That beautiful daughter of King David, and sister to Absalom, who was
the finest looking man of his day, was called Tamar, which is the Hebrew
word for _palm_. Doubtless she was called Tamar on account of her
beauty. Absalom named his daughter Tamar for this same reason: "And unto
Absalom there was born three sons and one daughter, whose name was
Tamar: she was a woman of a fair countenance."
Moses was so close to God and heaven during those days on the mount,
that his face literally shone. And just in proportion as people today
get close to the upper world, will God cover them with His celestial
cosmetics. This far surpasses the paint and powder and Circassian cream
of a frivolous and fashion-loving world. If people only knew it, the
more of these--and of dead birds, rag posies, and glittering
gewgaws--they put on, the more unbecoming they appear, and the more any
natural beauty they chance to have is covered up. Whenever a woman
besmears her face with paint and powder, hoping to cover up what she may
think to be unseemly, she might as well carry a placard bearing this
inscription:
To whom it may concern: This is to certify that I am homely, and am
trying to cover up the fact by the use of paint and powder, thus
hoping to deceive the public.
SIGNED--O. C. PRIDE.
"The King's daughter is all glorious within." And because of this it
works out, and so, with God's glory upon one, surely there is no need of
the world's adornments to supplement God's handiwork. "The ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit" is the adorning which all should seek, and all
may obtain.
The climax of trinket wearing is to be found in the heathen world. There
they deck themselves literally from head to heel. They puncture ears,
lips, and nose to find more room for their jewelry. God's arraignment of
His people in the third chapter of Isaiah for patterning after the
heathen customs is appalling, and we wonder that the translators of the
Bible had the ingenuity to ferret out all the different kinds of
trumpery in that dead language and find their proper expression in
English. When the writer was a boy going to a country school, he was
told by the teacher that barbarians wore jewelry, and in proportion as
people did the same today they were barbarian. We once stepped into a
restaurant in the city of Omaha, and noticed a woman seated at one of
the tables. The sight of her hand eclipsed anything we had ever seen.
There were rings galore. We do not remember the number on her fingers,
but she had so many, it looked as if she had not room enough on her
fingers, so she actually had one on her thumb. Doubtless she thought
this added to her beauty. We once saw a fortune teller with large rings
in her ears, three chains around her neck, seven rings on her fingers
and eight bracelets on the wrists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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