The Scarred Face by T. L. Cuyler, D. D.

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 24, 1879

The Scarred Face.

By T. L. Cuyler, D. D.

WHEN I was crossing one of the mountains of California last summer in a stage coach, the driver said to me, "Pretty soon you will see 'Mountain Charley.' He is generally about the door of his cabin when the stage goes by."

In a few minutes we came to a small house in the forest, and in the door-yard stood a rough frontiersman, whose eyes and face were so disfigured that they presented a terrible appearance. Mountain Charley, (as the people call him,) had a fight with a grizzly bear many years ago. The poor man will carry the scars of that terrible fight to his dying day.

As I looked at the marks of the bear's claws on Mountain Charley's countenance, I thought how sin in the same manner leaves its scar upon a person's character. For example, a boy is detected in telling a lie. He is very sorry for it, and begs his parents to forgive him. He asks God to forgive him, too, but for a good while there is not the same confidence in that boy's word that there had been before. He still carries for some time the scar of that falsehood.

I knew a young man who, under strong temptation, helped himself to some of his employer's money. Bitterly he suffered for his sin against God's commandment. Probably he has never touched a single dime dishonestly since he repented of that first transgression, yet he brought on himself great shame and suffering. His character got an ugly scar which will require many years for him to outgrow.

Rev. Dr. M—— was an excellent and useful minister, but in his early life he had injured his health by habits of licentiousness. God's grace made Dr. M—— an instrument of great good to others, but it did not get the bad effects of early sin out of his bodily constitution. He carried the scar until the last day of his life.

These cases, and many more I might name, are warnings to the young. Sin is a ferocious "beast of prey." If sin does not destroy the character and the soul outright, it maims the transgressor, and leaves a terrible scar. King David was once tempted to sin, and fell. The 51st psalm shows the bruises of that fall. Joseph was also tempted. He stood true to conscience and to God, and we discover no scar of wrong-doing on his noble and beautiful character.—T. L. Cuyler, D. D., in Youth's Companion.

He should try to secure the best ends by the best means. He must keep on the lookout against obstacles and accidents, and watch that everything goes straight, else he must fail."

"Well."

"To be master of yourself you have your conscience to keep clear, your heart to cultivate, your temper to govern, your will to direct, and your judgment to instruct. You are master over a hard lot, and if you don't master them, they will master you."

"That is so," said the young man.

"Now, I could undertake no such thing," said his friend. "I should fail, sure, if I did. Saul wanted to be his own master, and failed. Herod did. Judas did. No man is fit for it. 'One is my Master, even Christ.' I work under his direction. He is regular, and where he is Master all goes right."