The Portland daily press., 1900-10-04
MODERN MALADIES.
The Curse self-COnsciousness in the
Age of Mirrors.
(Rev. DR.. William WfIberforee Newton
in the Churehman,0

in the Churchman.)
Perhaps the greatest malady which
aff1lcts our modern life is the curse of
self-eonsciousness. Whether this tenden-
cy Is the result of an overstrained condi-
tion of modern life, the Nemesis OF our
too intense civilization, whether it is an
inheritance from our ancestors, or is a
false conception of education, the result
is a distinct blight IN our life of today.
This maIady of self-cOnsciousEess
is a disease which is akin to insani-
ty. The men and women of today see
and hear and feel themselves in = every
thing they do. The reflex mirorr is
around us, and we see ourselves reflected
at every turn and angle OF existence.
Thus it hapDens that at every turn
in our life today, In the goss1py memoir.
or in the abomination of published let
ters never intended for the public eye, as
in the lamentable instance OF Robert
Browning and Elizabeth Barrett S love
letters, peoples names and doings are re-
flected in the broad mirror of the average
society papers so that the bane and curse
OF seIf-consciousness is a blight upon ev-
erything we say and do. And in this
way the great temptation comes to US all,
and particularly to every public man, to
act and speak and think, not for the di
rect result before him, but for the reflex
action of the effect which his words and
deeds will have as they are reported in
that modern mirror, the daily press We
need then just here to remember that
great spiritual law of our SOULS nature
that the best results Of in life are al
ways those that ave about them the ele.
ment of uBeonsolousness. For it Is when
we forget ourselves and fall to see our
own faces reflected in our striVings that
we are doing our best work in the world
There is an old Bible story, told us in
the book Of Exodus, which illustrates this
truth and enfOrces it's teaching It is the
story of the way in which Moses stopped
an evil custom which had grown among
the people, and turned certain instru-
ments of vanity into positive means OF
good. Finding that the Jewish women
brought with them to the door of the cur
tained tabernacle their bright and shin
Ing mirrors, upon whose FURNISHED sur
face, as they held them up to view, their
own dark and sWarthy faces were reflect
ed, Moses decided to stop this habit of
vanity and to cOnhsoate these brassy mir
rOrs to the service of the Lord. So upon
one occasion, when the women came trip
pingly to the door of the tent with their
pretty brass mirrors suspended by
chain to their girdles, as some worship
pers come with chateIaine and prayer
book to church today, the decree went
forth that the mirrors OF brass should be
given up to the service OF the Lord, In
| ia n
or court Of appeal, nONsupreme bench to
which any supposed grievance could be
carried, SO 1t came to pass that there was
nothing left these self-cOnsciOuS souls to
do but to hand over their FURNISHED bras
ses and retire to their families, sadder
and yet wiser women than before And
thus. as out of these Instruments or Vani-
ty the great leader fashioned the laver for
the publication OF the priests, these
words stand written; "And he made the
laver of brass OF the looking glasses OF the
women which assembled atthe door of
thu tab 3rnacls OF thu congregation -
When we come to think over it, the Gu
riOus thing about looking glass is that
there is something back of it and some
thing front of it, and that 1t is the some
thing which is back OF 1t which causes
the something in front OF it to be seen,
When a person looks into mirror he sees
his own face reflected there. When he
4OOAO OhAONSA q WlUOOW ACbu0 u0 SbSS
not himself, but the landscape before
him, That which changes a window
glass into looking glass, is the back ly-
ir g substance, which, because it is be-
hind the object, causes us to see our
selves and not the scenery about us.
What Moses did with the mirrors was
simply this He did not change the con-
stitution of the metal, He simply changed
the object which it reflected. He took the
FURNISHED brass, and instead Of letting it
reflect the faces of the Jewish women, he
fashioned it into laver, and ever after
ward with Its holy use, as its pure water
caught the light of the sun in the heav-
ems, it reflected no longer the face of the
human-it reflected the face of God.
And this is the one way we are to be
cured of our self-consc1ousness We must
break our mirrors, those hand glasses,
social, literary and religious, in which
we are won't to survey ourselves, and in
the place of these we must create work
which will shine-not with our faces but
with the face of God and duty and love
OF others reflected in it, just as the sun
In the heavens m1rrored itself in the
mammoth laver made from the looking
glasses of these self-conscious Jewish
women.