The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-21

have got nothing left for the work of God and the
worlds betterment.
Again: Extravagant costume is distraction to
public worship You know very we'll there are
n good many people who 60 to church Just as
they 60 to the races-to see VINO will come out
first Men and women with souls to be saved
passing the hour In wondering where that man
got his cravat, or what store that woman pat
ronizes. In many of our churches the prelim-
mary exercises are taken up with the discussion
of wardrobes. 1t is pitiable. Is it not wonder
full that the Lord does not strike the meeting
houses with lightning? What distraction of
pubic Worship Dying men and women whose
bodies ars soon to be turned into dust. yet
before three worlds strutting like peacocks
People sitting down in pew or taking up q
persona! array. to sing
"Rise, my SOUL and stretch thy wings,
Thy better portion trace;
Rise from transitory things
Toward heaven, thy native place."
I adopt the Episcopalian prayer and say,
"Good Lord, deliver us!'
Extravagant costume belittles the intellect.
Our minds are enlarged or they dwindle just in
proportion to the Importance of the subject on
which constantly dwell. Can you imag-
inc anything more dwar6ng to the human intel
lect than the study of dressa men the
street who, judging from their elaboration, l
think must have taken two hours to arrange
their apparel After few years Of that kind Of
absorption, which one of McAllister's magnifying
glasses will be powerful enough to make the
mans character visiblel What will be left Of a
woman's intellect after giving years and years to
the discussion of such questions2 They all land
in idiocy. / have men at the summer
watering places through fashion the mere
wreck OF what they once were. Sallow OF
cheek. Meagre OF limb. Hollow at the chest.
Showing no animation save in rushing across q
room to pick UP lady's fan. Smpering along
the corridors the same compliments they SIM
pered twenty years ago. Yet my friends, have
given you only the milder phase of this evil 1t
shuts great multitude out OF heaven The first
peal of thunder that shook Sinai declared: Thou
shalt have no other gods before me-" and you
will have to choose between the goddess Of
fashion and the Christian God There are q
great many seats in heaven, and they are all
easy seats but not one seat for the devOtee of
costume. Heaven is for meek and quiet spirits.
Heaven is for those who think more of their
souls than of their bodies Why. if you, with
your idolatry of costume should somehow get
into heaven, you would be for putting a French
roof on the shouse of many mansions" and you
would be Tor introducing the patterns of But
terick's Quarterly Delineator."
Give up this idolatry of fashion or give up
heaven. What would you do standing beside
the Countess of Huntington. whose joy it was to
build chapels for the poor or with that Christian
woman of Boston. who fed 1900 children of the
street, at Faneuil Hall, one New Years day, Civ
ing out sort CT doxology at the end of the
meeting, pair of shoes to each one of them: or
those Decreases of modern society who have con-
secrated their needles to the Lord, and who will
get eternal reward for every stitch they take2
men and women, give up the idolatry of cos
tune The rivaries and the competitions of
such life are stupendous wretchednesS. You
will always find some one with brighter array
and with more palatial residence and with Law
ender kid gloves that make tighter fit. And if
you buy this thing and wear it, you will wish
you had bought something else and worn it.
And the frets of such life will bring the crows
feet to your temple before they are due. and
when you come to die you will have a miserable
time
have seen men and women Of excessive cos
tune die, and never saw one of them die we'll
The trappings off. there they lay on the troubled
pillow. and there were just two things that both
cred them-a wasted life and coming eternity
could not pacify them, for their body, mind
and soul had been exhausted in the worship of
costume and they could not appreciate the Cos
pei. When | knelt by their bedside they were
mumbling out their regrets, and saying: oh,
God! Oh God!' Their garments hung up in the
wardrobe never again to be seen by them.
Without any exception, 50 far as my memory
serves me, they died without hope, and went
into eternity unprepared. The two most CHASTITY
deathbeds on earth are the one where man
dies Of derium tremens and the other where a
woman dies after having sacrificed all her facul-
ties of body, mind and soul in the worship of
costume
My friends. must appear in Judgment to
answer for what we have worn on our bodies as
well as for what repentance we have exercised
with our souls. On that day see coming in
Beau Brummel, of the last century, without his
cloak. like which all England got cloak. and
without his cane. like which all England got a
cane; without his snuff box, like which all Eng
land got a snuff box-he the fop of the ages,
particular about everything but his morals an
Aaron Burr without the letters that down to his
old age he showed in pride to prove his early
wicked gallantries and Absalom without his
hair; and Marchioness Pompadour without her
titles; and Mrs Arnold. the belle of Wall street,
when that was the center of fashion, without
her fripperies of vesture.
And in great haeeardness they shall 60 away
into eternal repatriation, while among the
queens of heavenly society will be found Vashti,
who wore the modest veil before the palatial
bncchanaians; and Hannah. who annually made
little coat for Samuel at the temple; and Grand.
mother LOIS, the ancestress of Timothy who
initiated her virtue; and Mary who gave Jesus
Christ to the world. and many of You. the wives.
and mothers, and sisters. and daughters of the
present Christian chnrch who, through great
circulation. are entering into the kingdom of
God. Christ announced who would make up the
royal family of heaven when he said: Whose.
doeth the will of God the same is my
brother. my sister. my mother"