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an early period of our editorial career, to notice the alleged extrava« gancies of Mrs. Judson in this very department. We have since learned that these reports were greatly exaggerated, if not entirely without foundation.

Though we cannot concur with all the views of Mr. Judson, yet we regard him as one of the most devoted and conscientious Missionaries in the field, and rejoice to see that he has had courage to plead a cause which we have long desired to see ably plead with christian women in these United States.

It gave us pleasure to find that even Dr. Brantly, of Philadelphia, has highly recommended it. We will go as far as Mr. Brantly himself in aid of carrying out this proposed Reformation--only let the church have the honor of it, and let the sisters in all churches dress rationally. The savings of money, of time, and frivolous chit-chat, which sobriety in apparel would necessarily introduce, would be incalculable. The mind would be enriched, the understanding improved, many of the foolish passions restrained, and much remain for the wants of the destitute, should the apostolic injunctions be fully carried out, as Mr. Judson has so eloquently shown. Give the address, christian sisters, your most candid and sincere consideration. EDITOR.

To the Female Members of Christian Churches in the United States of America,

DEAR SISTERS IN CHRIST:

EXCUSE my publicly addressing you, The necessity of the case is my only apology. Whether you will consider it a sufficient apology for the sentiments of this letter, unfashionable, I confess, and perhaps unpalatable, I know not. We are sometimes obliged to encounter the hazard of offending those whom, of all others, we desire to please, Let me throw myself at once on your mercy, dear sisters, allied by national consanguinity, professors of the same holy religion, fellow-pilgrims to the same happy world. Pleading these endearing ties, let me beg you to regard me as a brother, and to listen with candor and forbearance to my honest tale.

In raising up a church of Christ in this heathen land, and in laboring to elevate the minds of the female converts to the standard of the gospel, we have always found one chief obstacle in that principle of vanity, that love of dress and display (I beg you will bear with me) which has, in every age and in all countries, been a ruling passion of the fair sex, as the love of riches, power and fame, has characterized the other. The obstacle lately became more formidable through the admission of two or three fashionable females into the church, and the arrival of several missionary sisters, dressed and adorned in that manner, which is too prevalent in our beloved native land. On my meeting the church, after a year's absence, 1 beheld an appalling profusion of ornaments, and saw that the demon of vanity was laving waste the female department. At that time I had not maturely con

sidered the subject, and did not feel sure what ground I ought to take. I apprehended, also, that I should be supported and perhaps opposed by some of my coadjutors. I confined my efforts, therefore, to private exhortation, and with but little effect. Some of the ladies, out of regard to their pastor's feelings, took off their necklaces and ear ornaments before they entered the chapel, tied them up in a corner of their handkerchiefs, and on returning, as soon as they were out of sight of the Mission house, stopped in the middle of the street to array themselves anew.

In the mean time, I was called to visit the Karens, a wild people, several days journey to the north of Maulmein. Little did I expect there to encounter the same enemy, in those "wilds, horrid and dark with o'ershadowing trees." But I found that he had been there before me, and reigned with a peculiar sway, from time immemorial. On one Karen woman I counted between twelve and fifteen necklaces, of all colors, sizes and materials. Three was the average. Brass belts above the ancles, neat braids of black hair tied below the knees, rings of all sorts on the fingers, bracelets on the wrists and arms, long instruments of some metal, perforating the lower part of the ear by an immense aperture, and reaching nearly to the shoulders, fancifully constructed bags, inclosing the hair, and suspended from the back part of the head, not to speak of the ornamental parts of their clothing, constituted the fashions and the ton of the fair Karenesses. The dress of the female converts was not essentially different from that of their country women. I saw that I was brought into a situation that precluded all retreat-that I must fight or die.

For a few nights I spent some sleepless hours, distressed by this and other subjects, which will always press upon the heart of a Missionary in a new place. I considered the spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ. I opened to 1 Tim. ii. 9, and read these words of the inspired Apostle: "I will also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array." I asked myself, Can I baptize a Karen woman in her present attire? No. Can I administer the Lord's Supper to one of the baptized in that attire? No. Can I refrain from enforcing the prohibition of the Apostle? Not without betraying the trust I have received from him. Again: 1 considered that the question concerned not the Karens only, but the whole christian world; that its decision would involve a train of unknown consequences; that a single step would lead me into a long and perilous way. I considered Maulmein and the other stations; I considered the state of the public mind at home. But "what is that to thee? follow thou me," was the continual response, and weighed more than all. I renewedly offered myself to Christ, and prayed for strength to go forward in the path of duty, come life or death, come praise or reproach, supported or deserted, successful or defeated in the ultimate

issue.

Soon after coming to this conclusion, a Karen woman offered herself for baptism. After the usual examination, I inquired whether

she could give up her ornaments for Christ? It was an unexpected blow! I explained the spirit of the gospel. I appealed to her own consciousness of vanity. I read her the Apostle's prohibition. She looked again and again at her handsome necklace. (she wore but one) and then with an air of modest decision that would adorn beyond all outward ornaments any of my sisters whom I have the honor of addressing, she took it off, saying, I love Christ more than this. The news began to spread. The christian women made but little hesitation. A few others opposed, but the work went on.

Some

At length, the evil which I most dreaded came upon me. of the Karen men had been to Maulmein, and seen what I wished they had not. And one day, when we were discussing the subject of ornaments, one of the christians came forward in my face, and declared, that at Maulmein he had actually seen one of the great female teachers wearing a string of gold beads around her neck!!!

Lay down this paper, dear sisters, and sympathize a moment with your fallen Missionary. Was it not a hard case? Was it not cruel for that sister thus to smite down to the dust her poor brother, who, without that blow, was hardly able to keep his ground? But she knew it not. She was not aware of the mischief she was doing. However, though cast down I was not destroyed; though sorely bruised and wounded, I endeavored to maintain the warfare as well as I could. After some conflict, the enemy fled the field, and when I left those parts, the female converts were, generally speaking, arrayed in modest apparel.

On arriving at Maulmein, and partially recovering from a fever which I had contracted in the Karen woods, the first thing I did was to crawl out to the house of the patroness of the gold beads. To her I related my adventures; to her commiseration I commended my grief. With what ease, and truth too, could that sister reply, Notwithstanding these beads, I dress more plain than most minister's wive and professors of religion in our native land. These beads are the only ornament I wear; they were given me when quite a child, by a dear mother, whom I never expect to see again, (another hard case) and she enjoined it on me never to part with them, as long as I lived, but to wear them as a memorial of her! O ye christian mothers, what a lesson you have before you! Can you, dare you give injunctions to your daughters, directly contrary to the apostolic commands? But to the honor of my sister, be it recorded, that as soon as she understood the merits of the case, and the mischief done by such example, off went the gold beads; and she gave decisive proof that she loved Christ more than father or mother. Her example, united with the efforts of the rest of us at this station, is beginning to exercise a redeeming influence in the female department of the church. But notwithstanding these favorable signs, nothing, really nothing is yet done. And why? This mission, and all others, must necessa rily be sustained by continual supplies of Missionaries, male and female, from the mother country. Your sisters and daughters will continually come out, to take the place of those who are removed by

death, and to occupy numberless stations still unoccupied. And when they arrive, they will be dressed in their usual way, as christian women at home are dressed. And the female converts will run around them, and gaze upon them with the most prying curiosity, regarding them as the freshest representations of the christian religion from that land where it flourishes in all its purity and glory. And when they see the gold and jewels pendent from their ears, the beads and chains encircling their necks, the finger rings set with diamonds and rubies, the rich variety of ornamental head-dress, "the mantles and the wimples and the crisping pins," (see the rest in Isaiah, chap. iii.) they will cast a bitter, reproachful, triumphant glance at their old teachers, and spring with fresh avidity to re-purchase and resume their long neglected elegancies-the cheering news will fly up the Dahgyaing, the Laing-bwai and the Sal-wen-the Karenesses will reload. their necks and ears, their arms and ancles;-and when, after another year's absence, I return and take my seat before the Burmese or the Karen church, I shall behold the demon of vanity enthroned in the centre of the assembly more firmly than ever, grinning defiance to the prohibitions of Apostles, and the exhortations of us who would fain be their humble followers. And thus you, my dear sisters, sitting quietly by your firesides, or repairing devoutly to your places of worship, do, by your example, spread the poison of vanity through all the rivers, and mountains, and wilds of this far distant land; and while you are sincerely and fervently praying for the upbuilding of the Redeemer's kingdom, are inadvertently building up that of the devil. If, on the other hand, you divest yourselves of all meretricious ornaments, your sisters and daughters, who come hither, will be divested, of course; the further supplies of vanity and pride will be cut off; and the churches at home being kept pure, the churches here will be pure also.

Dear Sisters-Having finished my tale, and therein exhibited the necessity under which I lay of addressing you, I beg leave to submit a few topics to your candid and prayerful consideration

1. Let me appeal to conscience, and inquire, what is the real motive for wearing ornamental and costly apparel? Is it not the desire of setting off one's person to the best advantage, and of exciting the love and admiration of others? Is not such dress calculated to gratify self-love, to cherish the sentiments of vanity and pride? And is it not the nature of those sentiments to acquire strength from indulgence? Do such motives and sentiments comport with the meek, humble, selfdenying religion of Jesus Christ? I would here respectfully suggest, that these questions will not be answered so faithfully in the midst of company as when quite alone kneeling before God.

2. Consider the words of the Apostle quoted above from 1 Tim. ii. 9"I will also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array." I do not quote a similar command recorded in 1 Peter iii. 3, because the verbal construction is not quite so definite, though the import of the two passages is the same. But cannot 28*

VOL. III.

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the force of these passages be evaded? Yes, and nearly every command in scripture can be evaded, and every doctrinal assertion perverted, plausibly and handsomely, if we set about it in good earnest. But preserving the posture above alluded to, with the inspired volume spread open at the passage in question, ask your hearts in simplicity and godly sincerity, whether the meaning is not just as plain as the sun at noonday. Shall we, then, bow to the authority of an inspired Apostle, or shall we not? From that authority shall we appeal to the prevailing usages and fashions of the age? If so, please to recall the Missionaries you have sent to the heathen; for the heathen can vindicate all their superstitions on the same ground.

3. In the posture you have assumed, look up and behold the eye of your benignant Saviour ever gazing upon you, with the tenderest love -upon you, his daughters, his spouse; wishing above all things, that you would yield your hearts entirely to him, and become holy as he is holy; rejoicing when he sees one and another accepting his pressing invitation, and entering the more perfect way: for, on that account, he will be able to draw such precious souls into a nearer union with himself, and place them at least in the higher spheres, where they will receive and reflect more copious communications of light, from the great Fountain of light, the uncreated Sun.

4. Anticipate the happy moment, hastening on all the wings of time, when your joyful spirits will be welcomed into the assembly of the just made perfect. You appear before the throne of Jehovah; the approving smile of Jesus fixes your everlasting happy destiny, and you are plunging into "the sea of life and love unknown, without a bottom or a shore." Stop a moment-look back on yonder dark and miserable world that you have left; fix your eye on the meagre, vain, contemptible articles of ornamental dress, which you once hesitated to give up for Christ, the King of glory: and on that glance, decide the question, instantly and forever.

Surely you can hold out no longer. You cannot rise from your knees in your present attire. Thanks be to God, I see you taking off your necklaces and ear rings, tearing away your ribbons and ruffles, and superfluities of head dress; and I hear you exclaim, What shall we do next? An important question, deserving serious consideration. The ornaments you are removing, though useless and worse than useless in their present state, can be so disposed of as to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, relieve the sick, enlighten the dark minded, disseminate the holy scriptures, spread the glorious gospel throughout the world. Little do the inhabitants of a free christian country know of the want and distress endured by the greater part of the inhabitants of the earth. Still less idea can they form of the awful darkness which rests upon the great mass of mankind in regard to spiritual things. During the years that you have been wearing these useless ornaments, how many poor creatures have been pining in want? How many have languished and groaned on beds of abject wretchedness? How many children have been bred up in the blackest ignorance, hardened in all manner of iniquity? How many immortal souls have gone

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