The Bible teaches modesty in dress. "In like manner also,
that women adorn themselves in modest apparel." 1 Timothy
2:9. This forbids display in dress, gaudy colors, profuse
ornamentation. Any device designed to attract attention
to the wearer or to excite admiration, is excluded from the
modest apparel which God's word enjoins.
Our dress is to be inexpensive--not with "gold, or pearls,
or costly array." Verse 9.
Money is a trust from God. It is not ours to expend for
the gratification of pride or ambition. In the hands of God's
children it is food for the hungry, and clothing for the naked.
It is a defense to the oppressed, a means of health to the sick,
a means of preaching the gospel to the poor. You could bring
happiness to many hearts by using wisely the means that is
now spent for show. Consider the life of Christ. Study His
character, and be partakers with Him in His self-denial.
In the professed Christian world enough is expended for
jewels and needlessly expensive dress to feed all the hungry
and to clothe the naked. Fashion and display absorb the
means that might comfort the poor and the suffering. They
rob the world of the gospel of the Saviour's love. Missions
languish. Multitudes perish for want of Christian teaching.
Beside our own doors and in foreign lands the heathen are
untaught and unsaved. While God has laden the earth with
His bounties and filled its storehouses with the comforts of
life, while He has so freely given to us a saving knowledge of
His truth, what excuse can we offer for permitting the cries
of the widow and the fatherless, the sick and the suffering, the
untaught and the unsaved, to ascend to heaven? In the day
of God, when brought face to face with Him who gave His
life for these needy ones, what excuse will those offer who are
spending their time and money upon indulgences that God
has forbidden? To such will not Christ say, "I was anhungered,
and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me
no drink: . . .naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in
prison, and ye visited Me not"? Matthew 25:42, 43.
But our clothing, while modest and simple, should be of
good quality, of becoming colors, and suited for service. It
should be chosen for durability rather than display. It should
provide warmth and proper protection. The wise woman
described in the Proverbs "is not afraid of the snow for her
household: for all her household are clothed with double
garments." Proverbs 31:21, margin.
Our dress should be cleanly. Uncleanliness in dress is
unhealthful, and thus defiling to the body and to the soul.
"Ye are the temple of God. . . .If any man defile the
temple of God, him shall God destroy." 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17.
In all respects the dress should be healthful. "Above all
things," God desires us to "be in health"--health of body and
of soul. And we are to be workers together with Him for the
health of both soul and body. Both are promoted by healthful
dress.
It should have the grace, the beauty, the appropriateness
of natural simplicity. Christ has warned us against the pride
of life, but not against its grace and natural beauty. He
pointed to the flowers of the field, to the lily unfolding in its
purity, and said, "Even Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these." Matthew 6:29. Thus by the things
of nature Christ illustrates the beauty that heaven values, the
modest grace, the simplicity, the purity, the appropriateness,
that would make our attire pleasing to Him.
The most beautiful dress He bids us wear upon the soul.
No outward adorning can compare in value or loveliness with
that "meek and quiet spirit" which in His sight is "of great
price." 1 Peter 3:4.
To those who make the Saviour's principles their guide,
how precious His words of promise:
"Why are ye anxious concerning raiment? . . . If God
doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow
is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you?
. . . Be not therefore anxious, saying, . . . Wherewithal
shall we be clothed? . . . For your heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first His
kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be
added unto you." Matthew 6:28-33, R.V.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is
stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." Isaiah 26:3.
What a contrast is this to the weariness, the unrest, the
disease and wretchedness, that result from the rule of fashion!
How contrary to the principles given in the Scriptures are
many of the modes of dress that fashion prescribes! Think
of the styles that have prevailed for the last few hundreds of
years or even for the last few decades. How many of them,
when not in fashion, would be declared immodest; how many
would be pronounced inappropriate for a refined, God-fearing,
self-respecting woman.
The making of changes in apparel for the sake of fashion
merely is not sanctioned by the word of God. Changing styles
and elaborate, costly ornamentation squander the time and
means of the rich, and lay waste the energies of mind and
soul. They impose a heavy burden on the middle and poorer
classes. Many who can hardly earn a livelihood, and who with
simple modes might make their own clothing, are compelled
to resort to the dressmaker in order to be in fashion. Many a
poor girl, for the sake of a stylish gown, has deprived herself
of warm underwear, and paid the penalty with her life.
Many another, coveting the display and elegance of the rich,
has been enticed into paths of dishonesty and shame. Many a
home is deprived of comforts, many a man is driven to
embezzlement or bankruptcy, to satisfy the extravagant demands of
the wife or children.
Many a woman, forced to prepare for herself or her
children the stylish costumes demanded by fashion, is doomed to
ceaseless drudgery. Many a mother with throbbing nerves
and trembling fingers toils far into the night to add to her
children's clothing ornamentation that contributes nothing
to healthfulness, comfort, or real beauty. For the sake of
fashion she sacrifices health and that calmness of spirit so
essential to the right guidance of her children. The culture of
mind and heart is neglected. The soul is dwarfed.
The mother has no time to study the principles of physical
development, that she may know how to care for the health
of her children. She has no time for ministering to their
mental or spiritual needs, no time to sympathize with them
in their little disappointments and trials, or to share in their
interests and pursuits.
Almost as soon as they come into the world the children
are subjected to fashion's influence. They hear more of dress
than of their Saviour. They see their mothers consulting the
fashion plates more earnestly than the Bible. The display of
dress is treated as of greater importance than the development
of character. Parents and children are robbed of that
which is best and sweetest and truest in life. For fashion's
sake they are cheated out of a preparation for the life to come.
It was the adversary of all good who instigated the invention
of the ever-changing fashions. He desires nothing so
much as to bring grief and dishonor to God by working the
misery and ruin of human beings. One of the means by
which he most effectually accomplishes this is the devices of
fashion that weaken the body as well as enfeeble the mind
and belittle the soul.
Women are subject to serious maladies, and their sufferings
are greatly increased by their manner of dress. Instead
of preserving their health for the trying emergencies that are
sure to come, they by their wrong habits too often sacrifice
not only health but life, and leave to their children a legacy of
woe in a ruined constitution, perverted habits, and false ideas
of life.
One of fashion's wasteful and mischievous devices is the
skirt that sweeps the ground. Uncleanly, uncomfortable,
inconvenient, unhealthful--all this and more is true of the
trailing skirt. It is extravagant, both because of the
superfluous material required and because of the needless wear on
account of its length. And whoever has seen a woman in a
trailing skirt, with hands filled with parcels, attempt to go up
or down stairs, to enter a streetcar, to walk through a crowd,
to walk in the rain or on a muddy road, needs no other proof
of its inconvenience and discomfort.
Another serious evil is the wearing of skirts so that their
weight must be sustained by the hips. This heavy weight,
pressing upon the internal organs, drags them downward and
causes weakness of the stomach and a feeling of lassitude,
inclining the wearer to stoop, which further cramps the lungs,
making correct breathing more difficult.
Of late years the dangers resulting from compression of
the waist have been so fully discussed that few can be ignorant
in regard to them; yet so great is the power of fashion that
the evil continues. By this practice, women and young girls
are doing themselves untold harm. It is essential to health
that the chest have room to expand to its fullest extent in order
that the lungs may be enabled to take full inspiration. When
the lungs are restricted, the quantity of oxygen received into
them is lessened. The blood is not properly vitalized, and the
waste, poisonous matter which should be thrown off through
the lungs is retained. In addition to this the circulation is
hindered, and the internal organs are so cramped and crowded
out of place that they cannot perform their work properly.
Tight lacing does not improve the form. One of the chief
elements in physical beauty is symmetry, the harmonious
proportion of parts. And the correct model for physical
development is to be found, not in the figures displayed by
French modistes, but in the human form as developed
according to the laws of God in nature. God is the author of all
beauty, and only as we conform to His ideal shall we approach
the standard of true beauty.
Another evil which custom fosters is the unequal distribution
of the clothing, so that while some parts of the body have
more than is required, others are insufficiently clad. The feet
and limbs, being remote from the vital organs, should be
especially guarded from cold by abundant clothing. It is
impossible to have health when the extremities are habitually
cold; for if there is too little blood in them there will be too
much in other portions of the body. Perfect health requires
a perfect circulation; but this cannot be had while three or
four times as much clothing is worn upon the body, where the
vital organs are situated, as upon the feet and limbs.
A multitude of women are nervous and careworn because
they deprive themselves of the pure air that would make
pure blood, and of the freedom of motion that would send
the blood bounding through the veins, giving life, health,
and energy. Many women have become confirmed invalids
when they might have enjoyed health, and many have died
of consumption and other diseases when they might have
lived their allotted term of life had they dressed in accordance
with health principles and exercised freely in the open air.
In order to secure the most healthful clothing, the needs
of every part of the body must be carefully studied. The
character of the climate, the surroundings, the condition of health,
the age, and the occupation must all be considered. Every
article of dress should fit easily, obstructing neither the circulation
of the blood nor a free, full, natural respiration. Everything
worn should be so loose that when the arms are raised
the clothing will be correspondingly lifted.
Women who are in failing health can do much for
themselves by sensible dressing and exercise. When suitably
dressed for outdoor enjoyment, let them exercise in the open
air, carefully at first, but increasing the amount of exercise as
they can endure it. By taking this course, many might regain
health and live to take their share in the world's work.