The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-26

written in the language of your face
That is the gospel OF physiognomy.
a BayOnne merchant was in the south
Of Europe for his health, and sitting on
the terrace one morning IN mis- invahdism
he saw rider flung from horse into the
river, and without thinking of his OWE
weakness the merchant flung OF his in
valid's gown and leaped into the stream
and swan to the drowning man. aud clutch
ing him as he was about 10 go down the
last time, bore him in safety 10 the bank,
when glancing into the face of the rescued
man, he cried. My God / have saved
my own son. All kindness comes back
70 US in one way or another; if not in any
other Eav then in your own face. Kind
ness 1uuy. IL TO others, for the time may
come when yo4 may need it yourself. PEG
pie laughed st the lion because he spared
the nous that ran over him, when by one
motion Cd his paw the monster could have
crushed the insignificant distUrber But
it was we'll that the lion had mercy on
I the mouse, for one day the lion was
( caught in trap and rOared fearfuliy be-
cause he was held fast by ropes. Then
the mouse gnawed o f the ropes and let
the lion 90 free. You may consider your
self lion, but you cannot afford to sde-
spise q mouse. When Abraham Lincoln
/ pardOned a young soldier at the request
OF his mother, the mother went down the
stairs of the white house, saying, They
] have lied about the Presidents being
/ hOmely; he is the handsOmeSt man I ever
! saw" All over that Presidents rugged
| face was written the kindness which he
1 so well illustrated when he said: Some
/ of our generals complain that impair dis
! ciDline and subordination in the army by
my pardons and respites, but it makes me
| rested after hard days work if can find
| some good excuse for saving a mans life,
aud go TO bed happier as l think of how
/ joyous the signing of my name will make
| him and his family" Kindness 1t
makes the face to shine while life lasts,
and after death puts a summer sunset be-
/ tween the still lips and the smoothed
| hair that makes me say sometimes a { OBJ
! sequies: she seems too beautiful to
| bury"
But here comes another chisel, and its
name is hypocrisy. Christ with one ter
| rife stroke in his sermon on the mount
described this character: "When We fast
be not as the hypocrites, of a sad counte-
nance; for they disfgure their faces that
they may appear unto men To fast" Hy-
pocrisy having taken possession of the
soul 1t Immediately appears in the coun-
tenance. Hypocrites are always solemn.
| They carry several country graveyards in
| their faces. They are fearful when
there is nothing TO cry about, and in
their prayers they catch for their BREATH
anu nave SUCH Il general QOAeLuluSSS Gldb
| they disgust young people with religion.
We had one of them in one of my churches.
When he exhorted he always de-
plored the low state of religion in other
people, and when he prayed it was an
| attack of hYsteria, and he went into a
paroKysm of obs and abs that seemed to
demand resuscitation. He went on in
that way until we had to expel him from
church for stealing the property entrusted
n him a adm N sf 20 low and fof. or,
vices That / will not mention, and he
wrote me several letters not at all com
| plimentary from the west saying that he
was daily praying for my everlasting de.
struction. A man cannot have hypocrisy
in his heart without somehow showing it
in his face. All intelligent people who
| witness 1T know it is nothing but a
dramatization.
| Here comes another chisel. and that be-
longs TO the old fashioned religion. 1t
first takes possession of the whole soul,
washing out its sins by the blood of the
Lamb ana starting heaven right there
and then. This done deep down in the
heart. religion says, Now let me go up to
the windows and front gate of the face and
set up some signal that have taken pos
session OF this castle | Will celebrate the
victory by an illumination that no one can
mistake. / have made this man happy
and now l will make him look happy.
will draw the corners of his mouth as far
up as they were drawn down. | will take
the contemptuous curl away from the lip
and nOstril. l will MAKE his eyes flash
and his cheeks glow at every mention of
Christ and heaven. / will make even the
wrinkles of his face look like burrows
plowed for the harvests of Joy. | will
make what we call the crows feet
around his temples suggestive that the
dove of peace has been ahghting there. 4"
| There may be signs of trouble on that
face, but trouble sanctified. There may
be scars of battle on that face, but they
will be scars of campaigns won.
"Now," says some one, II know very
| good people who have no such religion in
! their faces" My friend, the reason prob
! ably is that they were not converted until
late in life. Worldliness and sin had been
at work with their chisels on that face
| for thirty or forty years, and Grace, the
| divine sculptures, has been busy with her
| chisel only five or ten years. Do not be
surprised that Phidias and Greenough,
with their fine chisels, cannot, in a short
| while. remove all the marks of the stone
mason's crowbar, which has been busy
! there tor a long while. l say to all the
! young, if you would have sympathetic
| face, hopeful face, courageous face, cheer
| full face, kind face, at the earliest posi-
! bic moment, by the grace of God, have
| PAohbOa III gOul oOAl pdbAlyN anu uOpts
and courage, and good cheer, and kind
ness. No man ever INDUCED a gracious
! feeling, or was moved by a righteous in
| dignation, or was stirred by a benevo-
! lent impulse, but its effect was
more or less indicated in the
countenance; while David noticed
the physiognomic effect of bad
! disposition when he said, "A wicked man
hardeneth his face, - and jeremiah must
have noticed it when he said of the cruel,
They have made their faces harder than
/ a rock" Oh, the power of the human
( face! l warrant that you have known
faces so magnetic and impressive that
! though they vanished long ago they still
! hold you with a holy spell How long
! since your child wentl Well" YOU say,
! If she had lived she would have been ten
! years old now, or twenty, or thirty
: years" But does not that infant face
still have tender supremacy over your en-
/ tire nature' During many an eventide
does it not look at youl In your dreams
do you not see it! What a sanctifying,
hallowiug influence IL has been in Your
life. You can say in the words of the
poet; Better to have loved aud
lost than never TO have loved at
all" Or, it may have been "A
sisters face. Perhaps she was the
invalid of the family. Perhaps she
never went out except on very clear DAYS.
and then she had to be carried down the
stairs to the piazza or for short ride