Aims and Aids for Girls and Young Women | Page 4

will make the soul
absolutely bankrupt. If borrowed trouble would go home when we told
it to, and would never leave a track behind, it would do less injury. But
it will not. It is hard to get rid of, and always leaves its dark trail on the
most beautiful feelings of the heart. If Girlhood is mindful of any thing,

it should be of the shadows that fall upon the heart. Whether they be of
delusion, disappointment, or sin, they are bad, and will make sad marks
in the character to be borne through life. Age can never forget its youth;
nor can one easily rub out dark lines traced in his character in its
forming state. If I could speak to Girlhood in its wide realm of beauty
and promise all over the world, I should say to it, that its first work is to
form a fitting character with which to pass through life and do the great
work of woman. There is much in starting right. A stumble in the start
often defeats the race, while a good strike at the onset often wins the
victory. There is no more alarming feature in the Girlhood of our times
than its apparent indifference to the great work before it. Multitudes of
girls are as thoughtless and giddy as the lambs that sport on the lea.
They seem scarcely to cast a prophetic glance before. They live as
though life was a theater, good for nothing but its acting. I know there
is much reason why girls do live so, why they are so heedless of the
grandeur that swells into eternal glory before them. I know they have
been taught by the customs of society, by the follies of their elders, to
regard themselves as the playthings of men, the ornaments of society,
rather than the helpers of themselves and their race, and the solid
substance of the social fabric. But it is time they had learned better.
They must soon know that they are made for a purpose as grand as that
which brought the Saviour of the world into being. They must soon
know that their powers were made for the highest order of usefulness
and excellency. They must soon know that if in Girlhood they regard
themselves as playthings and pets, in womanhood they will have to be
drudges or the cast-off dolls of their boyish husbands, or the hangers-on
to a society they would but can not be a part of. Is life a preparation for
eternity? so is Girlhood a preparation for womanhood. Do effects
follow their causes? so will Girlhood send its life and character into
womanhood. If a girl would be a good woman, she must commence
now. If she would be wise, she must not frolic away her early life. If
she would not feel the hand of oppression in age, she must lay now the
foundation of a noble independence which will make her self-reliant,
energetic, calm, and persistent in the pursuit of life's great aim. Not
only is a pure character needed, chastity of thought and feeling, but one
of energy. It is grand to be pure of heart; it is glorious to be virtuous, to
be able to resist temptation and confound all tempters. This, we confess,

is one of the prime beauties of female character. But this is not all that
is needed. Life is more than a trial of virtue, more a scene of temptation.
It is a work. Christ resisted temptation. But that was not all he had to do.
That only showed him ready for the great work before him. So woman
has something more to do than to beat back the tempter. If she can do
this, she proves herself made of the pure gold. She has a mission to
engage in, a great work to do. All women have. This work requires that
they shall possess energy as well as purity. They must have force of
will to dare and to do. They must dare to be and do that which is right;
dare to face false customs; dare to frown on fashion; dare to resist
oppression; dare to assert their rights; dare to be persecuted for
righteousness' sake; dare to do their own thinking and acting; dare to be
above the silly pride and foolish whims and prudish nonsense that
enslave little minds. Woman is now bound hand and foot by custom
and law. She is only a thing. She is not a conscious independent
personality. She is not recognized as a self-directing, responsible agent.
She plays a second part. She is shut out from all the higher aims and
opportunities of life. Into no college is she permitted to enter if she
would cultivate her mind in the highest walks