The Girl and Her Religion Part 5

There are some girls of culture, some of wealth and fashion in the town, but they do not stamp it. There are some immoral and degenerate girls in that town but they do not stamp it. It is the average girl who leaves her imprint upon it. Neither of these towns can get away from the impress of the _average girl_.

The first town has the licensed saloon and the factory owners have not the breadth of mental vision to see what good houses, fair wages and common sense treatment can do to build the character of the average girl. The second town has never had a saloon, the owners of its factories and business houses live in the town and they have the keen vision which sees the value of good houses in which to live, fair pay, and opportunity for real recreation. They have been able to raise the standard of the average girl, therefore the enviable record and character of the town.

It is the average girl in college who determines the character and reputation of that college. It is not the brilliant girl, it is not the girl whose earnest plodding barely carries her through, it is not the failure, it is the average girl. If the average girl should leave her college a good athlete, interested in everything athletic, that fact would determine the general character of the college. If the average girl leaves her college with broadened sympathies, good scholarship, intense interest in the affairs of the day, real joy in living and helping; these things determine the reputation and character of the college. If the average girl leaves her college with social ambitions and plunges into the social whirl, giving her time and strength to the race for social prominence and notoriety, these things determine the character and decide the reputation of that college.

The usefulness and character of every church is determined not by the few people who do all that a church member should do, nor by the few who utterly fail to fulfil the mission of the church, but by the att.i.tude, work and conduct of the average member of it.

The average girl in any occupation determines its standing and character. The average girl in the employ of any concern determines not only its value as a public servant but its success.

The average girl holds the key to all situations touching the life of girls. As the average girl becomes more efficient, finer in character, broader in thought, more sound in body, mind and spirit, she raises society with her; as she loses in efficiency, in power of thought and in character, grows weaker in body, mind and spirit, she drags society down with her.

What should she be like, this all-important average girl? What is she in the ideal? I have asked scores of girls the question and the following paragraph is their answer as well as my own.

The _ideal average_ girl is strong in body, is intelligent, believes in G.o.d and strives to obey His laws. She is not afraid to work and she has courage to meet hardships and loneliness if they come. She is interested in pretty clothes, she wants them for herself, she has what she can honestly afford and she spends time and takes pains to get the very best she can for the money she has. She refuses to be extreme in style or to make herself ridiculous or conspicuous. She likes fun, she enjoys amus.e.m.e.nts and good times. She will not indulge in things of which her parents heartily disapprove or which unfit her for work or study, and which her own conscience tells her are doubtful. She loves friends and companions and has as many as she can. She chooses carefully her friends among the boys and men and lets neither word nor act lower in the least degree their respect for her. She looks forward to the day when she shall have a home of her own and fits herself to care for it with intelligence and skill. She is honest, and faithful to the present tasks. She is kindly, generous, helpful, cheerful, _just the sort of girl one would like to live with every day_.

It is a high average, yes, it is _ideal_. But the fact that so many girls are seeking that ideal, that so many against fearful odds are pressing toward it, and that so many little by little are achieving it fills one with hope. The fact that so many men and women who but a few years ago were not concerned with either the needs or rights of a girl are bending every energy to the task of setting her free from the things that burden her, hold her back and make her suffer, fills one with antic.i.p.ation, for the things which touch the average girl are the things which concern all who have great hopes and dreams for the future of our land.

This chapter and all the chapters preceding are an appeal to the average girl and those who love her to summon all their strength and raise the standard of the average.

Let the average girl be the highest possible average, realizing the important place she holds in the working out of all problems of right, justice and public welfare and knowing that G.o.d must have had great faith in the power and possibility of the average girl else He would not have trusted so much to her keeping.

The world is grateful for the brilliant girl, for the gifted, the talented, the beautiful; but without the average girl it could not live.

G.o.d bless her and give us more and better.

PART II

_Her Religion_

XI

THE GIRL AND THE UNIVERSE

When Wonder suggests its first questions to her they are large questions. They have to do with the Universe. They are eternal and unanswerable questions. They fall from baby lips but they baffle sages.

It may be on some bright summer morning that she stands amidst the daisies scarcely taller than they, listening intently to the words of wisdom which tell her that G.o.d made the daisies every one, and all the flowers and the b.u.t.terflies and the cows in the meadows. After a time of silence she puts her question, her clear eyes searching the face of her would-be teacher. "Who made G.o.d?" she asks, and while the teacher wavers she repeats her question until some sort of answer comes. That night when she is tucked into bed her mind returns by way of her evening prayer, to the subject of the morning. She hurls another question, "Where is G.o.d?" Since she cannot be evaded she is so often told that G.o.d is everywhere and accepting it with all the faith of the literalist she begins her search for Him. She strives to solve the mysterious fact that He can be everywhere and yet in all the places where one searches He is not to be found.

Then her grandmother who sat in the sunny room upstairs as long as the little girl can remember is taken sick. Some days pa.s.s and her mother with tears streaming down her face tells her little daughter that grandmother has gone to heaven. The mystery bearing down upon the little soul deepens. "What is Heaven?" and "where is Heaven?" she asks. They tell her of its beauties, its peace, happiness and joy. They say that grandmother wanted to go and then they cry again. The little girl cannot understand it all, but she tries. If grandmother is happy and really wanted to go, why does mother look so sad, why the closed blinds, why is everything so quiet? She asks the question in the presence of her practical unimaginative aunt, who bids her be quiet and adds in her even, impressive voice, "Your grandmother is dead." The word has an awful sound and she raises her eyes to the severe face above her and asks, "What _is_ dead?" But the aunt does not answer, and the little girl goes to the window to think it all over. She knows that _dead_ is dreadful--grandmother has gone, the house is quiet, father will not play with her and mother cries. She is only a very little girl but she has met the unanswerable questions, "Who made G.o.d? Where did I come from?

Where is Heaven? What is it like? What is Death?"

As the years pa.s.s her instructors in religion attempt to teach her. In varied words, according to varied creeds they answer or postpone the answer to her questions. She learns that G.o.d is good and G.o.d is great; that He takes care of people, at night especially; that one may ask Him for whatever she wants and if it is best she will get it; that if one would please G.o.d she must be very good and there are many things she must not do; that those who please Him shall be rewarded and those who fail shall be punished.

Her instructors do not mean always that this shall be the sum total of their teachings but stripped of all the songs, the pictures and cards, the birthday greetings, the flowers and stories, these things in the majority of cases sum up the little girl's conclusions. There enters into her religion in many cases that name which seems so often to sound sweeter when murmured by baby lips than at any other time. The little girl has learned to love the Baby asleep in the hay, the Child before whom the Magi knelt, the obedient and lovable boy who played in Nazareth. Then the new outlook comes and the little girl sees Jesus the Redeemer and G.o.d the Father. She listens with eager fascinated interest to the stories of what He did and said, tries to obey the commands He gave, suffers for her sins of commission, prays and hopes to be forgiven. The One who searches the hearts of men must find as honest, devoted faith among these little girls as anywhere in His army of believing followers.

Then the spirit of altruism begins to awaken. She is no longer a _little_ girl. She begins to understand the meaning of _sacrifice_, she is stirred with the desire to serve. Christ the Messiah, the Savior and Master, claims her interest and her heart is filled with desire to serve and to prove her love to Him. She pledges herself to His service, strives to be faithful, suffers agonies of remorse over her failures.

Among all the hosts who follow Him there are none more loyal and loving than this girl in her teens.

The years pa.s.s and in the later teens and early twenties another world forces itself upon the girl. It is the world of sin and evil, of selfishness, greed and hypocrisy. She shrinks from it but it is bound to be revealed. She catches a glimpse of a world of suffering and pain that makes her heart ache. And while these worlds are pressing hard she is plunging into the secrets of things. The revelation of biology, astronomy, chemistry, the history of peoples, languages and books, the science of economics, and the mysteries of psychology are demanding consideration. Something happens to the bright, sweet unquestioned faith. Questions persist, doubts suggest themselves and demand answer.

Nature asks "What do you think about me?" The problems of sin and sickness, accident and injustice ask "How do you explain us?" and darkness settles over the girl's spirit. Sometimes she refuses to think things out and accepts the new explanations of things whatever they happen to be, turning in cynicism from the old. But more often she does think--asking the old questions she faced as a little girl all over again out of a larger world and a trained mind. "Who made G.o.d?--what was the very beginning of beginnings?" she asks. "Is it some _one_ or some _thing_?" "What is Death and what is after that? How am I to _know_?"

Soul, mind and spirit cry out for concrete proof of that which can never be concretely proven.

The thing she needs just here, is the very thing she is most often denied. She needs some one who can show to her the larger G.o.d and the greater Christ for her larger world and greater thought. She is losing or has lost her smaller conceptions in the maze of wonders which have been revealed to mind and heart. She needs to know that she has not lost her G.o.d, rather is she just beginning to discover Him; that she has not lost her Christ, instead the Christ is just beginning to be revealed to her in all His greatness. She needs some one to make clear to her the meaning of the promise, "_Seek_ and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you." From a new view-point with a larger horizon she may be helped to begin her trustful search for G.o.d knowing that truth can never lead away from G.o.d. She is just a girl but the Universe is hers in which to seek Him. Its laws, as fast as she can discover them, are her servants to lead her to Him and its broadening horizons but bring her nearer.

When she can face all the new knowledge, feel the shaking of the old foundations, in this spirit of trustful _discovery_, her doubts will pa.s.s away. The world is saved through Christ, not through dogma and if she can have the wise instructor or friend who can show her these things she is safe.

Whenever one thinks of the little girl among the daisies there comes to him in woful contrast the little girl in the crowded cities' wretched streets. She is denied the daisy field. Stars do not tempt her to wonder. The narrow streets filled with material things, pressing close, crowd out sun and moon. The name of G.o.d is familiar to her ears but she does not ask questions about Him. She a.s.sociates the name with loud voices, angry faces and often with blows. Death awakens wonder but there is little time for answers to puzzled questionings. The few days of relief from noise, the expressions of sympathy and friendship, the unusual words of tenderness all make a deep impression--then life goes on as before only harder because of the added expense. As the years pa.s.s she accepts the teachings of her church, she can recite them more or less glibly but they have nothing special to do with her life.

Philosophy and science do not trouble her. She says her prayers thinking about other things and when she grows older stops saying them, save at church.

Oftentimes as a little girl she receives no religious instruction, never enters a church and the name of G.o.d drops in curses from her own lips.

Only now and then fear of the future takes possession of her for a moment. Only in great stress of unusual suffering or pain, or in the presence of awful sorrow is her soul stirred to ask the little girl's question, "What is Heaven like?"

Sometimes the bitterness of her lot causes her to treat the idea of G.o.d with scorn. "Look at me," she said one day in my presence. "What have I done that G.o.d should punish me with the troubles I've got. There ain't no G.o.d, that's what I say, anyways."

Poor girl! The church must give to her the G.o.d whom she can trust and love, but it will have to give Him in widespread, simple justice. First she must see Him in _deeds_ and then in words.

The girl amidst the squalor of wretched conditions in heartless cities, needs a G.o.d who is her defender and champion as well as her Savior. When some wise instructor or inspired friend can give to her this view of the Lord G.o.d of Hosts, the Father of all, who seeks through His children to save His children her salvation has begun.

Oftentimes one meets the gentle, trustful, lovable little girl who asks her question and receiving the answer accepts it, never to doubt it through all the years, never to ask the great universal questions again.

Sometimes it is because the answers were so wisely given, sometimes because the depths of the girl's mental and spiritual life are never touched. She has a comfortable faith, earnest, true, honest and sincere.

It does not embrace the world, nor is it deeply concerned with the great problems with which the world wrestles. It is not necessary perhaps that it should be. The girl is naturally religious, trustful and believing.

Her sweet, untroubled faith blesses the life of every day.

Those who are interested in the religion of girlhood and young womanhood are filled with hope today as they listen to the answers which are being given by wise mothers and teachers, to the great questions of the universe. The answers leave room for a _growing_ religion which grows as the girl grows.

A while ago my friend walked through the country fields with a little six year old. My friend says she has left behind an "outgrown religion."

Her complacence and cynicism received a shock that afternoon. A lamb which was the baby of the flock had been made a special pet by the children and came immediately when the six year old called. The days were getting cold and the lamb's woolly coat was thick. My friend, intending to instruct the child said, "Put your hand on the lambie's thick wool. Cold days are coming and Nature makes the lamb's wool nice and warm."

"Yes," answered the child, her eyes shining, "the Heavenly Father makes its coat warm. He didn't give them a papa like mine to get their clothes. He gives them to them himself."

My friend was surprised by the words and before she could think of a suitable reply, the child continued--

"He tells the birdies to go down where it's warm and there are flowers all the time. Just a few stay here when it's cold and they have warm feathers. The bear and the foxes and the horsie and kitty,--the Heavenly Father makes all their coats warm. He is very, very busy," she added impressively.

For weeks during the preparations which nature makes for the coming winter, my friend, hitherto satisfied with abstract law found her mind going back to the Heavenly Father "very, very busy" in the great world He had made. She was so impressed that she went with the child to her kindergarten cla.s.s in school and in Sunday-school and in both she heard of the love and care of the Heavenly Father.

As she listened to the simple teachings, the children's answers and comments, she realized that in the circle there was a very real personality called the Heavenly Father whom these children knew and loved. "I wish such had been my training," she said regretfully.

"Perhaps I should have been saved the darkness and perplexity in which I have lived for years."

Months after in a large cla.s.s of earnest, eager and attentive girls I listened to a wonderful teacher. I loved with a deeper love, after that lesson, the Christ whose presence seemed to fill that room as the teacher showed her girls the Master at His task of saving the world by showing it G.o.d, the Father.

One day I stood in a silent home with a brilliant, cultured girl, who had traveled much and enjoyed every privilege. She had that afternoon left her mother beside her father out on the sloping hillside in the great silent city. We raised the curtains the maid had drawn, the girl laid aside her coat and hat and said sadly, "Now life must begin again, without all that is dearest to me." I tried to find words to strengthen her but she turned her calm face toward me and said, "How do people live through it and go on, who haven't G.o.d? The Father of the World has them both in His keeping. I can wait till I find them again."

This girl had never doubted. She had wondered and thought, questioned and _believed_. Wise parents had given to her the G.o.d of the Universe--the Father, and His Son the revelation of Himself to men that it might be saved, in such simple terms, so free from petty dogma that as she had grown in mind and spirit He grew in wonder and majesty and power, commanding her love and worship.