The Globe-republican., 1894-03-02

: witness it know it is nothing but q
dramatization
: Here comes another chisel, and that
} belongs to the old-fashioned religion
1t first takes possession of the whole
soul, washing out sins by the blood OF
the Lamb and starting Heaven right
there and then. This done deep down
in the heart, religion says: "Now lei
me go up to the windows and front
gate OF the face that set up some signal
that l have taken possession of this
castle. l will celebrate the victory by
an illumination that no one can mis-
take. l have made this man happy
and now l will make him look happy.
far up 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 men
tion of Christ and Heaven.
"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 we not con-
verted until late in life. Worldliness
chisel only five or ten years. Do not
be surprised that Phidias and Green
ough, with their fine chisels, cannot in
short while remove all the marks of
the stonemaSon's crowbar, which has
been busy there for long while. l
say 10 all the young, if you would have
sympathetic face, hopeful face. cour-
ageous 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 Oh, the
power of the human face! ! warrant
that you have known faces so magnetic
and impressive that though they van
ished 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 infants
face have supremacy over your en-
tire nature? During many an eventide
does it not look at You? In your
dreams 60 you not see it? What a
sanctifving, hallowing influence it has
been, in your life. You can say in the
words of the poet: Better to have
loved and loss than never to have loved
at ALL Or, it may have been "a sisters
face. Perhaps 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 piazza, or for short ride, but |
she was SO patient and cheerful under |
it all. AS that face looks at you |
through the years with what an ele
vated and heavenly emotion you
are filled. Or, was it a fathers |
face? The storms of life had
roughened it. That
human sight, is as plain in your MEM
Dry as though you this moment saw it
moving gently forward and backward
in the rocking chair by the stove in the
old farm house. Or, was it your moth
ers face? a good mothers face is new
er homely to her boys and girls 1t is
a Madonna in the picture gallery of the
What a sympathetic face it
was! Did you ever have joy and that
y
ever have grief and no tears trickled
down that maternal cheek? Did you
ever do bad thing and shadow did
not cross it? Oh, it was a sweet face!
Your mothers face your, mothers smile,
your mothers tears! What an over
memory! Though you have
come on to mid-life, or old age, how
you would like just once more to bury
your face in her lap and have a good
cry.
But can tell you of more sympa.
thetic and more tender and more low
ing face than any of the faces have
netioned 1t is the face of Jesus
Christ as He was on earth and is now
n Heaven. What a gentle face it must
nave been to induce the babes to strug-
yle out of their mothers arms into His
lrms! What an expressive face it must
,ave been when one reproving look of
t threw stalwart Peter into fit of
ears! What a pleading face it must
nave been to lead the Psalmist in
prayer to say of it: Look upon
he face of Thine anointed" What
face it must have been to
encourage the sick woman, VINO was
beyond any help from the doctors, to
ouch the hem His garment! What
/ suffering face it must have been
when suspended on the perpendicular
md horizontal pieces of the wood of
and His isantagonists slapped
he pallid cheek with their rough
,ands, and befouled it with the saliva
If their blasphemous lips! What a
face it must have been to
cad St John to describe it in the COM
ng Judgment as scattering the uni
'erse when he says, From whose face
he earth and the heaven fled away"
Oh, Christ! Once the NaZarene, but
now the Celestial! Once of cross, but
low of throne! Once crowned with
bramble, but now coroneteG
with the jewels of ransomed empires,
Turn on us Thy pardoning face anG
forgive us; Thy sympathetic face anc
us; Thy suffering face and have
Thy atonement avail for US; Thy ON
nipotent face and rescue us Oh. what
\ face! So SCARED, SO lacerated, SO re-