisl
translation brings out the better mean
ing of the text, which sets forth tha
the character of the face is decided By
the character of the soul The mair
features of our countenance were de
cided by the Almighty, and we canno
change them; but under God we decide
whether we shall have countenances
benignant or baleful, sour or sweet
wrathful or genial, benevolent o,
mean. honest Or scoundrelly, impuden,
or modest, courageous or coward.
~. frank or sneaking. In all the
works OF God there is nothing more
wonderful than the human counte:
ance. The face is ordinarily the index
OF character. 1t is the throne of emo
tons. 1t is the battlefield of the pas
slons. 1t is the catalogue of character.
II 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 homelv. we
are by the character we form deciding
whether our countenances shall be
pleasant or disagreeable. This is so
much SO that some of the most beauti-
ful faces are unattractive, because of
their arrogance or their deceitfulness.
and some of the most rugged and irreg-
ar features are attractive because of
the kindness that shines through them
Whether we will or not, physiognomy
decides thousand things in COM
mercial and financial and social and
religious domains. From one lid
OF the Bible to the other there
IS no science SO recognized as that of
physiognomy, and nothing more thor
oughly taken for granted than the
power of the soul to transfgure the
face. The Bible speaks of the face of
God" the face of Jesus Christ" the
face of Esau," the ''face of Israel"
the "face of job" the face of the old
man." the shining ''face of Moses" the
wrathful face of Pharaoh" the ashes
on the face of humiliation, the resur-
rectiOnary staff on the face of the dead
child. the hypocrites disfguring their
faces, and in my text the Bible declares:
"A mans wisdom maketh his face to
shine. and the sourness of his face shall
be sweetened." If the Bible has so
much to say about physiognomy we do
not wonder that the world has made it
study from the early ages.
Now. what practical religious and
eternal use would make of this sub
ject? l am going to show that while
we are not responsible for our features.
the Lord Almighty having decided
what the shall be pre-natally, as the
Dsalmist declares when he writes: in
thy book all my members were written
which in continuance were fashioned
when as vet there was none of them"
yet the character which under God we
form will chisel the face most might
lily. Every man would like to have
been made in appearance an Alcibiades,
and every woman would like to have
been made a Josephine. We all want to
be agreeable. Our usefulness depends
so much upon it that / consider it i'm
portant and Christian for every man
and woman to be as agreeable as pos
sible.
Now, my text suggests how we may,
independent of features. make our
selves agreeable: "a mans wisdom
malzeth his face to shine and the sour
ness of his face shall be sweetened."
What l say may come too late for
many. Their countenance may by
long years of hardness have been
frozen into stolidity; or by long years
of cruel behavior they may have
Herodized all the machinery of express
sion; or by long years of avarice they
face is as hard as the precious metal
they are boarding; but 1 am in time to
help multitudes if the Lord will That
it is possible to overcome disadvantages
of physiognomy 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
ever saw. BY hard study he rose from
being a poor boy to the very height of
the legal profession. and when an at
torney-general of the United States
was needed he entered the presidential
cabinet What triumph over de-
stroyed human countenance! do not
wonder that when an opposing attor-
ney in q Philadelphia court room
cruelty referred to this personal dis
figurement Benjamin F. Brewster re-
piled in these words: "When l was a
bare I was beautiful clue-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 1 ran to her re-
lief and saved her: but in doing SO my
clothes took fire, and the fire was not
put out until my face was as black as
the heart of the scoundrel who has
just now referred to my disfigure-
ment"