Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-06-13
TALMACE
SERMON
BY Rev
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,.
Pastor OF Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago

Chicago, June ga pen picture of
the iineaments OF the divine face Of
Christ is presented by Rev. Frank De
Witt Talmage in this discourse on the
text II Corinthians iv. C. "rhe face OF
Jesus Christ"
Character is stamped upon the hu-
man face. By that l do not mean n
good man necessarily has Il beautiful
face and a bad man n homely face.
Some OF the most sinful men have the
handsomest faces. The morally cor
rupt and evil minded Edward ". Of
England had a face of such singular
beauty that it became the idol OF Lon
don. When the king asked rich lady
for f10 to help carry on the war against
France, she replied, "For thy cOmely
face thou shalt have twenty" When
the king kissed her with his smiling
lips. the rich old lady made the gift
f40 instead of f20. On the other
hand, some of the kindest and best
men have facial features which shock
every artistic idea of harmonious pro-
portions. But when / state that char
acter can be read in the face I mean
that IL a man is n good man there Is
generally something I'm the smile of his
lip, the glance of his eye. the wrinkles
Of his cheek, the set of his jaw, which
suggests that he is q good man. II n
man is bad, there are telltale signs in
the face which prove that he is a bad
man.
By long and bitter experience you
have learned that the revealing power
OF the face is true. You have also
learned that your wife can read the
character in the human face q great
deal better than her husband. When a
younger man, you used to bring your
friends home TO spend the evening.
After those friends had gone you
would turn and say. "My dear. how
did you like Mr.. So-and-so?" Your
wife would answer: 81 do not like him
at all. He is not man to be trusted.
You had better beware and not get
mixed up in any business dealings
with that man. do not like his face"
Or your wife would answer: 81 like
that man. 1 wish you would invite
him up again to the house. l like his
eye and the curve Of his lip. | like his
face" In almost every case, as you
found out later, your wife's estimate
OF your friends characters was right.
She judged them by the face.
After my father died l stayed alone
with his body for two nights. We were
alone, as we often used to be when
travelling around the world together.
One night as sat there by his side i
found myself speaking aloud. l was
startled by the sound of my own voice
as soliloquized, mo man could have
had face like that unless he was n
good man." My father had the index
OF his beautiful life stamped upon his
face, even in the unconscious pose Of
death.
PfcturinE the Divine Face.
Now Paul declares that the glory OF
God was revealed 60 man fin the face
OF Jesus Christ AS we have no au-
thentic picture OF Jesus / would try TO
paint a word picture OF the divine
face by recounting some OF Christ's
mental and spiritual characteristics.
This was the method by which we
obtained picture of my brother after
he was dead. For years before his de-
mise he had not been TO a photog-
rapher. So after the funeral we took
TO an artist all the pictures which my
brother had taken In his boyhood. We
also took a lock OF his hair. We told
the artist about my brothers happy
nature, told how the jokes which he
perpetrated would be revealed I'm his
smile and laughing eye. We talked
about his nature, so that the artist
might paint that nature in the young
mans face.
Emperor William 1. OF Germany
warted an artist to paint the face Of
his mother. Princess Louise. as she
was in the prime OF her physical beau
~. He took all the different pictures
OF the dead empress to the artists stu
dio. There the royal son told that art
ist the characteristics OF his mother
From his verbal portraiture that artist
painted the famous ideal picture OF
Princess Louise descending the steps
OF her palace. May God help me to-
day to paint Alright the face OF Jesus
Christi
Jesus must have had an intelligent
face Phrenologists teach that the
scat OF the brain is under the dome Of
the skull. They assert that certain
characteristics OF the brain can be read
by the contour OF the skull, as n blind
man with his fingers reads by the
raised letters Of the Braille alphabet.
But the intelligence OF the brain can
be traced In the face, as we'll as upon
the top OF the head. in the formation
Of the mouth as well as In the phreno-
logical charts mapped off upon the
IF ha cly,
Caucasian is entirely different from
The thick ZIP Of the African; the deepset
eyes and overhanging brows of the
university scholar are totally different
from the twinkling eyes and narrow
frontal bones Of the Australian aborig-
Ines. Some mems faces are so express
I've that when they turn their keen
eyes upon you they seem to bore hole
right into the heart OF your very be-
Ing. II you try to deceive them. the
look upon their faces reveals the fact
that they know you are not telling the
truth.
The Penetrating Eye.
Ormsby Mitchell, the astronomer. one
day was making some dial observa-
lions. AS the sun was setting n hill
seven miles away was focused by the
cyclopian eye of the telescope. Willie
the astronomer was seated there in his
observatory he saw two boys stealing
apples from an orchard which grew up
on the top of that hill. So some mems
eyes are such intelligent, penetrative
eyes that they seem to have been
watching you even when you were
miles away.
Bayard Taylor relates remarkable
incident of the power of Daniel Web
sters eye and face. During the time
when the senator from Massa chusetts
was being bitterly assailed in his own
state and abroad, in company with
James Russell Lowell and a party Of
Harvard classmates Taylor went to a
Boston meeting with the avowed in