(From "The Word of Life.")

A young girl came home from a walk in town, excited and angry, and told her parents that a young man on the streets had accosted her in a disrespectful way. Her mother was as much angered as the girl when she heard the story, and both thought that the father should take the matter up.

But the father thoughtfully said, "Daughter, let me tell you a few things that may help you to look rightly at this matter. You are young and attractive, and your dress is such that it displays the charms of your face and figure. Your arms are bare almost to the shoulder; your waist is cut so low that a good portion of your shoulders and breast are exposed to view; your skirt is scant and narrow, and your short petticoat and silk gauze stockings display your limbs almost to the knees; your dress is so cut that every line of your figure' is seen in bold outlines.

"You went out on the street with your companions, some of them dressed even more suggestively than yourself, and others display themselves in men's clothing. You saw this man and knew that he was a stranger. Some of you laughed, tossed your heads, and perhaps made some light remarks which he overheard. I have talked with you before, daughter, as to the difference in sex, and you know the nature of men. He did not know that you were moral girls, for he would not think so by your appearance. I'm sorry that this occurred, as you profess to be a Christian:but you, your mother, and your pastor, are as much to blame as he. Many times I have read from the Scripture that woman "shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment:for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God" (Deut. 22:5); also, "That women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold or pearls, or costly array, but, as becometh women professing godliness, with good works" (1 Tim. 2:9,10). But your mother and your pastor say that we should "tolerate" the young; so I fear, with his unbelief and liberal views, he has blinded the eyes of your mother so that she does not think God means exactly what He says."

The father was regarded as "peculiar" by most in that church, but the daughter's conscience felt that he was right, and that the Bible was on his side.

Alas, how many are more afraid of being thought "peculiar" by their companions than of disobeying God and His Word. Just as we read that many who believed on Jesus "did not confess Him, lest they be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:43).