Dress.
We are conformed to the world when we adopt the dress and appearance of the world. I do not mean to say that Christians are called to make themselves eccentric in their appearance, or altogether to ignore the changing fashions of the country. I do not believe that worldliness is avoided by having a stereotyped dress like nuns or Quakers. The principle by which, I think, we ought to be guided, is never to be either in the advance of the fashion, or the extreme of it; but, when it has become the costume of the country, to adopt it in moderation. There is no risk of eccentricity if a person abstains from a new fashion until it has become so common as to be a part of the national costume, and if it is then adopted in great moderation there will be nothing at any time to attract attention.
I know that some take a different line, on the plea, as they say, that it is necessary to dress according to their station, and that the style of the dress should be regulated by the income of the wearer. Thus, I have known some cases of palpable inconsistency in mistresses, and even Sunday-school teachers, who have gravely exhorted their servants or scholars against a style of dress which they themselves were wearing at the time. But, if the quality varies with the income, which I quite admit, does it follow that the style should? What is not modest apparel for the maid, is no better surely for the mistress: and if it is wrong for the scholar to be showy, it is wrong likewise for the teacher. Others I have known who have professedly dressed in the height of the fashion in order to increase their influence with worldly persons; but surely this is a low and human policy, and it would be far better for all parties simply to adhere to Scripture. Human nature has always been the same, and women loved smart dressing 1800 years ago just as much as they do now. The costume, of course, was different, so that the actual directions of those days will not apply to our own; but the taste was the same, and the Scripture teaches us plainly that Christian women ought, for the Lord’s sake, to keep that taste in subjection and restraint. The language of St. Paul is, ‘In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but, which becometh women professing godliness, with good works.’ He considered modest apparel to be the true adornment of a Christian woman, and surely any deviation from it is a direct act of conformity to the world. The words of St. Peter are to the same effect, ‘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 in the sight of God is of great price.’ (1 Pet. iii. 3, 4.) Surely such passages show that there is a sin in stylish dressing, and that the Christian lady will be distinguished from the fashionable world by the quiet modesty and becoming simplicity of her appearance.