The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-03-02
FRIDAY MORNING, MAR. 2, 1894.

pathy and hope and courage and good
cheer and kindness. No man ever in
dulged gracious feeling or was moved
by arighteous indignation or was stirrec
by benevolent impulse but its effoc,
was more or less indicated in the coun
tenance, while David noticed the phys!
ognomlc effect of bad disposition whtl
he said, "A wicked man hardeneth his
face" and Jeremiah must have noticed
1t when he said of the cruel, "Thoy
have made their faces harder than a
rock"
Oh, the power of the human facet !
warrant that you have known faces Sc
magnetic and impressive that, though
they vanished long ago, they still hold
you with holy spell. How long since
your child went2 WELL" you say, I'll
she had lived she would have been 10
years old now, or 20o 80 years.. But
does not that infant face still have ten
der supremacy over your entire naturet
During many an eventide does it moi
look at your In your dreams do yeu not
see itP What a sanctifying, hallowing
influence it has been in your life! You
can say in the words of the poet, "Bet
ter to have loved and lost than never to
have loved at ALL" Or it may have
been sisters face. Perhaps she was
the invalid of the family. Pc haps she
never went out except on very clear
days, and then she had to be carr ed
down the stairs to the piazza or f.. a
short ride, but she was so patient and
cheerful under it all. Asthat face looks
at you through the years with what an
elevated and heavenly emotion you are
6iled. Or was it a fathers face? The
storms of life had somewhat Iougheped
it. A good deal of the brightness Of
the eye had been quenched, and the ear
was turned with the hand behind it in
order to hear at all. But you remember
that face SO wildly that if you were an
artist you could put it on Canvas, and
it would mean to you more than any
face that Rembrandt ever sketehed.
That face, though long ago yelled from
human sight, is as plain in your memory
as though you this moment saw it NOV
ing gently forward and backward in the
rocking chair by the stove in the old
farmhouse. Or was it your mothers
face? A good mother S face is never
homely to her boys and girls. 1t is
Madonna in the picture gallery of the
memory. What a sympathetic face il
was! Did you ever have joy and that
face did not respond to it? Did you ever
have grief and no tears trickled down
that maternal cheek? Did you ever do
bad thing and shadow did not cross
it? Oh, 1t was sweet face! The spec
tacles with large, round glasses through
which she looked at you, how s.,credly
they have been kept in bureau or closet!
Your mothers face, your mothers
smile, your mothers tears! What an
overpowering memory! Though you
have come ON to midlife or old age, how
Won would like lust once more to bury
your face in her zap and have good
cry!
But can tell you of more sympa-
thetic and more tender and more loving
face than any of the faces | have men
toned. mo, you cannot, says some
one. l can, and l will. 1t 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
to Throne" ransacked the art gal
leries and portfolios of the world to find
picture of our Saviour's face that
might be most expressive, and | saw ii
as francesca Francia paintedft in the
sixteenth century, and as the emerald
intaglio of the sixth century presented