Brushing Off the Bloom.

White Ribbon, Volume 8, Issue 92, 1 January 1903, Page 5

Brushing Off the Bloom.

A lily grew in a garden fair It was tall and beautiful. Its petals were white, its heart of gold, and in it glis tened a dewdiop. AM the world reverently admiml its lieaut v and enjoyed its fragrance. At length on«- l>oldt-r grown touched its white petals with rude, caressing fingers, and inhaled its odours with more ardent breath, and the dewdrop vanished, die whiteness was sullied, the heart of gold was tarnished, until few looked admiringly, and one with brutal grasp plucked the poor lily from the stem, and carelessly threw it in the dust w here no one stopped to pity or to say, “ Poor bruised and broken dower ! ’’

In the garden of life a maiden grew. Her checks shone with the bloom of youth, her eyes danced with the light of joy, her heart was of virgin gold, and 111 it glistened the dewdrop of innocence.

All who kn« w this fair flower of maidenhood reveren.ly admired, till some, grown holder, with flattering words, drew near, and with a baleful touch soiled the white flower, until at last the golden heart of purity was tarnished, and the dew of innocence had vanished, and in the dust of sin she lay outcast, with no one to say, “ Poor bruised and broken flower of radiant womanhood!

I he lily had no power within to save itself. It was utterly helpless ; Init the girl had in herself a strong protecting force, had she known it, the power of true felf-reverence. Put she did not know perhaps. She had stm out cast women and had shrunk from thi m. 1 he life they led had no charms. She saw other gn Is careless in their cc nduct w ho yet were called respectab • v hy should she not have pleasuic and still keep pure ? She did not seethe gradual

steps by which the outcast woman had descended, tfie worn in who was once as pure and bright as she She did not realise that, even though she did not reach the depths of sin, sh*i had lost her bloom in a rude contact with those who value'l not her womanhood.

I here are m my ways of brushing off the radiant bloom of girlhood. . . .

And not alone in actual deeds is this result attainel. Thoughts, words imaginings, are often full of devastating p jwer.

I he romance that paints sin with a dainty touch, pji*on* tm* heart and undermines the judgment, and in the tolerance of the thought of evil tin* bloom is brushed from the heart. An evil tolerated in thought can more easily D* crystalized into deed —Mrs Mary W'hhl-A 'leu, Superintendent of the Department nf i u>it\, Wotu's ir. c. r. r