Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-03-02

BROOKLYN, Feb. 25.-In the Brook
lyn tabernacle this forenoon, Rev. DIR.
Talmage chose for the subject of his
sermon THE Human Face" and held
his great audience fascinated with the
charm of his eloquence, as he DIS
coursed on subject of universal inter
est The text was Ecclesiastes S:i:
"a mans wisdom maketh his face to
shine and the boldness of his face
shall be changed" or, as it may be
rendered, 1.-The sourness of his face
shall be sweetened."
Thus little change in our English
translation brings out the better
meaning of the text, which sets forth
that the character of the face is de-
cided by the character of the soul.
The main features of our countenance
were decided by the Almighty, and we
can not change them; but under
God we decide whether we shall
have countenances, benignant or
baleful, sour or sweet, wrath
full or genial, benevolent or
mean, honest or scoundrelly, impudent
or modest, courageous or cowardly.
frank or sneakipg. In all the works
of God there is nothing more wonder
full than the human countenance
Though the longest face is less than
twelve inches from the hair line of the
forehead to the bottom of the chin, and
the broadcast face is less than eight
inches from cheek bone to cheek bone,
vet in that small compass God hath
wrought such differences that the six
teen hundred million of the human
race may be distinguished from each
other by their facial appearances. The
face is ordinarily the index of charac'
ter. 1t is the throne of the emotions
II is the battlefield Of the passions
1t is the catalogue of character 1t is
the map of the mind. 1t is the geo.
graphy of the soul. And while
the Lorl decides before our
birth whether we shall be hand
some or homely, we are by the
character we form deciding whether
our countenances shall be pleasant or
disagreeable. This is so much so that
some of the most beautiful faces are
unattractive, because of their AFRO
gance or their deceitfulness, and some
of the most rugged and irregular feat
ures are attractive because OF the
kindness that shines through them.
Accident, 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
mans countenance and | will tell You
whether he is a cynic or an optimist
whether he is n miser or philan-
thropist,. where he is noble or igno-
minious, whether he is good or bad
Our first impression of a man or
woman is generally the accurate
impression You at the first glance
make up your mind that some man
is unworthy of your friendship but
afterward by circumstances being put
into intimate association with him,
Won come TO like him and trust him.
Yet. stay with him long enough, and
you will be compelled to return TO
your original estimate of his charac-
ter. but it will be after he has cheated
YOU out of every thing he could lay his
hands on 1t is of Gods mercy that
we have these outside indices of char
acter. Phrenology is one index, and
while it may be carried to an absurd
extent, there is no doubt that you can
Judge somewhat of a mans character
by the shape of his head Palmistry
Is another index, and while it may be
carried into the fanciful and NEGRO
mantle, there is. no doubt that certain
lines in the palm of the hand are indi-
III -
Physiogn'omy is another index, and
while the contour of the human face
NAV sometimes mislead us, we can gen.
orally, after looking into theeye and no
ticing the curve of the lip and the spread
of the nostril and the correlation of
all the features, come to a right esti-
mate of a mans character. IL it were
not so, how would we knew whom TO
trust and whom to avoid? Whether
we will or not physiognomy decides a
thousand things in CONNIE cial and
financial, and social, and religious do
mains. From one lid of the Bible TO
the other there is no science so rec
ognized as that of physiogonomy, and
nothing more thoroughly taken for
granted than the power of the soul to
transfgure the face. The Bible speaks
of the face of Cod" the face of
Jesus Christ, the face of Esau," the
face of Israel, the face of Job"
the face of the old man." the shin
ing ''face of Noses" the wrathful
face of Pharaoh" the ashes on the
face of humiliation, the resurrec-
tionary staff on the face of the dead
child, the hypocrites dis6guring
their face, and in my text the Bible
declares, "a mans wisdom maleth his
face to shine and the sourness of his
face shall be sweetened." If the Bible
has so much to say about physiog-
nomy, we do not wonder that the
world has made it a study from the
early ages. In vain the English par
lament in the time of George H. or
dered publicly whipped and impris-
oned those who studied physiognomy.
Intelligent people always have studied
it and always will study it. The pens
of Moses. and Joshua, and job, and