Two Ways
23
Parents had much better burn the idle tales of the day, and the
novels, as they come into their houses. It would be a mercy to their
children. Encourage the reading of these story-books, and it is like
enchantment. It bewilders and poisons the mind. I saw that unless
parents awake to the eternal interest of their children, they will surely
be lost through their neglect. And the possibility of these unfaithful
parents’ being saved themselves is very small. Parents, I saw, should be
exemplary. They should exert a holy influence in their families. They
should let their dress be modest, different from the world around them.
You should rebuke pride in your children, if you value their eternal
interest. Faithfully rebuke this pride, and encourage it not in deed or
word. I saw that this pride must be torn out of our families. Oh, the
pride that was shown me of God’s professed people. It has increased
every year, until it is now impossible to designate professed Advent
Sabbath-keepers from all the world around them. Much, I saw, was
expended for ribbons and laces for the bonnets, collars, [
The question
has often been asked me if I believed it wrong to wear plain linen
collars. My answer has always been, No. Some have taken the extreme
meaning of what I have written about collars, and have maintained that
it was wrong to wear one of any description. I was shown expensively
wrought collars, and expensive and unnecessary ribbons and laces,
which some Sabbath-keepers have worn, and still wear, for the sake of
show and fashion. I did not design to be understood, by naming collars,
that nothing like a collar should be worn, or by naming ribbons, that no
ribbons at all should be worn.
] and other needless articles to decorate
[22]
the body, while Jesus, the King of glory, who gave his life to redeem
them, wore a crown of thorns. This was the way their Master’s sacred
head was decorated. He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief.” “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for
our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with
his stripes we are healed.” And the very ones that profess to be washed
by the blood of Jesus, can dress up, and decorate their poor, mortal
bodies, yet dare to profess to be the followers of the holy, self-denying,
humble Pattern. Oh, I wish that all could see this in the light that God
sees it, and showed it to me. It seemed too much for me to bear, to
feel the anguish of soul that I felt as I beheld it. “God’s people,” said
the angel, “are peculiar; such he is purifying unto himself.” I saw that
the outside appearance was an index to the heart. When hung with