In the legend of the “Great Stone Face” Hawthorne tells us
how a great soul was formed by constantly looking at an ideal
head formed by rocks on the side of a mountain. Ernest had
been told by his mother that some day or other (so the people
in the valley believed) a man would grow up from among them
who would be the greatest man of his time, and that his face
would resemble the face outlined on the rocks of the mountain.
So Ernest waited, and finally a man who had become very rich
came back to the valley and built a palace, and people thought
for a time that the legend had been fulfilled in Mr. Grabgold,
but the man was hard and selfish. Another came who was famous
as a statesman, but ambition had killed his spiritual life. A
poet came, whose verses had been an inspiration to Ernest, who
often preached to the people of the valley, but the poet was
a sensualist. He admitted to Ernest that he had not lived the
beautiful life that he had depicted in his poetry, that he had
even doubted at times whether the beautiful things he had taught
to men were true. So at last, when Ernest had been almost in
despair about the great man who should come to the valley, he
went out one evening to preach to the people, and as the rays
of the setting sun lighted up his face, and also the Great
Stone Face of the mountain, the people shouted, “The legend
has been fulfilled; the faces are alike.” It was true. The boy
of the valley, by keeping his eyes on the noble face on the
mountain, had accomplished more than they all. It is the secret
of the development of the soul. A man must keep his eyes on
the face of Jesus Christ to-day, because there is none else so
noble.--C. F. J. WRIGLEY.
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