Thou Shalt Not : Part 2

The Girl and Her Religion
by Margaret Slattery

(Page 14 of 19)

The teacher into whose class the little girl came was a woman of experience who before her marriage had been a teacher in the public school. She called in the home, she learned the standing of the girl in the day school, in less than a month she knew her. What she found out made her determine to help the child hate falsehood and cheating in every form. By story and incidents she showed Sunday after Sunday, side by side, the cowardice and unhappiness of the liar, the distrust of his fellowmen, the misery which he must suffer and the courage, happiness and freedom of the truth-loving and truth-telling child. Every lesson said "don't lie" and "speak and act the truth." One day the little girl was invited to her teacher's home to look at pictures and choose some books to read, for the teacher had discovered her love for pictures and books. After a very happy hour, while saying good-by in the hall, the child suddenly seized her teacher's hand and stammered, "How can you help telling lies?" The teacher says, "As I looked into her plain little face with its quivering lips, I loved her. I determined to fight for her and with her." It was a fight, for habit was strong and environment did not change. For over five years that teacher faithfully presented the "thou shall not" and "thou shall" which shaped the girl's ideals and helped her reach them. She taught her to pray; she inspired her with a genuine love for God the Helper, who would "see her through," she opened doors of service for her. At twenty she is a truthful and truth-loving girl, she has been able to say "no" to the things which proved the downfall of brother and sister; she is a useful, self-supporting, thoroughly respectable member of society and an earnest Christian. She has been able to lead her younger brother safely past the dangerous places and is helping him through school. What the church, through its religious instruction, has been able to do for this girl and many others it might do in far larger measure were it equipped with a regular teaching force adequate to its need, if its preachers could come into real contact with the children and youth of the community and present to them with power the thou shalt not which shall give them at least an opportunity to strive to obey.

If the girl herself is reading this chapter I know she will agree with me when I say that a girl respects and honors in her heart the teacher who presents to her, fearlessly and honestly, the things which she believes a girl cannot do with safety, which lead into dangerous places and which make it hard for her to keep pure, true, unselfish in thought and deed; and she respects even more highly the teacher who can give her broad sane reasons for finding substitutes for these things. She may, as she grows older, come to the conclusion that her teacher was mistaken but she respects her for her honest effort to help.

In every girl's creed there must be some negative. The law says you must and you must not. As she reads this page perhaps some girl will stop for a moment and write out the things to which she believes a girl should say "no." Here is such a list, written in the form of a creed by a girl when a sophomore at college.

"I believe that a girl should not indulge in amusements which make her nervous and excited, give her a headache, make it hard for her to study, cost her a good deal of money and crowd out all thoughts of duty and which make her feel envious and jealous of those who are more popular or fortunate than she, and sometimes make her think things she hates to remember.

I believe that a girl should never repeat what she has heard about another person if it could in any way injure that person's character.

I believe that she should not lie even by looks or by silence. I believe that she should never deceive another, never make fun of the weaknesses or misfortunes of other people and never treat another girl as she would not herself want to be treated."

This is a negative creed. It does not say do, it says don't, but there are times when every girl needs Don't. Put don't into your own creed, you girls who are thinking over these things.

When you are tempted to lose your head and plunge into things you have been taught are wrong, just because "everybody" that mysterious mischief maker, is doing these things, keep steady and Don't.

When you are tempted to make things more comfortable, more interesting, more exciting by exaggeration - Don't.

When you are tempted to escape by a lie the consequences of what you have said or done - Don't.

When you are tempted to let envy or jealousy find expression in words or acts of meanness and unkindness - Don't.

When you are tempted to repeat a story or say a daring thing you would not say in the presence of the one whose respect you desire - Don't.

When you are tired of the struggle to be true and do right, tired of the effort to seek always the best things and are tempted to give up - Don't.

When you are tempted to repay injustice with revenge, unkindness with cruelty, jealousy with malice, to do to others as they do to you - Don't.

Learn the power of control, of restraint and though it be only the negative side of religion, it will help to make you strong.

When the instructor in religion opens his eyes and sees the peril which lies in wait for the girl wage earner, the society girl and even the schoolgirl, what he is forced to see makes him say with a passionate cry from his soul, as he thinks of the individual girls whom he knows and loves, "Thou shall not."

Copyright, 1913 by Luther H. Cary
Fifth Printing, The Pilgrim Press
Boston