that you find little
pleasure in your steady reading, and see no immediate results from it;
never mind, read on, lest you become in middle life one of those amiable,
empty-headed women who can give neither help, nor comfort, nor advice,
worth the taking. How many old maids, and young maids too, tied by home
duties, allowed their minds to get thin and empty: when, at last, they
were set free they were silly and inconsequent; no work requiring thought
and insight could be entrusted to them.

The second difficulty which is felt by many comes from the new lights of
the day. At school, girls come in contact with varied ideals and
inspirations,--they drink new wine, and they go home to find that old
bottles are still used there. Very often this difficulty is greater in
proportion as a girl has rightly profited by school--in proportion as she
has been teachable and ready to assimilate good; she goes home with new
aspirations to be met by old prejudices--prejudices intensified by
half-loving jealousy of the alien influences of school. Are you to shut
your eyes to the new lights, and be as though you had never known them?
No, but do not keep one Commandment by breaking another. The First
Commandment is supreme, Thou shall have none other gods but Him Who is the
Truth; Truth must be obeyed at all costs, but if your truth-seeking
breaks the Fifth Commandment, it probably breaks the Second also, and the
principle you are obeying will turn out to be a graven image of God, and
not the voice of God Himself. Very grave doubt rests on any form of
goodness which is in opposition to your mother; it may be good for others,
but can scarcely be so for you. I know of a girl who got under High Church
influence at school, and who, in pursuit of spiritual good, gets
surreptitious High Church books and newspapers, under cover to a friend.
Another got under Low Church influence, and refuses to please her mother
by dressing prettily or going out. It seems to me that both girls read
their lesson backwards and neglect the weightier matters of the law,
truth, and obedience,--while they seek what is good in itself but not good
for them. Others persist in going to a church their mother disapproves
of,--they say they can get good at a musical church, and only irritation
and harm by going with her. I feel heartily for the trial of going to a
church they dislike, but surely conquering self or pleasing a mother is
good in itself, quite apart from the help g