Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-08-10

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 a
sort Of doxology at tho 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.
Oh, men and women, give up the
idolatry of fashionl The rivalries and
the competitions of such a life are a
stupendous wretchedness 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 a miserable time. l have
seen men and women Of fashion die,
and l 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 l could
not pacify them, for their body, mind
and soul had been exhausted in the wor-
ship of fashion, and they could not APP
preciate the gospel. When l knelt by
their bedside, they were mumbling out
their regrets and saying: 80 God!
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 unpre-
pared
The most ghastly deathbeds on earth
are the one where a man dies of delir-
ium tremens and the other where a
woman dies after having sacrificed all
her faculties of body, mind and soul in
the worship of fashion. Ny friends, we
must appear in Judgment to answer for
what we have Worn ON our bodies as
we'll 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
cloak, and without his cane, like which
all England got cane, without his
snufTbox, like which all England got a
snuffbox-he, 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
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 Magazines they shall
20 away into eternal expatriation, while
among the queens Of heavenly society
will be found Vashti, who wore the
modest veil before the palatial bacchana-
lians and Hannah, who annually made
q little coat for Samuel at the temple,
and Grandmother 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 church, who, through
great tribulation, are entering into the
kingdom Of God. Christ announced who
would make up the royal family Of
heaven when he said, "Whosoever do
eth the will Of God, tho same is my
brother, my sister, my mother. "