Nebraska Newspapers

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The Sioux County Journal
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V OIOIE YL
HAKKISOX, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 1894.
NUMBER 27.
TALM AGE'S SERMON.
THE MAP OF THE MIND IS ABLY
DISCUSSED.
A Hera Id the r -!!. Ir. Talmas
Say. Ilia Chinrtor ol the CountfDincs
1 Mirror of the S;ll-Hgil Wonder,
lul of tiod' Work.
The Tabernacle I'olplt-
In the Brooklyn Taljrnacle Sunday
forenoon Kev. Dr. 'Palmare chose for
the Mubjeet of bin sermon "The Human
Face" and hold his groat audience
fascinated with the charm of hiu elo
quence aa he tliHcoursel on a subject
of universal interest. The text was
EcclehiaHtea viii, i, "A man's wisdom
maketh his face to shine, and the bold
ness of bU face shall be changed," or,
as it may be rendered, "the sourness 1
of his face shall be sweetened." I
Thus a little change in our Knglish
translation brings out the Tetter mean- j
ing of the text, which seU forth that '
the character of the face is derided by
tho character of the soul. The main
features of our countenance wero de
cided by the Almighty, and we cannot
change them, but under God we decide
whetuer we shall have countenances
benignant or baleful, sour or sweet,
wrathful or genial. Ix-nevolunt or
mean, honest or scoundrelly, impudent
or modest, courageous or cowardly,
frank or sneaking. In all the works of
God there is nothing more wonderful
than the human countenance. Though
the longest face is less than twelve
inches from the hair line of the fore
bead to the Ixittora of the chin and the
broadest face is loss than eight inches
from check bone to cheek lxme, yet in
that small eompa God hiith wrought
euch differences that the l,rti0.fMj(U)iin
of the human race may Im distinguished
from each other by their facial ap
pearances. ,
An lndfli of Charartfr.
The face la ordinarily the index of
character. It is the throne of the emo
tions. Jt is the battlefield of the pas
fsiuns. It Is the catalogue of character.
It is the man of the mind. It is the
geography of the soul. And while the
Lord decides before our birth whether
wo shall l handsome or homely we are
by the- character we form deciding
whether our countenances shall be
pleasant or disagreeable. This is so
much so that some of the most beauti
ful faces are unattractive because of
their arrogance or their deceitfulness,
and some of the most rugged and ir
regular features are attractive because
"Of the kindness that shines through
tbem. Accident' or sickness or scarifi
cation mav veil the face so that it shall
not express the soul, but in the majority
Of cases give me a deliberate look at a
man's countenance and I will tell you
whether he is a cynic or an optimist,
whether he is a miser or a philan
thropist, whether he is noble or igno
minious, whether he is good or bad.
Our first impression of a man or wo
man is generally the accurate impres
fcion. You at the hrst glance make up
your mind that some man is unworthy
of your friendship, but afterward, by
circumstances being put into intimate
association with him, you come to like
bim and trust him. Vet stay with him
loug eno jgh, and you will bo compelled
to return to your original estimate of
his character, but it will bo after he
has cheated you out of everything he
could luy his hands on. It is of God's
mercy that we have these outside in
dexes of character. 1'hrenology is
one index, and while it may 1m; carried
to an absurd extent there is no doubt
that you can judge somewhat of a mun's
character by the shape of his head.
Palmistry Is another index, and while
It may bo carried into the fanciful and
necromantic there Is nodoubtthat cer
tain lines in the palm of the hand are
indicative of mental and moral traits.
A HrathlnK lljlnlr."
Now, my text suggests how we may,
independent of feuturos, make our
selves agreeable, "A man's wisdom
niaketh his face shine, and the sourness
of his face shall bo (woetened." What
I say may come too late for many.
Their countenance may by long years
of hardness have iieen fro.en into
Btolidity, or by long years of cruel be
havior they may have Horodiod all
the machinery of expression. or by long
years of avarice they may have been
Bhylocked until their face is as hard
as tho precious metal thoy aro noard
ing.but I am In time to help multitudes
If the Lord will. That it Is ossible to
overcome disadvantages of physiog
nomy was in this country mightily il
lustrated by one whoso life recently
closed after having served in tho
Presidential Cabinet at Washington.
By accident of fire in childhood his
face had lioon more pltoousty scarred
than any human vlsuge that I ever
saw. Uy hard study lie arose from be
ing a poor toy to the very height of
the legal profession, and when an At
torney General for tho Lnitod States
was needed ho entered the I'roslden
tial'Cabinet. What a triumph over do
Btrovea human countenance:
1 do not wonder that when an opt
ing attorney in a Philadelphia court
room cruelly referred to this personal
disllguremeut lJenjainiu b iirewster
replied in these words: "When I was
a babe, I was a beautiful blue eyed
child. 1 know this because my dear
dead mother told me so, but I was one
day playing with my sister when her
clothes took fire, and 1 ran to her re
lief and saved hor, but in doing so my
clothes took fire, and the tiro was not
put out until mv face was as black as
the heart of the scoundrel who has
just now referred to my disligure
ment." Heroism conouoring physical
disabilities! That scholarly regulai
features are not necessary for making
powerful impression witness Paul, who
photographs himself as la "bodily
presence weak," aod George White
told, whpae ayes were struck with
w-abuunus, and Aloxandor II.
Stephens, who Mt with pale and sick
law in an Invalid's chair, while he
thrilled the Amertoaa Congress with
blf eloqiMBoa, and thousands of invalid
preachers and Sabbath school teach
ers and Christian workers. Aye, the
most glorious being the world ever
saw was foreseen by Isaiah, who do
scribed his fact briied and gashed
and scarified and said of him, 'JIU
visage was so marred, more than any
man." So you see that tho loveliest
face in the universe was a scarred
face.
The Bright Side ana the Ihtrlc
And now I am going to tell you of
some of the chiels that work for the
disliguration or irradiution of the hu- j
man countenance. One of the sharpest
and most destructive of those chisels of
the countenance is cyniiLsm. That
sours the disohition anil then sours the
face. It gives a contemptuous curl to
the lip. It draws down the corners of
the mouth and inflates the nontril as
with a malodor. What David said in
haste they say in their delileration,
"All men are liars," everything is go
ing to ruin. All men and women are
bad or going to be. Society and the
church are on the down grade. Tell
them of an act of benevolence, and
they say he pave that to advertise
himself. They do not like the present
fashion of hats for women or of coats
for men. They are opposed to the ad
ministration, municipal and state and
national. Somehow food does not
tasto as it used to, and they wonder
why there are no oets or orators or
preachers as when they were toys.
Kven Solomon, one of the wisest and
at one time one of the worst of men,
falls into the pessimistic mood and
cries out in the twenty-tirst chapter of
Proverlw.'Who can find a virtuous
woman?" If he had behaved himself
totter and kept in good associations,
he would not nave written that inter
rogation oint implying tho scarcity of
good womanhood. Cynicism, if a
habit, as it is with ten of thousands of
people, writes itself all over the fea
tures: hence M) many sour visages all
up anil down the street, all up and
down the church and tho world. One
good way to make the world woiue is
to say it is worse. Let a depressed
and forelioding opinion of everything
take possession or you for twenty yours,
and you will to a sight to behold. It
is tho chastisement of God that when
a man allows his heart to be cursed
with cynicism his face becomes
gloomed and scowled and lachryinosed
and blasted with the same midnight.
Afl'ftlo'fl Kun.
But let the Chrlstiunchecrfulnesstry
its chisel upon a man's countenance.
Feeling thut all things are for his
good, and that God rules, and that tho
Bible, being true the world's Morali.a
tion is rapidly approaching, and tho
day when toer mug and demijohn and
distillery and 'tjomtwhell and rifle nit
and seventy-four pounders and roulette
tables and corrupt tiook and satanic
firintlng press will have quit work. the
rightness that comes from such an
ticipation not only gives zest to bis
work, but shines in his eyes and glows
in his cheek und kindles a morning in
his entire countenance. Those aro
tho faces I look for in an audience.
Those countenances are sections of
Millennial glory. They are Heaven
impersonated. They are tho sculptur
ing of God's right hand. They at e ho
sunnas in human flesh. They are halle
luiahs alighted. They are Christ rein
carnated. I do not care what vour fea
tures aro or whether you look like your
father or your mother or look like no
one under the heavens, toGodandman
you aro beautiful.
Michael Angelo, the sculptor, visiting
Florence, some one showed him in a
back yard a piece of marble that was
so shapeless it seemed of no use, and
Angelo was asked If ho could make
anything out of it. and if so was told
ho could own it. The artist took tho
marble, and for nine months shut him
self up to work, first trying to make of
it a statue of David with his foot on
Goliath, but tho marble was not quite
long enough at tho base to make the
prostrate form of the giant, and so the
artist fashioned tho marble into an
other figure that Is so famous for all
time because of its expressiveness. A
critic came in and was asked by Angelo
for bis criticism, and ho said it was
beautiful, but tho nose of tho statue
was not of right shape. Angelo picked
up from tho lloor some sand and tossed
it atout the face of the statue, pre
tending ho whs using his chisel to make
tho Improvement suggested by tho
critic. "What do you think of it now?"
said tho artist. "Wonderfully im
proved," said the critic. "Well." said
tho artist, "I have not changed it at
all." My friends, the grace of God
comes to the heart of a man or woman
and then attempts to change a forbid
ding and prejudicial face into attrac
tiveness. Perhaps tho face is most un
promising, for tho Divine Sculptor.
Hut having changed tho heart It be
gins to work on the countenance with
celestial chisel, und into all tho linea
ments of the face puts a gladness and
an expectation that changes it from
glory to glory, and though earthly
criticism may disapprove of this or that
in the appearance of the faco Christ
says of the newly created countenance
that which I'ilatosaidof him, "Uohold
the man!"
Hero js another mighty chisel for
tho countenance, and you may call it
revenge or hate or malevolence. This
spirit having taken possession of the
heart, it em amps seven devils under
tho eyebrows. It puts cruelty Into the
compression of tho lliw. '(Toucan tell
from a man's looks that ho is pursuing
some ono and trying to get even with
him. There aro suggestions of Nero
and i.'otospierro and Diocletian and
thumlmcrews and racks allupand down
tho features. Infernal artists with
murderers' daggers have been cutting
away at thut visage. The revengeful
heart bos built Its perdition in tho re
vengeful countenance. Disliguration
of diatolie passion!
But here comes another chisel to
shape the countenance, and It is kind
ness. There came a moving day and
into her soul moved the whole family
of Christian graces, with all their chil
dren and grandchildren, and tho command-
has come forth from the heavens
that that woman's face shall to made
to correspond with her supurb soul.
Her entire face from ear to ear be
comes tho canvas on'which all the best ,
artists of Heaven begin to put their
finest strokes, and on the small com
pass of that face are put pictures of ;
sunrise over the sea, and angels of ;
mercy going up and down ladders all 1
atlaah, and mountains of transfiguration I
and noonday in Heaven. Kindness!
It Is the most magnificent sculptor that 1
ever touched human countenance.
Here comes another chisel, and that
belongs to the old-fashioned religion.
It first takes possession of the whole
soul, washing out its sins by the blood
of the Lamb and starting Heaven right
there and then. This done, deep down
in the heart religions sayB: "Now let
me go up to the windows and front gate
of the face and set up some signal that
I have taken possession of this castle.
I will celebrate the victory by an il
lumination that no one can mistake. I
have made this man happy, and now I
will make him look happy. I will
draw the corners of his mouth as far
up as they were drawn down. 1 will
take the contemptuous curl away from
the lip and nostril. I will make ,hls
eyes flash and his cheeks glow at every
mention of Christ and Heaven. I will
make even the wrinkles of his lace
look like furrows plowed for the harv
est of joy. I will make what we call
the 'crow's feet' around his temples
suggestive that tho dove of peace has
been alighting tnere." There may bo I
signs of trout) e on tnat lace, dui
trouble sanctified. There may be Bears
of battle on that face, but they will be
scars of campaigns won.
Power of m Fare,
"Now," says some one, "I know very
good people who have no such religion
in their faces." My friend, the reawn
probably is that they wore not con
verted until late in iifo. Wror'.d lines
and sin had been at work with their
chisels on that face for thirty or forty
years, and Grace, the divine sculptress,
has been busy with her chisel only five
or ten years, l.o not bo surprised that
Phidias and Greenoiigh with their fine
chisels cannot in a short while remove
all tho marks of tho stone mason's
crowbar, which hits been busy there
for a long while. I say to all tho young,
if you would have sympathetic face,
hopeful face, courageous face, cheerful
face, kind face, at the earliest possible
moment by the grace of God have
planted in your soul sympathy and
hope and courage and good cheer and
kindness. No man over indulged a
gracious feeling or was moved by- a
righteous indignation or was stirred
by a benevolent impulse but its effect
was more orle-s indicated in tho coun
tenance, while David noticed the phj .'i
oguuimo effect, of a bad disposition
when he Baid, "A wicked man harden
eth bis face," and Jeremiah must have
noticed it when ho said of tho cruel,
"They have made their faces harder
than a rock."
Oh, the M)wer of tho human face! I
warrant that you have known faces so
magnetic and impressive that, thougli
thev vanished long ago, they still hold
you with a holy sjiell. How long since
your child went? "Well," you say,
"if she had lived sho would have been
10 years old now, or 0 or 'M years."
Hut does not that infant face still have
tender .supremacy over your entiro na
ture? During many an eventide does
it not look at you? In your dreams do
you not see it? What a sanctifying,
hallowing intluence it has been in your
life! You can say in tho words of tho
poet, "Better to have loved and lost
than never to have lovod ut all." Or
it may have been a sister's faco. Per
haps sho was the invalid of the family,
Perhaps she never went out except on
very clear days, and then she had to
to carried down the stairs to tho piu.
za or for a short ride, but bIio was so
patient and cheerful under it all. As
that face looks at you through the
years with what an elevated and heav
enly emotion you are filled. Or was it
a father's face? The storms of life had
somewhat roughened it. A good deal
of the brightness of tho eye hod been
quenched, and tho ear was turned
with the hand behind it in order to
hear at all. But you remember that
face so vividly that if vou wero an
artist you could put it on canvas, and
it would moan to you more than any
face that Kembrandt ever sketched.
That faco, though long ago veiled from
human sight, is as plain in your mem
ory oa though you this moment saw it
moving gently forward and backward
In tho rocking chair by tho stove in tho
old farmhouse. Or was it your mother's
face? A good mother's faco is never
homely to her boys and girls. It is a
"Madonna" in tho picture gallery of
tho memory. What a sympathetic face
it was! Did you ever have a joy and
that face did not respond to it? Did
you ever have a grief and no tears
trickled down that maternal cheek?
Did you ever do a bad thing and a
shadow did not cross it? Oh, it was a
sweet faco! The spectacles with largo,
round glasses through which sho looked
at you, how sacredly they have toen
kept In bureau or closet! Vour mother's
face, your mother's smile, your
mother's tears! What an overpower
ing mernorv. Thoueh vou have como'
Pen to midlife or old ago, how you would
like just once more to bury-your face
in her lup and have a good cry!
But I cun tell you of a more sympa
thetic and more' tender and more lov
ing face than any of the fuce:s I have
mentioned. "No, you cannot," says
some one. I can, and I will. It is the
face of Jesus Christ as ho was on earth
and is now in Heaven. When prepar
ing my lifo of Christ, entitled ' From
Manger to Throne." I ransacked the
art galleries and Krtfollos of the
world to find a picture of our Saviour's
face that might bo most expressive,
and I saw It as Francesco Francia
pulnted it In the sixteenth century, and
as the emerald intaglio of the sixth
century presented it, and as Leonardo
da Vinci showed it in "The Last Sup
per," and I looked in the Louvro, and
tho Luxembourg, and the Vatican, and
the Dresden, and the Berlin, and Nea
politan, and London galleries for tho
most inspiring faco of Christ,, and
many of tho presentations were won
derful for pathos and tnatesty and
power and execution, but although I
selected that by Ary Scheffer as in
some respects the most expressive I
felt as we all fool that our Christ has
never yet been presented either in
sculpture or painting, and that we will
have to wait until wo rise to the upper
palace, where we shall see Him as lie is.
vYhat a gentle face it must have
been to induce the babes to struggle
out of their mother's arms into His
arms! What an expressive face it
must have toen when one reproving
look of it threw stalwart Peter into a
fit of tears! What a pleading face it
must have toen to lead the psalmist in
prayer to say of it, "Look upon the
face of thine annointed!" What a
sympathetic face it must have toen to
encourage the sick woman who was
beyond any belp from the doctor to
touch the hem of His garment! What
a suffering face it must have been
when suspended on the perpendicular
and horizontal pieces of the wood
martyrdom, and His antagonist slapped
tho pallid cheek with their rough
hands and befouled it writh the saliva
of their blasphemous lips! What a
tremendous face it must nave been to
lead St. John to describe it in the com
ing judgment as scattering tho uni
verse when ho says, "From whose face
the earth and the heaven fled away."
The Fare Omnipotent,
O Christ! Once the Nazarene, but
now tho celestial! Once of cross, but
now of throne! Once crowned with
stinging bramble, but now coroneted
with the jewels of ransomed empires!
Turn on'us Thy pardoning face and for
give us, Thy sympathetic face and con
sole us,Thy'Bufforing lace and have Thy
atonement avail for us, J liy omnipotent
la"e and rescue ua. Oh what a face I
So sacred, so lacerated, so resplend
ent, so overwhelmingly glorious that
tho seraphim put wing to wing and
with their conjoined pinions keep off
some of tho luster that is too mighty
even for eyes cherubic or angelic, and
yet this morning turning upon us
with a sheathed splendor like
that with which He appeared
when He said to the mothers
bashful about presenting their chil
dren, "Suffer them to como," and to
the poor waif of the street, "Neither
do I condemn thee," and to the eyes of
tho blind besrgar of the wayside, "Bo
opened." I think my brofner John,
the returned foreign missionary, dying
summer before last at Bound Brook,
caught a glimpse of that face of Christ
when in his dying hour my brother
said, "ishall be satisfied when 1 awake
In his likeness." 'And now unto Him
that loved us and washed us from our
sins in His own blood and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and Hi
Father. to mm be glory ana nonunion
for ever and ever Amen and amen!
Amen and amon!
THE JUDGMENT DAY.
A Nefcro Teacher's Description of What
Will Happen On the Last Day.
"The most wonderful sermon I
ever heard," said a business man re
cently, In conversation with a Pitta
burg Dispatch reporter, "was deliv
ered by a colored preacher in South
Carolina, in a slave pen which was
being utilized as a church shortly
after the war, I happened to drop
into this large gathering of colored
people one night, and was informed
that a new preacher was about to be
tried. The minister arose back of a
pulpit tbat had been Improvised
from a barrel turned bottom upward,
on which was a lighted candle stuck
In a bottle. He. beaa to read the
Bible, but stumbled at every word,
spelling some throughout before pro
nouncing them. A man In the rear
said, Go ahead with your sermon,'
and the preacher coased reading.
He stood up at full length, and in
the dim flickering light of the lone
candle looked .more like an appari
tion than a man. His subject was
'The Judgment.' Here came in that
wonderful Imaginative quality for
which the colored race is noted. In
going atout during the war he had
become Imbued with the military
spirit, 90 he b gan by giving a vivid
word picture of the hosts of heaven
lying in their tents asleep the night
before the judgment day. Then he
worked up to a point where the bugle
sounded to prepare for the decent up
on the sinful world. Ho pictured the
heavenly hosts hurriedly running out
of their tents to form In line of bat
tle with the Great Commander in
front Then he described the still
ness that reigned when all was ready,
awaiting the command to advance.
By tills time the whole congregation,
Including myself, were sitting with
nerves strained, excited In the ex
treme, and as the preacher described
the tramp, tramp of the mighty host
approaching the earth, I saw several
members, terrified, get down under
the benches. He then followed a
courier coming from the distance,
who reported 'Death on a white horse'
as having appeared lar awav. When
the preacher described the Command
er detailing a squad of his soldiers to
Oo capture Death,' a terrified groan
came from the audience. Finally he
brought the armv of heaven down to
earth lust before daybreak, aod had
them resting on their arms, awaiting
Gabriel's trumpet. Ho pictured at
length how quiet everything was,
then putting his band to his mouth
he imitated the bugle call, which so
terrified and completely unstrung his
audience that the greater portion of
it arose hurriedly and rushed out of
the building. In all mv life I have
never heard a sermon that had such
a startling effect upon a congrega
tion."
CAREKUM.Y observe a man who Is
particularly bright, and you will
latch blm at something particular! y
weak.
THE
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ESTABLISHED 1688.1
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