Nine: Words Of Help For Christian Girls
Nine: Words Of Help For Christian Girls
DEAR FRIENDS:
I have many things to say to you (suggested by the experiences of our own Church-Life and Bible-Classes), which I want you to think over quietly; so I will put them all into a letter, which you can keep and read again and again. And as you read it, try to think of me as an elder brother, who is eager to help you.
In all this world, there is nothing fairer than the young life which God has given you, with its sunny laughter, its high spirits, its hopes and golden dreams, its wealth of pure affection. You can enrich the poorest home as no money could. You can lighten the hardest lot. You can cheer the roughest path, making the weary feet forget the sharp flints. You can find the blue flowers blooming amid Arctic snows. And by doing so, you may give and get untold blessings.
I am glad that you have given your heart and life to the Lord Jesus. You will never regret that step, by which Jesus has become your Brother. Remember how He said, "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is ____ My sister." And no one knows better than He does, how much is meant by the tie between a strong and noble Brother and the sisters who shelter beneath His care. He grew up with sisters in that village home under the blue Syrian skies; and, as the shadows of death gathered round His path, He made much of the love of His adopted sisters in the home in Bethany.
Words fail me to tell you all that the Lord Jesus will do for you. He will keep your hearts whiter than snow, removing each stain of sin by His own precious blood. He will put Himself as a shield between you and all manner of hurt. He will make you His special charge. He will quench your thirst from the brimming chalice of His own love. In perplexity He will guide; in peril He will protect; in necessity He will supply all your need. He will give you-what all women long for-the sense of belonging to some one, good enough, wise enough, and strong enough, to trust without misgiving or fear.
But I do hope you will be ALL for Him. This is the only path on which the sunbeams always play. There are many professing Christians who have just enough religion to make them miserable; and they might as well be without any. They take a good drink of the sweets of the world, and they try to quiet their conscience by a pilgrimage to the living well. But though they rattle the chains, and let down their buckets, they never get one pure crystal drop for their poor parched lips, because they do not seek the Lord with all their hearts. And so, after a little while, they rush off again to the gilded pleasures of the world. Do not make their mistake. As Jesus gave all for you, so give all to Him; and He will give you back one-hundred fold.
Directly you are right with Christ, other things will right themselves.
DRESS.
Dress perplexes some, and takes up much time and thought. It is a difficult subject, and yet there are several clear rules to guide a Christian girl.
Do not dress showily, or extravagantly, or beyond your means.
Do not dress in such a way as to call attention to any part of your figure, or to distort or alter it.
Do not dress so that people shall notice your dress more than yourselves.
There is no reason why the general style of your dress should not be like that of others. To be totally out of the fashion would make you needlessly singular, and attract as much attention as if you were dressed in the height of fashion; and whatever makes others think of us, or us think of ourselves, turns our thoughts away from Jesus, and from better things. I think that there is no higher art for a Christian girl than to dress simply, quietly, and tastefully; as one who is careful of the body which Christ has given, but who is mindful also of the Apostle's words: "Let the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety."
ORNAMENTS.
The use of ornaments is also a matter of great heart-questioning. It is not an essential matter, and it should be settled between yourselves and Christ. Where there are doubts, the little trinkets should be laid aside till the great Owner tells His servants what He would like them to do.
It does seem strange that so much money should be locked up in articles of personal adornment when the Lord's cause is suffering for want of help! A Chinese Christian lady brought her jewels one morning to her husband, to build an Opium-refuge; and when he expressed surprise, she said, "I have taken Christ for my adornment, and surely that is enough for any Christian woman."
Put on the Lord Jesus, dear sisters, and you will lose your taste for many things you now hold dear, as most girls would throwaway glass jewelry, if offered real gems. "Whose adorning let it not be the outward adorning plaiting the hair, and of wearing of jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel; but let it be the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." The woman who loads herself with jewels confesses herself wanting in the jewels of the heart; but she who has got these, troubles little about the diamonds or pearls of earthly mines.
AMUSEMENTS.
Amusements also exercise many. We must have rest and change in these busy eager times; but we must watch our leisure hours, lest they do us more harm than good. Some ways of spending them simply increases the exhaustion of the jaded mind and tired body, rendering us unfit for quiet prayer or daily work.
For these reasons, and for others, you must keep clear of the Theatre, the Concert Hall, and the Dancing Saloon. You can not go to these places, and keep the fulness of the Spirit, or the love of Jesus. You can not go to them without hearing or seeing things which should bring a blush to the face. You can not go to them without putting yourselves into the way of men with whom you should have no dealings whatever.
The atmosphere of such places will blight the fairest life, as gas blights tender plants. You will soon cease to care for them if you live near Christ, just as people put out their fires when the summer sun is shining. Remember the duties and calls of home, the necessity for elder sisters to throw themselves into the amusements of younger children, the many social and educational meetings held at Churches and Chapels, Y. W. C. A's., and other institutions, and I am sure that you will find that there is no need for you to seek pleasure in things which leave a sting behind.
DANCING.
Dancing is a matter to be settled between you and Christ.
I have often wondered how girls who have any self-respect can yield themselves, especially when attired in the flimsy costume of a ball-room, to the embrace of strange men, whose morals may be worse than doubtful. It does not seem fit that the body of a Christian, meant to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, should be whirled through the maze of a waltz by one whose linen may be spotless, but whose soul is dark with the ruin of some of your sisters, who, though fallen now, were once "white as the beautiful snow."
Young men are rather careful that the girls they love should not go to these promiscuous dances, and a straw will show the drift of the stream. No sensible man will choose his wife in a ballroom, nor a wise woman her husband. On the other hand, a young Christian girl told me the other day that, since she had given this up for Christ, He had filled her with unspeakable joy.
NOVELS.
Beware of novel-reading. Many a noble tree has been eaten through by tiny insects, and many a promising character has been inwardly rotted by certain kinds of Novels and Novelettes, especially those issued in cheap weekly issues. Some young friends of mine, when once bitten by this fever, have done nothing else but read trashy and sentimental stories. They will rob themselves of food and sleep to read them. And then a great change takes place. They are so absorbed with the joys and sorrows of imaginary people that they overlook those of their immediate circle. Their appetite is so cloyed by sweets that they have no interest in the Bread of Life. They talk to you as those who are living in a dreamland of unreality.
I entreat you to guard against the insidious growth of this appetite. If you find it increasing on you, break it off. Lay it aside in the strength of Christ, as the runner lays aside "every weight." If you must read stories, read only those by the best story-tellers. Remember that there are many books of travel, and history, and biography equal in interest to any fiction that was ever spun in the brain of man or woman.
PURITY.
It is of the utmost importance to keep absolutely pure. All around you are impure books, and men, and works; ready to soil you, as smuts do the clean linen put out to dry in some poor court yard.
You must guard against their first approach. Many a young girl has dated her ruin from her first smile at an indecent allusion. The other day I heard of a married woman who said, as a young girl entered the work-room for the first time: "Let her sit by me; I will soon shock her." Shame on her! say I. Alas! how much of this is going on everywhere. But, so long as you are pure, you will find that Christ-like chastity is an armor from which all these poisoned darts will glance aside. Depend upon it, a woman may pass unhurt through the foulest atmosphere, if only her heart is pure, and she is living in touch with Christ. And many a time she will be able to frown down some indecent and unseemly jest, or to screen some young life.
MARRIAGE.
Every woman looks forward, as Ruth did, to be at rest in the home of her husband. Alas! how terrible, in many cases, has been the process of disenchantment. The shores of time are strewn with the wrecks of women's loves and hopes; and all because they have forgotten that true human love must be grounded on the love and choice and will of God. Human love can not satisfy, apart from the love of God.
Make Jesus your Counsellor about your future lot.
And now, as I say farewell, please accept my sincerest wishes for your happiness in this world and the next. Be ready for the Bridegroom's coming, and see that the lamp of your love is well supplied with the precious oil of the Holy Ghost, that so you may be ready to go in at once to the marriage feast.
Your sincere friend and brother,
F. B. MEYER.