and coffee make a lunch, perhaps to neglect rubbers, to get only half the sleep she needs or to dress foolishly on cold winter days.  If the physical side of the triad is weak a girl must suffer.  The body is a despotic master and it is a splendid servant.  Even if others have failed to help her and circumstances have been against her, a girl can if she will, improve her physical condition and every little improvement is worth the cost.  It may not seem to her at first a part of her religion to keep her body well and to strengthen it by every means in her power, but it is.

It may be that the mental side is weak; that it is lazy and does not want to think; that the only food it craves is the sensational, and light, very light reading and not much of that.  But the girl who is in earnest can refuse to gossip and learn to talk and think about the great needs and problems of our day.  She can turn quickly the pages where crime and accidents are recorded and read carefully those that tell of the progress in science and the happenings among the nations of the world.  She can read a great book once a month or once in three months according to the time she has and she can think and talk about what she reads.  She can find some hobby in which to be interested.  The effort she makes to compel her mind to work will bring a very real reward.

It is a pitiful thing to see a woman at thirty or forty who has nothing to think about but herself and the affairs of her neighbors, and who never reads.  If the mental side of the triad has grown weak through laziness and neglect, the girl may strengthen it.  The effort to make it strong may not seem a part of religion but it is.

And if she knows now as she thinks honestly about it, that the spiritual side of the triad that governs her life is weak, she may strengthen it.  She can read the Book that through all the ages has strengthened men’s spirits and made them conquerors over temptation and sin.  She can think about the words that have helped women to keep sweet and strong amidst trial, and danger, sorrow and disappointment.  And she can pray.  She does not need long prayers.  She needs just a word with God, her Father and her Helper every day to keep her strong, and another at night to give her courage to go on trying when she has weakly yielded to temptation and failed.  If she has neglected it she may begin now to strengthen the weak place that she may be saved from spiritual sickness which is the worst of all.

One covets for every girl the opportunity to live in the hands of the healthful, trained, awakened triad.  Life is a blessed experience to the girl who is well physically, alert mentally and strong spiritually.  If that experience is to come to the majority of girls, then those interested in her religion must more and more understand that true religion touches all of life—­the triad—­body, mind and spirit.