The young lady's private counselor

Front matter

Class Book..

J > fopigM .

CQMRIGHT DEPOSm

Preface

The favorable reception of "Seven Studies for Young Men, " and an often inquiry for a corresponding work for the girls, first brought out a desire for the present book.

When his two daughters made their visit to the Normal School there was a desire to place something in their hands that could assist them in the care of their bodies.

A PRIVATE MENTOR.

Although there ■ are numerous works for girls, none on certain subjects are plain enough to certain minds. The book has been written, therefore, as if the writer has been speaking to his own girls, and not with the idea of lecturing or of speaking a piece. The style is not to be chosen for its bluntness, but the book can be taken as a desire to do good to those whom he will never see.

The idea of different articles from different pens of ladies who have been successful and happy mothers, and having these articles embodied in the work, was an after thought, and has delayed the appearance of the work in book form for some time. But to those who believe such messages are sent, this will not be an objection but a help, when they receive the book.

These essays have been unchanged. Instead of giving their names, the state they are from is signed at the bottom of their essay. Noble and valuable thoughts will be found in these articles. Every article is from a mother of girls, and is written to girls.

As for the style, it is a book for the closet and for thought, and is strictly the thoughts of a parent for the child, with the best interests of the child at heart.

The Author.

Chapter I. The Two Natures

It is evident that there are in eveiy person two distinct and separate natures and that, in man}' instances, these natures are most strangely at war.

They alone are happy who understand the relation of these two natures to the control of the mind and body.

We know this of ourselves without asking any one about it.

Our desires are not the same at one time as they are at another time, yet we think we are the same person at one time that we are at another time.

These contrary conditions may be because we may be under one influence or nature at one time, and under the other nature at another time.

We shall call these two natures:

1. The bodily.

2. The spiritual.

The bodily nature demands man}' things which are not good or expedient for the body to possess. There are appetites and desires which, if gratified, will bring on a penalty, and this penalty will be death.

The bodily nature is of a self-limited existence.

We may be able by proper methods to make this bodily life longer or shorter; stronger or weaker; easy or uneasy; healthy or sick; pleasant or unpleasant.

The bodily nature demands food, clothinff, shelter and air.

The Two Natures.

The spiritual nature also demands sustenance, clothing and growth.

Many persons have never become acquainted with their spiritual nature, and others have never taken the trouble to have their spiritual nature born or nurtured. Others have their spiritual nature so warped and dried up that we can hardly tell whether they have any spiritual nature or not.

The ones who are safe in this life are those who are acquainted with both of their natures and have their bodily nature fully under the control of the mind or this spiritual nature.

The most unhappy of all persons are those who have never had their spiritual nature born and are under the control of their bodily nature. Such persons are materialists, of the earth, earthy.

These persons are the ones who are constantly desiring something they have not. They desire some article of diet, or some article of dress, or to go somewhere, or to hear something, or, in short, to gratify some of their bodily nature, while the}' do not know that they have a spiritual nature which is capable of enjoying life a thousand-fold more happily and more continuously than the bodily nature can ever become capable of enjoyment.

Persons who have not allowed their spiritual nature to grow, or who have neglected to furnish their spiritual nature with food and growth are those who are constantly seeking something to feed themselves with and do not know what is the matter with them.

We find these spiritually starved natures in all classes and in all the walks of life. They are the theatre goers; the gamblers; the wine drinkers; the card players; and the gossips of the neighborhoods. They are the wanters of your acquaintance, the unfortunates of the world. They would rather have thirty pieces of silver to jingle than a friend.

The ones who, under any circumstances, are those whom you consider happy are those who have conquered the bodily nature and are governed by their mental or spiritual nature.

The bodily nature is still desiring some other thing just beyond it, never satisfied.

The Two Natures.

As this book is to deal principally with the bodily nature, we may profitably examine the double natures at this time and state that, without this understanding, happiness or contentment is impossible.

The Spiritual. — It is quite certain that there is no happiness for the spiritual nature in the enjoj'ment of the body.

The happiness and contentment of the spiritual must come from the growth and enjoyment of the spiritual.

We must have something tangible for the spirit to take hold of and to rest in. Not that the body should be neglected, but the spirit is of more importance. The spiritual is not born when the body is, but at some period after.

When we are " horn again " very few can positively tell. But after the spirit is once born, there is a desire for the spirit to constantly grow. The free spirit desires to know more of spiritual things and we are as constantly finding some new thing for the spirit to feed upon.

The true food for the spirit is the Word of God. This food has been provided for us to feed upon in advance, just as the coal and oil for our heat and light are found in the earth where it had been placed by the Maker of the earth thousands of years ago.

This food for the spirit is all found in the Bible and is not found anywhere else, but the means of digesting this prepared food is in the spirit which is in harmony with the Spirit of God, which is called the Holy Spirit.

These two acquaintances are sufficient to feed the spirit of man as long as the man lives. All the supplies of spiritual food are drawn from these two sources. We may be nourished and feasted by admiring the sublimities of nature or in contemplating the wondrous works of God — His mountains, valleys, oceans and landscapes, but the true supply of spiritual food can come from no other source than the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

When we have once accepted this we shall never cease to grow daily. We shall be kept. The Lord will hold us in His hand. We shall be His children. Our spiritual nature will be fed from him day by day. The bodily nature will be

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in abe} T ance. We shall be free from the desires of this world. No one can taunt us or worry us about the affairs of this world, because the affairs of this life will be beneath our care. What we may need we shall have without our having to fight for it or without our having to worry about it.

This condition is what the Lord meant when he said: " Seek first the kingdom of God." If we have our spiritual natures fed we will be found in the kingdom of God. We shall be daily dependent on the Holy Spirit and the Bible for our supply of daily food, and we shall not have to be very anxious to know where the next supply is coming from, because we shall know that the Spirit and the Book will provide. This truth is of the very first importance. We must have our spiritual natures fed. They must be fed from the Word of God. We can not find the Word of God out of the Bible. With the Bible comes the Holy Spirit. With these two supplies we shall have an abundance of food and as constantly grow. We shall have all our spiritual natures in good order and in the way of life. As children, we shall grow up in the light of "Our Father, God."

If we do not have these spiritual natures of ours in good condition, no matter what else we may have, we shall be unhappy and miserable. Unless we have these spiritual natures born and fed and growing, we can not understand the truths of life when we see them.

The first advice we would give, is to settle your mind on this great subject and have your spiritual nature resting on the great God, ' ' the Maker of Heaven and earth and all that in them is," your Maker and mine.

You may think this is not ' < counsel. " It is. You can not keep anything in this life unless you have some spot to place away what you may get. There has to be some place to place your earthly possessions.

You can have no room for anything spiritual in your head or in your body- unless you have your spiritual nature in a receptive condition. You do not have to wait a moment. Follow the teachings of the Master and go into your closet, shut the door and pray to the Father who is in secret and

The Two Natures.

He shall reward you openly. This is a spiritual act, forcing the body to become obedient. Or, you can simply look and satisfy the spiritual nature,

If you are not in the habit of praying, you have to commence and you do not need any one to tell 3*011 that a prayer is asking of God something you may wish. This desire to be obedient to God is born of 3'our spiritual nature. Your bodily nature desires to eat, sleep, and grow fat. God is your Father. He is your Maker. He is your Preserver. And no matter how young or how old you may be, God is now ready to hear your petitions and as ready to answer them. He made you and formed these two natures. He asks obedience from you, as His child. The organizations of man are not needed. You may think so. But God and the spirit are not found in man's material societies.

There is a great deal of this supposed need of a church to join. But we tell you that the great majority of the societies and organizations are not helps to holy living, but are hindrances. We tell you more. If you have a desire to live in the best manner to produce the best results for your spiritual nature you would best keep away from these material organizations, societies and bands, and the people who are wedded to the material and earthly brotherhoods or sisterhoods. We are most sorry to tell you this. We feel that we are antagonizing many good and true friends. But we know that we are right. The so-called societies and bands of human fabrication are not beneficial to your spiritual life. The people who are in those societies are not truthful, and too many of them (but we do not say all of them) have joined those societies for the purpose of being helped in their bodily and material life. We acknowledge that help is needed. But we tell you that the help one gets from the common society is not the help that helps. The help which is needed is from the power of the Hoty Spirit, and is not to be received from the association of the people who frequent the societies and weekl}- gatherings of the multitudes who go to obtain the same thing. They lack this help of themselves, and, as thej' do not have it, the}' certainly can not and do not give it to you. They can not help your spiritual nature. The only way by which you can be helped in this gaining of the Spirit, is to read the Bible and pray to God. We might tell you that some holy men or holy women could help you, but they can not and it is not of any use to deceive you when this hand shall be dust.

There is no real help outside of the Bible and the answers to your prayers. This is the fact and the sooner you realize this the sooner you will educate your spiritual nature. You may imagine that some scapula, some image, some prayer to some saint, or to the deity who may be supposed to preside over your nativity, or a prayer to the Virgin, will aid you in your endeavors to lead a holy life. But this is all a mistake. These saints are all dead and the}' can not help you. Christ is our only authority for the way to act. He said:

"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut the door, pray to tlry Father which is in secret, and tlry Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee. "

We think we are correct in saying when you have done this and when you have learned to depend wholly on the Father for assistance, you will acknowledge that all the societies made by men can not help you.

There are some things which we hesitate to say, and yet we know for your own good you would better learn them now than by and by when the tempter comes.

Many of your worst temptations will be from the so-called churches. You will grow worldly and selfish by thinking that the churches and church people are what 3-011 should be generous to.

You should be generous to the entire world. Every person in this world who is one of God's children claims your help. If you are once tied to a society, that society will be the boundary of your life. If you do not ally yourself with an}- human organization, . but depend wholly on the Lord Jesus, you will be in the church — although you will not belong to an}' human organization.

This is our experience. The society of man does not help

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3*ou but develops the earthly, and they do your spiri ual nature hurt. These societies must have money; must have your labor; the earnings of your hands; the toil of your bod}'. You must dress. Ten thousand things come up that lower your standard of living to the Master. And we think it is best to keep from all entanglements with all human societies, all human bands, as it is known to be a human society, and the work of human hands. Do not allow the spiritual to depend on earthly charit}' for food. Go to God.

Perhaps you are a church person, so-called. If you are really desirous of serving God 3*011 should lose no time in seeing " whether the body of men known as the human churches are correct.

Take one single point. The traditions of this so-called church tell and teach 3*011 to praj to the Virgin Mary.

At the same time the church professes to believe on the Holy Bible. Very well.

Take 3 r our Catholic Bible (there is no material difference in the Bibles — the Spirit of God is with the reading of either of them) and turn to the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, fourth chapter, and commence at the thirteenth verse, and read to the end of the chapter.

Here 3*011 find that the good are "asleep in Jesus."

The3* are "dead in Christ," and "shall rise first." When shall the3* rise?

You will see that the3* are going to " rise " when the "Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout."

The3 T are not 3 T et risen. If the3* are not 3*et risen WI13' should you pray to them? Think this over carefully and with pikers to God and prayers to Christ, and ask God to help 3*011.

Let me tell 3*011, my Catholic reader, that one of the reasons of your unhappiness and of your not having answers to your prayers, is because 3*011 do not pray according to the teachings of 3*0111' Lord and Master, Christ. All of your prayers to the Virgin are of no value, and you have now, although you may not read another word, a full reason why 3*011 should look into the Bible and see for 3*0111* own self whether your so-called church is of God or is it of man. We tell you, if you desire to find God, and if you desire to have some help for your spiritual nature, you should see that you go to the only place where there is an}' help, and that place is the Bible, and to the closet as taught by Jesus, and in sincere prayer to God. All your prayers to the Virgin are an abomination to God and are a part of the idolatrous system known as the Roman church. We tell you still more. If there are any of the human organizations which are under more misfortune than an}' other, we can show you that the members of the Roman Catholic church are the ones.

The time has come which has been looked for, when God cries out: " Come out of her my people.'" And we tell you without any hope of reward or of fear, that the time is here when the good people of all denominations are coming out of the churches and belonging alone to the church of God and wholly trusting to the saving grace of the Holy Spirit, which does not have to have any human organization to assist it in its work. No earthly organization can help your spiritual nature. God can alone satisfy and provide for you.

So we go back to our first point, — that if you desire to help your spiritual nature you must depend on two sources, and those two sources are the Bible and the Holy Spirit. Let all the human societies alone.

When you are free from these societies you are ready to depend on the Spirit of God. As long as you are in these human societies you are looking to them for a support which they will never give. Your spiritual nature will be always dwarfed as long as you are with and depending upon them. Take the Bible as the man of your counsel and depend on the Holy Spirit for your sole guidance.

When you do this you must not think that all is to be smooth sailing into paths of peace. A child is born in a moment, but it does not grow to be a man in a moment. You will not grow to be strong in a moment. You have first to learn to go to God. Then God will commence to teach you His way. He has a way in this world. What-

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i:

ever may be bad in }'our path, go directly to G-od with it. Take everything which you think is out of your power to do or to overcome, to the throne.

Ask God in all of the affairs of your daify life to help and guide you and } T our steps. Whatever is in your way to do, and to do good, do it, but at the same time do not do anything without asking God to help you in the doing of that thing, no matter how humble and how small it may appear.

Do not forget that it is all between you and the Spirit of Grod whether you will become a child of God. You must go to God. But when you once go to God he does not leave you in -the dark. His Spirit comes down and teaches you what to do. You can not know all of God's purposes at once. Little by little He will show you what is best for }~ou to do in His way. He will educate and guide you. Christ said He would send the Comforter, and either the Comforter has come or He has not. If Christ told the truth, then the Comforter is here and waiting to help you. The Comforter is come. All the ills of this life will appear very small in this life if you are a child of God. And }-ou may be assured that if anything happens to you that there is some object in the thing happening, and take it as from the Father. Do not worry and fret about the spiritual part of existence if you have done all in your power to help yourself. The salvation of the spiritual part is the work of God, and He is not likely to make any mistake about the work which is especially His.

If you have taken all the care of the spirit you know how, it is not worth while to be worried about the future of that spirit. Your duty is to be sure you are right here and not worry about being right hereafter. That future is the provision of God and you will find that He is alone the One who will take care of that future. If the mind worries } t ou after .you have done all in your power to keep the mind easy, ask yourself if there is not something which is wrong with the body. Your liver may be bad and in such a case it is natural that there should be some gloomy thoughts. We can know when we are right mentally, because the mind is lioht

14 The Two Nature;

and buoyant. And we can know when we are right bodily when we feel that there is no pain or ache or weakness.

The object of this book is to aid you in preserving your bodily health and to assist 3-011 in taking care of that body. The knowledge which is in this book is of no value to you until } t ou have that knowledge in your head and can use the knowledge for 3-our own self.

You will know whether the knowledge is true or not by the time 3'ou have tried it. You can tell whether it is new to } T ou or not. All the knowledge concerning 3-our bod3^ could not be put in this book, but if 3 t ou desire to get knowledge, there will be an opportune to get that knowledge which is of use to 3^011.

The spiritual nature is alone fed on spiritual things and not on the food of the body. The food of the bod3 T will not feed or edify the needs of the spiritual nature, and when one thinks or fancies that the affairs of this life can make the spiritual nature satisfied, there is made one of the grandest mistakes of life. We can not do it. The moment we are satisfied with the things of this life and with the affairs of this world, and we are satisfied with the goods of this earthly existence, we are spiritualty starved. The spiritual nature is in the condition of a hungry child. It lacks food. To feed the spiritual nature there has to be food appropriate to the nature. This food is alone prepared b3 T the One who made us, and is as abundant as the bodily food is. Eveiywhere there is this spiritual food, if we can take it and assimilate it. But we can never assimilate the food which is around us until we are in a condition to take this food from the rough places where it may be found. The person who thinks of dinner as the main thing of the da3 T will never see any beaiuty in the clouds or the sunshine. The person who is thinking how the dress is trailing along the street is not one who can contemplate the beauties of the stars. One who is after a dollar to buy bread is not the one who is contemplating the source of the Northern Lights.

To have this spiritual life as perfect as it should be, we should live as close to the great God who made us, as we know how. The gossiping and the tattling of the common herd should not find an entrance to our minds. We should shun those people who are ready to carry any of this earthly and foul-mouthed gossip. Shun all and every kind of idle words. Shun the companionship of those who are in the habit of telling those stories or repeating the tales which will make any person unhappy.

"VVe think the best way to get this spiritual food is to go to the Bible and read until the Lord and the Word are as one to us, and we can see what is meant in the Word of God.

The reading of the novels of the day is one of the methods by which we can starve the spiritual nature. The most of these stories are based on some love affair which is never true to life and which is always of the most material nature. It can not do us any good to read these things which are untrue and do not leave us as well fitted to battle against the world as we were before we read them. We have a false idea in our heads and this false idea is often what places us at a disadvantage in the battle for bread.

The mind should be trained to the exact truth, and with such training there will not be any trouble in looking at the things of life so as to make the exact case as it stands and as soon as we can see the exact condition and the exact relation and the manner in which we stand to the rest of mankind, we shall be able to select our place and give to ourselves the food that is needed, to our spiritual natures, as well as the food to our bodily natures. Why should we become servants to someone else who is not as good as we are? We can take care of this body and elevate the spirit and mind at the same time. Perhaps the best example of taking the eyes from this world's affairs is to be found when Moses lifted up the serpent of brass and bade the bitten people to look to this image. They had to take off their eyes from the place where they had received the bite and gaze on something else. They must cease to dwell on the snakebite; they had to take the eyes from this place where the}' had received the bite, and turn them away from their material bodies. The very fact that they had to take their minds from the bite and look to something else was enough to change their minds. As long as they were looking at the wound which they had received from the snake they could do nothing. But when they took their eyes from this wound and placed them on something which was placed there by someone else, then they were healed.

So in the desire for a spiritual elevation. We have to take our minds from the contemplation of these earthly things and go to the spiritual throne and to * ' One who was lifted up " before we can get any relief from this earthly torture which comes to every one in the world at some time.

While this work will deal with the bodily nature mostly, we say, at the outset, the spiritual nature is of far the most value and without the elevation of the spiritual above the material there will be no true happiness. Study how to have the spiritual nature in the best possible condition and we think the best way is to have a sound mind in a sound body. Do not neglect either of these natures as you value your peace of mind and your happiness.

Chapter II. Why Am I A Woman?

This question has been asked countless times, and we have never seen any satisfactory answer to it.

The differences in the sex are accounted for in the following manner. When there is union between the parents directly after the menstrual period, there will be a girl. If a period of six to fourteen days elapse, the offspring will be a male.

This rule is asserted to hold good in all the mammalia.

The body in its general make-up is precisely alike in both cases, except that, in. the case of the male, the scrotum descends outside the body and carries the testes down {or vice versa), and the organs enlarge under the influence of increase of nutrition. While in the female, the organs are retained in the body, the scrotum becoming the uterus and the testes the ovaries. The organs of the female have each counterparts in the male. But this is the condition of sex only and it is evident that there is in the woman, a something that there is not in the male.

We have been told that the female is the < ' weaker vessel, " but, in reality, if one examines the body and the habits, this should not be so.