The Girl and Her Religion

by Margaret Slattery

Once those who were teachers of religion were not deeply concerned with what the girl read and the things about which she thought. Now one cannot teach religion truly unless she knows what a girl reads, about what she talks and thinks, whether she is in touch in any way with that which can broaden her mind and give her food for thought.

No girl is safe, no girl can be her best or get the most out of life who is weak on the third side of the triad. Unless she has the help of a well developed spiritual nature how the littlenesses, the routine, the difficulties, the jealousies and envyings, the gossiping and petty dishonesties of life dwarf her.

Long ago, when I first began to print pictures, I tried to print a picture of a beautiful rail-boat against long lines of sand dunes, on a postal card. I couldn't. They explained to me that I must have sensitized cards, then the imprint could be made. The girls of today need to be developed and sensitized spiritually that the imprint of purity and righteousness may be made upon the whole life. The spiritual life, as well as the mental and physical, is as we shall see in a later chapter, a matter of cultivation.

If the girl herself reads this chapter she will stop a moment to examine the triad which makes up her own life. Perhaps the physical side is weak. She may strengthen it if she will. Now is the time, while she is young and it will obey her. When habit has written its words in iron on muscle, heart and nerves it will be harder for her to control it. Perhaps she has been careless about fresh air, perhaps has been tempted to let pie and cake and coffee make a lunch, perhaps to neglect rubbers, to get only half the sleep she needs or to dress foolishly on cold winter days. If the physical side of the triad is weak a girl must suffer. The body is a despotic master and it is a splendid servant. Even if others have failed to help her and circumstances have been against her, a girl can if she will, improve her physical condition and every little improvement is worth the cost. It may not seem to her at first a part of her religion to keep her body well and to strengthen it by every means in her power, but it is.

It may be that the mental side is weak; that it is lazy and does not want to think; that the only food it craves is the sensational, and light, very light reading and not much of that. But the girl who is in earnest can refuse to gossip and learn to talk and think about the great needs and problems of our day. She can turn quickly the pages where crime and accidents are recorded and read carefully those that tell of the progress in science and the happenings among the nations of the world. She can read a great book once a month or once in three months according to the time she has and she can think and talk about what she reads. She can find some hobby in which to be interested. The effort she makes to compel her mind to work will bring a very real reward.

It is a pitiful thing to see a woman at thirty or forty who has nothing to think about but herself and the affairs of her neighbors, and who never reads. If the mental side of the triad has grown weak through laziness and neglect, the girl may strengthen it. The effort to make it strong may not seem a part of religion but it is.

And if she knows now as she thinks honestly about it, that the spiritual side of the triad that governs her life is weak, she may strengthen it. She can read the Book that through all the ages has strengthened men's spirits and made them conquerors over temptation and sin. She can think about the words that have helped women to keep sweet and strong amidst trial, and danger, sorrow and disappointment. And she can pray. She does not need long prayers. She needs just a word with God, her Father and her Helper every day to keep her strong, and another at night to give her courage to go on trying when she has weakly yielded to temptation and failed. If she has neglected it she may begin now to strengthen the weak place that she may be saved from spiritual sickness which is the worst of all.

One covets for every girl the opportunity to live in the hands of the healthful, trained, awakened triad. Life is a blessed experience to the girl who is well physically, alert mentally and strong spiritually. If that experience is to come to the majority of girls, then those interested in her religion must more and more understand that true religion touches all of life—the triad—body, mind and spirit.

One summer night when the thunder was roaring over the sea and vivid flashes of lightning blinded for the moment one daring enough to face the storm, the little village church bell rang the dread alarm of fire. The apparatus for firefighting was of the type most city people have forgotten. Men rushed to the fire company's quarters and dragged the engine forth. From one of the highest hilltops flames lighted the sky. The men seizing the rope dragged the apparatus up the steep slope. Just before reaching the top it stuck. Suddenly a sharp appealing voice rang out into the darkness. It did more than request, it commanded and demanded. "Everybody take hold" it shouted, and under the power of it people sprang to obey and the engine reached the hilltop.

Those who look with sympathy and love at girlhood today, cannot help wishing that some Voice of power would ring out through every place where girls are found saying—"Everybody take hold!" If everybody would respond to the task as that night in the fire and the storm, the girl, in body, mind and spirit might easily be saved. Everybody may not respond now—but how about you, the girl herself?