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 noble 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 class 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, illustrations and facts slumbered. One Saturday 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 class 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 class 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.
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 class. 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 class or their classroom 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 class had been sent to the hospital the teacher was surprised by a visit from Arline, a heedless and hitherto disinterested member of the class. 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 pass 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 class of girls in another community made up of "freshmen" and "sophomores" in the high school who were accused by other girls, and with reason, of being "snobbish," "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 class 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 class, 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 passive. 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 Associations, 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.