“It was like having a candle brought into a dark room,” answered Mrs. Ellerbeck. “But, after all, holding up the light to people is only half the battle; for many a one will rather shut their eyes than look an unwelcome truth in the face, and none are so blind as those that won’t see. I say it with sorrow, Not the best any one can say or do, can turn others from wrong to right, unless they have some care themselves for good above bad, and something of a mind to serve their Maker: and I thank God’s grace I had that much; and my aunt’s letter worked upon it. It was, may-be, a bit of a struggle at first to do it; but I called my father in, and then the young fellow drew off quickly enough. If a man means well by a woman he can bear a father’s eye, and never flinch; but above-board is no card for the deceiver. Aye, aye! I have reason to bless my good aunt’s memory. And,” continued Mrs. Ellerbeck, as a tear rose to her eye, “when I look now with a sort of grateful pride upon my own good man, and think in all the years we waited before we married, how true we were to our Bible laws, and blameless between ourselves before God and man, and what trust and honour we have had for one another in every change in life to our grey old age, and how we can each of us warn son and daughter against loose doings with a good face, my heart stirs with a longing that I could draw over others to hold fast to honour and modest ways, and to keep off from what will bring them trouble and repentance, and stand in their light all their life long.”
“Well then, Mrs. Ellerbeck,” said I, “if that is your mind, will you let me put this letter of your aunt’s into print, and what you have said along with it too?”
“Aye that I will,” answered she, “and may God’s blessing go with it!”
And now, Good Friends, men or women, all you who have at heart the good of others, and the welfare of your country, all who can estimate the worth of honour in man and purity in woman, join us in the attempt to arrest this growing evil of licentiousness which, above every other form of vice, poisons the springs of our domestic and social well-being, by degrading woman’s character, and making her who should be man’s heavenward help and purest earthly stay, his fellow in grossness and even his decoy to vice. It is impossible to exaggerate an evil which so debases our most sacred relationships, disordering family ties, lowering the dignity of marriage, casting shame upon the holy name of mother, and, so to say, plucking the rose from the forehead of pure love and stamping it with the brand of lust.
Parents—but mothers especially—we call upon you to help in the good work. Surely you of all others have most interest in it, as it must in nature be your dearest wish to see your sons true, and your daughters virtuous. Yet this cannot be unless you will yourselves sow the early seeds. The school and the church do not form the character. The pastor and teacher will urge self-restraint in vain if the home manners and example are slack in recommending it. Consider the lasting effect of early impressions throughout life, and how surely you may make them work for good in this respect, if you will check your boys betimes in coarse speech and action, and speak to them more plainly of the sin of unchastity, and of the baseness and crime of seduction, and train them, as they grow older, to understand the sanctity of true love, and to value and respect modesty in woman.
And especially we would urge you to watch over your girls from their childish years upwards, and in all possible ways to foster their natural modesty. Accustom them to hear more commonly at the home fireside, from parents’ lips, how excellent a thing is true womanly worth in daughter, sister, and wife, and how grievous the loss of it; how contrary to true feminine dignity are forward manners, flashy dress, and every other bait for men’s free notice. And we would earnestly press upon you to use your rightful authority more firmly in forbidding those sure leadings to mischief, late hours, bad company, and wild merry makings, such as the public-house dance, the theatre, or loose revels of whatsoever kind, in town or country. What but evil can come of that fatal habit of indulgence which, rather than cross a thoughtless wish, will let youth run headlong into temptations which it has not even the sense to fear, and has hardly the chance of overcoming.
And you, Young Women, who have above all others the most direct power in your own hands, give us the best of all help—that of your own pure example. The men are what the women make them. If you will be modest, and true to yourselves, they will shape their ways accordingly; if you, by your true worth, will claim respect and honour from them, they will undoubtedly yield the just tribute to you. If you will resolve to follow the gospel law, and serve your God in the purity He enjoins, admitting no love dealings but what have the warrant of heaven, you will help them to do likewise. Whereas, if by your own forwardness you invite them to loose advances, you become in fact their tempters, and the workers of your own degradation.
Waken up to your responsibilities—you, the daughters, wives, and mothers of our cottage homes. You have more of your country’s honour and welfare depending upon you than you are aware of; for home influences are wholly in women’s hands, and each home puts forth its growth for good or evil, each is a small seed-plot of virtue or vice, which is, we may say truly, given in charge to the woman, “to dress it and to keep it.” It is not only the children of a family that are moulded by the woman’s hands; she gives the tone and character to all the household. Where the mother is looked up to with reverence and love, and the elder sister leads onwards in good ways, there will be an influence for good over all; nor will it be confined to the single home; it will have its effect on a neighbourhood. And alas! for the opposite case! Who can say how far the evil influences of one disorderly family may reach, or of one woman of reprobate habits, who “forgetteth the covenant of her God.”
We are all Christians in name; but are we not sometimes more zealous for the form of our faith than for its fruits? Many who contend warmly over some of the more doubtful points of doctrine, are less careful than they should be to lay to heart the plainer truths and the weightier matters of the law. There are those who call themselves Bible christians, and talk readily of Gospel truth. What says the Gospel? “Flee fornication.” “Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor adulterers shall inherit the kingdom of God.” What are our Saviour’s words? “Adulteries, fornications, &c., these are the things which defile a man.” These are Gospel truths. This is the Gospel law. How can we justify ourselves if we neglect to give it good heed in our own hearts, or if we withhold its warning from those whose souls are given to us in charge?
BY THE SAME AUTHOR, AT THE SAME PRICE: