Mr. Judson's Letter 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... 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... On my meeting the church, after a year's absence, I beheld an appalling profusion of ornaments, and saw that the demon of vanity was laying waste the female department.

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... On one Karen woman, I counted between twelve and fifteen necklaces of all colours, sizes and materials.

For a few nights I spent some sleepless hours, distressed by this and other subjects... I opened to 1 Tim. ii. 9, and read those 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.

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! ... She looked again and again at her handsome necklace (she wore but one,) and then with an air of modest decision... 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.