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OUR FACES

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 15, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 49, No. 11.

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OUR FACES.

By Eliza H. Morton

It is a remarkable fact that there are no two faces exactly alike. Although the features of twins may resemble each other, and, as is often the case, look so near alike that strangers can not tell them apart, yet, the expression of their faces is so different that their friends can readily distinguish them. In the expression of the face lies its chief beauty. The face of a statue is beautiful only so far as the sculptor imitates the life-like expression of the original.
It has been said that “our eyes are windows through which our souls look.” It may also be said that our faces are thermometers which show the world the state of our souls. When we are lifted up and warmed by some great or grand emotion, our faces indicate the fact. When our feelings are below zero, and our minds filled with gloomy forebodings, our countenances express the same. Some individuals can control the muscles of their faces better than others, but none can conceal from the close student of human nature their true feelings. Their character is plainly written upon their countenances.
Pride cuts disdain into the features. Selfishness kills every noble look. Envy gives a dissatisfied expression to the face; and all evil passions brand, cut, and stain, the features into ugly shapes. On the other hand, goodwill, charity, sweetness, and desire to make others happy, fashion the features into almost angelic loveliness.
As our faces are the outward expression of our souls, then it must follow that in order to have beautiful faces we must have lovely souls. The soul is made lovely by cultivating great thoughts, noble principles, and kind affections. Reading, study, and meditation, are sculptors that chisel beautiful lines upon the face. Kindness, purity, and love, are painters that shade and color the same with exquisite beauty; but the “beauty of holiness” alone can illuminate, refine, exalt, and leave the impress of heaven upon the countenance, while it leads its possessor onward and upward to unfading beauty in the Kingdom of God.
ELIZA H. MORTON.