150
Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 2
I beg of our people to walk carefully and circumspectly before
God. Follow the customs in dress as far as they conform to health
principles. Let our sisters dress plainly, as many do, having the dress
of good, durable material, appropriate for this age, and let not the dress
question fill the mind. Our sisters should dress with simplicity. They
should clothe themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and
sobriety. Give the world a living illustration of the inward adorning of
the grace of God.—MS 167, 1897. (
Child Guidance, 414
.)
Separate From Worldly Customs—As God made known His
will to the Hebrew captives, to those who were most separate from the
customs and practices of a world lying in wickedness, so will the Lord
communicate light from heaven to all who will appreciate a “Thus
saith the Lord.” To them He will express His mind. Those who are
least bound up with worldly ideas, are the most separate from display
and vanity and pride and love of promotion, who stand forth as His
peculiar people, zealous of good works—to these He will reveal the
meaning of His word.—Lt 60, 1898. (
Counsels to Writers and Editors,
101, 102
.)
Reason for Nonconformity (a message to believers)—Why, as
professing Christians, are we so mixed and mingled with the world till
[561]
we lose sight of eternity, till we lose sight of Jesus Christ, and till we
lose sight of the Father? Why, I ask you, are there so many families
destitute of the Spirit of God? Why are there so many families that
have so little of the life and love and likeness of Jesus Christ? It is
because they do not know God. If they knew God, and if they would
behold Him by faith in Jesus Christ, who came to our world to die for
man, they would see such matchless charms in the Son that they by
beholding would become changed to the same image. Now you see
the wrong of conforming to the world.—MS 12, 1894.
True Principles Circulating Through Entire System—
Conformity to the world can be prevented by the truth, by feeding on
the Word of God, by its principles circulating through the entire life
current and working out that word in the character. Christ exhorts us
by the apostle John to “love not the world, neither the things that are
in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him” (
1 John 2:15
). This is plain language, but it is God’s measure of
every man’s character.—MS 37, 1896.
[562]