WHAT A GIRL CAN DO IN A DAY OF GOD[23]
When I think of all the vast influence exercised by those in this hall, I feel inclined to say what Bishop Selwyn said in the midst of Eton Chapel—"You can turn the world upside down."
But, before I say anything of my own, I want to emphasise what has already been said to you, with regard to the influence at the Front of those who are here at home. As I went down behind the firing-line in 1915, and held seven or eight services a day, before each service began I invariably said one thing from end to end of the line. I said: "I have come here, boys, before we have any service, to bring you the love from home of your mothers, your sisters, and your sweethearts." And you saw the soft look that came into those boys' faces while the guns were firing—and sometimes an aeroplane was guarding the service for fear the Germans should not be able to resist a target of four thousand men, and a Bishop in the middle—you would know what they think of home, and how you have got the heart of the Empire in your keeping. One of the boys who has died the death of honour wrote home to his mother: "I have come here, mother, for one purpose—and that is, that you and the sisters shall not be treated like these Belgian women have been."
I am going to put the message at the very highest at once. I have never found young people fail to rise to it. I am going to put upon your lips, as your resolution, no less a resolution than was on the lips of our Lord Himself, our great High Priest, just before He went to His own death—"For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth." I say High Priest, because I am going to put this one single thought before you as describing the function which girls are to discharge in a Day of God, and that is, they have got to be priests of God.
Now, that may seem to you a strange thing to say, but before I have done I shall have failed indeed if you do not believe it. I am always trying, in London, to unite all the great Christian bodies in common action. We fight as one family, side by side, against evil, sin, intemperance, and impurity. Every year all the denominations in London elect me chairman of the London Temperance Council and of the Public Morality Council, and it is by focussing the whole of the Christian thought of London that we are as strong as we are, when we tackle night clubs, and living pictures, and other abominable evils, and destroy them in the name of the Lord. I say that because I believe fully that if everyone understood what the teaching about priesthood was it would take away much misunderstanding, and I believe would join together many Christian bodies divided to-day. There is only one Priest in the Universe, and that is Jesus Christ Himself. But He says Himself that the Church is His body. Therefore, the whole of the Church is the body of a Priest. Those of us who are called priests are ordained as organs of a priestly body. We act in the name of the body, and therefore the idea that we are setting ourselves up above this or that person is wholly wrong, because we act as organs, as hands and feet—as it were—of a priestly body. And mark you, the Church is the great company throughout the world of all baptized persons, baptized by whoever baptizes them.
If you think that out, you will see what a powerful idea this idea of priesthood is. Have you ever seen a priest ordained? I wish sometimes, though I am afraid you would fill the whole dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, that you could come some day and see what to me every time is a most touching sight: you would have seen those young men, thirty perhaps, as were there at a recent ordination, brought up before the Bishop, who has other priests standing round, and then on the head of each, as he kneels in front, we all lay our hands, and I say, "Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God." A young girl said once, "Do you mean to say every clergyman I see has been through all that?" But now, if that is so, why do I look round on you and say you are young priests of God? Why? Because you are part of this priestly body. You are joined to the one great High Priest, and therefore you, whom God knows one by one, are known and named and called. Of course in the Church Confirmation is the ordination of the lay priest, and if you are confirmed, I am going to tell you five things you are expected to do.
1. The first is to be girded. I have more to do in my life, and naturally so, with young men and boys than I have with girls and women, but that very reason gives me an added authority in speaking to you, because I know what their difficulties are. I speak, constantly, to as many young men as there are of you girls; I say, knowing what difficulty they have at their age to control their passions, that it is like ruling a horse. A horse is a splendid servant, but a vile master. When you have got the bit in your horse's mouth and the reins in your hand, a horse is a splendid servant; but let him off at full gallop, with the reins round your feet and the bit in his teeth, then he is a terrible master. So it is with the boys. They have got to be on the horse with the reins of God's Commandment in their hands, and the bit of self-control in the mouth, then their bodies are glorious servants. What you young girls as priests have got to do is to help those boys and young men in the very flower of their lives not to do anything which is afterwards a stain upon their conscience. You can rally round them and, if you are young priests, can help them.
There are three things of priceless value a young girl has on her side in doing this. The first is her natural modesty. Why are we so afraid of bad companions breaking down a girl's modesty, and why are we so afraid of rough horseplay soiling the purity of her soul? Because it is spoiling her first great gift, her first great power. It is just that naturally beautiful modesty a girl possesses with which she is meant to help every young man. That modesty is meant to help her to be self-controlled, and to help him to be so too. Then she has a most wonderful power of self-sacrificing love. I say to the young men, "Never take advantage of the trusting love of a girl"; but to you I say, you have that beautiful power of true love. It is that power of sacrifice and self-sacrificing love which is your great asset to the world. Never soil it, and never spoil it, or let it be dragged down by anyone. And you have a naturally religious nature. Those three things, those three splendid things, you have got with which to gird yourselves. Allow anyone to rob you of them, and you have lost your strength. Keep them and you have the first great quality of a true priest of God. Gird yourselves with modesty, unselfish love, and natural and supernatural religion.
2. And when the young priest has so girded herself, the next thing she has to do in discharge of her priestly office is to offer up every day an oblation of prayer and praise to God. He is looking for it every day. Do you remember the story contained in a poem by Browning of a cobbler boy who used to praise God at his work every day? He was wafted away to another sphere, and there was silence in the workshop, and God said, "I miss my little human praise."