What Makes a Girl or Woman Beautiful?

February 22, 2018 by Christina

Maybe it’s because I haven’t had a manicure in forever and a day, but this excerpt from Beautiful Girlhood by Mabel Hale strikes me as just perfect. While Mabel’s target audience is young girls maturing into womanhood, the wisdom here extends to women of all ages. It also calls to mind the relationship between doctrine and good works. We know that salvation is monergistic, and that no man can muster up what the Spirit alone has power to do. But it is equally true that good deeds have a place in our salvation. Paul told Titus, “I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people” (Titus 3:8). We don’t do good works to be saved, we do good works because we are saved. Good deeds are not the basis of our salvation but they are evidence, and God expects them from us. So, what makes a girl or woman beautiful? Yes, there is something to be said for a pretty face, or well manicured hands! But, there is also something infinitely more important than that! Listen:

“In the cloakroom of a certain school, a question arose among some girls as to who had the most beautiful hands. The teacher listened to her girls thoughtfully. They compared hands and explained secrets of keeping them pretty. Nettie said that a girl could not keep perfect hands — and wash dishes or sweep. Maude spoke of the evil effects of cold and wind, and too much sunshine. Stella told of her favorite cold cream. Ethel spoke of proper manicuring. At last the teacher spoke.

“To my mind Jennie Higgins has the most beautiful hands of any girl in school,” she said quietly.

“Jennie Higgins!” exclaimed Nettie in amazement; “why, her hands are rough and red and look as if she took no care of them. I never thought of them as being beautiful.”

“I have seen those hands carrying food to the sick, and soothing the brow of the aged. She is her widowed mother’s main help, and she it is who does the milking and carries the wood and water, yes, and washes dishes night and morning, that her mother may be saved the hard work. I have never known her to be too tired to speak kindly to her little sister, and help her in her play. I have found those busy hands helping her brother with his kite. I tell you I think they are the most beautiful hands I have ever seen, for they are always busy helping somewhere!”

This is the beauty for which every girl should strive — the beauty that comes from unselfishness and usefulness. Beauty of face and form is secondary in importance, though not to be despised. If used properly, personal beauty is a good gift; but if it turns a girl’s head — then it becomes a curse to her!

Think of such women as are much spoken of through the public press, or who have achieved noble deeds, as Frances Willard, Florence Nightingale, or Edith Cavel — and consider whether you ever heard if they were pretty or not. No one ever thinks of such trifles when speaking of those who are great of soul.

The girl who depends on her pretty face or form for attraction, is to be most pitied! Those articles in magazines that so exalt the idea of outer beauty, are pandering to the baser part of nature. One may be perfectly beautiful so far as that kind of beauty goes — and lack that true beauty which is like a royal diadem upon the head. Those who give much time to increasing their personal charms are living on a lower level, than is altogether befitting to womanhood. A beautiful soul shining out of a homely face — is far more attractive than a beautiful face out of which looks a soul full of selfishness and pride!

My little friend, do not be careless of the good looks that God has given to you, take care in dressing yourself and attending to personal neatness, that you may ever appear at your best; untidiness and carelessness hide the beauty of kind deeds — but greatness of soul and nobility of heart, hide homeliness of face. You cannot see the one for the other. Seek goodness and purity first, then strive to keep the body in harmony with the beauty of the heart. Take time to make yourself presentable — but do not use the time before your looking-glass that should be given to loving service. Let your chief charm be of heart and mind — not of face and form. Seek the true beauty which lasts even into old age!

Solomon, in one of his wise sayings, expressed plainly the evil that comes to a woman who is beautiful of face but lacks the true beauty of soul: “Like a gold ring in a swine’s snout — is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion!” Proverbs 11:22. As the swine would plunge the golden jewel into the filth and the mire as he dug in the dirt — so will a pretty woman who is not godly drag her beauty down to the very lowest.

There are many peculiar temptations to those who are only lovely of face. Without true beauty of soul — a pretty face is a dangerous gift!”

“Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears the LORD shall be praised!” Proverbs 31:30

Mabel Hale, Beautiful Girlhood (and also here).

Grace in the Common and Trivial Duties of Life

February 17, 2018 by Christina

“Portrait of Madame Pissarro Sewing near a Window”, Camille Pissarro. Public Domain.

“How hard it is,” you say, “that so much of one’s time is taken up with things that must be done — and yet none of them seem worth doing!”

Ah, that is not a new difficulty, dear! The hermits of the East stumbled over it, and the monks of the West; and many a one who has not left, like them, the every-day life of the world — has groaned under it, as if there were guilt in the weight as well as care.

One thing, however, we are sure of — that all which God sends to any human soul must have its meaning. There is nothing, however trivial, which He cannot make a means of grace. It is for us to take it as such — or to scorn it. There is blessing wrapped for us in every lowly duty, and if we despise its homely dress, then the loss and the responsibility are our own.

“But mine are such common duties,” you say, “helping in the house, or sewing for the children. It’s all such material work.” I think I have been learning, lately, that we may not call anything common which God has cleansed; and has not His consecrating touch fallen on all home-toil and care, material though it may appear, since Jesus lived in the workshop at Nazareth? He counts nothing unclean, nothing unworthy of Him, but sin. His love in the heart will purify everything it touches. It has transmuting power enough to change the dross of the common street, into the fine gold of the sanctuary. And so the “base things of the world, and things which are despised” become, when laid on the altar which sanctifies the gift, things which God has chosen.”

Hetty Bowman, Thoughts on the Christian Life; or, Leaves from Letters, 1872

Who Has the Majority?

August 17, 2017 by Christina

“And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them”

— 2 Kings 6:16

Horses and chariots and a great host shut up the prophet in Dothan. His young servant was alarmed. How could they escape from such a body of armed men? But the prophet had eyes which his servant had not, and he could see a greater host with far superior weapons guarding him from all harm. Horses of fire are mightier than horses of flesh, and chariots of fire are far preferable to chariots of iron. Even so is it at this hour. The adversaries of truth are many, influential, learned, and crafty; and truth fares ill at their hands; and yet the man of God has no cause for trepidation. Agencies, seen and unseen, of the most potent kind, are on the side of righteousness. God has armies in ambush which will reveal themselves in the hour of need. The forces which are on the side of the good and the true far outweigh the powers of evil. Therefore, let us keep our spirits up, and walk with the gait of men who possess a cheering secret, which has lifted them above all fear. We are on the winning side. The battle may be sharp, but we know how it will end. Faith, having God with her, is in a clear majority: “They that be with us are more than they that be with them. – C.H. Spurgeon

Philip Melanchthon on the Death of Martin Luther

June 10, 2017 by Christina

When Martin Luther died his close friend, and leader of the Protestant Reformation, Philip Melanchthon, delivered a powerful eulogy. In his tribute, Melanchthon addresses Luther’s well-known brashness and harshness of tone. Indeed, it was no secret that Luther, for all his education, wasn’t one for refinement. In fact, his wife, Katharina, often chided him as being “too raw”. But during a time when preaching the Gospel could mean having your tongue cut out, it seems to me Luther was just the man for the hour.

Here’s Melanchthon giving glory to God alone for the life of a man who, for all his problems, was key to preserving a Gospel of grace for generations to come.

“Some by no means evil-minded persons, however, express a suspicion that Luther manifested too much asperity. I will not affirm the reverse, but only quote the language of Erasmus, “God has sent in this latter age a violent physician on account of the magnitude of the existing disorders,” fulfilling by such a dispensation the divine message to Jeremiah, “Behold I have put My words in thy mouth. See I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out and pull down, and to destroy and throw down, to build and to plant.” Nor does God govern His church according to the counsels of men, nor choose to employ instruments like theirs to promote His purposes. But it is usual for inferior minds to dislike those of a more ardent character.”