The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1894-04-27

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| am sure it was a soulful face. The
face is only the curtain of the soul. 1t
was impossible that a disposition like
Christ's should not have demonstrated
itself in lis physiognomy. Kindness as
an occasional impulse may give no illu-
mination to the features, but kindness
as the lifelong, dominant habit viii
produce attractiveness Of countenance
as certainly as the shining of the sun
produces flowers. Children are afraid of
a scowling or hard visaged man. They
cry out if he proposes TO take them. If
he try to caress them, he evokes a slap
rather than L;ss An mothers know
how hard it is 10 get their children TO
go to a man or woman Of fOrbidding ap-
pearance. But no sooner did Christ ap-
pear in the domestic group than there
was an infantile excitement, and the
youngsters began 10 struggle TO get cut
Of their mothers arms. They could lot
hold the children back. 'Stand back
with those chilGrenI' scolded some of
the disciples Perhaps the little ones
may have been playing III the dirt, and
their faces may not have been clean, or
they may not have been well clad, or the
disciples may have thought Christ's re-
Hgion was a religion chiefly for big
folks. But Christ made the inf lntile ex-
citement still Iivelier by his saying that
he liked children better than grown peo-
pie, declaring, Except We become as a
little child We cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. "
Alas for those people who donot like
children! They had better stay out Of
heaven, for the place is full Of them.
That, think, is one reason why the
vast majority of the human race die in
infancy. Christ is so fond Of children
that he takes them to himself before the
world has time To despoil and harden
them, and so they are row at the win
dows Of the palace and Oh the doorsteps
and playing on the green. Sometimes
Matthew or Mark or Luke tells story
of Christ, and only one tells it, but
Matthew, Mark and Luke all join in
that picture Of Christ girdled by chill
dren, and [ know by what occurred at
that time that Christ had a face full Of
geniality.
Habits of Chri.t.
Not only was Christ altogether lovely
in his cOuntenance, but lovely in his
habits. [ know, without being told, that
the Lord who made the rivers and lakes
and oceans was cleanly in his appear
ance Ee dislikcd the disease of leprOsy
not only because it was distressing, but
because it was not clean, and his curative
words were: 4 Will. Be thou clean. -
He declared himself in favor of thor
ough washing and opposed to superb
cial washing when he denounced the
hypocrites for making clean only "the
outside of the platter, " and he applaUds
his disciples by saying, "NOw are ye
clean" and giving directions to those
who tasted, among other things, he says
"Wash thy face" and to a blind man
whom he was doctoring, "Go, wash in
the pool Of Sloan, " and he himself
actually washed the disciples feet, I
suppose not only to demonstrate his
own humility, but probably their feet
needed to be washed.
The fact is, the Lord was q great
friend Of water. I know that from the
fact that most Cf the world is water.
But when I find Christ in such constant
cOmmeEdatiOn Of water [ know he was
personally neat, although he mingled
much among very rough populations and
took such long journeys on dusty high
ways He wore his hair long, according
b +l,, Nf L. Int
neither trouble nor old age had thinned
or injured his locks, which were never
WORD shaggy or unkempt. Yea, all his
habits of personal appearance were
lovely.
Sobriety was also an established habit
Of his life In addition to the water, he
drank the juice Of the grape. When at
a wedding party this beverage gave out,
he made gallons on gallons of grape
Juice but it was as unlike what the
world makes in our time as health is
different from disease and as calm
pulses are different from the parOxysms
of delirium tremens. There was no
strychnine in that beverage or lOgw0Od
or nux vomica. The tipplers and the
sOts who now quote the winemaking in
Cana Of Galilee as an excuse for the
fiery and damning beverages of the nine
teenth century forget that the wine at
the New Testament wedding had two
characteristics-the one that the Lord
made it and the other that it was made
out of water. Buy all you can Of that
kind and drink it at least three times
day and Send q barrel Of it round to my
cellar.
You cannot make me believe that the
blessed Christ who went up and down
healing the sick would create for man
that style Of drink which is the cause
of disease more than all other causes
combined, or that he who calmed the
maniacs into their right mind would
create that style Of drink which does
more than anything else to fill insane
asylums, or that he who was so helpful
to the poor would make a style of drink
that crowds the earth with pauperism,
or that he who came to save the nations
from sin would create a liquor that is
the source of most Of the crime that
now stuffs the penitentiaries. a lovely
sobriety was written all over his face,
from the hair line of the forehead TO the
bottom of the bearded chin.
Christ the Physician.
Domesticity was also his habit.
Though tpo poor to have home Of his
own, he went out to spend the night at