TO YOUNG LADIES

WE wish to say a word to you, young ladies, about your influence over young men. Did you ever think of it? Did you ever realize that you could have any influence at all over them? We believe that a young lady by her constant, consistent Christian example, may exert an untold power. You do not know the respect and almost worship which young men, no matter how wicked they may be themselves, pay to a consistent Christian lady, be she young or old.

A gentleman once said to a young lady who boarded in the same house with him, that her life was a constant proof of the Christian religion. Often the simple request of a lady will keep a young man from doing wrong. We have known this to be the case very frequently; and young men have been kept from breaking the Sabbath, from drinking, from chewing, just because a lady whom they respected, and for whom they had an affection, requested it.  A tract given, an invitation to go to church, a request that your friend would real the Bible daily, will often be regarded, when a more powerful appeal from other sources would fall unheeded upon his heart. Many of the gentlemen whom you meet in society are away from the influence of parents and sisters, and they will respond to any interest taken in their welfare. We all speak of a young man’s danger from evil associates, and the very bad influence which his dissipated gentlemen associates have upon him. We believe it is all true that a gentleman’s character is formed to a greater extent by the ladies that he associates with before he becomes a complete man of the world. We think, in other words, that a young man is pretty much what his sisters and young lady friends choose to make him. We knew a family where the sisters encouraged their young brothers to smoke, thinking it was manly, and to mingle with gay, dissipated fellows because they thought it “smart;” and they did mingle with them body and soul, and abused the same sisters shamefully.  The influence began further back than with their gentleman companions.  It began with their sisters, and was carried on through the forming years of their, character. On the other hand, if sisters are watchful and affectionate they may in various ways—by entering into any little plan with interest, by introducing their younger brothers into good ladies’ society—lead them along till their character is formed, and then a high-toned respect for ladies, and a manly self-respect, will keep them from mingling with low society.

If a young man sees that the religion which in youth he was taught to venerate, is lightly thought of, and perhaps sneered at, by the young ladies with whom be associates, we can hardly expect him to think that it is the thing for him. Let none say that they have no influence at all. This is not possible. You cannot live without having some sort of influence, any more than you can without breathing. One thing is just as unavoidable as the other. Beware, then, what kind of influence it is that you are constantly exerting. An invitation to take a glass of wine, or to play a game of cards, may kindle the fires of intemperance or gambling, which will burn forever. A jest given at the expense of religion, a light, trifling manner in the house of God, or any of the numerous ways in which you may show your disregard for the souls of others, may be the means of ruining many for time and eternity.