If the girl herself is reading this chapter she will realize that while in a girl’s religion there must of necessity be the simple definite “thou shalt not,” the most important part of that religion is Thou Shalt.  The girl herself should be so busy doing the things that ought to be done that there is no time for the undesirable and forbidden things.  It is much to the girl’s credit that she loves a religion that does things.  The world needs, every church, every community, every school and every home needs, girls who have found their religion and put it into practise.  Find yours, then put it to work, helping, helping everywhere.

XV

A MATTER OF CULTIVATION

A great many people are willing to sow seed.  There is an inspiration in the picture which the word “Sower” brings to the mind.  I can never forget those days when the boys and girls just entering their teens took their spades and hoes, left the schoolroom with its algebra and technical grammar behind and went out into the glorious spring sunshine to plant their school gardens.  On the various packages of seed were pictured the promised flowers or vegetables and with joy they looked forward to the day when they should be able to proudly exhibit the results of their planting.

When the planting was done most of the children believed that the hardest part of the task was over.  Year after year successive classes failed to realize the fact of Time.  As the weeks passed and the slow development that is nature’s way to perfection went on, one would hear a boy say, “Next year I’m going to plant radishes; they grow faster,” and another, “You will never get me to plant squashes again; they’re too slow.”

These young gardeners found very difficult, and some found quite impossible, the task of waiting, meanwhile working with the soil and protecting the growing plants, that the flower and fruit might be as fine as possible.  Despite encouragement from other children and from instructors, some of the boys and girls lost their enthusiasm entirely and seldom looked at their gardens.

Those boys and girls, planting their seeds of flower and fruit on the sunny hillside and in the shaded nooks where the school gardens lay, were not at all unlike the men and women who today plant the good seed in the gardens of hearts that come to them in the glorious springtime of life ready for the sowing.  Like the boys and girls these older gardeners are pleased with the picture of the result of their seed sowing.  With enthusiasm they enter upon the task of planting, with eagerness they watch for the first appearance of results.  And then Time enters in.  There is evidence of weeds; slugs and worms appear.  Then comes the clear call for the two great virtues of the sower who will win a harvest—­Labor and Patience.  He must cultivate the soil, else only the meager harvest can be his.  The art of cultivation is the one so many would-be harvesters fail to learn.