Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1917 — RULE OF FASHION [ARTICLE]

RULE OF FASHION

Christ’s Followers Admonished to “Be Not Fashioned According to This World"—Rom. 12:2. Most want to be in fashion; or, perhaps it is more correct to say that mostl people are afraid to be out of fashion. The tyranny of fashion is the greatest despotism which the world knows. It enforces its dictates without any code of laws or any police to see that it is obeyed. It issues new commands every little while, for “the fashion of this world changeth.” Sometimes it appears to us to change a little for the better; often we nre certain that the change is for the worse. ............ . The world upon which St. Paul looked was also a world of fashion. He saw the people of the cities of Athens, and Corinth, and Rome. The luxury and fashion of Rome have never been surpassed, not even at the present time. Paul Is writing to the Christians in Rome, and he is thinking of the dangers of that world of fashion and luxury, and he says: “Be not conformed (or fashioned), according, to this world.” What did he have reference to? Did he mean that Christians should not wear the clothes which were then In fashion? Perhaps he meant that partly. No doubt St. Paul objected to some of the fashions In clothing then, as I am certain he would object to some now.

Deeper Than Mere Clothes. But “fashion” goes a great deal deeper than that. There are fashions In speech, in deportment, in living, in conduct, in morals, and in religion, and he says to the Christians, “Be not conformed to thern/* ft is to these deeper things which lie at the basis of all human conduct and life that Paul refers when he says, “Be not fashioned according to this world.” When St Paul lifted up his voice against the fashion of this world and besought Christians to be separate from it, he was thinking of the imposing paganism which surrounded the early church. That paganism with its love of pleasure, its glorification of power, Its imperial pageantry. Its idolatrous temples, its sensual art and Its seductive rites, cast its glamour over the Christian converts and tempted them away from their allegiance. The world into which Christianity was born was an unclean and a leprous world. A Different World But the Same War. But surely the world has changed, and everything which was written for Christians in the first century does not apply now. The spirit of Christ has counted for something through nineteen centuries’. The spirit of society is no longer arrayed in open hostiUtyagainst the ethics of Jesus Christ. His followers are neither persecuted nor seduced according to the fashion of former days, and it is not necessary to preach the separation from the world which was almost compulsory then. But that does not mean that

there is no anti-Christian world today, or that Christians have no need to watch and pray. It only means that the war has changed its form, that it has become subtler, that there is no longer th» clash of sword and battleax, but the unseen danger of the bullet and the shell. And so it may be harder to withstand the fashion of this world now than ever before, because its evils are not so notorious nor conspicuous. But a man need not go to the extent of participating in the world’s open sins and vices. He is fashioned according to this world when he is so taken up with his property, his pursuits, his schemes, his employment, that he gives no time nor thought nor interest to spiritual things. Be Ye Transformed. The apostle exhorts us to be “transformed.” The same Greek word is used to describe the Transfiguration of our Lord.. A transformed life is a transfigured life. The Inward life, if it is healthy and true and strong, will certainly shape the outward conduct and character. Just as truly as the physical life molds the Infant’s limbs, just so truly will the renewed mind make a fit dwelling for itself. “Be ye transformed.” We dream of the transfigured life, the beauty of it, and how desirable it were to live such a life. But how shall we attain it? We are not left in any doubt. “Be ye transformed, by the renewing of your mind.” It is the work of the Holy Spirit. The change must come from within, and we must invoke spiritual influences. It is all very well to correct outward habits, but to be lasting, to have any real value, the change must be the result of an inward grace. The Pharisees were most correct in their outward conduct, and Jesua likened them to whitewashed sepulchers which outwardly are clean, but within are full of rottenness. The real secret of the transfigured life is the transfused life, having its source in Jesus Christ and flowing into every vein and artery of our being, until we shall be fashioned like the Son of Man.