p. 12 | HOW TO BE BEAUTIFUL by D. H. Kress, M.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 10, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 41.

HOW TO BE BEAUTIFUL.

By D. H. Kress, M.D.

Seek to be Beautiful.

NATURE is full of beauty; and she seems to love and seek it. Observe the flowers with their varied colors, the fruits with their tinted cheeks, or the little bird that after its daily bath smooths out and arranges its golden feathers. Everything in nature testifies that God is a God of order, a lover of the beautiful; and He has placed within all a desire to be beautiful. This desire should not be suppressed, but cultivated, for it is divine.

We admire beauty because it is a revelation of God's glory. The more beautiful the flower, the more fully is God's character expressed. The person with the face and figure most nearly perfect, reveals most fully God's image. It is therefore lawful to desire beauty, and to try to be beautiful, to have a beautiful face, a beautiful physique.

Beauty Comes from Within.

Real beauty is not the result of outward adorning or decoration; it radiates from within. The mind is the sun, and the streams of light that proceed from it are revealed through the face. Every evil thought is a dark object passing over the mind, and obscuring some of these rays; and it leaves its impress on the face. And so "by beholding we become changed." It is this that led the apostle to say: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are

true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Pure Thoughts Beautify the Face.

Only the one who has pure and beautiful thoughts can have a really beautiful face. Any one who has observed a child at play, can not fail to have noticed that every thought finds a ready expression. A happy thought brightens the face, and the shadow of a cloud passing over the mind is as readily seen there. The same principle applies to adults. Thoughts may be suppressed, and not permitted to work themselves out in the conduct; but the countenance is changed.

The admonition given through Moses is full of meaning. Speaking of the religious life, of the need of having God's words woven into the life, he said to the children of Israel, "Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes." The hand executes the purpose of the mind, and thus reveals character. As God's Word is received, meditated upon, and appropriated, it transforms the acts and life, renewing the mind. The hand reveals the thought in loving deeds, and even the countenance bears witness to the change that has taken place.

The Face an Index of the Inner Life.

Jesus needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man. Man was an open book to Him; He read the innermost thoughts. He said to the Pharisees, "Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?"

"As in water face answereth to face, so the heart [the inner life] of man [is revealed] to man." No matter how carefully a man may try to conceal his inner life, he is an open epistle, known and read of all men! They that worship the beast will reveal the character of the beast, either with the hand or in the forehead. For evil thoughts are distinctly traced on the outlines of the face of the wicked, even tho, because of fear or policy, the hand may not be permitted to work them out in the life. Speaking of the fallen and corrupt condition of the children of Israel, Isaiah said, "The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom."

Unconsciously we influence for better or worse all with whom we are brought in contact. This influence, or power over others, is not in what we say, but in what we are.

Men and women and even children came to Christ, not because from a theological standpoint they recognized Him as the Christ, but because they witnessed His kindly deeds, and saw in His face something that was divinely beautiful. For "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory [character], the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth."

Those who worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness will, by their acts of kindness, reveal something of this "grace and truth." The Father's name will be written in their foreheads, and His glory will be seen upon them (Isa. 60: 1, 2); and in the kindness, sympathy, and compassion expressed in the countenance they will be beautiful. Strive to be beautiful.