The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-11-25

with God white he was wallowing in sin.
lie says these are all mistaken ant dclud-
ed and issues Il tract on justiiiea, ion for
! their enlightenment, in which he CON
POUNDS the peace of God, and makes the
-. rccdOm indeed that Christ promised
to he simply pardon of sin. In no more
striking way have we marked the spirit
of cNJrenism than in the matter OF dress
with certain individuals who are now
posing the self-constituted milliners
ot the Church Of Christ
Like them. deplore the needlessncss,
cOSt!incss and sinfulness of what is called
fashionable dressing. But also dcplore
the extreme into which these rebukrrs of
their times themselves 20. The locomo-
tive : vvi,icntly run past the station. aud
even on the track. They go as far one
WY as the votarieS of fashion do the
other. They look as absurd and ridcu-
lous in their extreme customs as the
world crowd does in theirs find two
scare crows as go around, one q dcvotee
of fashion, the other an extremist or
fanatic. Between the two there is a
lovely middle ground in which many
find the approving smile of God, and it
is not the ground Of compromise either.
y good rule for the settlement of the
question of dress is to avoid conspicuous
ness in either way. All of us have seen
the fanatical dress attract as much Mt
tention i'll church and on street rs the
garments of worldiness.
OF all fanatics, the most hopeless in
my mindsis the dress fanatic. They come
to my meetings where God is present
and Christ smiles and 5lesses, but come
to criticise and find fault. If | do not
make an indiscriminate attack upon
what they think to be wrong in dress
behold. am not preaching the gospel
Perpetual fault finding has given Il sour
look to the face, and sharp, discontcnt-
ed expression to the eye. Everybody is
wrong bat themselves. When they con-
sent to work ut the altar, which is rare
they do not open the heart of the seeker
to see inbred sin, and hold up the low
ing, pitiful, almighty Christ, but pouace
on bow of ribbon or IL wedding ring.
At Indian Springs Camp meeting this
year, was told by Il holiness preacher
that they never went near the altar to
help, but stood oil crticising, and form
ed prayer circles ut their tents in which
they besought the Lord to enlighten GER
tain slnctiiied preachers there, whom
they regarded to be all wrong; when the
fact was that these very men had spread
holiness through Georgia before the most
voluble OF these supplicators was born.
One of this class of whom | am writ.
ing wrote to me three months ago from
Pennsylvania to cut off my moustache.
which he was shocked to see from my
photograph was wearing. / replied
that l was always open for light and in
struction, and if he would give me the
scripture where the Lord said il was
wrong to wear what nature had giyen
me, | would at once cut it Off. 1t is now
three months since replied, but | have
not yet received an answer. Doubtless
my troubled brother is going through
the Scripture looking for n verse on
which to impale me, or is waiting for
another Revised Version.
At my Philadelphia meeting, where
the power Of God came down and nearly
one hundred souls were converted and
sancttied, two females of the kind
have been describing remained after the
last nights service to speak with me
Over three hundred people had shaken
my hand, and many with tears told me
what blessing the meeting had been
to them, but these two persons who had
only been to two of the services. turried
behind to give me n message from the
Lord They said He had impressed them
TO do so. OF course it was one OF rcbuke.
| found myself ut first wondering what
they had to say to me. | gave up my
gold watch when | was sanctified; quit
wearing beaver hats long before that
time; had no gold on my person or in my
pocket book and had never worn yellow
tan shoes. What could they say TO meg
was in plain, simple black. Still they
had message of rebuke for me
might have replied to them is did Spur
geon once when just such character
sent him word from the door that he had
"a message from his Master to Geiver.n
ri i I.
his Master is now with me-
Instead CT this, however heard the
message through, while | studied the re.
ligouS phenomenon before me OF people
who think no one can get message from
God but themselves, that they are or
dained to go around and rebukc preach
ers and tell the church how to dress. |
took in with Il glance of the eye the two
figures before me, the rusty black dress,
the round black straw hats, the ill.arrang-
ed hair the yellow compleXioncd faces,
the dull cNpressionlcss eyes, and said, MY
sisters what church do you belong tor
With snap like that of a steel trap
come the words, Church of the living
God II thought so, | said; You do
not belong to any organization. You are
outsiders. - But before could say any
thing more, they were gone.
The severe or Iuritanic type Of picty is
no new thing. 1t crops ont every great
religious awakening. 1t is human nature
rushing to extremes. rs il frcnd recently
wrote to me it would take the blue out
of the sky and the bloom from the
flower God made the l.aver with lilly
work around the hrm, but such a spirit
and such Il teaching would knock off the
lilies and so imputc folly 20 the Al
mighty.
The Bible says there is an empty space
in the North" This void or absence of
every bright and beautiful thing might
be agreeable to some people.
OF cOnrse extremists 10 hnrm nni in