A Letter to the Sisters.
By V. O. Cross
Dear Sisters: I cannot longer refrain from writing out some of the feelings with which my mind has, for a long time, been exercised. As I have witnessed, from year to year, the growing tendency among us as a people to imitate the fashions of the world, and to unite with them in their pleasures and vanity, my heart has been pained. I can but look back a few years and contrast that time with the present. Who can fail to see that just so far as pride, popularity, and love of the world have come in, the spirit and love of the truth have departed, and cold formality has taken its place? Where is that peculiarity that once marked the people of God? Where are the earnestness and consecration to God, and the manifestations of his power and love that then existed? I fear that the love of this world has in a great measure taken their place; and that the time which should be spent in secret prayer, study of the Scriptures, and self-examination, is spent in needless adornings, studying this or that fashion, or engaging in worldly amusements, which shut Jesus and love out of our hearts. While it is a Christian duty to be neat and tasty in our dress, the word of God plainly forbids needless adorning and ornaments: “Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” 1 Pet. 3:3-5. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.” 1 Tim. 2:9, 10. We have also been warned repeatedly upon this point through the testimonies of the Spirit. Have we heeded these messages sent to us from Heaven? O dear sisters, is there not need of humbling ourselves before God, laying aside our idols and love of the world, that which has driven the Spirit of God from us, and seeking him with all the heart? “A day of heart-rending anguish is before us, when we shall need a firm hold upon God.” And can we expect him to be our refuge if we fail to live up to his requirements? Our actions plainly tell which we love most, God or this world; and if our time and attention are all taken up with the world, will he not leave us to perish with the world? God means just what he says, and if we do not heed his word, but pass lightly by his warnings, he will leave us to our own ways, to reap, at last, the bitter reward of disobedience. The Lord has in great mercy sent us warnings from time to time. Let us heed them. Let us study them carefully. Who can tell the souls that might be saved by a right use made of the means spent in superfluous ornaments and trimmings? And were the time spent in this useless adorning spent in working for the salvation of others, how many we might be the means of saving. God will hold us responsible for these things. Jesus has set us an example of self-denial and sacrifice. How far do we follow it? His whole life was spent in doing others good. He suffered everything that mortals can endure; “was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He was a homeless wanderer. His adornment was a plain, seamless coat, while he received only cruel insults and mockery from those he came to benefit. He bore the shameful cross, and at last died a most shameful death. And he did all this to purchase our salvation; yet we are so fearful of bearing the cross and enduring the reproach! If we reign with Christ we must also suffer with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. God will purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works; Titus 2:14; and if we are not willing to become such a people, he will not acknowledge us as his children.39 May the Lord help us to realize these things as we should, and seek the Lord with all our hearts, to “seek righteousness, seek meekness,” that we may “be hid in the day of the Lord’s fierce anger.” V. O. Cross.