Doctor Judson on Dress by Adoniram Judson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 18, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 32.

Doctor Judson on Dress

By Adoniram Judson

(Concluded)

[We present the following letter to Christian sisters in America from the great missionary, Dr. Adoniram Judson. Its appeal is equally as appropriate now as when written.]

At length, the evil which I most dreaded came upon me. Some of the Karen men had been to Maulmein, and seen what I wished they had not. And one day, when we were discussing the subject of ornaments, one of the Christians came forward in my face, and declared that at Maulmein he had actually seen one of the great female teachers wearing a string of gold beads around her neck!

Lay down this paper, dear sister, and sympathize a moment with your fallen missionary. Was it not a hard case? Was it not cruel for that sister thus to smite down to the ground her poor brother, who, without that blow, was hardly able to keep his ground? But she knew it not. However, tho cast down, I was not destroyed; tho sorely bruised and wounded, I endeavored to maintain the warfare as well as I could. After some conflict, the enemy left the field, and when I left those parts, the female converts were, generally speaking, arrayed in modest apparel.

On arriving at Maulmein, and partially recovering from a fever which I had contracted in the Karen woods, the first thing I did was to crawl out to the house of the patroness of the gold beads. To her I related my adventures—to her commiseration I commended my grief. With what ease, and truth, too, could that sister reply, “Notwithstanding these beads, I dress more plainly than most ministers’ wives and professors of religion in our native land. Those beads are the only ornament I wear; they were given to me when quite a child by a dear mother, whom I never expect to see again [another hard case]; and she enjoined it on me never to part with them as long as I lived, but to wear them as a memorial of her.”

O ye Christian mothers, what a lesson you have before you! Can you, dare you, give injunctions to your daughters directly contrary to apostolic commands? But to the honor of my sister be it recorded that as soon as she understood the merit of the case, and the mischief done by such example, off went the gold beads. She gave decisive proof that she loved Christ more than father or mother. Her example, united with the efforts of the rest of us at this station, is beginning to exercise a redeeming influence in the female department of the church.

But notwithstanding these favorable signs, nothing, really nothing, is yet done. And why? This mission and all others must be sustained by continual supplies of missionaries, male and female, from the mother country. Your sisters and daughters will continually come out to take the place of those who are removed by death, and to occupy numberless stations still unoccupied. And when they arrive, they will be dressed in their usual way, as Christian women at home are dressed. And the female converts will run around them, and gaze upon them, with the most prying curiosity, regarding them as the freshest representatives of the Christian religion, from the land where it flourishes in all its purity and glory. And when they see the gold and jewels pendant from their ears, the beads and chains encircling their necks, the finger-rings set with diamonds, and rubies, the rich variety of ornamental head-dress, “the mantles and the wimples and the crisping pins,” (see the rest in Isaiah 3); they will cast a bitter, reproachful, triumphant glance at their old teachers, and spring with fresh avidity to repurchase and resume their long-neglected elegancies. The cheering news will fly up to the Dahgvaing, the Laing-bwai, and the Salwen:—the Karenesses will reload their necks and ears and arms and ankles; and when, after another year’s absence, I return and take my seat before the Burmese or the Karen church, I shall behold the demon of vanity enthroned in the center of the assembly, more firmly than ever, grinning defiance to the prohibitions of apostles, and the exhortations of us who would fain be their humble followers.

And thus you, my dear sisters, sitting quietly by your firesides or repairing devoutly to your places of worship, do, by your example, spread the poison of vanity through all the rivers and mountains and wilds of this far distant land; and while you are sincerely and fervently praying for the upbuilding of the Redeemer’s kingdom, you are inadvertently building up that of the devil. If, on the other hand, you divest yourself of all meretricious ornaments, your sisters and daughters who come hither will be divested, of course; the further supplies of pride and vanity will be cut off; and the churches at home being kept pure, the churches here will be pure also.

DEAR SISTERS,—Having finished my tale, and therein exhibited the necessity under which I lay of addressing you, I beg leave to submit a few topics to your candid and prayerful consideration.

1. Let me appeal to conscience, and inquire, What is the real motive for wearing ornamental and costly apparel? Is it not the desire for setting off one’s person to the best advantage, and of exciting the love and admiration of others? Is not such dress calculated to gratify self-love, to cherish sentiments of vanity and pride? And is it not the nature of these sentiments to acquire strength from indulgence? Do such motives and sentiments comport with the meek, humble, self-denying religion of Jesus Christ? I would here respectfully suggest that these questions will not be answered so faithfully in the midst of company as when quite alone kneeling before God.

2. Consider the words of the apostle quoted above from 1 Tim. 2:9: “I will . . . also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness, and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” I do not quote a similar command recorded in 1 Peter 3:3, because the verbal construction is not quite so definite, tho the import of the two passages is the same. But can not the force of these passages be evaded?—Yes, and nearly every command in the Scriptures can be evaded, and every doctrinal assertion perverted, plausibly and handsomely, if we set about it in good earnest. But preserving the posture above alluded to, with the inspired volume spread open at the passage in question, ask your hearts in simplicity and godly sincerity, whether the meaning is not just as plain as the sun at noonday. Shall we then bow to the authority of an inspired apostle, or shall we not? From that authority shall we appeal to the prevailing usages and fashions of the age? If so, please recall the missionaries you have sent to the heathen; for the heathen can vindicate all their superstitions on the same ground.

O Christian sisters, can you hesitate and ask what you shall do? Bedew those ornaments with the tears of contrition; consecrate them to the cause of charity. . . . We shall soon appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be tried for our conduct, and to receive the things done in the body. Will you, then, wish, that in defiance of His authority, you had adorned your mortal bodies with gold, and precious stones, and costly attire, cherishing self-love, vanity, and pride? Or will you wish that you had chosen a life of self-denial, renounced the world, taken up the cross daily, and followed Him? And as you will then wish you had done, do now.

Dear Sisters, Your affectionate brother in Christ, Maulmein, October, 1831.