The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-15


 with the bedelothes, yet I could not blot out that Christ face.
 A Sympathetic Face.
 Jesus Christ's face was also a sym pathetic and forglving face. How many men we have seen whose faces repre- sented intelligent power, but without mercy-faees such as you could easily imagine Robespierre might have had or a Frankenstein or any of the great leaders of the inqulsition! Those were the faces of men like Napoleon, who, hearing a marshal of France after a bloody battle express regret over the awful slaughter of human life, replied: "Oh. that Is nothing. Tn order to make an omelet you must break a few eggs" Those were the faces of men like Prince Nawab, who drove 146 British prisoners into the Black Hole of Calcutta, a stiff ling room only eighteen feet square, and left them there until the misery of all but twenty-three was ended by suffoca- ton. Those were the kind of faces that must have been possessed by men like Mana Sahib, the fiend of CawnpuP, and women like Catherine de Medici, the evil spirit of St. Bartholomew's massa- ere, when 3O,OO0 French Hugenots were slain in one day, and by Delilah, the be- trayer of a Samson, and Jezebel, the de- stroyer of a Naboth.
 But all strong faces are not evil faces. Some of the strongest faces we have ever seen have been the sweetest and most magnanimous. These faces had a love attracting power for the beholders. like the face of old Dr. Plumer, one of the strongest men the American pulpit ever produced Dr. Plumers face was a sweet and tender and loving face, al- though one of the strongest of faces One day he was walking across a Pitts burg park. a Title child ran up to him and took his hand: then looking up Into that great. good face-a face that never had any bitterness against any one. but only forgiveness the child asked, T say, mister, are you God?'
 So we must not think of Christ's face only as an intelligent face. face of pow er but also as a loving, sympathetic forgiving face. We must think of him as having the same kind of a face your earthly father may have had You re- member when, in the past you did what your fo ther had forbidden, you came to his side and buried your face In his lap ard cried, Father. will you forgive me?" Then you remember how he took you up In his great. strong arms. What a sweet look came into his loving face! How his lips trembled and his eyes filled with
 
 tie son, I was In hopes that you would come to me as you have done. My heart was almost breaking. my child because you did wrong. But 1t was breaking the more because my little son did not come to his father and ask to be forgiven" And then you found that the tears which trickled down your cheek were not those which came from your eyes alone. Mix with them were the tears which flowed from your earthly parents eyes. Yes, our Christ's face, although a strong face. was sympathetic face.
 Forgiveness In Christ's Face.
 And my Christs face must have been forgiving face because 1t was such an intelligent face. He knows all that we have done and suffered. He also we'll knows how hard some of us have strug- gled In our own strength to do right. He knows how we have grappled each of us with his own besetting sin, which we dare not tell to any human ear. He knows-yes, he knows-how impossible 1t Is for us to succeed in battling that sin In our own strength. So when we come to Christ to ask for help to resist the evil present and to avert the evil future as well as to wipe out the evil past, oh, then the strong face of Christ becomes tender. sympathetic, forgiving face.
 
 joy. Our Saviour's lips win culver. Our Saviour's look will be one of pardon and Of utterable love.
 Christ's face Is a scared face "No. no,' says some one; please do not tell me that my Christs face is a scared face. l have always thought of Jesus face as the most beautiful ever owned by man; I have always believed his face was as beautiful as the Christ face de- scribed in the exquisite portrait carved upon an emerald by the order of Tiber- ius Caesar: His forehead was plain and very delicate; his face was without spot or wrinkle, beautifed with a lovely red; his nose and mouth were so formed that nothing could be reprehended; his beard was thickish in color like his hair, not very long, but forked; his look was inno- cent and mature; his eyes were clear and quick. He was a man for hIs singular beauty surpassing the children of men,"
 But my friends. that portrait of Cnrlsts race which was carved upon the emerald by Caesars order has been proved by the archaeologists to have been description taken from a spurious tab let. It was forgery and was not written until 200 years after Christ's death So, in order to find whether or no Christ's lace was scared face, we must turn to the words of the Bible Was his fore head scared? Oh. yes; the crucifiers plaited q crown of thorns upon his head As the sharp thorns were driven into the white skin the blood must have flow cd; the skin must have been lacerated Read from Isaiah iii, IA, His visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men," Turn to the fourteenth chapter of Mark. And some began to spit upon him and to cover his face and to buffet him and to say unto him. Prophecy, and the ser wants did strike him with the palms of their hands," After the Agonies of the curcifixion could Chr.st's face be other than scared face?
 The Record of the Scars.
 And Christs face is a sacred face be- cause it Is the face of one who real ized the awful nature of sin Though Christ could forgive us our sins by the sacrifice of blood, yet he could not take away tho punishment for sin. So he of fered his own face to be lacerated He offered his lips to become parched and bleeding. He offered his eyes to become glassy In death. Yet the scared and disfigured face of Christ will be more beautiful to the redeemed spirits in tha heavenly land than If those divine fea- lures were without spot or bemish. The scars upon his face will appeal to us in the same way that the wrinkles upon our mothers face touched our hearts when she lay asleep in the casket We looked at the wrinkles and said: That wrinkle came when she took care of me, while l was sick with diphtheria This wrinkle came when my brother died. That other wrinkle carna uyb ba