If any one would like to see the subject of dress as an ornament, clearly set forth, let such an one read the third chapter of Isaiah from the 16th to the 26th verse. Those holy prophets had a disregard to the sickly, effeminate delicacy of fashionable tastes, which was, and is still very grating upon carnal preferences.
Dress was first introduced, in consequence of transgression, and the loss of innocence. Little did mother Eve, or father Adam think, that their sons and daughters would wear this badge of disgrace as a decoration, and the present rage for fine clothing is as clear an evidence of depravity as could be furnished.
There are three points to be attained in dress; decency, comfort and convenience; and to put on clothing for display is evidently a device of Satan, beneath the dignity of right reason, not to speak of its criminality and guilt, in the sight of God. Contemplate for a moment a modern bonnet, an ingenious airy fabric, just on the point of sliding backwards from the back part of the head, leaving the face and a great part of the head exposed to sun and wind and rain. Can any one tell the use of such an article?
Again consider for a moment a fashionable dress, with so much cloth in the skirt as to leave a very scant portion for the sleeves &c., Can any one tell the origin of such senseless, indecent arrangements? Yes! to please the goddess of fashion! and I fully believe that Satan is very active inventing new fashions.
Then with regard to jewelry, rings, necklaces with all the trinkets of ancient or modern name, I ask, who is warmed or fed or clothed by them? A distinguished merchant of N. Y. says, that the money paid by our people for these baubles, is absolutely past belief; and that it might better be cast into the ocean. Certainly no godly person of the present age, can countenance the use of such trifles for one moment.
A dress clean and neat, and warm or cool to suit the season, worn with regard to God, whose jealous eye watches over our motives; a dress purchased not for its beauty, but with regard to prudence and humility, so that it shall waken no sensation of vanity in ourselves, or of envy in others, such a dress may be to us a standing memorial of our present state of bondage and of peril.
Always bear in mind in using our Lord's time and money, that all things are his, and that souls are constantly perishing for lack of knowledge. O let us not make the darkness more dark, but let our light shine, and prove in all things that we are strangers and pilgrims here. JOSEPH CLARKE.