PAPERS FOR THOUGHTFUL GIRLS. BY THOS. STONELEY, Author of " Papers for Thoughtful Boys. IX.--DRESS. Tis better to have a sweet smile on one's face, HE task which I have put upon myself to talk to you upon the way you ought to dress is not a very easy one. I will not, however, let its difficulties frighten me, but will cheerfully do my best-not to lay down laws, which doubtless you would find impossible and unwise to keep-but to suggest principles of right action, leaving you to draw and act upon your own inferences. After all that may be said, the difficulties of the dress question must be left, in its details, to be settled by the individual conscience according to the circumstances of each case. For what is fit and right for one person to wear may be quite improper for another. Rank and station make a great deal of difference in these matters. It would doubtless save much trouble if there was a code of sumptuary laws to which each point of difficulty could be referred: but though we have sufficient indications as to the spirit that should guide us, the letter and detail of law are witheld. Some churches have tried to supply this supposed need by adopting a peculiar costume, or, to speak more correctly, retained one style of dress until it became peculiar. This course we presume wider experience has proved to be impolitic; at all events such costume is now almost universally disregarded; indeed, it had its subtle dangers, counterbalancing, perhaps, the assumed safeguard. What, you are perhaps asking, is to be guarded against in dress? What is wrong? I will tell you. To make one's outward appearance the chief thing; for one's mind to be full of thoughts about dress; to be more anxious for our hair and clothes to look well, than about our disposition, and temper, and conduct: to adorn the lower parts of our nature, and to forget the higher parts; to be earnest after ornaments worth least, but careless about those worth most. Some people give you the impression that they are always thinking of what they have on: they seem to have just come away from the looking-glass, for they are so "got up," as we say, and look more like dressed dolls than real men and women. You may see lots of them, especially on Sunday, walking in the streets. Some of them deceive you so. You think them, perhaps, fine ladies and gentlemen, until you hear them speak or see their vulgar manners, and then you find out how worthless it is to have all one's ornament outside, not at all belonging to one's self, but having to be fastened on; and you feel how pitiable it is to have no other ornaments but what must be bought in shops. . But there are other persons who always look nice without seeming to be conscious what they have on, and who never strike you as having spent much time over their toilet, or, as if it had cost them much trouble. Young friends, these are the modes for you, these are the ones you should try to be like. It is not dressing, but over-dressing that is foolish and wrong, the spending too much time or thought or money upon ornament. When people spend so much more money on their persons than they need, to make them look well, don't you see that all the rest is wasted, and waste of any kind is wrong. People would have a great deal more to give away, if they did not throw away so much; and they would have much more to spend upon themselves in a wise way, if they spent less in foolish, useless ways. Many can't afford to be generous because they are extravagant. And many deny themselves good books which would improve and adorn their minds, though they spend ten times the worth of the books in decking out their bodies. Many who would hesitate to lavish money on dress, consider time employed quite satisfactorily, hour after hour, on some detail of the toilet. Women who find no time for work in the church, for religious reading, and but little for devotion, yet think it quite laudable to consume day after day in the manufactory of meaningless trimmings and useless ornaments. A minister called to see a lady, who detained him a long time while she was dressing. At length she appeared, arrayed in all the frippery of fashion. The minister wept. She asked the cause of his grief. He replied, “I weep, madam, to think that an immortal being should spend so much of that precious time which was given to prepare for eternity, in thus vainly adorning the body which must so soon become a prey to worms." I think I have now said enough on the negative side of the question. Any external decoration which occupies the mind, and which engrosses the time and attention, more than the virtues of the heart, we may be certain is wrong. Lavish expenditure of money, time, or thought, is not becoming a Christian, and is culpable in any body. But it is not to be understood that we are not to think at all of our appearance. It is not right to be untidy and slovenly in dress, going about anyhow. And when persons who can afford to dress better walk about in very old and common clothes, it is generally not because they are so good and humble, but because they are so miserly and mean. Dress does require expenditure of time, thought, and money in due proportion. What that proportion is, the enlightened and educated conscience must determine. How it should be employed, and to what result, I will try in a few words to help you to determine. Comfort and adornment should both be secured. Many sacrifice the first to the last, and the result is most pitiable. Dress should suit the person of the wearer, her position, its intended purpose. A dress which might be very suitable for a young princess to wear might not be at all suitable for you. For people with small means to copy their rich neighbours, for young people to be constantly begging for certain pretty things which other young people have, for servants to ape their mistresses as if they were ashamed of being servants, is always foolish, and may be very wrong. 66 The apparel should be such as not to attract attention, such as will not be particularly singular, such as will not leave the impression that the heart is fixed on it. Madam," said John Newton, so dress and so conduct yourself, that persons who have been in your company shall not recollect what you had on." 66 To come, then, as near the details of a law as we dare. A Christian young woman should study that her dress be comfortable, suitable, economical, becoming-not repelling by its ugliness, not astonishing by its baldness, not negligent from carelessness, not elaborate through excess of worth. It should be characterised by perfect neatness, and at all times by exquisite cleanliness. Every one should try to look-not indeed, her finest, but, her cleanest, neatest, and best. We conclude by endorsing the sentiment of Albert Barnes. "When the heart is light, when there is a true and supreme love for religion, it is usually not difficult to regulate the subject of dress." It is true even here. "Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you." DAISY BANK; OR, SISTER ELLEN'S MINISTRY. BY J. CAPES STORY. CHAPTER XXII. COURTING BY PROXY. ARRY WALTON had been again several months away, but letters arrived from him by almost every mail. One evening, as the sun was declining, and all the sky was illumined with his latest yellow beams, and all the children, except Joe, were enjoying themselves out of doors, Mr. Walton held one of these letters in his hand while he sat upon the garden-seat with Mrs. Walton, glad to rest there after a busy day at the mill. 66 How happily things have changed since Harry's first voyage," said Mr. Walton to his wife; "it is so pleasant to receive these letters so regularly.' "Yes, and especially to notice the dutiful spirit which they express," replied Mrs. Walton. "Just so; the lad has pleased me much of late. He has tried so entirely to put out of his heart the bad feeling which existed between us some time ago. When I heard the minister read, last Sunday, that injunction to children to obey their parents, and then follow on immediately with the words, And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath,' I thought, well, that's fair. For the faults are not always on the children's side, but may sometimes be on ours. At least I have always blamed myself for the harsh way in which I treated Harry. He had bitterly disappointed me, yet I ought not to have lost control over myself on that account. I'm glad that there is mutual forgiveness. It is pleasant, also, to remember how it was brought about." "Yes, by Ellen," said Mrs. Walton. 66 By our daughter Ellen. God bless her!" "We are happy in having such a child," said Mrs. Walton. "I thought so to-day, even while I was very busy, and the thought actually led me out of the office, and into a jeweller's shop, where I bought this ring for her. Just call her here." Ellen soon appeared, and took a seat between her father and mother. "We have been speaking of you and Harry just now," said Mr. Walton, "and especially saying how thankful we are that you were so successful in bringing back our son and your brother to his home; and in securing the happy relations which now exist between us." Then taking his daughter's hand in his own, he placed upon Ellen's finger a valuable ring, set with turquoises and pearls, saying to her: "See, my daughter, this ring is a token of our gratitude to you, and we trust it will be accompanied with the smile of Him who said, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.' Ellen was deeply moved by this act of her parents, who if they erred at all, did so, rather in withholding_commendation from their children, than in unduly bestowing it. Ellen could not reply beyond a word or two; but the loving kiss which she gave to each was enough to express all that needed to be expressed. The next letter which came from Harry was addressed to Ellen, and was received as usual about breakfast time. It contained an account of Harry's first voyage to China, with interesting details of what he saw in the Chinese ports. The people with their pig-tails, flat faces, and strange dresses; their houses and temples, their rude vehicles for land travelling, and the curious junks and boats in which they sailed upon the water. Richie was most amused with the trick of one of the sailors, who had knotted two pig-tails together. Nancy was interested with the account given of the ladies' feet, for she had very small feet herself, and was rather proud of them. But Ellen thought the best part of the letter was a short paragraph, in which Harry made his usual reference to Minnie Maylow. Now while Ellen read the other parts of the letter for the entertainment of the company, she had the discretion to omit the reading aloud of those private confidences which she knew were intended for herself alone; however, on this occasion, when she had glanced over the private paragraphs, she could not avoid a smile in the presence of the rest, which, of course, excited curiosity. "Read it to us, Ellen," said Nancy. 66 Nay, I must not," said Ellen. But when Ellen and her mother were together during the morning, Ellen said, “What do you think Harry wants?” ard, without waiting for an answer, she said, "Why, nothing less than that I should go a-courting for him." 66 Surely he is not so silly as that," said Mrs. Walton. "I'll read you what he says:— "Now Ellen, I have got a serious commission for you. You know how disappointed I was through not getting a chance of speaking with Minnie Maylow. The truth is I can wait no longer; she must know, she must indeed, that I love her. And you must tell her from me. I dare not write to her lest her dear mama (oh, how I tremble at the thought of that lady) should get my letter and destroy it, calling me a fool for my pains in writing. No, I dare not write. But you must tell Minnie for me. Tell her I have loved her ever since Tip frightened her, and she forgave the dog when I was going to whip him. me. "And tell her-- well, any other nice things you can think of, for you cannot say too much I am sure. And get those shells out of my drawer (you have the key), and ask Minnie to accept them from But perhaps you had better say nothing about my failure to present them myself. And when you write again let me know what she said, and if she said nothing, then tell me how she looked, and whether you think that there is a chance that I should win her for my own dear love. Now be sure to do just as I say, that's a dear, good sister." 66 I should think so;" said Ellen, "but I never knew that it was the part of a dear, good sister to make love on behalf of her brother! How ridiculous!" and both Mrs. Walton and Ellen laughed heartily at Harry's simplicity. Now how shall we explain the fact that, though Minnie Maylow had not been at Daisy Bank for a fortnight, that very afternoon she paid Ellen a visit. Did Minnie know the letter had come? Not at all. And when the usual greetings were exchanged, Ellen felt quite embarrassed in the presence of her friend, almost as bashful as Harry himself had felt. But, as it might not have been with him, her courage rose with the occasion. 66 Why, Minnie, I always thought you a sweet, pretty girl, but to-day you look quite charming!" |