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Counsels on Health
indulgence of pride and vanity in dress. He sees that the costly apparel
stifles the desire to do good.
The more means persons expend in dress, the less they can have to
feed the hungry and clothe the naked; and the streams of beneficence,
which should be constantly flowing, are dried up. Every dollar saved
by denying one’s self of useless ornaments may be given to the needy,
or may be placed in the Lord’s treasury to sustain the gospel, to send
missionaries to foreign countries, to multiply publications to carry
rays of light to souls in the darkness of error. Every dollar used
unnecessarily deprives the spender of a precious opportunity to do
good....
When you place a useless or extravagant article of clothing upon
your person, you are withholding from the naked. When you spread
your tables with a needless variety of costly food, you are neglecting to
feed the hungry. How stands your record, professed Christian? Do not,
I beseech you, lay out in foolish and hurtful indulgences that which
God requires in His treasury, and the portion which should be given
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to the poor. Let us not clothe ourselves with costly apparel, but, like
women professing godliness, with good works. Let not the cry of the
widow and the fatherless go up to Heaven against us. Let not the blood
of souls be found on our garments. Let not precious probationary time
be squandered in cherishing pride of heart. Are there no poor to be
visited? no dim eyes for whom you can read the word of God? no
desponding, discouraged ones that need your words of comfort and
your prayers? ...
Do not, my sisters, trifle longer with your own souls and with God.
I have been shown that the main cause of your backsliding is your love
of dress. This leads to the neglect of grave responsibilities, and you
find yourselves with scarcely a spark of the love of God in your hearts.
Without delay renounce the cause of your backsliding, because it is
sin against your own soul and against God. Be not hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin.
* * * * *
As a people, we are looked upon as peculiar. Our position and
faith distinguish us from every other denomination. If we are in life
and character no better than the world, they will point the finger of