This is a negative creed. It does not say _do_, it says _don"t_, but there are times when every girl needs _Don"t_. Put _don"t_ into your own creed, you girls who are thinking over these things.
When you are tempted to lose your head and plunge into things you have been taught are wrong, just because "_everybody_" that mysterious mischief maker, is doing these things, keep steady and _Don"t_.
When you are tempted to make things more comfortable, more interesting, more exciting by exaggeration--Don"t.
When you are tempted to escape by a lie the consequences of what you have said or done--_Don"t_.
When you are tempted to let envy or jealousy find expression in words or acts of meanness and unkindness--_Don"t_.
When you are tempted to repeat a story or say a daring thing you would not say in the presence of the one whose respect you desire--_Don"t_.
When you are tired of the struggle to be true and do right, tired of the effort to seek always the best things and are tempted to give up--_Don"t_.
When you are tempted to repay injustice with revenge, unkindness with cruelty, jealousy with malice, to do to others as they do to you--_Don"t_.
Learn the power of control, of _restraint_ and though it be only the negative side of religion, it will help to make you strong.
When the instructor in religion opens his eyes and sees the peril which lies in wait for the girl wage earner, the society girl and even the schoolgirl, what he is forced to see makes him say with a pa.s.sionate cry from his soul, as he thinks of the individual girls whom he knows and loves, "_Thou shall not_."
XIV
THOU SHALT
A thought which slumbers in the mind has within it the germ of life. At any moment when the right stimuli have been given, it may spring into conscious being and find expression in action that will color the entire life. While it slumbers today, tomorrow may bring the waking moment and so it must be reckoned with in the formation of character. Still it lacks the positive element. It is limited.
It becomes the work of those interested in the welfare of the girl to cause the awakening and constant stimulation of those thoughts which shall lead to action along right lines. The repeated impression upon the mind of deeds of heroism, of unselfish daily living, of great action on the part of ordinary people in a common-place environment has an unmistakable effect upon the forming character.
But if the thoughts engendered by the deeds of heroism and achievement be called into action by the opportunity in the girl"s life to reproduce them, then the effect upon the character is made definite and intense.
It is not until the girl has done a kindred thing, until the impression has found its way out in action, that the full result upon the forming character is seen. All the complex life about her is busy through the eye and ear, through numberless sensations and instinctive reactions leaving impressions. Their imprint upon her life may be seen by any close observer when the girl herself is unconscious of it. But it is the special set of impressions which _habitually_ find _expression_ that determine character.
This is most encouraging, for it means that if the girl can be lead to express the right impression and leave the others to fade away into the recesses of consciousness where it will be hard to awaken them, the determination of her character will be a possible task. It means that in the years of habit formation and character making those who share the task of the girl"s training have the opportunity to lead her to repeatedly express in positive action the high ideal, the n.o.ble self-sacrifice, the great deed or ambition, the generous impulse slumbering in her thoughts and appearing in her day dreams. The material which is furnished her for thought creates her day dreams, what she sees in her day dream _effects_ character, what she _does makes_ it.
It is for this reason that parents and teachers who are seriously concerned with the problem of making a girl"s religion a real and vital thing seek ways and means by which she may be led to express both in words and actions the thoughts and desires which their teaching has awakened.
A successful teacher had been studying with her cla.s.s for some weeks the lessons founded upon "Unto the least of these, my brethren"--"A cup of cold water even," "Ye have done it unto me," and kindred texts. She taught well and the girls were thinking. Some attempted as individuals to express what they thought. In the minds of most, the stories, ill.u.s.trations and facts slumbered. One Sat.u.r.day three of the more thoughtless girls were asked to accompany the teacher on a visit to a children"s hospital. They were much impressed by what they saw. The convalescent ward proved of great interest and the babies fighting for their lives against pneumonia brought tears to their eyes. On their way home they expressed the wish that the cla.s.s might make some of the bonnets and gowns which the sweet-faced young nurse had said the hospital needed so much for its baby patients. "Perhaps the other girls will not be interested," said the teacher. Immediately the most thoughtless girl in the cla.s.s replied, "Oh, Miss D----, they cannot help it. We will _tell_ them what we saw! We have been studying long enough about what we ought to do. We haven"t done a thing! At least--I haven"t--" she added.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HER HEART IS FILLED WITH A DEEP DESIRE TO SERVE]
Two dozen bonnets and gowns, well made after the pattern furnished by the hospital, were the result of the interest of that cla.s.s. While the girls sewed they talked. They discussed in simple girlish fashion the problems of poverty and illness and the duty of one part of society to the other. In this sort of informal discussion they expressed themselves far more freely than in their Sunday-school cla.s.s or their cla.s.sroom at school. By the expression of high and generous thoughts they strengthened their own ideals and placed themselves in the presence of their friends and companions on the side of Christ-like living.
About a week after the last bonnet and gown made by the cla.s.s had been sent to the hospital the teacher was surprised by a visit from Arline, a heedless and hitherto disinterested member of the cla.s.s. It was a bitter cold day, the sunless air penetrating even the warmest garments.
"I brought you this box of things to give away," the girl said as the teacher tried to conceal her surprise. "There must be a good many babies in the river district who need warmer clothing these cold days. I had some time for sewing and my aunts helped."
The teacher found three bonnets and gowns carefully made, three tiny flannel petticoats, six pairs of warm stockings and three small hot water bottles.
"I bought the things with my own money," said the girl. "It is the first time I ever did anything like this. I enjoyed it."
The church visitor found a needy place for each thing and told Arline most heartily how grateful she was for the help she had been able to pa.s.s on. The simple deed by which Arline expressed in the positive terms of action what she had been thinking seemed to make a definite change in her character and about three months from the time she had made her gift, in a simple and natural way she came into the church. As the girls were given more and more definite opportunity to express themselves in thoughtful acts and kindly words, the teacher found sympathetic, interested listeners to the lessons she tried to make inspiring and practical in their appeal, and one by one the girls decided for themselves to come into the church and help it do its work in the world. The definite stand of such a group of interesting girls, easily leaders in school and the social life, made a decided difference in the standards of the young people of that community. The community as a whole, and the parents of the girls especially, owe to that teacher a very real debt for her part in the character building of those girls, who before they came in contact with her had had only vague and hazy ideas of a girl"s duties and privileges. She furnished them with material for thought and with opportunity for translating that thought into action which is rapidly determining their characters.
A cla.s.s of girls in another community made up of "freshmen" and "soph.o.m.ores" in the high school who were accused by other girls, and with reason, of being "sn.o.bbish," "proud," and of forming "cliques," had been studying with a most interesting teacher a course on Christian life and conduct. They had been urged to show in their own lives, in school, in their social relations, the characteristics they learned each Sunday should belong, not only to every Christian but to every girl. Then their teacher began to make the suggestions definite, getting as many as she could from the girls themselves. They were asked to increase the membership of their club, attend and take part in young peoples" socials from which their "set" had held aloof, join in the work of the Girls"
Guild, to which they had given a little money but nothing else. These things were hard for some of them. At first they were not able to do them naturally and easily and they found the friendship and confidence of the other girls hard to gain. But they had come to the conclusion in cla.s.s that these things were right and the enthusiasm and approval of their teacher over the attempts they were making spurred them on. Then they began to make discoveries. They found out what interesting girls there were outside their "set." They found they had exaggerated their own importance. They began to enjoy the good times of the young people in the church societies and to want a real part in them. The change in the spirit and life of that cla.s.s, even in a year, was wonderful. At the end of the second year with that teacher the spirit of the young people in that cosmopolitan church had entirely changed. Those girls had wrought the change because they had themselves been transformed. They had been expressing, day after day, in positive action the things they learned, and the impressions which before had slumbered in the mind burst into life through the daily deed. They studied Christ"s rules for living, they traced the results of obedience to those rules in the lives of those who truly followed Him and _they_ tried to _do_ in their own every day lives, until _doing_ brought _power_ to do and character was being made.
In the religion of every girl there must be the positive side; whether she works in a factory or attends a fashionable boarding school her character will be made and her religious life formed through the impressions which constantly find expression in words and actions.
A girl"s religion, especially in the early teens, must be active not pa.s.sive. She must be made to feel--_and be given the right outlet for the feelings aroused within_ her, to dream--_and be helped to find a way to work out her dreams_. She must be given knowledge and _be shown the way in which to use it._
It is in this way that the girl, every girl, may hope to find a sane and natural religion which shall be a real help in the real world where she must live. Christ was a doer of deeds. The gospel record of His life has somewhat to say of the things He did _not_ do but its pages are filled with the things that He did. Lame, blind, lepers, insane, poor, lonely and sorrowful as well as "sinners," His friends and His disciples bear witness to the things that He _did_. Christianity is a religion of deeds and whether it be through a factory-club, a neighborhood house, Camp Fire Girls, Christian a.s.sociations, the summer camp, girls" conferences, the Sunday-school or the home, the girl must be impressed with the fact that religion and life go hand in hand and must be shown the way to give that impression opportunity to express itself, until repeated expression shall have marked out the trend of _character_.
If the girl herself is reading this chapter she will realize that while in a girl"s religion there must of necessity be the simple definite "thou shalt not," the most important part of that religion is Thou Shalt. The girl herself should be so busy doing the things that ought to be done that there is no time for the undesirable and forbidden things.
It is much to the girl"s credit that she loves a religion that does things. The world needs, every church, every community, every school and every home needs, girls who have found their religion and put it into practise. Find yours, then put it to work, _helping_, helping _everywhere_.
XV
A MATTER OF CULTIVATION
A great many people are willing to sow seed. There is an inspiration in the picture which the word "Sower" brings to the mind. I can never forget those days when the boys and girls just entering their teens took their spades and hoes, left the schoolroom with its algebra and technical grammar behind and went out into the glorious spring sunshine to plant their school gardens. On the various packages of seed were pictured the promised flowers or vegetables and with joy they looked forward to the day when they should be able to proudly exhibit the results of their planting.
When the planting was done most of the children believed that the hardest part of the task was over. Year after year successive cla.s.ses failed to realize the fact of _Time_. As the weeks pa.s.sed and the slow development that is nature"s way to perfection went on, one would hear a boy say, "Next year I"m going to plant radishes; they grow faster," and another, "You will never get me to plant squashes again; they"re too slow."
These young gardeners found very difficult, and some found quite impossible, the task of _waiting_, meanwhile working with the soil and protecting the growing plants, that the flower and fruit might be as fine as possible. Despite encouragement from other children and from instructors, some of the boys and girls lost their enthusiasm entirely and seldom looked at their gardens.
Those boys and girls, planting their seeds of flower and fruit on the sunny hillside and in the shaded nooks where the school gardens lay, were not at all unlike the men and women who today plant the good seed in the gardens of hearts that come to them in the glorious springtime of life ready for the sowing. Like the boys and girls these older gardeners are pleased with the picture of the result of their seed sowing. With enthusiasm they enter upon the task of planting, with eagerness they watch for the first appearance of results. And then Time enters in.
There is evidence of weeds; slugs and worms appear. Then comes the clear call for the two great virtues of the sower who will win a harvest--Labor and Patience. He must cultivate the soil, else only the meager harvest can be his. The art of cultivation is the one so many would-be harvesters fail to learn.
To realize what the art of cultivation can accomplish one needs to read carefully the increase in the record of the producing power of certain wheat fields in our country during the past four years. Courage comes with the study of the reports of modern miracles accomplished through the advice and instruction of the agricultural schools and colleges which have escaped from the thraldom of the abstract. Every one should look once into the faces of boys and girls of the rural schools who having been instructed in the art of cultivation have practised it and increased the value and quant.i.ty of the output on their fathers" farms, ten-fold. It fills one with hope to look into the bright eager face of a fourteen-year-old prize winner, holding side by side in his hand the stalks of corn, one small and meager, the other rich and full, made so by the art of cultivation which he has so patiently practised.
What the cultivation of the soil has accomplished in the agricultural world it can accomplish in the teaching of religion. If young America is irreligious today it is because we have sown the seed and left it to itself. In the soil of young hearts are the elements which make a sane, full output of religious life possible--but cultivation is _necessary_ and, if we are to raise the type of our girlhood, _imperative_. We shall be compelled to resist the temptation to give up because the seed does not grow faster.
Those entrusted with the cultivation of this human soil into which the seed has been dropped must know what that seed needs as it develops--urging forward here, that through self-expression it may grow strong, restraining there, that it may not spread itself out and through over-expression become weak. Only loving personal knowledge of each individual life will make possible this guidance and restraint. They must know the environment in the midst of which the good seed is striving to climb to fruition, else they cannot know just what to drop into the soil to stimulate the seed in its fight for strength, nor how to protect it from growths that threaten to choke it.
Those entrusted with the cultivation of this soil, if they are to be successful, must learn to use the mighty stimulus to growth that comes from simple friendship. Seed which can come to fruition under no other conditions springs into vigorous life under the power of warm friendship. Many a seed which might have developed and borne rich fruit has shriveled and dried in the chill of unfriendliness and misunderstanding. These cultivators of the heart soil must learn very quickly the value of sunshine. Young life needs the rain and has it, but young life loves the sunshine, it blossoms in the presence of hope and expectation, it droops in the atmosphere of distrust.
If one obeys the law in the sowing of the seed and follows the direction in its nurturing, the Lord of all harvests will himself give the increase.
"G.o.d"s Word should be sown in the heart like seed; Then men"s hands must tend it, their lives defend it, Till it bursts into flower as a deathless deed."
Somewhere in the religious training of a girl there must be a large place for the feeding of the soul; for unless food which is able to sustain life and expand it is supplied the girl can never become a power in herself. Hers will not be an invigorating religion; there will not be in her that vitality which will make it possible for her to banish fear and fret, to rise above discouragement, to endure suffering, to triumph over sorrow, to forget self. But if she can gain this energizing power she will not join, in womanhood, the ranks of those spending their days in search of inspiration; she will have it in her own soul. If she lacks this vital power she will become one of the mult.i.tude of Christians who are dependent upon circ.u.mstances for their happiness, upon the words of others for their encouragement, upon the pleas and persuasion of others to move them to service. From this sort of woman, who is kindly and pleasant when things go smoothly, who courageously attacks a problem as long as another stands by to brace up and urge on, who gives time, thought or money when some strong appeal is made and then loses interest and forgets, until another "prod" is given, from this sort of expression of religious life all who are interested in girls would save them and so are seeking the means of nourishing their souls that power may be generated from within.
It is not possible to get inspiration from a source with which one has no connection and the whole task of those attempting to give to the girl a workable religion, is the task of making connections with the Source of power.