Young Women's Christian Association

“ It is felt in the educational work that girl's boarding schools are far more fruitful for good than day schools. One sort of school that seems to have had the happiest results has been where a lady missionary has a little group of some twelve girls living with her. They are her companions night and day; she shares all their conversation, their play, their household duties, their lessons. The pure, refining influence of her constant companionship has more effect on these young lives than any other that has been tried. Will not many Christian women give themselves to such work as this? ”

“ It is a treatise on the duties of Christian women without any of the dulness of the moral essay.
We admire especially the biographical sketches of the foundresses of religious orders which are scattered here and there through the book. Whatever the vocation of a young girl may be, she will be all the truer and nobler woman for having been taught to reverence and love the religious life.
The perusal of the several Readers of the Young Catholic’s Series has shown us, in a light in which we have never seen it before, the great educational value of such books. ”

“ Believing "that Christian women inspired with Christian zeal would be powerful promoters of the kingdom of Christ in this world," she sought to perfect a plan whereby young girls might be brought under the influences which would tend to inspire their hearts, awaken their powers, and prepare them for the positions of influence which they might be called to occupy. ”

“ A change might come—even to them, but if it did not, ought they not to pity other women whose situation was less comfortable than their own? She alluded to the idle lives of young women, to which they were condemned by the customs of society, and said Christianity demanded a useful life from every woman as well as every man. ”

“ All women can help the spiritual progress of the Church by meditating upon the life of Blessed Mary and fashioning their lives upon her example. We are all tremendously affected by example, and that is especially true of young girls. Their supreme terror seems to be that they should be caught doing or saying something different from what all other girls say or do or wear. Their opinions are as imitative as their clothes. Hence the need of the pressure of a strong Christian example, which would result most readily in the union of Christian women in a single ideal. ”

“ In social life certain dances, amusements, styles of dressing, have been tolerated even by Christian women, that savor only of the lowest and most vulgar practices and places. As we desire the triumph of what Home Missions stands for, our influence as Christian women should be exerted powerfully to maintain standards in these matters that will be helpful rather than hurtful to the ideals and Christian development of our young people. ”

“ It is that our young women should be enlightened and trained to acknowledge and to carry their responsibilities for that work which God has committed to women.
Undoubtedly, it is God's arrangement that women should beautify and adorn the home. ”

“ The second thing necessary to the right development of the girl in her teens is ideal Christian women in the church of which she is a member. The women of the church, from those a little older than herself up to those who for many years have been its support, must show to her what it means to be a Christian woman in the church, community and home. Alas for those girls who see that it means only attendance upon the services of the church when perfectly convenient, and when minister and choir are entirely satisfactory! ”

“ It is to be hoped that this fault is indeed rare, unless it be in very young girls, who know no better. But as the fault has been pointed out by one who has been sorely pained by it, will not the girls and young women think of it a moment? A girl's religion should be full of joy and gladness. It should make her happy, fill her lips with song; but it should make her so reverent that, in the presence of her God, in prayer, in worship, in the study of the Bible, her heart shall be silent with the silence of adoration. ”

“ She believed that the aim of instruction for young girls should be to educate them to be Christian women with well-balanced and logical minds. With her varied experience of the ups and downs of life, she gradually came to the conclusion that, after all, there is nothing in the world so good as sound common sense, but one that is not enamored of itself, which obeys established laws and knows its own limits. Her sex is intended to obey, thus her reason was a Christian reason. ”

“ It could not but come to this good woman, who devoutly fulfilled what she esteemed to be the lawful commands of her Church, but who took as her highest authority and director the open Bible, explained not by priest or friar, but by the Holy Ghost working upon her own acute intellect and devout heart. It is worthy of notice that under her guidance several small societies or communities were formed by poor girls who had become decided Christians. These young people helped each other in secular matters, and held little meetings for reading and prayer and loving fellowship. ”

“ Is there not a need of more vigorous virtue in woman? Is there not a call for a more active religion, a more powerful impulse in behalf of morality? Who shall heed this cry of wicked, wasting humanity, if young woman does not? To youthful woman we must look for a powerful leader in the cause of morality and religion. The girls of to-day are to be greatly instrumental in giving a moral complexion to the society of to-morrow. ”

“ There has been nothing finer done in the way of immediately urgent but far-reaching influence, by the Christian women of America, either before or since. Every one rejoices in the helpfulness of the Woman’s Boards, creating and fostering as they do a mighty interest on behalf of their benighted sisters in heathen lands, and we will not believe the Christian women in our American churches incapable of again inaugurating some similar work, equally worthy of them, toward meeting the inexpressibly urgent moral necessities of their sadly darkened and depressed sisters nearer home. ”

“ The first thing a young member of the church needs to help her become what we want her to be, a sane, natural, happy girl, interested in, enjoying and loving all the things that belong to the normal girl in her teens, is work.
She must have something to do, for unless the emotions are given a sane, legitimate outlet, she may come to the fatal conclusion that religion is a thing apart from life, or there may follow a lowering of ideals, or the morbid introspection common to girls in their teens, but which the Christian should escape. ”

“ Although the highest work for Christ can best be done by those who by remaining single have kept their domestic ties at a minimum, yet young women are more likely to do useful work in society, and are less likely to come to harm, if they marry and have children. ”

“ Only less absurd than the notion that the Church is in any way opposed to feminine education is the thought that seems to be in many people's minds in our day, that the Church would prefer to keep woman in the background and does not want her to do great influential things when those are demanded of her. The feeling seems to be that only modern evolution has brought such opportunities for women to exert the precious humanitarian influence that is sometimes possible for her. ”

“ How pervasive this femininity is, which is slowly transforming our schools, is strikingly seen in the church. Gulick holds that the reason why only some seven per cent of the young men of the country are in the churches, while most members and workers are women, is that the qualities demanded are the feminine ones of love, rest, prayer, trust, desire for fortitude to endure, a sense of atonement—traits not involving ideals that most stir young men. ”

“ You have entered into the service of the Lord, and he requires you to do what you can. It then becomes a matter of serious inquiry, "What can I do?" It is an interesting fact, that the great moral enterprises of the present day, both for the conversion of the world, and for ameliorating the temporal condition of the poor, are in a great measure sustained by the energy of female influence. This influence is felt in every department of society; and must be, wherever the principles of the gospel prevail, so as to elevate your sex to the station which properly belongs to them. ”

“ In every class of society the young women should awake to their duty. They have a great work to do. It is not enough that they should be what their mothers were. They must be more. The spirit of the times calls on woman for a higher order of character and life. Will young women heed the call? Will they emancipate [Pg 204] themselves from the fetters of custom and fashion, and come up a glorious company to the possession of a vigorous, virtuous, noble womanhood—a womanhood that shall shed new light upon the world, and point the way to a divine life? ”

“ The Woman's Centenary Association of the Universalist Church was organized in 1869 to assist weak parishes, foster Sunday-schools, help educate women students for the ministry, endow professorships in schools and colleges, relieve the wants of sick or disabled preachers, ministers' widows and orphans, distribute denominational literature, and do both home and foreign missionary work. Since its organization it has raised and disbursed over $300,000 and has a permanent fund of $20,500, the interest of which is annually expended for the purposes for which the association was organized. ”

“ Oh, if I could impress on the young female mind the importance of this subject, I should do the world a benefit we could not estimate. Think of a woman all through life shedding about her the genial influence of true religion. From early youth to latest age she is an evangel of peace and love. Her steps are marked with deeds of charity; her life is radiant with goodness. She loves her Father, and, loving him, she loves his children; and, loving them, both her and her heart grow large and her soul strong and beautiful. ”

“ In the Church to which I belong the female sex are devoted by as strict rules and with as much, if not more, unceasing austerity to the performance (and that to the exclusion of all worldly or temporal joys and pleasures) of all works of humanity, of education, of benevolence, and of charity, in all its holy and sacred branches, as the men. The great work in which we are now engaged embraces all these charitable categories; and the women have the same duties, and should, therefore, enjoy the same rights with men in the performance of their duties. ”

“ May there not be in the organization of this young ladies’ society, designing to work through the Sunday-school, a suggestion that the ladies might take up everywhere? Why not, after first defining the word young to have reference to feeling rather than years, organize young ladies’ missionary societies in all our churches, to work through the Sunday-schools for the support of lady missionaries among the freed women?—Scrooby, in The Congregationalist. ”

“ The equality of woman as a factor in religious organizations would compel an entire change in church canons, discipline, authority, and many doctrines of the Christian faith. As a matter of self-preservation, the church has no interest in the emancipation of woman, as its very existence depends on her blind faith. ”

“ This is purely a woman's organization; funds are raised and disbursed, fields entered and work outlined and managed without connection with any "parent board," although relations with other organizations of the church are most cordial. There are thirty-six State organizations, 1,750 auxiliaries, forty-five young ladies' circles, 374 mission bands, 1,711 junior societies of Christian Endeavor, 177 intermediate societies and 40,000 members of auxiliaries.
The Woman's State Home Missionary Organization of the Congregational Church represents a slow but steady growth during the past thirty years. ”

“ Their main purpose is to secure the help of girls in protecting other girls. They endeavor to raise the tone of conversation in places where girls assemble and work. Lectures on sex hygiene are given, wholesome recreation is encouraged, and higher ideals of life cultivated. The Church Mission of Help organizes bands of women, principally in Episcopal churches, to study the needs of wayward girls and to give help as they are able. Both of these societies encourage parents, guardians, and girls in need to come to them for advice and help, thus making their work more personal. ”

“ IT is one of the glittering fictions of the Church that to her civilization is due,* and that it is to her benign influence and direction alone that woman has been advanced to her present position in the social scale; that without the Bible and the Church the status of woman in Christian countries would be lower and her lot harder. ”

“ How much those who talk thus forget the history of the Church if they ever knew it, but also of feminine influence in the world, is very clear from even a short resume of feminine achievements in Christian times. Whenever there has been a great movement in the Church that meant much for the men and women of a time, beside the man who initiated it, if she was not, indeed, the initiator herself, stood a great woman only a little less significant in influence, as a rule, and sometimes even greater than he. ”

“ The preceding remarks, then, illustrate the position, that the democratic institutions of this Country are in [Pg 34] reality no other than the principles of Christianity carried into operation, and that they tend to place woman in her true position in society, as having equal rights with the other sex; and that, in fact, they have secured to American women a lofty and fortunate position, which, as yet, has been attained by the women of no other nation. ”