The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-08-10

tion Of half the people in the buildingl
Men and women come late to church to
show their clothes. People sitting down
in a pew or taking Up b hymnb6ok, all
absorbed at the same time in personal
array, to sing:
Rise, my soul and stretch thy wings;
Thy better portion trace.
Rise from transitory things
Toward heaven, thy native place.
adopt the Episcopalian prayer and
say, Good Lord, deliver usi''
Insatiate fashion also belittles the in
tellect. Our minds are enlarged or they
dwindle just in proportion to the i'm
portance of the subject on which we
constantly dwell Can you imagine any
thing more dwarfng to the human in
tellect than the study Of fashion? see
men on the street who, Judging from
their elaboration, l think must have
taken two hours to arrange their APP
parel. After a few years of that kind
of absorption, which one of McAllister' S
magnifying glasses will be powerful
enough to make the mans character
visible? They all land in idiocy
l have seen men at the summer wa
tering places, through fashion, the mere
wreck Of what they once were. Sallow
of cheek. Meager Of limb. Hollow at
the chest. Showing no animation save
in rushing across a room to pick up a
lady's fan. Simpering along the corri-
doris the same compliments they sim
pered 20 years ago. A New York law
yer at United States hotel, Saratoga,
within our hearing, rushed across room
to say to a sensible woman, You are
as sweet as peachesp' The fools of fash
ion are myriad. Fashion not only de-
stroys the body. but it makes idiotic the
intellect.
Yet, my friends, | have given you
only the milder phase OF this evil It
shuts great multitude out Of heaven.
The first peal Of thunder that shook 81
| mai declared, Thou shalt have no other
God before me, and you will have to
choose between the goddess of fashion
and the Christian God. There are great
many seats III heaven, and they are al
easy seats, but not one seat for the dew
otee of fashion. Heaven is for meek and
quiet spirits Heaven is for those who
think more Of their souls than Of their
bodies. Heaven is for those who have
more JOY il Christian charity than in
dry goods religion Why, II you, with
your idolatry of fashion, should some
how get into heaven, you would be for
putting a French roof on the "house OF
many mansions. Give up this idolatry
of fashion or give up heaven. What
would you do standing beside the Count
ess 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 on New Years day, giving out as q
sort Of doxology at the end of the meet
ing pair of shoes to each one Of them,
or those Decreases Of modern society who
have consecrated their needles to the
Lord, and who will get eternal reward
for every stitch they take. 49, 49,.
Oh, men and women, give up the
idolatry of fashioni The rivalries and
the competitions of such a life are
stupendous wretohedness. You will al
ways find some one with brighter array
and with more palatial residence, and
with lavender kid gloves that make a
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 temples before
they are due, and when you come to die
you will have miserable time. / have
seen men and women of fashion die,
and never saw one of them die well
The trappings off, there they lay on the
tumbled pillow, and there were just
two things that bothered them-a vast
ed life and coming eternity. could
not pacify them, for their body, mind
and soul had been exhausted in the wor-
ship of fashion, and they could not ap-
preciate the gospel When l knelt by
their bedside, they were mumbling out
their regrets and saying: 40 Godl
o Godp" Their garments hung up in
the wardrobe, never again to be seen by
them. Without any exception, so far as
my memory serves me, they died with
out hope and went into eternity UMPIRE
pared
The most CHASTITY deathbeds ON earth
are the one where man dies of delir-
ium tremens and the other where
woman dies after having sacrificed all
her faculties of body, mind and soul In
the worship of fashion. My friends we
must appear in judgment to answer for
what we have worn ON our bodies as
well as for what repentances 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 a
cloak, and without his cane, like which
all England got a cane without his
like which all England got a
the fop of the ages, par
ticular about everything but his morals,
and Aaron Burr without the letters
that down to old age he showed in pride
to prove his early wicked gallantries,
and Absalom without his hair, and
Pompadour without her
titles, and Mrs. Arnold, the belle Of
Wall street. when that was the center
Of fashion. without her fripperies of