The Adorning Within by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 18, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 11.

The Adorning Within

By T.

Much time, money, and thought are given to the outward adorning of the person. Much is spent on fine houses and elaborate furnishings for them. A great part of the thought of many, very many persons, is spent on plans for display. But none of this sort of thing in itself brings satisfaction. For after the individual has exhausted all his resources, it is many times the case that another has outstripped him and he is left far behind, loaded down with disappointment. How much better it is to follow the injunction of our Creator in His Word. He says:

“In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives; beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner aforetime the holy women also, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose children ye now are, if ye do well, and are not put in fear by any terror.”

The instruction in the foregoing is for the wife. But the principle contained in the text is of universal application. When this text is referred to, it is often the case that discussion turns upon the injunction for wives to be in subjection to their husbands, and the real lesson of the text is lost. Of course it passes without saying that the Bible nowhere teaches that it is the duty of a woman to be a slave to her husband. Slavish subjection to a brutal or inhuman husband is not what the text is calling for, as other passages of scripture will abundantly show. The text calls us to receive an inward adorning of mind and heart that will command the respect of even the unbelieving companion.

What adorning is to be compared to this inward adorning that is prescribed by the great Teacher and Saviour! It is more than mere intellectual training. The intellect is trained, to be sure, but beyond that there is a culture of heart that gives a divinely artistic mould to everything the individual does or says. The gross and the unkind act are eliminated. The grudging and the faultfinding have given place to the adornments of the indwelling of divine love. The soul is brought up to the place where it feels the presence of the divine Father.

Who has not met persons that were dressed in the so-called exquisite refinements of fashion, and who were living in houses that were gorgeously built, and elaborately furnished, and yet when he came to associate with the individuals he has found them disappointing in the extreme? Their conversations and habits of life show them at once to have only the outward adorning. Their vision is narrow. They are looking merely to this world. They seek only for display, but how shattered and empty are their lives.

On the other hand, who has not met persons that did not seem to be particularly attractive at first, but as he came to know them, found that they were living on an elevated plane. They are not planning for this life merely, but are reaching out through the inspiring precepts and promises of God for eternity. The whole course of their lives is an inspiration and an uplift. Their adorning is that of the heart and of the inner life.

Our text quoted at the beginning of these paragraphs should inspire us to so live that the inner adorning of our lives may win the unbelievers with whom we come in contact to the satisfying joys of the Christian’s life.