p. 86 | Worldliness in Dress by J. E. FULTON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 23, 1913

Worldliness in Dress

By J. E. FULTON

J. E. FULTON

WORLDLINESS is eating at the heart of the religion of many, both young and old, at the present time. Such a sad state has not come without warning or prophetic forecast. Looking down the centuries, our Saviour told how this very sin would steal upon his professed people. In that wonderful prophecy, Matthew 24, we are warned in these words: “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Opposition from the world is bad; apostasy from the faith is worse; but the lukewarmness and indifference and growing worldliness of many of our professors is the greatest bane of our church life. We can stand opposition and persecution and thrive under it. We may be benefited by the apostasies of unfaithful members, but our faith is corrupted by the worldly professor.

We have been, above all churches, called out from the world. We have been called out from Babylon. We are not to be partakers of her follies, fashions, and sins.

There was a time in the history of Methodism when a member of that church could be known by the plainness of his dress, which stood in marked contrast to that worn by professors of religion in other churches. It has been so in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is even yet so to a large extent, but there is coming in among us a drift worldward which is ominous. Why do many of our young men wear gold watch-guards and chains, fancy waistcoats, flashy ties, etc., in fact change with every change of fashion, when the Lord beseeches us, “Be not conformed to [“fashioned according to,” R. V.] this world.” “We should dress in plain, modest apparel, without reference to the fashions.”

Why do many of our young women wear those fashionable skirts, cut tight to their bodies like the wrapping of an Egyptian mummy,—skirts that thousands of men and women look upon as abominable? It is simply a matter of fashion, and God says not to be “conformed to this world.”

Why do some wear feathers, and others fix up ribbons on their hats to appear as much like feathers as possible, if it is not to be like the world? Remember “the friendship of the world is enmity with God.” Why do our sisters wear low-necked dresses when they are condemned by our medical authorities, the laws of decency, and by the religion of our Lord? Remember, when we dress our bodies in worldly, attractive, and fashionable dress, our friends may be pleased, but heaven looks upon it with disfavor. “When you are decorating your bodies with varieties of art, then reflect how the Eternal Word put on the rough suit of humanity.”

May God raise up mothers in Israel to cry out against these shameful fashions of womankind and teach the better way. Traveling on the train some time ago, I sat near two young women, one of whom was a native girl. They were discussing dress. The European girl asked her dark-skinned sister if she did not think those peek-a-boo low-necked dresses were pretty. “No,” was the decided answer; “I should be ashamed to be seen wearing one.” Ah! has it come to this that our sense of propriety is so obtuse that we must be warned by our native brethren and sisters, those who only a generation or two ago emerged from barbarism? Shame to our civilization! Shame to our boasted education! And thrice shame to our profession of a holy religion.

When worldly papers, as the Ladies' Home Journal, condemn these abuses in dress, I conclude that it is time to speak plainly. Many of the articles of dress are

neither beautiful nor modest. O, why then do we, like Israel of old, go after strange gods? Why do we ape the heathen? Why is it necessary to dress the hair in a frizzly, unkempt-looking fashion? Why is it that that part of our bodies which is the citadel of our reason should be adorned in such an unreasonable manner? Worldliness in dress has set in like a mighty tide from the world's ocean. Thousands of our young people are being swept worldward by its deceptive current. Who will stem the tide?

Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia.