THE MODEL YOUNG MAN

"Like mother, like son" is a saying so true,
The world will judge largely of "Mother" by you.
Be yours, then, the task, if task it shall be,
To force the proud world to do homage to me.
Be sure it will say, when its verdict you've won,
"She reaped as she sowed, Lo! this is her son."

-Selected.

681918

The Ideal Young Woman

OTH tears and laughter are ordained

BOTH

by the Infinite. They are the outlet of the soul for grief or gladness. You find these everywhere. The sea sobs out its grief; it sighs, and moans, and heaves with heavy-heartedness. The rills and the rivers laugh with gladness. The trees clap their hands for joy. The moon is a benign smile, while the sun is a great burst of laughter. So all nature is in closest sympathy with mankind in joy and sorrow. The mighty earthquake may be but one of the earth's convulsive sobs, pent up for ages.

Laughter and tears are but the floodgates for the overflow of our emotions, to save us from breaking by an overstrain either of sadness or gladness. Thus God has made ample provision for our lives, and wants us to live in a perfectly natural way in harmony with ourselves and with Him. Neither one extreme nor the other. In speaking of the ideal young woman,

THE IDEAL YOUNG WOMAN

it will be well to hold in mind the picture of a real live person, and not some imaginary being that has no place in God's order of things, and is unapproachable; a fanciful creature that has never existed and never can exist, except in some one's wildest dream. We are talking about an everyday, commonplace girl, who lives her own life according to her own high nature and the laws of her God.

Shall we dress her up just "so," and make her walk just "so," and sit, and talk, and act according to certain specified rules of the so-called authorities? No! For that would not be natural. And the natural is the ideal. God made the natural. That's why it is ideal. It can not be improved. It is higher than any art.

or

Now, what is meant by "natural?" Well, the canary sings; the eagle soars; the fruit-trees bear apples, pears, peaches; the flower-plants give daffodils, or crocuses, or pansies; the rose bush gives bud, and blossom, and fragrance; the roots pump up the moisture, while the leaves transform the sunbeams and the air. That is, each in the animal or vegetable world does that which it was ordained to

do, and thus lives in perfect harmony with its own nature. That is natural. That is divine. Only the divine is natural. Only the natural is the ideal.

So, in thinking of the ideal young woman, hold in mind the one who lives in harmony with herself, for that alone is natural, and hence ideal. Of course all will agree that the color of eyes and hair, the beauty of face and perfection of form, and the elegance of etiquette, however important in themselves, are not the essential parts of the ideal woman.

The ideal young woman is not a conspicuous figure upon the street. She is not loud and boisterous. She is not seen gadding about by night nor by day. She is not on the marriage market to be taken by the highest bidder, nor on the bargain counter to be carried away by the first caller. She is not intoxicated by the cup of worldly pleasure. The glare and glitter and whirl of a worldly life do not satisfy her. She thinks too highly of her powers to put them to any inferior tasks or low uses. Her intellectual respect will not permit her to blow herself away in the froth of society. She will in no manner

THE IDEAL YOUNG WOMAN

belittle herself or allow her nature to be perverted.

She is not easily flattered. And that is no ordinary attainment, either. The flatteries of men are a very potent influence over the lives of so many women. Flattery is the common bait that is used to entice them into the invisible net. It is like the spider's web to the unthinking fly. Happy the woman that detects it, and is great enough to frown upon it, and flee from it. The silly, small talk of men will not deceive the woman that is alert and wise. She will keep free from the slimy coils of such serpents.

Speaking now affirmatively, the ideal young woman is watchful of her brother. Do you recall that little story of the child Moses and his sister Miriam? How that sister, with all watchful solicitude, stood by and kept her faithful vigil while the babe lay hidden in the ark of bulrushes, and, when he was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter, she was on hand to take the child in safety to its own anxious mother! If only more girls were thus watchful of their own brothers and solicitous for their well-being, to save them from snares and