Extremes in Dress
[
Testimonies for the Church 1:424-426
(1864).]
We as a people do not believe it our duty to go out of the world to
be out of the fashion. If we have a neat, plain, modest, and comfortable
plan of dress, and worldlings choose to dress as we do, shall we change
this mode of dress in order to be different from the world? No, we
should not be odd or singular in our dress for the sake of differing
from the world, lest they despise us for so doing. Christians are the
light of the world, the salt of the earth. Their dress should be neat and
modest, their conversation chaste and heavenly, and their deportment
blameless.
How shall we dress? If any wore heavy quilts before the introduc-
tion of hoops, merely for show and not for comfort, they sinned against
themselves by injuring their health, which it is their duty to preserve.
If any wear them now merely to look like hoops, they commit sin;
for they are seeking to imitate a fashion which is disgraceful. Corded
skirts were worn before hoops were introduced. I have worn a light
corded skirt since I was fourteen years of age, not for show but for
comfort and decency. Because hoops were introduced I did not lay
off my corded skirt for them. Shall I now throw it aside because the
fashion of hoops is introduced? No; that would be carrying the matter
to an extreme.
I should ever bear in mind that I must be an example and therefore
must not run into this or that fashion, but pursue an even and inde-
pendent course and not be driven to extremes in regard to dress. To
throw off my corded skirt that was always modest and comfortable,
and put on a thin cotton skirt, and thus appear ridiculous in the other
extreme, would be wrong, for then I would not set a right example, but
would put an argument into the mouths of hoop wearers. To justify
[605]
themselves for wearing hoops they would point to me as one who does
not wear them, and say that they would not disgrace themselves in that
way. By going to such extremes we would destroy all the influence
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