This desire to give all in altruistic service, this longing to make
the whole world happy, this worship of the _Good_ reveals itself too
in the girl’s effort “to find her Lord and worship Him.” The religious
sense, so strong in the heart of the race that man must bow down and
worship something, some one, be it fire, the moon, the stars, the
river, ancestors, idols of wood or stone, is strong in the heart of
the girl in her teens. And if rightly taught and presented, the Christ
unfailingly becomes her great ideal. All the qualities she most
admires she finds in him. Bravery, courage, purity and strength,
patience and sympathy, all are there and she worships him. For him she
can perform deeds of quiet heroism of which no one dreams,—struggle
desperately to overcome her faults, and sacrifice many a pleasure
willingly. Her prayers are ardent and sincere, and must rise to heaven
as an acceptable offering. I saw such a girl bow her head in prayer in
the crowded church on Easter morning. Her face was good to see. Death
and the grave meant nothing to her, but oh, _LIFE_—it was so good.
Sixteen found her hard at work in the cotton factory. But looking at
her in her new suit and hat and gloves, and at the one bright yellow
jonquil she wore so proudly, you would never have guessed that a week
of toil lay behind her and another awaited her. That night she sang a
brief solo in the chorus choir, and did it well; one of the boys in
the church walked home with her, they talked a few moments, and Easter
was over. At five-thirty next morning she rose, ate her hasty, meager
breakfast, and went to work in the rain. A week later, when we were
talking after Sunday-school, she said, “I don’t know as I ever had
such a happy Easter. It was such a beautiful day.” And then
hesitatingly, “I made up my mind I ought to be better than I have
been, and I’m not going to let my sister go to work in the mill, no
matter what it costs me. I’m going to send her to high school next
year instead of taking singing lessons. I decided Easter night.”
I could see her sitting in her bare, hopeless little room, with the
memory of the sunshine, the new suit and the jonquil, the solo, and
the Risen Lord filling her soul as she made her sacrifice, letting the
cherished plan of singing lessons go.
“What made you want to do it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said, “I felt that I ought to, and Easter makes
you think of those things. I think Christians ought to be more like
Christ, as Dr. —— said in his sermon.”
That was the explanation. She was following, the best she knew how,
the pathway of the Christ—her ideal. God bless her,—the sacrifice will
pay.
Failing to find the Christ, the religious sense satisfies itself with
lower ideals. Intensified longings, dissatisfaction, and a
restlessness not found in the girl who truly gives her allegiance to
the Christ and feels his steadying power, are very evident in the girl
who has not yet found the one whom she can call Master and Lord.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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