The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1907-03-07


the symbol of sin, but that is no rea-
son why man should clothe his body
with filthy linen and ungainly fitting
garments. No; not that. No man
can worship God as acceptably with
unclean hands and with unkempt hair
as he can with a neat and Clearly per-
sonality. We should make our hands,
our feet, our lips, our eyes, our fore
heads, our garments, as beautiful, If
possible, as were the inner doors Of the
sanctuary Of the Solomonic temple
which had carved upon them "cheru
bins and palm trees and open flowers
or flowers In blossom. You should
make your physical forms just as beau
tiful as possible.
In church life, as in society, beauty
has its value. The man and woman of
attractive face and manner win at
tention and exert an influence which
is denied at the outset to ugliness and
deformity. 1t is said that George Vii
liers, the most powerful personality in
all James Us kingdom, got his start in
life on account Of the beauty of his
physical personality. And there are
many men and women who have had
their first opening to Christian useful
ness because they were attractive In
personal presence On the other hand,
there are many men who have been
fearfully handicapped In Christian
work because they did not use their
razors enough and kept their shoes I'M
blackened and did not have their linen
clean and because they were not care
full to keep their skin well washed and
their hair properly combed. When a
! friend once congratulated George
Whitefield on always being clean and
well dressed the great evangelist an
swered: II consider it as necessary for
minister to be clean and tidy when
he prepares for his pulpit as it is for
him to kneel down and pray. A minis
ter has no more right to enter a pulpit
with dirty collar than he has to go
there without his Bible" These are
not Whitefield's exact words, but they
substantially present his meaning.
NeeectfuI of Appearance.
And yet how many men there are
who are neglectful of their personal
appearance. How many wives and
mothers there are who, though they
are very particular about the neatness
of their homes, seem to lose all desire
for neatness and attractiveness in their
personal apparel. They were very
careful how they dressed before they
were marrid. When they were engag-
ed to be married they always had their
hair prettily arranged and donned their
most attractive garments when their
future husbands called in the evenings.
But now that they are married they
do not seem to care how they look in
the kitchen or at the breakfast table
or in the sitting room And the sad
fact is their slovenly habits Of life, like
all other evil habits which we allow to
fasten themselves upon US, grow worse
as they grow older. Oh, my friends,
never allow yourselves to lose your
physical charms! If God commanded
King Solomon to adorn the doors Of
the inner sanctuary with cherubim and
palm trees and flower blossoms he
wants us to make our temples of the
Holy Spirit Just as winsome and at
tractive as possible.
I always look upon the human body
as a picture. I remember some time
ago, at a time Of great domestic sor-
row, was going down the street of
an eastern city where was at that
time living. In store window I saw
the face of Mary Magdalene. 1t was a
beautiful face. 1t seemed to come out
of dark background The face seem
ed as though it was looking out of the
cloud of her past life, and with her
eyes of repentance and love and trust
she was looking up into the face of her
Saviour. I bought the picture and
framed it. 1t is one of the most treas
ured pictures of my home. Whenever
grow discouraged or the world looks
dark ! go and sit before that beautiful
face. "Oh," say, "if 1 could only
learn to trust my Saviour as did that
lovely Magdalenep' Thus when you
and go up and down the world we
are watching innumerabie faces. We
see them in the street. in the electric
cars, In the homes, in the churches.
When we see these faces beautiful,
POAC3 14O1J 1dCGS-WG S6E ldCtzS tudL dLG
pointing us to Christ. Yes, our faces,
our hands, our feet, our clothes, have
a gospel mission. Let US engravegthem
with cherubim and palm trees and
flower blossoms for, his dear name.
Let us make them jiast as beautiful as
we can
Give Them Beautiful Setting.
1t is also impor tant to adorn for
Christ our mental equipment We
should sing our thoughts with the
most melodious sounds. We should
paint them in the most beautiful blend
ing of colors. We should symbolic
them IN the most poetic similes. We
should chisel them in the most exqui-
site statues. We should preach them
In the most tender pleadings. In other
words as the lapidary takes his pre-
cious stones just quarried from the
mines and cuts them and polishes them
and harmonioqlsly arranges them in