How To Get Saved
Miss Wilson hesitated before closing the girls' meeting. As she waited, a visitor arose. "May I speak?" she asked modestly.
"Surely," permitted Miss Wilson, wondering.
"I was expecting your leader to mention modesty in dress as an outward evidence of the inner purity that she stressed in her evening lesson," Miss Browne began. "Well, maybe this point is more real to me than to most girls, because I learned it in the expensive school of experience. You girls here this evening need not learn it that way if you'll take it from me. Pardon my frank, blunt expression, but I am more interested in saving girls than in making flowery speeches. Here is my life story:
"When I was a small girl my father died. Mother struggled to keep her family of four girls together, but it was a losing fight. One by one we children were parceled out to neighbors and relatives. Some were good homes and some were not. The influence soon began to tell on us, and I for one responded to the full. By the time I reached my middle teens, I was-well-low. You've heard the expression, 'wine and women,' in accounting for the downfall of many men. Well, in my case it was 'wine and men,' and far too much of both. Then, strange to say, I became aware of my miserable condition. But I didn't know what to do about it. I didn't know God, and none of my friends did. I went to drinking harder than ever and grew more miserable. Then one day I was picked up out of the gutter and nursed back to consciousness by a kind Christian woman who also led me to God.
"When I got converted inside, I did outside too. My past life of sin-and I'm not commending it when I say this-did one thing for me that innocent girls like you usually don't like to believe. It convinced me of the danger of looking like the world while trying to live for Christ.
"I knew you would resent this, but I know it from experience. You don't-yet. And may God spare you the awful-" She swallowed, and wiped her eyes.
"You'll want an illustration to prove the danger I just spoke about," she said, regaining her composure. "And again I'll give it from my own life. As I said, I was converted inside and out, and in a few days I made a raid on my wardrobe. Dancing gowns, sleeveless dresses, and similar things had to go, and as fast as I could I replenished it with clothes that suggested only the inner adornment, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.
"Well, this worked fine, and I was happy for months. Then one evening, by invitation, I visited one of my old friends on the other side of the city. She had not known of my conversion.
" 'Why, Edith,' she exclaimed, looking me over critically, 'how-how-antiquated you look! Has Paris gone back to Noah's ark for ideas?' she giggled.
"She kept this up all evening, and by the time I started for home she had persuaded me to slip into one of her 'modern' outfits. The effect in the mirror both pleased and frightened me.
" 'There, now!' she flattered. 'That takes ten years away from you.'
" 'And also my peace,' I thought, afraid to tell her, coward that I was. I soon left for home. It was a lonely three-block walk to the streetcar and my thoughts troubled me. I found I couldn't pray. I felt as helpless as a lost child. As I hurried across the first intersection a perfect stranger stepped up to me and said, 'Hello.' Without even answering him I went on, faster and faster. I was afraid and prayed for God to help me.
"I'm sure God heard that prayer. I don't know why He should have, after my evening of folly, but I know He did; otherwise I couldn't be here to tell you so. For as I stood on the corner looking through the magazine assortment of the corner drug store, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.
" 'Fast traveler, aren't you?' asked the same voice I had just run away from. 'But I caught up.'
"My heart began to pound again. I looked in the window to see if there was anyone to help near. What could I do? 'God,' I begged again, 'You must help me!' But why should He help me? How could I expect Him to? It was cheap of me even to ask Him, I thought. I wanted to run inside, but my trolley was due any second. If I missed it I'd have to wait for another.
"I tried to conceal my fright by ignoring him and leafing faster through a magazine.
" 'Do you like that one? I'll buy it for you,' was his next attempt.
" 'No, thanks,' I refused.
" 'You're waiting for the next Lake Court car, I presume?'
" 'Yes,' I said, hoping to dismiss him. Poor me! I was only giving him information.
" 'Well, why wait?' he suggested. 'My car's just around the corner. Let's go.'
" 'Say!' I suddenly turned on him, my fear gone. 'You think I'm a greenhorn, and good bait for you, don't you? Listen! I know your tactics. I've been a victim to such as you too often, sometimes because I wanted to be and sometimes because I had to be. Tonight, thank God, it shall be neither. My life isn't a prey to your kind since-.' I looked myself over and knew I had no visible proof for what I was saying, but I finished it anyway. 'Since I became a Christian.'
" 'A what? A Christian? Are you a Christian?' And he looked me over from head to foot. 'Well, who'd have guessed it from your looks?'
" 'What do you know about Christians?' I asked, hurt by his rebuke.
" 'Not much. Mother was one. I just know that she didn't believe in looking like-like-worldly women.'
"I wanted to say, 'Neither do I,' but I knew it would do no good.
" 'Well,' he said, backing off a step or two-he had been familiarly close-'my hat's off to you, anyway. Sorry to have troubled you. And now may I give you a bit of advice? Men like me find the kind of women we're after at just such places as this at such an hour as this, and in such attire as yours. You are one of the few in whom my judgment has been misplaced. Is the mistake mine or yours?'
" 'I've learned my lesson,' I admitted to him. 'You had a right to judge me as you did. In the future I shall try harder to show what kind of woman I am.'
" 'Better had,' he agreed seriously, 'if you want the respect of us men.' He started to go. 'And whatever you do, hold fast to your religion. It's the real stuff-the only stuff that can keep a person on the right track. I had it once-a short time-and lost it, so I know what I'm talking about. And you are on the losing side, too, unless you quit-.'
" 'I know what you're thinking, and I'm quitting it this very night. If you ever meet me again I'll look-well, different from this.'
" 'I hope so. We'd be better men if all women felt that way. Here's your trolley. Safe trip home. Good night.'
" 'Good night, and thanks for the advice,' I called. 'And thank you, God,' I panted from the seat I settled into, 'for the advice you've given me through this experience tonight. I promise to profit by it.'
"And, girls, I've kept my promise, much to my safety and spiritual growth. I pass on this experience to you to help you live more wisely than I did. Take it from one who knows, and save yourselves many of the regrets that will always be mine."
After dismissal Miss Wilson hurried to Miss Browne and clasped her hand. 'Thank you, Miss Browne. You got across to my girls just what I had the burden to say. Again, I thank you."
"I need no thanks. I'm just glad if I've helped, Miss Wilson. If I can spare one of these dear girls the misery I've gone through I'll be happy. Some believe in letting girls learn by experience, but I can say from experience that the price is too high." -Ida Bontrager
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