APPEARANCES by S. S. Times

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 25, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 33.

APPEARANCES.

By S. S. Times

How willing men are to be deceived by their eyes! As a rule, men care but little to get back of the outside appearance of that which they are called to pass upon. Here in the city of Philadelphia, for example, it has been recently shown that bakers were in the habit of coloring buns with poisonous chrome yellow, in order to make them look as if they were rich with eggs. The buns were for eating, not for show; and the chrome yellow gave them no taste of eggs; yet men, women, and children, by the thousand, would buy the rich-looking buns in preference to those of a lighter color, thinking that that which looked better must be better. Scores, if not hundreds, of deaths were a result of the over-valuing of appearances in this instance; and in many another sphere a like fatality attends a corresponding regard for mere outward show. Cream and butter and cakes and confectionery must be poisoned in order to present an attractive exterior to the average purchaser. Men poison themselves by coloring their hair, and women poison themselves by "improving" their complexion. Conduct and character are usually judged by their surface color. So, also, are creeds and doctrines. And poison lurks in all deceptive coloring. He who gives the first place to appearances does so at a fearful risk; for the face of death may be covered by a mask of health, as when the hectic flush seems but a ruddy glow on the cheek of bounding youth.—S. S. Times.