DRESS IN CHURCH.

Otago Witness, Issue 1240, 4 September 1875, Page 19

DRESS IN CHURCH.

Apparently the ladies who listen to the sermons of the Rev. Mr. Talmage, a popular preacher of New York, have not learnt that black is a most fashionable colour for church wear, for he declares that: "There seems to be, in the 1 churches a great strife waging. It is an k Austerlitz of ribbons. The carnage of colour is seen all over our religious assemblages. Along on the outskirts of the Sabbath audiences, you see here and there a picket of fashion, but down in the middle of the church are the solid columns blazing away all through the service. Five hundred 'broken and contrite hearts/ covered up in rainbows and ■panglcs. Followers of the 'meek and lowly Nazarene/ ah* a-jingle and afiash." Furthermore he says : "We want a great ecclesiastical reformation in this matter of Sabbath accoutrement. Shoo ' these religious peacocks out of the house of God. By your example, make subdued and modest costume more popular than

gaudy apparel. Do not put so much dry goods on your back that you cannot climb into glory. You cannot sail into the harbour of heaven with such a rigging as that. They would level their guns at you as being a blockade runner. Coming up to the celestial door the gatekeeper would cry, ' Halt ! you cannot go in with such regimentals.' And as you answered, ' [ got tho3e jewels from Tiffany, and that dress from Arnold and Constable, and those shoes from Burts,' the gatekeeper would say to one of the attendants, * Take this soul down to one of the out-houses, and tear off those puffs and ruffles and knife- plaitings and Hamburg embroideries, and put on her more appropriate Sunday attire ; for, going in as she now is, all heaven would burst out a-laughing !' "