Various

“ May the little help us to realise more fully the preciousness of His first gift to mankind.
I wonder if you, my dear girl friends, have ever thought of a fact which establishes the Divine origin of the Sabbath. You know how we measure our years, calendar months and days, and how these periods are accounted for by the journeying of the earth round the sun, and other movements and positions which regularly recur. But there is nothing to divide week from week, or to mark a definite period of seven days, save the Divine example and the Divine command, as recorded in the Bible. ”

“ All this, of course, cheered Lucy greatly, as does always the sympathy of those whose interests are bound up with our own, or at least allied to them. There was also plenty to do. Every housewife knows how her household runs down from the lofty paths of order and precision when there is illness in the home, and everything has to give way to the preservation of a beloved life. ”

“ Surely, when we think that God has given us life and breath and all things, that from Him every good and perfect gift has come, a new glow of glad thankfulness should fill our hearts, as we remember that He did not omit to fix the periodical day of rest.
Well for us, dear ones, that we were not left to depend on any ordinance of man for the right to this blessing. Think what the world would be without it! The Sabbath is often abused, ignored, neglected, almost always undervalued. ”

“ When all that comes in at the door, love goes out at the window. Pollie will soon find there is a great difference between workaday reality and the courting times of her evenings out and bank holidays.”
“Well, the love that cannot sustain any conditions that life imposes, has never been love at all. So it is not much loss when it goes!” said Lucy, with an indignant note in her voice. She felt keenly how her own position looked in such eyes as those of Florence and Jem Brand. ”

“ I hope we all rejoice in knowing that so many older friends have been drawn within our circle, and are in full sympathy with us.
Still, I love best of all to picture myself as “the old mother sitting surrounded by a countless family of girls, my adopted children of the twilight hours,” and between whom and myself links have been formed which will last through the life of this world and beyond it.
During our talk I should like to use the old sweet Bible word Sabbath, which can alone suggest its real subject. ”

“ This is a great deal to say of any man, but how delightful to be able to say it with absolute truth! Many of the little souvenirs that reach my friend are of small intrinsic value and seem almost out of place amongst the beautiful ornaments and works of art in his home. But whenever the donor of the humblest gift is a guest in that house, the little token of affection or gratitude is sure to be in evidence, and the sight of it adds to the pleasure of host and visitor. ”

“ Sunday was obliterated; infancy entered the world without a blessing; age left it without a hope. On every tenth day a revolutionary leader ascended the pulpit and preached Atheism to the bewildered audience. On all the public cemeteries the inscription was placed, ‘Death is an eternal sleep.’”
I should not like to shock your ears or to leave with one of our twilight gatherings such memories as would haunt you, were I to continue my quotation; so I have only given a faint glimpse of a country without a Sabbath and its gracious Giver. ”

“ I shall never be happy here, and I’ll tell Uncle Tom so. I’ll tell Cyril how they treat me. I’ll get away and live somewhere with Oscar. I’ve never been scolded so before, and I won’t stand it. If I’d done wrong, I should be sorry, but to tell Effie she talked about herself too much, and to take a ride on Shamrock!—no, I won’t be sorry about that! ”

“ When Lucy had heard the perpetual grumble and bewailing of the mistresses among her acquaintance, she had, in her secret heart, been inclined to think there was a great deal in the adage “Good mistresses make good servants,” which was often openly and severely enunciated by dignified old dames supported by retainers of twenty or thirty years’ standing. Also she had recognised the defects of her sister Florence’s household management, at once so exacting and so careless. She had owned to herself that if she were a servant, she would not wish to remain in the Brand establishment. ”

“ No suitable maiden had presented herself when Pollie’s departing day arrived. But Mrs. Brand, far from being disconcerted by this, had been thinking it an advisable course of circumstances, and ignoring all Lucy’s wishes in the contrary direction.
“I should prefer to have the two girls here together for a day or two,” Lucy had pleaded; “then the newcomer would see just what was expected from her.”
“Nonsense,” said Mrs. Brand with decision. “Never allow your old servant and your new one to meet. Even in my house, it is always a comfort when there is a regular clearance. ”

“ And there would be but little against constant intermarriage in a family which was absolutely healthy, which in the human race is practically impossible. Now suppose, in a family, one member becomes insane, a misfortune which may happen to anybody; the future generations from that family will be slightly more liable to become insane than are ordinary people. If the brother of the man who went insane married a perfectly healthy girl, the tendency of their child to become insane diminishes, because one of his parents brings a good family history. ”

“ Many people care nothing at all for “rights and wrongs” save as these affect their own personal convenience. Many more are seldom brought even to consider “rights and wrongs” until these reach the same point.
Alas, our household state would be actually worse than it is, were not our servants in a general way, at least, more punctual and more “tidy” than many of ourselves!
Notwithstanding Lucy’s instinctive abhorrence of so many of her sister’s domestic standpoints, she yet accepted Mrs. Brand’s advice as to letting Pollie go and having a charwoman interregnum. ”

“ Lucy felt very lonely when she found herself left in the house with only little Hugh. The charwoman would come early in the morning, but would sleep in her own home as she had sons “to look after.” Lucy put Hugh to bed, heard him say his little prayer for dear papa, and talked about ships to him till he fell asleep, hugging a wooden rabbit which was Pollie’s parting gift. Then Lucy went wandering through the empty rooms. ”

“ You have done a wonderful work for girls; you have directed their feet to that narrow path in which alone they can find peace. It is a path that runs beside the Living Waters. Because it is so narrow the women of to-day are demanding a wider range, and so go a-wandering. Yesterday I received a copy of the —— from the editor, who asks for a portrait and sketch. In it there is rather a strong paper on the Religion of Women, or, rather, their irreligion. In my sketch, I ventured to touch on the true freedom that can only be obtained through restraint, and on the discipline of the interior life. ”

“ If our Sunday observances are not influenced by thankfulness for God’s gift, anxiety to use it rightly, and love for the Giver, they are generally fitful and, to a great extent, dependent on our immediate surroundings. For instance, when we are at home we may be regular in our attendance at church. We should feel ashamed were the friends who worship under the same roof with us to see our seats vacant week after week from any cause except illness or absence from home. Are we equally regular in our attendance when amongst strangers, or in a new neighbourhood? ”

“ I hope you will like me, Effie.”
Sheila spoke simply and impulsively, and Effie smiled, and her face looked pleasanter than it had done as yet.
“Oh, I daresay we shall get on. I’m not so cross as I expect you’ve been told. Once I was just cram full of fun, but being ill takes the life out of you. Sometimes I hate everything and everybody, but then I get better, and things seem different. Have you ever been ill? Do you know what it’s like?”
“Not much,” answered Sheila, “I’m very strong. Oscar has been ill oftener than I. Tell me about yourself, Effie? ”

“ We noticed that The Girl’s Own Paper volumes had proved to many a perfect library of knowledge and, indeed, it is not too much to say that a diligent study of the back numbers of this periodical would have enabled anyone to answer nearly all the questions without consulting any other work whatever.
A pleasing feature in the competition was that girls, as a general rule, improved as they went on. One who had a third-class place at the start would end in the second rank, and a second-class girl would become a first. ”

“ With these people, we waste our judgments in quite wrong directions.”
“Pollie told me she had known the man for years,” said Lucy.
“Oh, they always say that,” returned Mrs. Brand. “Their ‘knowing’ means that they have seen the man in the street, or in some shop, or, at best, at their chapel. Pollie was a great hand at chapel-going. I always thought there was something at the bottom of it. Then as for her ‘happiness,’ if these girls knew what was good for them, they wouldn’t marry at all. In less than a year’s time, she will wish she hadn’t. Very likely she will come and tell you so. ”

“ Now, dear ones, I want you to think how a gift can alone fulfil the giver’s object in bestowing it. It must be willingly and gratefully accepted, valued, and used in accordance with the intentions of the giver.
Even gifts are often received without being welcome, and for various reasons. We may fear to cause pain by refusing them, or we may be afraid of future loss if we do so. We may dislike the idea of being indebted to the person who offers the gift. ”

“ THE GIRL’S OWN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS COMPETITION. Who are the Prize-Winners and Certificate-Holders?
Examiners: JAMES MASON and the EDITOR.
There are no girls more engaging than those who are trying to do or to be something of value, and having said that, our opinion may be inferred of the numerous company who have worked so diligently during the three months of this interesting competition. It has been an affair of “long breath,” and has proved this, if it has proved anything, that our girls are of the right sort.
That it has been enjoyed is clear from many letters received from competitors. ”

“ Dear Editor,—I must write to thank you for presenting to us (to me) “Portrait Gallery of Contributors” to our dear Girl’s Own Paper. It is so nice to see their faces, to really know what those that give us pleasure, profit, etc., are like. Very nice to see our dear Editor’s face. We now know the one who for so many years has laboured much for us—your “girls.” ”

“ It is criminal to perform an operation merely to satisfy curiosity! But such a thing is never done. We open the abdomen to find out the actual cause of obscure diseases in that locality; but we do so, not so much to establish a diagnosis as to see if the disease is capable of removal. Nowadays abdominal section of this kind is a trivial manœuvre, and although there is a certain amount of risk in the procedure, it is nothing when compared with the danger of allowing a progressive disease to run its course unchecked. ”

“ Effie was cross, and sent me away, and I got Shamrock saddled, and here I am!”
“Oh, but I think you should have asked Aunt Cossart first! They say she is very nervous about girls riding, and would never let them go alone. Besides, through the town it isn’t perhaps quite usual. It’s not like being at home, Sheila.”
“Oh, well, I hadn’t thought of going to the town when I started, Oscar, so you needn’t look so solemn! Nobody knows I’m out; so Aunt Cossart can’t be getting anxious. I want to see what you are doing, so that I may picture you better.” ”

“ In a sense, blouses are not as fashionable as they were, for they are no longer seen in the evening as they were. A pretty evening gown, with the bodice and skirt alike, is more distinctly in the last mode.
In the way of dresses, everything just now seems to be of cloth, and very fine ones are made up for evening dress. Many rows of stitching seem to be the method of trimming most followed; and strappings of the same cloth for day dresses. ”

“ But suppose these persons who are going to marry are cousins: here there is only one family’s tendencies to be inherited, so their offsprings will get a little less to inherit, but the tendencies which they do inherit, being derived from both parents, will be very much more marked. The result of the constant intermarriage of relatives is to strengthen the family tendencies, and to render the minds of the future generations one-sided but not, if the family is a healthy one, incompetent. ”

“ Some of the roads look quite pretty.”
She was soon mounted on her favourite, who expressed pleasure at having her pretty mistress on her back once more. Sheila was equally delighted, and rode gaily along the lanes, the sunshine throwing dancing lights and shadows across her path. ”

“ The most important feature of the answers was accuracy, and both in that and in the manner in which the sense was expressed, competitors did very well indeed. Where the answers admitted of a difference of opinion, we saw many signs of intelligence and of a desire to think and investigate for oneself that cannot be too strongly commended and encouraged.
Occasionally girls were rather sparing of their words. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but it does not quench one’s thirst for information. ”

“ I want us all to feel its importance to ourselves as belonging to those who profess and call themselves Christians. We have not to consider how those spend the day of rest who are living without God in the world, and to whom the Sabbath and its ordinances are less than nothing ”

“ I may note, in passing, that the idle, self-indulgent time-killers are the persons who complain most of weariness. They are tired with doing nothing, yet not having earned the right to rest, they cannot enjoy it.
People often allude to the Sabbath as if it were a merely Jewish institution. Forgetting the earliest Bible record, they dwell on the time of Israel’s wanderings in the desert, on the double supply of manna bestowed on the sixth day to meet the wants of the seventh also ”

“ Florence Hutchinson, Wellingborough.
My Dear Girls,—I have read with much pleasure the large number of essays sent in by readers of “The Deaf Girl” because almost all of them show such a thorough appreciation of, and sympathy with, the purpose of the story. I am sorry to disqualify seventeen, from disregard of the rule that they must confine themselves to one page of foolscap only. A great many pass over the more important incidents of the story and give undue prominence to details. Others again dilate too much on the first part of the book, and have to crowd the latter. ”