There was a time, and not long since, when those engaged in teaching religion were not concerned with the number of hours the girl worked, the age at which she began, the sort of room in which she slept, the amount of real food she had.  And because they were not concerned they lost her.  Today a teacher cannot teach religion if she does not care about life.  She attempts it but she fails.  Jesus astonished the Scribes, Pharisees, Doctors of the Law and Priests of the Temple by His intense interest in the physical needs of men.  He took into account the whole man and set body, mind and spirit free.

When one considers how little mental stimulus and training comes to the average girl after leaving school and is aware of the vast majority who leave school at any early age, she is not surprised at the lack of power to think on the part of so many, and at the very limited knowledge she finds when attempting to teach.  The girls of today need to be informed on matters of public welfare and political and economic affairs as never before.  Where shall they go for that information and how shall they be led to desire it?  Girls need to know the meaning of religion and in simple fashion the history of creeds and denominations.  They need instruction from the Bible which cannot be given in a half hour a week of more or less regular study.

Once those who were teachers of religion were not deeply concerned with what the girl read and the things about which she thought.  Now one cannot teach religion truly unless she knows what a girl reads, about what she talks and thinks, whether she is in touch in any way with that which can broaden her mind and give her food for thought.

No girl is safe, no girl can be her best or get the most out of life who is weak on the third side of the triad.  Unless she has the help of a well developed spiritual nature how the littlenesses, the routine, the difficulties, the jealousies and envyings, the gossiping and petty dishonesties of life dwarf her.

Long ago, when I first began to print pictures, I tried to print a picture of a beautiful rail-boat against long lines of sand dunes, on a postal card.  I couldn’t.  They explained to me that I must have sensitized cards, then the imprint could be made.  The girls of today need to be developed and sensitized spiritually that the imprint of purity and righteousness may be made upon the whole life.  The spiritual life, as well as the mental and physical, is as we shall see in a later chapter, a matter of cultivation.

If the girl herself reads this chapter she will stop a moment to examine the triad which makes up her own life.  Perhaps the physical side is weak.  She may strengthen it if she will.  Now is the time, while she is young and it will obey her.  When habit has written its words in iron on muscle, heart and nerves it will be harder for her to control it.  Perhaps she has been careless about fresh air, perhaps has been tempted to let pie and cake