p. 770 | CHARACTER by S. S. Times

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 21, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 49.

CHARACTER.

By S. S. Times

IN order to show character in the face, one must be willing to have lines breaking the surface of the countenance. One cannot have a song or a story written on paper, and yet have the paper as free from marks as before. Yet there are persons who actually seek to obliterate from their faces the signs of the little character they possess. They employ cosmetics for the purpose of making their countenances smooth and fair at the cost of destroying the proofs of any gain and growth on their part in the direction of true and noble beings. And there are photographers who will finish up a negative by filling in the lines of character, so that the picture of a real man or of a real woman is reduced to the semblance of a second-rate wax figure in a hair-dresser's window. A fair face is attractive in its way, but it is not to be compared with a fair fame. And when the lines of age or of care are in a face, the attempt to secure a fair face, or a picture of that face as if it were fair, must be at the cost of the fair name which character gives to one who has lived to a purpose, and who has gained the results of worthy living. Well-marked lines in the face are as precious as well-written lines in manuscript. It is not to the credit of any man when it can be said of him that the paper on which he writes is worth more without his writing than with it.

—S. S. Times.