Manuscript Releases, vol. 4 [Nos. 210-259]

MR No. 230—Women's Dress

God Himself is taking care of you. “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” [Matthew 6:29]. He has been telling about raiment. Now that God that puts the tints and the color upon all these things, can He not provide for us suitable clothing and comfortable clothing, neat and warm clothing? We need not practice extravagance. There are other ways for our clothing than that. Now He says, “Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” Well now, why not trust Him who made the beautiful lilies of the valley? 4MR 268.1

In America we have the fresh-water lilies. These beautiful lilies come up pure, spotless, perfect, without a single mar. They come up through a mass of debris. I said to my son, “I want you to make an effort to get me the stem of that lily as near the root as possible. I want you to understand something about it.” He drew up a handful of lilies and I looked at them. They were all full of open channels, and the stems were gathering the properties from the pure sands beneath, and these were being developed into the pure and spotless lily. It refused all the debris. It refused every unsightly thing, but there it was developed in its purity. Now this is exactly the way that we are to educate our youth in this world. Let their minds and hearts be instructed who God is, who Jesus Christ is, and the sacrifice that He has made in our behalf. Let them draw the purity, the virtue, the grace, the courtesy, the love, the forbearance; let them draw it from the Source of all power.—Manuscript 43a, 1894. (Sermon, October 28, 1894.) 4MR 268.2

To young ladies I would say, tight-lacing is a sin, and will bring its sure results. The lungs, the liver, the heart, need all the room the Lord has provided for them. Your Creator understood how much room the heart and liver require in order to act their vital parts in the human organism. Let not Satan tempt you to crowd the delicate organs, so that they shall be trammeled in their work. Do not, because the fashions of this unregenerate world are taken up as desirable, so crowd the life forces that they have no freedom. Satan suggested all such fashions that the human family might suffer the sure results of abusing God's handiwork.—Letter 103, 1897, p. 5. (To Prof. E. A. Sutherland, July 23, 1897.) 4MR 269.1

There is far too little of self-denial and self-sacrifice among those who claim church fellowship; far too little confession of sin. Church members need to be reconverted, and sanctified in soul, body, and spirit, if they would increase in faith, and grow in grace. But an unsanctified course of action has so long been followed, that the church should now be alarmed. The power of the Holy Spirit, so much needed on the human heart, is not felt. Many who profess to believe and receive the Word of God are deceived; they are not practicing the truth. They are not following on to know the Lord, that they may know that His going forth is prepared as the morning.—Manuscript 141, 1907, 3. (Words to church members, June 19, 1907.) 4MR 269.2

Released September, 1969