is no lesson in all the world which she can learn which can give
to her anything like the courage, strength, comfort and help to go right
on in the face of hard things, that can come to her through learning how
to truly pray, not empty words, not words for others to hear, but words
that say all she feels of disappointment and longing, of hope and
gladness. The Great God hears _all_ one can say and knows what she
cannot say. Only God can do that. Even the best friends tire of our
struggles and failures. God never does and when I speak to Him I may
_know_ He cares. Though I am one speck of humanity in a great mass of
men and women, though the girl who is reading this is just one ordinary
girl, one among millions the world around, she may speak to God, her
Creator without fear, may touch His _greatness_ and her heart be warmed
by His answering touch.

"Speak to Him then, for He heareth,
and spirit with spirit may meet.
Closer is He than breathing,
And nearer than hands and feet."

XVI

A PLEA AND A PROMISE

The Plea is for a purer, more invigorating atmosphere for our girls to
breathe--the Promise, that when it is given to them they will respond,
their religious, as well as physical and mental life will be normal and
the vitality in it will express itself in action.

Inspiration is a part of a girl's religion and inspiration means
"inhaling--taking into the life that which creates high and lofty
emotions."

Memory takes me back to school days when with windows wide open,
shoulders squared and heads erect, the teacher's command bade us inhale
and we filled our lungs to the full with fresh, life-giving air. Then
came the command to exhale, and we emptied our lungs, that there might
be room for more of the clear invigorating air. In life's larger school
our girls of today are inhaling what? Is it the fresh, untainted,
life-giving air?

The other day on the street I overheard a girl uttering words that made
me turn in dismay to look at her. I saw, not what I expected to see, a
coarse, ill-clad, ignorant girl, but a pretty, fashionably dressed girl
with high school books under her arm. Where had she breathed in the
sentiments regarding honor which in slangy phrases she breathed out with
no hesitation or shame? There was nothing high or lofty in the emotion
enkindled by what she breathed into her soul from her environment, and
what she had breathed out into her companion's ears could not fail to
we