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Chapter 6 |
Page 18 |
Since so much has been said in this chapter of the sister’s influence and of the wondrous and subtle charm of her power over her brothers, it ought also to be said that not every sister possesses this power. There are many who throw it away. No sister can keep it and be frivolous and trifling. No one can keep it and be a silly butterfly of fashion. To retain it she must be a true, thoughtful, noble woman. She must have a character that shines like crystal in its purity, its sincerity, its simplicity. The power she has and retains must be the power of true womanliness, whose strength is gentleness and whose inspiration is purity of soul.
There is no better place than this to say a few earnest words to young girls on the cultivation of their own hearts. Among all the elements of beauty in the character of a young woman none is more essential than purity of mind and heart, and none gives such grace to the whole life and spirit. Here are a few sentences taken from a private letter: “True refinement is not mere outside polish. It goes deeper and penetrates to the very foundation of character. It is purity, gentleness and grace in the heart, which, like the perfume of flowers, breathe out and bathes all the like in sweetness. It is not mental culture; there is true refinement often where education has been limited, where in the speech you may detect faults and errors. On the other hand, there is sometimes high intellectual furnishing without any true refinement. That which really refines is purity of mind and heart.”
These words are very true. It is not possible even to think of true womanhood without purity. It was as easy to think of a rose without beauty or of a lily without whiteness. Amid the wreck of this world, wrought by sin, there are still some fragments of the beauty of Eden, and among these none is lovelier than the unsullied delicacy of a true woman’s heart. It is possible, too, to preserve this holy purity even amid all this world’s sin and foulness. I have seen a lily floating in the black waters of a bog. All about it lay stagnation and vileness but in the midst of all this the lily remained pure as the robes of an angel. It lay on the dark pond, rocked on the bosom of every ripple, yet never receiving a stain. It held up its unsullied face toward God’s blue heaven and poured its fragrance all about it. So it is possible, even in this world of moral evil, for a young woman to grow up, keeping her soul unstained in the midst of it all and ever breathing out the perfume of holy, unselfish love.
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