Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-02-26

upon it that consider it important and
Christian for every man and woman to
| be as agreeable as posi- BILE. The siOuch,
the sloven, the man who does not care
! how he looks, all such people lack
equipment for usefulness. A minister
who has to throw quid of tobacco out
of his mouth before he begins to preach
or Christians with beard untrimmed,
making them to look like wild beasts
| come Odt of the lair-yea, unkempt,
uncombed unwashed. disagreeable men
or wOmen-are hindrance TO religion
more than recommendation.
A SCATHING REJOINDER.
Now, my text suggests how we may,
independent of features, make ourselves
agreeable, "A mans wisdom maketh
his face to shine, and the sourness of his
face shall be sweetened. What [ say
may come too late for many. Their
countenance may by long years of hard
ness have been frozen into stolidity, or
by long years of cruel behavior they
may have Hcrodized all the machinery
of expression, or by long years of avarice
they may have been Shylocked until
their face is as hard as the precious
metal they are boarding, but am in
time to help multitudes if the Lord
will. That it is possible to overcome
disadvantages Of physiognony was in
this country nightly illustrated by one
whose life recently closed after having
served in the presidential cabinet at
Washington. By accident of fire in
childhood his face had been more pite-
ousIy scared than any human visage
that [ ever saw. By hard study he
arose from being poor boy to the very
height of the legal profession, and when
an attorney general for the United
States was needed he entered the presi-
Dental cabinet. What a triumph over
destroyed human countenance!
[ do not wonder that when an Oppos-
ing attorney in a Philadelphia court
room cruelty referred to this personal
Disagreement Benjamin F. Brewster re-
piled in these words: ''When I was a
babe, [ was beautiful blue eyed child.
I know this because my dear dead moth
er told me SO, but I was one day play
ing with my sister when her clothes
took fire, and ran to her relief and
saved her, but in doing SO my clothes
took fire, and the fire was not put out
until my face was as black as the heart
of the scoundrel who has just now re-
ferred to my Disagreement Heroism
conquering physical disabilities! That
scholarly regular features are not neces-
sary for making powerful impression
witness Paul, who photographs himself
as in ''bodily presence weak and
George Whitefeld, whose eyes were
struck with strabismus, and Alexander
Ell. Stephens, who sat with pale and sick
face in invalid's chair while he thrilled
the American congress with his elo-
quence, and thousands of invalid preach
erS and Sabbath school teachers and
Christian workers. Aye, the most g]ori-
Gus being the world ever saw was fore
seen by Isaiah, who described his face
bruised and gashed and scarified and
said of him, s. His visage was so marred,
more than any man. So you see that
the loveliest face in the universe was
SCARED face.
THE BRIGHT SIDE AND THE DARK.
And now l am going to tell you OF
some of the chisels that work for the
designation Or irradiation Of the hu-
man countenance. One of the sharpest
and most destructive Of those chisels of
the countenance is cynicism. That
sours the disposition and then sours the
face. 1t gives a contemptuous curl to
the lip. It draws down the corners of
the mouth and initiates the nostri1 as
with q InalOdor. What David said in
haste they say in their deliberation, "All
men are liars, " everything is going to
ruin. All men and women are bad or
going to be. Society and the church
are on the down grade. Tell them of an
act of beneyolence, and they say he gave
that to advertise himself. They do not
like the present fashion of hats for wo-
men Or of coats for men. They are OPP
posed to the administration, municipal
and state and national. Somehow food
does not taste as it used to, and they
wonder why there are no poets or ora
tors or preachers as when they were
boys. Even Solomon, one Of the wisest
and at one time one of the worst Of
men, falls into the pessimistic mood
and cries out in the twenty-first chapter
of Proverbs, 'Who can find virtuouS
woman?' If he had behaved himself
better and kept in good associations, he
would not have written that interroga
ton point implying the scarcity Of good
womanhood. Cynicisna, if habit, as
it is with tens of thousands of people.
writes itself all over the features; hence
SO many sour visages all up and down
the street, all up and down the church
and the world. One good way to make
the world worse is to say it is worse.
Let depressed and foreboding opinion
Of everything take possession of you for
30 years, and you will be sight to be-
hold. 1t is the chastisement of God that |
when a man allows his heart to be
cursed with cynicism his face becomes
gloomed and scowIed and lachrymosed |
and blasted with the same midnight.
Angeles RUSE.