PURITY.

White Ribbon, Volume 14, Issue 150, 15 November 1907, Page 4

PURITY.

A Paper read at Ashburton by Mrs

W. Lill.

(Abridged.)

*■ Messed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Finally, brethren. . . . . whatsoever things are pure . . . .think on these things. . . . Keep thyself pure. . . . Unto the pure all things are pure. . . . the Temple of God is holy, which Temple ye are.”

.Madam President, and Sisters. I feel rather diffident in bringing this subject before you. hut as I have been asked again and again to write a paper, and as I feel the suhjeet is a most important one to ns as women and mothers. I can do no other than mv best.

Ignoranee is not innocence. Twenty years ago I visited a woman in great distress. The mother and her daughter, a pretty girl of seven* teen years, were crying bitterly. The mother said. “ Oh. Mrs Liil, \\ hat sliall | dn M \ lias g..t into trouble ” And the daughter said. “ Mo her never told me. mother nevei told me." This sad case clearly shows that ignoranee is not innocence. Who but a mother can bring such constant and strong influence to bear upon tin* young mind and character.’ Who so well

as a mother can teach the saereduess id’ the body as the Temple of the Holy One Who else but a mother can implant in her son the habitual reverence for womanhood, which to man is a sure stronghold in after life? Who like a mother as he grows to years of sense and obsenation. and the curiosity is kindled, which is only a cry for light and teaching, can so answer the cry and so teach as to make the mysteries of life and birth to be for ever associated for him with all the sacred thoughts of home and his own mother, and not with the talk of low-minded persons and ignorant school boys ? Then* are certain mysteries of life which every man and woman must understand. We veil them in our ordinary talk as sacred things. They are sacred as part of God s universal plan of life. Only by vicious men and women have they been made to appear vile. It is an absolute necessity that the child shall know of these things. Ilis health, his sanity, sometimes life itself will depend upon his right understanding of them. Who is to tell him of them ? The father and mother in whose care God has placed him? Or is he to be left to hear of them in a perverted sense from the obscenity of his playmates? A well-known educator said lately, “Wo shudder at the impurity of certain old English plays, and we find fouler depths of it in modern Krcneh novels. Hut for absolute tilth, go and listen to tin* talk of the hoys and girls during recess in our schools. Some of these little ones belong to refined Christian families. Their parents would shrink in horror at the thought of unveiling the sacred mysteries of sex and birth to their innocent minds. Yet these mysteries were familiar to them almost before they could speak plainly: familiar, too. in their most brutal and obscene phases.”

Let us teach our children, from the very first, self reverence, in touch as in word and deed, watch even their attitudes. Knowledge*and watchfulness are the two cherubim with flaming sword turning all ways to guard the tree of life. We ought t<» train our hoys to take care of their sisters, to he pure in speech, to keep a clean tongue—never allow i

slang words in your presence. . . I detest tin* habit of calling children “kiddies.” it seems so lowering to motherhood, and yet it is so common. . . God’s great gift of

speech is not to be defiled by dirty talk, by profane language, by lies or evil speaking. The organs that are given us to sustain life are not to he defiled bv any gluttony, either in food or drink. The boy is not to use any part of bis body in a way In* would be ashamed for bis own mother to know of. To do so is not only to defile, but to destroy. It causes softening of tin* brain, weakens tin* nervous system, lessens strength, and often, if carried to excess. brings results which are tin* very embodiment of those terrible words. “ Him will God destroy.” By those immediately connected with an asylum I have been told that this terrible habit sends more to tin* lunatic asylums than drink itself. In our own neighbourhood, insanity and suicide has resulted in several cases from this sin. A sound nation is a nation that is made up of sound human beings, healthy in body, strong in limb, Irue in word and deed, brave, sober, temperate, chaste ; to whom morals arc of more importance than wealth, or knowledge, or < hivalry, with all its can* of womanhood. In tin* clays of our Lord, women were little thought of. but see how instantly they rose to tin* touch of the true* man. Glirist Jesus. See how lb* made wonie*ii Ilis friends. Many severe rebukes are* recorded from Ilis lips to men. but not one* to a woman. Now. side by side with this picture of tin* True Man, place* the present debased attitude of tin* men of to-day. A powerful writer says : “Is it not a re*ceive*d code, even among Englishmen, that if a woman knows how to respect herself, men are to respect her; but if sin* is a bit fast and giddy, if sin* has little or no respect for herself, if her foolish feet have* slipped ever so little, then sin* is fair game.” The Bible, thank God. neither begins with sin, nor ends with sin. It begins with a sinless garden: it ends witii a strong city of God. with evil known and recognised, hut cast\ out beyond its walls. May God not lie* leading us to form a wider,

deeper. stronger ideal. to aim for our girls not so much at innoeenee with her fading wreath of flowers, but to aim at virtue with her victor's crown of gold, tried in the fire. *• Sure am I. that if we accept tins deeper and larger ideal, and endeavour to work it out on earth, in the midst of it. as in the Garden of Kden. will he found the tree of life.