484 THE MARKS OF JESUS
ourselves than even our character is — a subtle change wrought upon the very personality by the Cross of Christ, as the marks of the Cross were printed upon St. Francis of Assisi in the familiar incident of the stigmata. In the Bible there are such references as the mark of Cain; the mark of Ezekiel's man with the slaughter- weapon ; the mark of the beast and the mark in the foreheads of the chosen ones, recorded in Eevelation. All these illustrate in various ways the subtle change in men, recognizable by others, produced by supreme experiences of good and evil.^
1. Here is a man whose restless spirit, whose keen hungry eye, whose hard face, whose metallic voice, tells the story of a sordid soul. Do we need to ask anything about his master ? We- know, as we listen to him, as we look into his face, that he has a craving for money ; that his life is spent in following the god of gold, and worshipping in the temple of mammon. Mammon ia his master, and he bears branded upon his body the " stigmata " of the master he serves. Here is one whose bloated face, feverish lips, and furtive glance tell of sensuality. The vice seems to have petrified on the countenance. Not a finger-touch of God seems to be left there. We know the name of the master that man serves. He bears branded upon his sensual face the marks of the master whose slave he is. The name of his master is lust. Here is another whose mien betokens a lofty indifference and a contemptuous disregard for others, and an unquestioning appropriation of the best of everything. Those haughty look& tell the story of a life completely dominated by pride. Here is another whose face is scarred and marred with anguish. It says, as you look at it, " I am a man who has seen affliction." The furrowed face, wrinkled brow, and sunken cheeks tell of a life that has been trodden by the hoof of sorrow. We know that the man has spent long years in the school of sorrow ; he bears on his body the " stigmata " of pain.
^ We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. The drunken Eip Van Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, "I won't count this time ! " Well ! he may not count it, and a kind Heaven may not count it ; but it is being counted none the less. Down among his nerve cells and fibres the molecules are counting
1 John Kelman, The Road, L 72.
GAL. VI. 17 485
it, registering it, and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literabiess, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so many separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral, and authorities and experts in the practical and scientific, spheres by so many separate acts and hours of work.^
^ In one of Tolstoy's books he represents an ideal Czar who keeps open house and table for all comers. But the guests had to face one condition — each man had to show his hands before sitting down to the feast. Those whose hands were rough and hard with honest toil were welcomed to the best of the board, but those whose hands were soft and white had only the crusts and crumbs. The hands were the index of the soul. The hard rough hands told the story of toil, sacrifice, and suffering, and it was for these the best of the feast was spread.*
2. The face of a Christian disciple should testify to the grace of God within. It is a matter of constant observation that strong ruling emotions of heart do come, in time, to stamp themselves upon the countenance. Sometimes we see a face that speaks of beaming kindliness, or of sweet, devout, and holy peace. What God wants is that His character should be so stamped upon the lives of all His children that every observer of their daily walk should recognize in them what is really Divine.
^ After the death of the saintly McCheyne, a letter addressed to him was found in his locked desk, a letter he had shown to no one while he lived. It was from one who wrote to tell him that he had been the means of leading him to Christ, and in it were these words, " It was nothing that you said that first made me wish to be a Christian, it was the beauty of holiness which I saw in your very face." *
II.
Spiritual Marks.
1. While it is true that the primary reference of the text is to the scars of old and recent wounds which St. Paul had endured in the service of Christ, these were not the only "marks of Jesus " that he bore. After all, the true marks of Jesus are not
^ W. James, Principles of Psychology, i. 127. ^ J. G. Mantle, Ood's To-morrow, 38. * G. H. Knight, Divine Uplif tings, 159.