CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD.
By Rebekah Smith
To this vile world be not conformed, in holy writ we read,
We find no license to adorn where there exists no need.
Shall we for naught spend time and means, but like the world t'appear,
And yet profess that we have done with all things needless here? We must account for what we spend in all this extra show;
And whose approval shall we gain? Not that of God, we know;
Nor yet the world's; its just remarks reproach us for the same;
So we add naught in Heaven or earth, by this, to our good name. The good name Solomon describes, no artificial flowers
Nor rarest tint can e'er enrich—be this name ever ours.
The bands of velvet, taste, and braid, but for a moment please;
And can we ask the Lord to bless, while working over these? The way exact we may not find, so narrow and so strait;
But useless trimming never will a heavenly peace create.
Says one, I feel reproved for this: would you, if it were right?
True freedom we can only know, while walking in the light. By heedless wandering from the light, we fall into the snare;
But conscience will, if we'll obey, all condemnation spare.
We give our souls the wounds they feel, by self-indulgence here,
Self-conquest is the only path, unto a holier sphere. By this keen process let us be, refined, exalted too,
And with the King of kings at last the city's gates go through.
Our hight of glory there will be as here our works have been;
Each self-denying act of love will be rewarded then. West Wilton, N. H., Dec. 27, 1871.