The Penn's Grove record., 1905-04-07

AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
BISHOP O. A. CooDSELL.
Subject: The Face of Christ.

course of his sermon:
AS you read the Bible both in the
Old and New Testaments you are i'm
pressed with the great number Of
times which the word face" is used
When you travel in Eastern lands you
find that this word is used far more
often and in many different relations
among the Eastern people than we our
selves are accustomed to use 1t.
This word face is used in reference
to a mans whole character, | am told,
everywhere in the East, and we have
a great MANY traces of it in the Bible;
and now when we come to think Of it
isn't it true that we ate accustomed
to recognize each other more By the
face than by any other one thing. Ia
1t not wonderful that upon the few
elements In the face, the forehead, the
eyes. nose, mouth and chin there
should be such an infinite variety of
expression stamped by the great Gre
ator?
There is a general conviction among
lis that the face will work out the
inner character, so that whatever may
be the beginning Of life when we have
lived with ourselves a long time we
will be pretty apt to show upon our
faces what kind of a person we have
lived with. 1t is impossible for any
person to give way to avarice without
showing it on their face. If he had an
open face once it will change; and so
the man who gives way to the forces
of passion, whether he gives way to
lust or whether he gives way to drink,
6T whether he gives way to appetite
for food, it will show out on his face.
We write upott cur faces what we live
with and no man can wear q mask so
completely that those who are wise in
these things are not able to read be-
hind the mask.
Now, what one is there among us
that has not desired again and again
to have lived when the face of Jesus
Christ could have been seen. l think
there is no devout soul that in his
trouble has not said, oh. that l
could look into my Masters face. Oh,
that / could" live as the little children
did; 'thave rested my head against His
breast and have heard Him say to me
as He said to them, Suffer them to
come"
You can scarcely go into a Christian
home to-day where Christian education
has presided where there is not at least
one or more representations of the
face Of Jesus Christ. / have observed
according to our experiences, accord
ing to our wants, we fasten upon the
representations of Jesus Christs face
that are most satisfying to us, most
fitting. So that If we are under deep
penilence Of sin, we are apt to have
the face of the suffering Christ upon
the Cross, and if the sorrows OF the
world have burdened our hearts, we
will carry there the face of the thorn
crowned Christ in our homes. If we
have dwe1t upon Christ in His
strength. in His power, in His resist
ance to evil, in the calm majesty of
one who knows he is innocent, we
would most likely have the picture OF
Christ before PLATE. From the days
of the Catacombs up to the present
time, MEN have been trying to put
IChrist's face before humanity, and
why? Because all souls i'll their greater
moments. in their spiritual moments,
and therefore in their religious mo-
ments, would like to have Him brought
hear by. They would like to have Him
made more real.
The best thing is to so carry Jesus
Christ in our heart that we shall see
Him and behold the glory OF God in
the face of Jesus Christ.
The actual picture must remain the
same. We may study it, we may I'M
lderstand its history. 1t is not at all
probable that any one is going to see in
a moment what it took the artist
years to produce, though this may hap
pen. But as we grow spiritually it is
possible for It's by spiritual sight to
behold our Lord, to behold Him more
clearly as the years go OH.
When we study this n word, the
word face, we find that it stands relat-
ed to three great facts and to none
other that / know of, and these three
facts are, first, revelation, then in
spiration and finally reward. This is
exactly what the Apostle means by
this text, that he who studies the face
Of Jesus Christ, he who enlarges his
vision by spiritual imagination, will
have the revelation of the divine truth
come to him. For do we not know that
Jesus came to reveal God to US, to re-
veal God to a world in which the dim
eve Of sin could but im~perfectly see
Him. But the trouble is that u eyes
see as we are educated to see. | have
often noticed while passing along the
street that a man is usually inter-
ested in the trade he represents. If he
was a halter. he looked at my hat; if
he was a tailor he looked at my
clothes; If he was a shoemaker he
looked at my shoes; if he was a boot
black he looked to see whether they
were muddy or not, and so u vision
is trained by what we are doing, by
what we are thinking. If our eyes
are trained only to the things of time,
then all the beauty that we see is in
the things of time, but by using these
as stepping stones to something higher
and nobler. then we see by the power
Of Gods revelation that there is a
God here in this world, and that He is
ruling the world in the interest of
Jesus Christ.
1 believe that you would have
thought yourself victims of fate if you
had not been taught by Jesus Christ
the doctrine of divine fatherhood. You
would have thought perhaps that this
world was made by chance if you
had not seen Him standing in the
stern of the ship and saying to the
troubled waves, "'Peace, be STILL" But
because He~has come, because He has
passed through alt the phases of our
life from infancy toNmaturity. because
He has been tempted. because He sub
mitted to wrong i'm order that He
might do a great and holy work, be-
cause He has given the most perfect
example of what humanity ought to
be under all phases and circumstances,
because He is here and was God
manifested in the flesh. we, His breth-
rem in the creation, and we, His breth-
rem in the redemption of the cross,
know that we are dear to God, for
God so loved the world that He gave
| His only begotten Son to die for us.
l have to travel a good deal in my
work, as YOU know. Very often l wake
| early in the morning, and lift the chr
tain Of my sleeping car that L may
see where we are, and what the pros
poets are. Sometimes it is clouded.
sometimes it is clear. There are pools
in the bitches beside the tracks, or
perhaps we are running alongside the
lake and Iook at the lake and II