Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-05-15
Calnage
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase, d. d.


preacher taking for his text james /,
kill HE is like unto man beholding
his natural face in mirror" Or. W.
1t is strange fact that most people
know little OF their physical appear
ance. The shrewd Scottish poets de-
sire is familiar to us all:
oh. wad some power the giftie gle us
To see oursels as ithers see US.
But the ''giftie" he invoked never gave
the power. No man ever sees himself
as he is seen either 10y his friends or
10y his enemies. When looking at our
selves we nearly always have blurred
spectacles. Sir Anthony Vandyke. like
other great portrait painters, used his
own face for a model, but ii is very
likely the picture was not true to life
Queen Elizabeth babe the court artist
omit the shadows from his picture of
her face. the shadows" being wrin-
kles that straw might have been laid
in. She had not the courage of Crom-
well, who told the artist to paint him
as he was and not leave out the warts
Most of us want 10 look better than we
are, and we often deceive even our
selves.
I once heard great speaker give n
humorous description Of how he first
saw himself as others saw him. Like
most of us. up to that time he never
knew how he looked, but one day Il
friend took him to visit "the Hall of n
Thousand Mirrors" When he went
into this palace he found the floors. the
ceilings, the walls, all composed of
inn rr1n IT,, 81
mirrors he saw his own face and body
reflected in thousand different places.
He saw every motion and gesture re-
peated from every angle and learned
how he appeared full face and side
wise, and he was unpleasantly aston
ished. "Whatr' he soliloquized. "Do
look like those people? Do l act like
those people? Well. one fact is certain
other people may like me, but could
never learn to like myself" The cas-
lest place in all the world for an aver
age man to kill his egutiSm and van
ity would be for him occasionally to
visit "hall of a thousand mirrors"
where he can see himself as others see
him. q
The figure OF my text implies that
we are as unconscious of our faults of
chapcter as we are of our physical de-
fects. AS the man vain of his outward
appearance is reproved by his mirror.
so the man proud of his character is
reproved when he looks into Gods
word. But he. like the other, is prone
to forget the revelation and goeth his
way, forgetting what manner of man
he is. This is unfortunate, because
we might remedy the defects OF our
character il we studied them and
sought Gods help.
The Defects of Character.
There are other mirrors that help us
TO get true estimate of ourselves, and
want TO point out this morning how
we may use them for our self i'm
provement. In the first place. / want
you to carefully examine the refec-
lions we may see I'm the looking glasses
held before our faces by the loving
hands OF our best and tenderest and
dearest friends. It is not by any
means n pleasant mirror TO look at.
Somehow many OF us are deceived by
the idea that friends above all man.
kind should think that our faces are
perfect faces and our natures perfect
natures. but that is unreasonable. The
true friend by intimate association
may find virtues in us hidden from the
eyes of the rest of the world, but he
also finds imperfections in us which
the world does not see. Then the true
friend proves his affection by pointing
out to us those defects and warning us
against the disasters that may come
from them. Wise is the man and the
woman and the child who heed the
warnings spoken by those they love.
Those warnings began to come to us
way back in our childhood days. when
we were surrounded by our brothers
and sisters. We now live in great
big world where we have hundreds,
perhaps thousands. OF acquaintances.
We have daily and hourly dealings
with our fellow men. But | want TO
tell you that in all your business and
domestic career as a mature man the
besetting sins OF your life are not
more self evident to your friends than
they were to your father, and especial
~ TO your mother, when you played
with your brothers and sisters in the
nursery. You can feel that loving ma
ternal eye now boring straight into
your heart and finding the flaws there.
Even now you can hear her say, John.
the reason you took that big apple
from your little sister is because Won
are selfish, and that is the besettinc
sin you must fight all your life" Or
she says, John, you are naturally de-
ceitful." John, that was the act of a
coward" John, the difficulty about
you is you are vain and jealous. You
hate to hear any one else praised You
are not satisfied unless every one is
praising you" Though years have
passed since your mother uttered those
words, yet You know she placed her
hhger upon the weakest part of your
nature Today, though she is dead.
you know that she did her duty to You
by showing you your reflection in the
looking glass.
The True Friends Criticism.
Time passed, and you entered the
great wide world, and you began tc
make success. Then false mirrors
were held up TO deceive you. There
gathered about you lot of sycophants
and social vampires. These toadies
praise you and fawn over you and fat
ter you. When they are away from
you they make fun of you and talk
about your weaknesses. An old Span-
ish proverb says. THE absent are OIL
ways wrong" so you are always wrong
TO them when you are absent But
when these hangers on are with you
they have nothing but words of praise
for YOU and your wonderful deeds