The Young Ladies’ Column
The following was written for, and read before the Young Ladies’ Department of the Retrenchment Association of the 19th Ward:
“Beloved Sisters: We truly feel to thank God for the honor He has conferred upon us, and for the privileges which we today enjoy. We certainly are engaged in a great and glorious work; yes, greater than we are able to realize, and perhaps greater than we are able to perform. But we must following the example of our parents, and remember, “There is no such word as fail;” for, as long as we know that God and all good and sensible people are on our side, we feel strong and firm in our purpose. There is that sense of right within us, which urges us on and bids us conquer. What need we care, for the scoffs and scorns of those who are ignorant concerning true worth and beauty, when we have the smiles and approbation of our Heavenly Father, and also that within us, which assures us that we are right. What is true beauty? Is it not the mild and heavenly countenance which is beaming with the spirit of God? Is it not the humble, kind, and amiable, who look the most beautiful. T o us it is.
Dear Sisters: What are we here for? Did God place us here for the purpose of wasting the short and precious time which we are permitted to live? No! be assured He did not. He placed us here for something of far more importance than this, and expects us to give a solemn and strict account of our time while here.
We have the privilege of storing up the most rare and priceless gems for eternity; gems which are of far more value, and which fade not, but which grow brighter as times speeds on, and not as those which deck our mortal bodies. Are we such senseless, imperceptible beings that we fail to see the necessity of living for something nobler, purer, and better than the trivial frivolity of fashion?
Oh! sisters, let us rouse up with our whole energy, and live for truth and justice, for life and light, for God and eternity. Life is uncertain, and none of us known how soon we may be called to “leave this frail existence,” how soon we may be robed in spotless white for the grave. Then let us, one and all, prepare and make ourselves ready to pass into a better and purer world, where evils do not exist.
Miss Lona Pratt
August, 1870
[Juvenile Instructor, Dec. 24, 1870]
[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, July 2006]