Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/223

 spite of the wrinkles that usually accompany declining years.

There is, then, abundant evidence right around us of the truth of what Swedenborg says as to the personal appearance of people in the other world, and of the great law that determines it. For we all know that there is a strong and continual tendency in whatever passion or principle is allowed to govern a man, to mould the countenance into a form correspondent with itself. We know that heavenly love deep-seated in the heart, has ever a tendency to light up the countenance with a heavenly radiance. And we know, too, that the tendency of all infernal principles is equally strong in this respect. All evil feelings long indulged, all sad and sickening thoughts, all dark and gloomy views of God, religion and human life, are perpetually operating, so long as they are entertained, to shape the outward corporeal part into complete correspondence with themselves;—perpetually working to divest the visage of its properly human expression, and imprint thereon the deformity of hell. If it is true that "a man's wisdom maketh his face to shine," it is equally true that a wicked heart will in time mould the countenance into an exact image of its wickedness.

It is certain, then—nothing, indeed, can be more so—that the human countenance was intended by the Creator to be the perfect image of the heart's affections. The face was plainly meant to be the mirror of the soul. And the nearer men approach to the innocence and simplicity of childhood, and the less disguises they wear, the less occasion do they have for concealment, and the more truly do their faces as well as their words express