CHARACTER, EXPOSURE OF

Robert Louis Stevenson told the story of a veiled Muhammadan prophet who was a great teacher and light among the people. He wore the veil, he said, because his countenance was so glorious that none could bear the sight of his face. But eventually the veil decayed and fell away, revealing nothing but an ugly old man. Stevenson stressed that “however high the truths the preacher taught, and however skillfully he might excuse the blemishes of character, the time comes when the veil falls away, and a man is seen by people as he really is. It is seen whether beneath the veil is the ugly fact of unmortified egotism or the transfigured glory of Christlike character.” (Cited by J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership [Chicago: Moody Press, 1974], p. 144).96