Young Womans Guide, The | Page 7

otherwise have gone down to the grave
without acquiring. I could tell them of many a father and mother, and grand-father and
grand-mother, grown grey in vice--hardened even by intemperance as well as other
vices--who have been reformed by the prattle, or the reproof, or the prayers of a good
daughter. Is not such a daughter a teacher?
But I am most anxious to convince young women of their responsibilities in regard to the
rising generation, especially their own brothers and companions. I am anxious, if I can, to
convince all who read this volume, that God has, by his providence, committed to their
charge, in no small degree, the bodies, and minds, and the souls of those with whom, in
this world, they are associated. That according to their own conduct, good or ill, will be,
in no small measure, the health, and knowledge, and excellence of their friends and
companions. That according to their efforts--attended, either by the blessing of God, or
the tokens of his displeasure--will be the condition of millions, for time and for eternity.
But is it so? Are daughters, as daughters merely--to say nothing, as yet, of maternal
influence--are daughters thus influential? Is it true that the destiny of millions is thus
committed to their keeping?
I have seen the conduct of a whole school--I speak now of the common or district
school--graduated by the conduct of a single virtuous, and amiable, and intelligent young
woman, not twelve years old, who attended it. I have seen a whole Sabbath school not a
little affected by the prompt attention, decorous behaviour and pious example of some
elder member of an older class, to whom the younger members of classes, male and
female, looked up, as to a sort of monitor, or I know not what to call it--for the
impression thus made, is better seen and felt than described. The bad behaviour of a
young woman, in these circumstances, is, indeed, equally influential--nay, more so,
inasmuch as the current of human nature sets more readily downward than upward. Still,
a good example is influential--greatly so: would that it were generally known how much
so!
Suppose now that by your good behaviour and pious example in the Sabbath school, you
are the means of turning the attention of one younger companion, male or female, to
serious things, and of bringing down upon that young person the blessing of Almighty
God. Suppose that individual should live to teach or to preach, or in some other form to
bless the world, by bringing numbers to the knowledge, and love, and inculcation of the
very truth which has saved his own soul--and these last, in their turn, should become
apostles or missionaries to others, and so on. Is there any end, at least till the world comes
to an end, of the good influence which a good Sabbath school pupil may thus exert?
But this is something more than a supposed case. Is it not, in effect, just what is actually
taking place around us in the world continually? Not, indeed, that a long train of good

influences has been frequently set agoing in the Sabbath school--for Sabbath schools are
but of recent origin. But people have always been led along to virtue or vice, to piety or
impiety, to bless the world or to prove a curse to it, by one another. A word or a look
from a relative, or friend, or acquaintance, in the school or somewhere else, has often
given a turn to the whole character. A word, it is said, may move a continent. Something
less than a word--a look or a smile of approbation--may move more than a continent. It
may move not merely a West, [Footnote: A mother's kiss, in token of her approbation of
some little pencil sketch, is believed by Benjamin West to have given the turn to his
character--the character of a who said, and justly, that he painted for eternity. "That
mother's kiss," he observes, "made me a painter."] but an Alexander, a Cæsar, a Napoleon,
a Washington and a Howard--men who, in their turn, moved a world!
I have spoken of the influence which a young woman may have on millions through the
medium of the Sabbath school. But if she may influence in this way, the millions of those
who are to come after her, how much more may she do in forming character for the great
future, in the family! Her presence in the Sabbath school is only once a week--an hour or
two a day, once in seven days; whereas, her influence in the family is going on
perpetually.
The clothes of Alexander the Great, are said to have been made, to a very great extent, by
his sisters; and those of Augustus Cæsar were