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-21-
The Marriage Ring
Put on, then, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Pay less attention to the decoration of the person, more to that of the mind. "Your adorning is not to be that outward adorning, of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible." The language of another apostle on this subject is no less striking. "In like manner, also, I will 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." I Timothy 2:9,10. Two apostles, who both wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, in such language as this, have denounced as improper, and as unbecoming a profession of godliness, a taste for immodest, expensive, or highly decorative dress.
Surely, then, the subject is worthy the most serious attention of all Christian females. By what sophistry can the letter, much more the spirit, of two passages of Holy Writ, so very plain and express in their terms as these, be set aside? That they are set aside, is evident by the appearance of almost every congregation into which we could enter on the Sabbath day.
It is high time for the Christian teacher to call back the women "professing godliness" from their wanderings in the regions of fashionable folly, to the Holy Scriptures; for there, it should be remembered, is laid down a general law for regulating the dress of the body as well as that of the mind. I do hold, then, that these passages of Scripture are still binding upon the conscience; if not, show me when they were cancelled.
I contend, that Christian females ought to abstain from expensive, showy, and extravagant fashions in dress, jewelry, and all kinds of unsuitable personal decoration. I am not arguing for a sectarian costume, for a religious uniform, for canonical shapes and colors; nothing of the sort, but for simplicity, neatness, economy; for what the apostle calls modest apparel, shamefacedness and sobriety; for the spirit of the passages if not for the very letter; for a distinction between those who profess godliness, in their comparative inattention to such things, and those who make no such profession; for a proof that their minds are not so much engaged on these matters, as the minds of the people of the world are.
I am not for extinguishing taste; alas, in matters of dress, this is already done; but for resisting the lawless dominion of folly, under the name of fashion. I am not for calling back the age of Gothic barbarism, or vulgarity; no; I will leave ample room for the cultivation of both taste and genius in every lawful department; but I am protesting against the desolating reign of vanity; I am resisting the entrance of frivolity into the Church of God; I am contending against the glaring inconsistency of rendering our religious assemblies like the audience convened in a theater.
The evils of an improper attention to dress are great and numerous. 1. Much precious time is wasted in the study, and arrangement, and decisions of this matter. 2. The attention is taken off from the improvement of the mind and the heart, to the decoration of the person. 3. The mind is filled with pride and vanity, and a deteriorating influence is carried on upon what constitutes the true dignity of the soul. 4. The love of display infects the character. 5. Money is wasted, which is wanted for relieving the ministry and improving the condition of mankind. 6. Examples are set to the lower classes, in whom the propensity is often mischievous in many ways.
I am aware it might be, and is said, that there may be pride of singularity, as well as of fashion; the pride of being covered with sober autumnal tints, as well as of exhibiting the brilliant hues of the rainbow; the pride of quality and of texture, as well as of color and of form. I know it, and I do not justify the one more than I do the other; I condemn all kinds; but, at any rate, there is a little more dignity in one kind than in another. I will leave opportunity for the distinctions of rank, for the inventions of true taste, and for the modest and unobtrusive displays of natural elegance and simple beauty; but I cannot allow the propriety of Christian females yielding themselves to the guidance of fashion, however expensive, extravagant or gaudy.
As to the employment of our artisans by the various changes of fashion, I have nothing to do with this, in face of an apostolic injunction. The silversmiths, who made shrines for the worshippers or Diana, might have pleaded the same objection against the preachers of the Gospel, who certainly did, so far as they were successful, ruin this trade. I am only speaking to professors of religion, who form so small a portion of society, that their abstinence from folly would do little in diminishing the employment of the work-people, and if it did, let them make it up in some other way. What I contend for, then, is not meanness, nor unvarying sameness; but neatness opposed to gaudiness; simplicity and becomingness to extravagance; modesty opposed to indelicacy; economy opposed to expensiveness.
Whether what I contend for is characteristic of the age in which we live, let any spectator determine. I am anxious to see professors of religion displaying a seriousness and spirituality, a dignity and sobriety of mind, a simplicity of habits, and a sedateness of manners, becoming their high and holy profession; and all this united with an economy in their personal expenses, which will leave them a greater fund at their disposal, for relieving the miseries and promoting the happiness of their fellow-creatures.
But, perhaps, after all, many women may plead, that the gaiety and expensiveness of their dress is more to please their husbands than them-selves; but even this must have its limits. And I really pity the folly of that man, who concerns himself too much in the arrangement of his wife's wardrobe and toilet; and who would rather see her go forth in all the gorgeousness of splendid apparel, to display herself in the drawing-rooms of her friends, than, in dignified neatness, to visit the cottages of the poor, as the messenger of mercy; and who rejoices more to contemplate her moving through the circles of fashion, the admiration of one sex, and the envy of the other, than to see her holding on her radiant course, in the orbit of benevolence, clad in inexpensive simplicity, and, with the savings of her personal expenditure, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and thus bringing upon herself the blessings of him that was ready to perish, and causing the widow's heart to sing for joy. Let it be remembered, that not only the ornament, but the person which it adorns, is corruptible. Accidents may distort the finest form, diseases fade the loveliest coloring, time disfigures the smoothest surface, and death, the spoiler of beauty, work a change so awful and appalling, as to turn away the most impassioned admirers in disgust. How soon will every other dress be displaced by the shroud, and every other decoration be stripped off to make way for the flowers that are strewed in the coffin upon the corpse, as if to hide the deformity of death.
But the graces of the heart and the beauties of the character are imperishable. Such let a wife be continually seeking to put on; "for she that has a wise husband must entice him to an eternal dearness, by the veil of modesty, and the robes of chastity, the ornaments of meekness, and the jewels of faith and charity; she must have no paint but blushing; her brightness must be her purity, and then she shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies."