Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-02-26
AS SEEN IN TIE FACE.
THE MAP OF THE MIND DISCUSSED
AT THE TABERNACLE.

Rev. DR.. Talmage Says the Character of the
Countenance Is a Mirror of the Soul.
Most Wonderful of Gods Works.
BROOKLYN, Feb. 25.-In the Brook
lyn Tabernacle this forenoon Rev. Dr..
Ta1mage chose for the subject of his
sermon sThe Human Face and held
his great audience fascinated with the
charm of his eloquence as he discoursed
on subject of universal interest. The
text was Ecclesiastes viii, /, "A man S
wisdom maketh his face to shine, and
the boldness of his face shall be chang
ed" or, as it may be rendered, 1.-THE
sourness of his face shall be sweetened. !"
Thus a little change in cur English
translation brings out the better mean
ing of the text, which sets forth that
the character of the face is decided by
the character of the soul. The main
features of our countenance were decid
ed by the Almighty, and we cannot
change them, but under God we decide
whether we shall have .countenances
benignant or baleful, sour or sweet,
wrathful or genial, benevolenteor mean,
honest or scoundrelly, impudent or mod
est, courageous Or cowardly, frank or
sneaking. In all the works of God there
is nothing more wonderful than the hu
man countenance. Though the longest
face is less than 12 inches from the hair
line of the forehead to the bottom of
the chin and the broadcast face is less
than inches from cheek bone to cheek
bone. yet in that small compass God
hath wrought such differences that the
1900, 900, 600 of the human race may
be distinguished from each other by
their facial appearances.
AN INDEX OF CHARACTER.
The face is ordinarily the index Of
character It is the throne Of the emo
tons. 1t is the battlefield OF the pas
sions. 1t is the catalogue of character.
It 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 homeiy we are
by the character we form deciding
whether our countenances shall be pleas
ant or disagreeabIe. This is Sc much so
that some Of the most beautiful faces
are unattIactive because of their AFRO
gance or their deceitfulness, and some
of the most rugged and irregular fea-
lures are attractive because of the kind
ness that shines through them. Acct
dent or sickness or scarifcatiOn may
veil the face so that it shall not express
the soul, but in the majority OF cases
give me deliberate look at a man S
countenance and L will tell you whether
he is cynic or an Optimist, whether he
is a miser or philanthropist, whether
he is noble or ignominiOuS, whether he
is good OF bad. Our first impression OF
a man or woman is generally the accu-
rate impression. You at the first glance
make up your mind that some man is
unworthy of your friendship, but after
ward, by circumstances being put into
intimate association with him, you
come to like him and trust him. Yet
stay with him long enough, and you
Will be compelled to return to your orig
jnal estimate Of his character, but it
will be after he has cheated you out of
everything he could lay his hands on.
1t is of Gods mercy that we have these
outside indexes of character Phrenol-
ogy is one index, and while it may be
carried to an absurd extent there is no
doubt that you can judge somewhat OF
"a man character by the shape of his
head. Palmist1y is another index, and
while it may be carried into the fanciful
and necrOmantic there is no doubt that
certain lines in the palm Of the hand
are ind ;cative of mental and moral
traits.
Belle PHYSIOGNOMY.
Physiognomy is another index, and
while the contour of the human face
may, sometimes mislead us we can gen
orally, after looking into the eye and
noticing the curve of the lip and the
spread of tho nostril and the correla-
ton ofial1 the features, come to a right
estimate of mans character. If it
were not SO, how would we know whom
totrust and whom to avoid? Whether
we will or not, physiognomy decides a
thousand things in commercial and
financial and social and religious do
mains. From one lid of the Bible to
the other, there is no science so recog-
nized. as that of physiognomy, and moth
ing more thoroughly taken for granted
than the power of the soul to transfg-
ure 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 Phara-
oh, the ashes on the face of humilia-
ton, the resurrectionary staff on the
face of the dead child, the hypocrites
disfguring their face, and in my text
the Bible declares, "A mans wisdom
maketh his face to shine, and the sour
ness of his face shall be sweetened. If
the Bible hasso much tosay about physi-
ognomy, we do not wonder that the
world has made it study from the
early ages. In vain the English parlia-
ment in the time of George III ordered