Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-02-26

ways solemn. They carry several coun'
try graveyards in their faces. They are
fearful when there is nothing to CRY
about, and in their prayers they catch
for their breath, and have such general
dolefulness that they disgust young peo-
people with religion.
Here comes another chisel, and that
belongs TO the old-fashiOned religion.
II first takes possession Of the whole
soul. washing out its sins by the blood
of the Lamb and starting heaven right
there and then. This done deep do M
the heart. Religion says: ''NOw let me
o., I'D TO the windows and front gate Of
the face set up some signal that l have
taken possession, Of this castle.
h esNoN," says some one, Il know very
good people VINO have no such religion
in their faess." Ny friend, the reason
probably is that they were not convert
ed until late in life.
Bnt can tell Iou of more sympa-
thetic. and more teCder and more loving
face than any of the faces have men
toned. 'NO, YOU cannot" says some
one. I can, and l will
IT IS THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST
as he was on earth and is now in
heaven. When preparing my life OF
Christ, entitled From Manager 70
Throne" ransacked the art galleries
and portfolios of the world TO find a pic
ture of our SaviOur's face that might
be most expressive, and l saw 1t as
Francesca Francia painted it In the six
tenth century, and as the emerald in
taglio Of the sixth century painted 1t,
and as a fresco in the catacombs near
Rome preserved it, and as Leonardo Da
Vinci showed it in THE Last Supper,
and I looked in the Louvre, and the
Luxembourg, and the Vatican, and the
Dresden, and the Berlin, aud Neopoll-
tan, and London galleries for the most
inspiring face of Christ, and many OF
the presentations were woAsrinl 1or
pathos, and majesty, and power, and
execution; but although l selected that
by AIRY Scheffer as in some respects the
most expressive, l felt as re all teel'
that our Christ has never yet been pre-
sgnted either in sculpture or painting
and that we will have to wait until we
rise to the Upper Palace, where we
shall see him as he is. What gentle
face 10 must have been to Induce the
babes to struggle out OF their mothers
arms into his armsl What an express
sive face il must have been when one
reproving look OF it threw Stalwart
Peter into q fit of tears! What a plead
Ing face il must have been to LEAD the
Psalmis6 in prayer to say Of it, 'f'ook
uDon the face of Thine Amounted.
What a sympathetic face it must have
been to encourage the sick woman who
was beyond any help from the doctors
TO touch the hem Of his garment! what
a suffering face it must have been when
suspended on the perpendicular and
horizontal pieces of the wood OF martyr
dom, and his antagonists slapped the
pallid cheek with their rough hands,
and befouled it with the saliva OF their
basphemOus lips!
WHAT A TREMENDOUS FACE
it must have been TO lead Saint John to
describe it in the coming judgment as
scattering the universe when he says
''From whose face the earth and the
heaven fed away"
Oh, Christ! Once the Nazarene, but
now the CELESTIAL Once of Cross, but
now of Throne! Once crowned with
singing bram6e, but now coroneted
with the jewels Of ransomed empires'
Turn on US thy Dardoning face and for
give Us; thy sympathetic face and con-
sole US; thy suffering face and have thy
atonement avail for us; thy Omnipotent
face aud rescue us. Oh, what face,
So Scared. so lacerated, so respondent,
so overwhelmingly glorious that the ser
apbim put wing TO wing, aud with their
conioined piniOns keep of some OF the
Iustre that is too mighty even for eyes
cherubic or archanRelic; and yet this
morning turning upon US with sheathed
sDlendor like that with which he appear
ed when he said to the mothers bashtul
about presenting their children, "Suf'
fer them to Gomez" and to the poor walf
OF the street, Neither do l condemn
thee" and to the eyes OF the blind beg
car OF the wayside, BE opened"
think my brother John, the returned
foreign missionary, dying summer be-
fore last al Bound Brook, caught
glimpse of that face Of Christ when in a
diving hour my brother said, 81 shall be
satisfied when I awake in his likeness. u
And now unto him that loved us, and
washed Us from our sins in his own
blood, and hath made Us kings and
PRIESTS unto God and his Father, to him
be glory and dominica, forever aud
ever, Amen and Amen Amen and
| Amen