The love of fine dress

(Gorham Abbott, "The Family at Home", 1833)

"I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God." 1 Tim. 2:9-10

To many young women, the love of fine dress is a great snare--which leads them into a series of mistakes.

A profusion of fine bows, feathers, necklaces, and earrings--is often the outward and visible sign of inward emptiness and vanity!

A minister, calling to visit a lady, was detained a long time while she was dressing. At length she made her appearance, bedecked in all the frippery of fashion and folly. The minister broke into tears. She demanded the cause of his grief; when he replied, "I weep, madam, to think that an immortal being should spend so much of that precious time which was given her to prepare for eternity--in thus vainly adorning that body which must so soon become a prey to worms!"

A lady once asked a minister whether a person might not be fond of fine dress and ornaments, without being proud. "Madam," replied the minister, "when you see the fox's tail peeping out of the hole--you may be sure the fox is within!"

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment,such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful." 1 Peter 3:3-5

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30