The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-10-23
CHRISTIANITY'S MARKS.
Principals of Ch~ristianity Has
Changed General Type and En-
preston of the Human Face.

preston of the Human Face.
In applying the study of p.ysios-
nomy to the face of Leo XIII, it viii
be necessary TO bear one or two points
in mInd-first. that ever since the IN
PRODUCTION of Christianity into the
world, the essential principles of
Christianity. differing as they do from
all other religions, anG intoxicating az
they do, certain conduct Of humility,
kindness and charity, even unto mar
tyrdOm, as essential to true goodness,
have. to some extent, poorly as they
are followed and lived up to. never
thelesS changed the general type a1d
expression of the human face, and are
slowly but surely lifting it to a higher
level, both among men and women,
than the world has ever known before:
that is, given the same type or con-
tour of face among the Greeks and
among ourselves; when the features as
to length and breadth and height, in
every particular would be called the
same. it will be found that in faces
of the same class where Christianity
has done or tried to do It's work there
will be n higher. a purer n more
modest. a humber and a kindlier ex-
preston, than in the same type of face
taken from any period of Greek or
Roman history I may d in passing,
that while of necessity our studies
have had to be confined to the m3rs
famous faces Of history, ancient and
modern, the same truth applies to the
comparative StudieS of the faces Of
the masses of people of ancient and
modern times. Nor can any declara-
ton of independence change the re-
cords of God as written on the faces
Of the dead and the living Of u fell
low men.
Miltiades and Leonidas who led the
Greeks at Thermopylae and Marathon.
were plainly of the same class and
type of faces as those of Lee and
Grant and Meade who made our civil
war immortal, with this difference,
that u leaders, especially Lee and
Meade. bore the marks. not of less
bravery and heroism, but of more re-
finement, a touch of God and of
Christianity in their faces. 1t is the
same story the world over. and in all
times, men are not made equal in any
sense. The authority Gloster saw in
Lear. and which he loved to obey, mas
been perceptible in all the great COM
manders and leaders of men since
time began. GladstOne'S face was as
great as Solon's. and back of it was a
loftier, greater. SWeeter soul.
The face of Archbishop Ryan. Of
Philadelphia, is familiar through por-
traiture. IT was always a face of rare
Abilities. Earlier in life. the forehead
seemed a little broad and high for
perfect symmetry, but the mouth was
full and kindly, and of easy and COM
handing eloQuence. He was as great
an orator at twenty-five as he is Ut
seventy. but of course. with a lesser
range Of facts and experience to draw
upon. Always the face was kindly
rather than forceful. Though never
-J-.~ 1~1@I Ill
strength of purpose. these were never
the dominating faculties or features
of the soul of this man. The face al
ways was, and is today, cOnciliatory,
kindly, charitable as becomes the face
of a Christian n an archbishop liz
the church of Christ. His Grace of
Philadelphia never undertook any bus
mess in the spirit of revenge. or to
have revenge. Never undertook any,
conflict simply to show himself Or
somebody else thai he could conquer
an enemy or carry the business
through. though this faculty M prin-
ciple have been very active in ancient
and modern times. The face of the
archbishop was born of many centu-
ries of Christian struggle, and the
mastery for Christ is as plainly Wis
ible in the ~gentleness and kindness of
the lips of his portrait as they are IN
all his actual life.
There were not wanting men who
called him a trimmer in the conflict
between the archbishop of st. Paul
and the archbishop of New York a
dozen years ago. l knew many OF the
inner facts of that conflict. and 1 have
always believed that his grace Of
Philadelphia simply acted as ;he
| peace-maker. to which character the
divine master left. as inheritance. the
nOblest of his beautltudes. If the
peace-maker gets into politics. ecCie-
siastical or other, he will seem ard
may become the trimmer. but the
dominating gift of a face lii that Of
Archbishop Ryan's is the great git
of oratory. 1t IS the possession ard
the exercise of this gift that have
made him one of the most famous
men of our day. and it is because of
this, his great dominating gift, that I
am dwelling upon his face for a mo-
ment here. Archbishop Ryan is the
Cicero of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. His face IS the face of The
eloquent Roman over again. after
many years. with this exception that
| as the face Of the Christian arch
bishop IS sWeeter and kindIier. ana
more tender and human than was the
face Of Cicero. so are his Orations full
not of invectiVe sharpening the law Of