Simplicity of Dress

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 19, 1863

Simplicity of Dress.

One of the great evils of the day is an excessive indulgence in finery of dress. Every age has its peculiar evils, and this is one of those which belong to our own. I do not suppose that there is any change in taste in such matters. The prophet Isaiah shows us, by a catalogue of female finery in the third chapter of his prophecy, that the daughters of Zion, in his day, had left very little for subsequent ages to add to the art of tricking out the body, "walking with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go." But the peculiarity of our times is that people not only have the love of finery, as people always had, but they can very easily indulge it, much more easily than in any former age; finery is to be had for nothing. A servant girl with moderate wages can make more show and parade than persons in affluent circumstances could two centuries ago. And this temptation of a cheap age tells upon the nation exceedingly, especially upon the female part of it; so that this book could make no pretension to be a complete guide to the service of God's House, if it did not contain a few words upon the kind of dress in which Christians should appear.

There are proper dresses for proper times; we do not go to a funeral in cheerful garments, nor to a wedding in crape and hat-bands; however we may talk about the indifference of the manner in which we are dressed, a sure instinct tells us that it is not a matter of indifference, and that it is most in accordance with the dictates of sound judgment to comply with those rules which custom has sanctioned us. Now what is the dress suited to the public worship of God? "All of you be clothed with humility," is a very good general answer, this points out the general tone and color of the garments of praise, which befit a Christian in God's house; but more particularly, study neatness and eschew finery; and do this both for your own sakes and for the sake of others; for your own sakes—because what you must aim at is to forget yourselves and think only of God, and how can you forget yourselves if you have just been studiously getting yourself up to be admired, and if your own appearance has been haunting your brain all the morning before the church bells rang? For the sake of others—because if your appearance is half as striking as you think it, you cannot but interfere with the devotions of your neighbors by attracting their attention to you. Oh, how utterly pitiable and shocking is any parade of finery in the presence of God! to think that the poor giddy creature who is setting off her face and figure with ribands and silks, must soon stand before God naked and bare! Dear young friends, when you stand at the looking-glass, think for one moment of death and of judgment.

Frippery and finery are offensive at all times and in all places; the real ornament is the "meek and quiet spirit;" that is of great price with God as with ourselves, that is an ornament which a Christian may take with him or her out of this world and wear forevermore, that is the necklace of angels, and while all other ornaments are in the eyes of God tinsel and worthless, the price of that is greater than of gold. But frippery and finery in a church are offensive beyond all possibility of measure or description; it is to insult the God of the place, to scare away the angels, to shock the minds of the devout. Study neatness and propriety and simplicity but eschew extravagance and finery; imagine Mary the mother of Jesus, preparing to go to the marriage at Cana in Galilee; dress yourself as you would have done if you too had been invited to that marriage to meet the Lord.—Advocate and Guardian.