Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/221

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ment will read them the moment they look at the picture or statue. Ask any distinguished sculptor to embody in a bust certain well-defined mental or moral qualities, and he will do it with such fidelity that every close observer of human nature will read in that bust the very qualities you described, almost as easily as if they were printed in a book. This were impossible but for the correspondence existing between the face and the passions and emotions of the heart;—a correspondence so exact and perfect, too, that where no willful deception is practiced, the former may be taken as the representative image of the latter.

Then look at the faces of little children—those young immortals so guileless and innocent, so late from their Maker's hand, with the impress of heaven so fresh upon them—and how legibly can you see recorded there the feelings of their hearts! How unmistakably do their laughing faces tell of the exuberant life, the overflowing joy and gladness within their little bosoms! And when they experience disappointment, sorrow, vexation or shame, how faithfully are these emotions imprinted on their faces, and how quickly, too! And the same is true of adults in the degree that they have retained the innocence and simplicity of childhood, or become as little children by regeneration. When joy and gladness fill their hearts, their faces are sure to reveal the fact. The sunshine within streams out from their eyes, and sheds its radiance over the whole countenance. Again, when sorrow comes, when cares oppress and fears disturb and gloomy thoughts becloud the soul, their faces proclaim this inward change as clearly as the moving shadow on