Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1902-06-14

ture; his eyes were clear and quick
He was a man for his singular beaut.
surprising the children Of men,"
But, my friends, that portrait o
Christ's face which was carved upoI
the emerald by Caesars order has beer
proved by the arch9ologists to have
been Il description taken from a spuri
Gus tablet. 1t was n forgery and wai
not written until 200 years aftel
Christ's death. SO, in order to fine
whether or no ChrIst's face was a scar
red face, we must turn to the words OF
the Bible. Was his forehead Scared
Oh. yes the crucifiers plated a crown
OF thOrns upon his head AS the sharI
thorns were driven into the white ski
the blood must have flowed; the skin
must have been lacerated. Read from
Isaiah iii, II, Ills yisage was so mar
red, more than any man, and his form
more than the sons Of men," Turn t
the fourteenth chapter Of Mark, "AnC
some began to spit on him and to cover
his face and to buffet him and to say
unto him, Prophesy, and the servants
did strike him with the palms Of theil
hands" After the agonies Of the cru
cifixion could Christ's face be other
than a SCARED face?
The Record of the Scars.
And Christ's face is a SCARED face
| because it is the face Of one who real
lied the awful nature of sin. Though
Christ could forgive us our sins by the
sacrifice Of blood, yet he could not take
away the punishment for sin. So he
offered his own face to be lacerated
lie offered his lips to become parched
and bleeding. lie offered his eyes to
become CLASSY In death. Yet the scar
red and disfgured face of Christ will
be mOrv beautiful to the redeemed
spirits in the heavenly land than if
those divine features were without spot
or blemish. The sears upon his face
will appeal to us jI the same way that
the wrinkles upon our mothers face
touched our hearts when she lay asleep
kles and said: THAT wrinkle came
when she took care Of me while | was
sick with dphthcrla. This wrinkle
came when my brother died. That
other wrinkle came when she was pre-
pairing my clothes for college. Yonder
wrinkle came the night was married
and left home" Therefore to us chill.
dren those wrinkles were beautiful be-
cause they told the story Of her yicar-
GUS love and suffering. Yes. in heaven
we want to see our mothers wrinkles,
that came rs the battle scars Of life
while fighting for her children. In
heaven we also want to see the SCARED
face Of Jesus, which sears were cut in
to his fair skin while suffering for our
redemption.
When Alexander the Great had his
portrait painted, he made the artist
represent him with his head resting
upon his hand. The emperor did this
so that his fOrelingcr might cover up a
deep scar which was slashed into his
right cheek by the sword Of an enemy.
But when. the Bible paints for us
Christ's face it does not cover up one
Of the divine scars. To the Christian
the most beautiful parts of the divine
face should be the places which reveal
to us how Christ suffered and died that
we might live.
The Scared face Of Christ is an IL
lumined face. Have you ever seen a
Have you ever heard little child burst
forth into laugh in the midst of a fit
of crying-laugh when a tear is yet
gllstenng upon the wet check? Well,
Christs face, though in one sense a sad
face, a SCARED face, is yet an illumined
face 1t has JOY in the eye, joy on the
lip, joy in the Oheek, joy everywhere,
when one Of his loved ones has been
saved by the sacrifice Of his blood.
There is more JOY in that divine face
over one sinner that repenteth than
over ninety and nine just persons that
need no repentance.
lllum1ned by Love.
If Christ's had not been an illumined
face the little children would not have
loved to run to him. Children are at
tracted by a smile. They are afraid Of
tears. Yet everywhere, as Jesus smil-
Ing face appears. we can hear the chill
dren calling to one another: Come,
come. Here is Jesus. Come, comew II
Jesus face was not an illumined face, he
could never have spoken such trium-
phant words as those which he spoke to
him sick of the palsy. "SOn, be Of good
cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee" He
could never have spoken such words Of
commendation as those he spoke in
reference to the centurion, "Nerily, |
say unto you. have not found Sc great
faith. no, not in Israel" And. . my
brother. if our sins are making the Sav-
iOurs face such Il sad face and if our
repentance will make Christ's face
such an ilumincd face, should we not
be willing to brighten up our Sayiour's
face since it has suffered so much?
But the sweetest thought to me Of all
Is that ChriSt's is face that wants to
be loved. Some portraits have an In
something about them
which proves that those faces crave
affection. If the closed lips could
speak. they would say: Il live for 9th
ers in order that others might live for
me. | love in order that can be loved.
| suffer in order that others can be
made happy. And, being happy they
can pour out their gratitude upon me-"
only awOke to the fact few years
ago that Christ's face was a face that
wanted to be loved. | used to think
that | must love Christ because Christ
could and would save me If l asked
him. But now l have learned to love
him because he loves me and wants me
to love him. He loves me with a love
that passeth all understanding. But
that love is incomplete unless l re-
spond TO it and love as l am loved.
Mr.. Moody told a pathetic story how
a short time after his fathers death |
his elder brother ran away from home. |