The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-03-04
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Sixth Discourse of the Series on
"The Marriage Ring"
Dress as Related to Morals-Evil E6eets
Of Improper Attlre-The Responsibility
of the Stage for Its Undress Uni
form Parades.

/ subject OF his sixth discourse OF the series
| on "The Marriage Ring" Costume and
Morals" taking for his text:
Moreover the Lord said: Because the
daughters OF Zion are naughty and walk
| with stretched. forth necks and wanton
/ eyes, walking and mIncing as they go, and
/ making tinkling with their feet, in that
day the Lord will take away the bravery OF
| their tlnkling ornaments about their feet,
! and their cauls, and their round tires like
/ the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and
/ the mufllers, the bonnets, and the ornaments
Of the legs. and the headbands. and the tab q.
lets, and the.suits of apparel. and the man &.
| ties and the wimples, and the crisping pins,
the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods.
and the vails.-Isaiah ILL.,, is, 1873.
This is Jerusalem fashion-plate. It
puts us $500 years back, and sets us down
/ In an ancient city. The procession OF men
and women is moving up and down the
gay streets. 1t is the height of the fash
/ ionable season. The sensible men and
women move with so much modesty that
| they do not attract our attention. But
/ here come the naughty daughters Of Jeru-
salem They lean forward; they lean very
much forward; so far forward as to be I'M
misunderstanding, wobbling, wriggling,
/ firting. or as my text describes it, they
walk with stretched-forth necks, walking
and mincing as they CO." They have in
most astounding style arranged their bon
| nets and their walls and their entire APP
/ parel, and now go through the streets TAX
/ ing more of the pavement than they
! are entitled to, sweeping along with skirts
/ that the text describes as "round tires like
.
/ Look. That is a Damascus sword
maker! Look! That is n Syrian mer-
/ chant The jingling of the chains and
the clashing of the headbands, and the
| exhibitions of universal swagger, attract
the attention of the Prophet Isaiah, and
/ he brings his camera to bear upon the
! scene, and takes picture for all the
| ages. But where is that scene? Van
! ished Where are those gay streets: Ver-
min vered population pass through
| them. Where are the hands, and the
uecks, and the foreheads, and the Shout
ders, and the feet that sported all that
| magnifcence? Ashes, ashes
/ That we should all be clad Is roved by
the opening of the first wardrobe in
Paradise, with its apparel of dark green.
allow us be beautifully and gracefully
| appareled, is proved by the fact that God
never made wave but he gilded it with
| golden sunbeams, or q tree but he gar
landed it with blossoms, or a sky but he
studded it with stars, or allowed even the
smoke of a furnace to ascend but he
coumned and turretel and doled and
scrolled it into outlines of indescribable
gracefulness. When l see the apple
| orchards of the spring and the pageantry
of the autumnal forests, | come to the
conclusion that if nature ever does join
the Church, while she may be a Quaker
in the silence of her worship, she
never will be a Quaker in the style Of
her dress. Why the notches of a fern
leaf or the staman of water lily? Why,
when the day departs, does it let the fold
ing doors of Heaven stay open 50 long,
when it might go in SO quickly. One sum-
mer morning l saw an army of a million
spears, each one adorned with diamond
of the first water-I mean the grass with
the dew on it. When the prodgal came
home his father not only put coat on his
back, but jewelry on his hand. Christ
wore beard, Paul, the bachelor apostle,
not afflicted with any sentimentality, ad-
mired the arrangement of a womaL's hair
when he said in his epistle:
If woman have long hair it is . glory
unto her.
There will be fashion in Heaven as on
earth, but it will be different kind Of
fashion. 1t will decide the color of the
dress, and the population of that country,
by beautiful law, will wear white.
| say these things as background to
my sermon to show you that l have no
prim, precise, prudish or cast-iron theories
on the subject of human apparel; but the
goddess of fashion has setup her throne in
this country, and at the sound of the tim
brels we are all expected to fall down and
worship. Her affairs smoke with the sacra-
fee of the bodies and souls of 10000
victims. In her temple four people stand
in the organ loft, and from there comes
down a cold drizzle of music, freezing on
the ears of her worshippers. This god
dess of fashion has become rival of the
Lori of Heaven and earth, and it is high
time we unlimbered our batteries against
this idolatry. When | come to count the
victims of fashion find as many mascu-
line as feminine. Men make an easy TRADE
against women, as though she were the
chief worshiper at this idolatrous shine,
and no doubt some men in the more con-
spicuous part of the pew have already cast
glances at the more retired part of the
pew, their look a prophecy of generous
distribution. My sermon shall be as ap-
propriate for one end of the pew as for the
other.
Men are as much idolaters of fashion as
women, but they sacrifice on e different
part of the altar. With men the fashion
goes to cigars and clubrooms and parties
and wine suppers. In the United States
the men chew up and smoke one hundred
millions of dollars worth of tobacco every
year. That is their fashion. In London,
not long ago, man died who started in
life with $4,000. But he ate it all up in
gluttonies, sending his agents to all parts
of the earth Cor some rare delieacy for the
palate, sometimes one plate of food costing
him three or four hundred dollars. He ate
up his whole fortune and had only one
guinea left. With that he bought wood
cock and had it dressed in the very best
style, ate it, gave two hours for digestion,
then walked out on Westminster bridge
and threw himself into the Thames and
died, doing on large scale what you and
have often seen done on a snail scale.
But men do not abstain from millinery
and elaboration of skirt through any SUI
periority of simplicity 1t is only because
such appendages would be "A blockade to
business. What would Sashss and trains