In the first place, what are the virtues that must characterize the Christian young lady? I need hardly tell you, for your own hearts at once suggest what we all expect in a young lady.
    Your very name, my Christian young woman, discloses to you and teaches you the task and the duties of your present state of life. Virginal purity and chastity is the ornament and crown of your age. This precious gem you must bring pure and spotless to the altar of God and place it there unprofaned before the throne of God in the hour of death. Chastity is the
crystal in which the light of Heaven separates in all its beauteous purity, and breaks at the same time into the most translucently beautiful rays and colors. The perfection of your state of life and age consists in the preservation of this diamond from every stain of sin.

 A young woman who has lived pure and chaste has fulfilled all her duties; because all the virtues which should adorn her heart, will either be the fruits of chastity, or will be loved and practiced by her as guardians and defenders of chastity.

    On this account I shall endeavor to explain the high value of this bright diamond of a pure and chaste heart which is the crowning glory of maidenhood.

   In the first place then what is chastity, and wherein consists its value and greatness? And, secondly, what are the virtues by which chastity is preserved in the heart of a young woman?
 
We will ask the Virgin Mother of Our Divine Savior to teach us the beauty of this virtue.

   Many virtues bloom as flowers of diverse colors and emit a fragrance in the garden of God and can be practiced by us. The one surpasses the other in excellence and distinction. But the queen of all virtues is virginal chastity or virginal purity. Purity is a virtue full of glory, a virtue full of privileges, and blessed with happiness and tenderness. Let us meditate upon all these points in particular.

   Listen to the commentary of the Holy Ghost on this most beautiful and most glorious of virtues. "O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory; for the memory thereof is immortal; because it is known both with God and with man," says the Book of Wisdom. "Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see God," says Our Savior Jesus Christ. "Now concerning Virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord-----but I give counsel as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful," says St. Paul. "I think that this is good for the present necessity; that it is good for a man so to be . . . Therefore both he that giveth his virgin in marriage doth well, and he that giveth her not doth better . . . But more blessed shall she be, if she so remain . . . All men, take not this word, but they to whom it is given . . . He that can take it let him take it."

    And the words of the Saints are similarly full of praise for this virtue. The saintly Martyr Ignatius writes concerning chastity in his letter to the people at Tarsus: "Such as live a life of chastity-----[virginity] you should honor as the priests of Christ." "They are more, especially the children of Christ," says St. Ambrose. St. Chrysostom calls them the angels of God on earth. St. Bernard raises them above the Angels. A chaste man and an Angel differ in this, he says: that chastity is good fortune in the Angel, but a virtue in man. "Rejoice ye virgins betrothed to God," St. Augustine cries out to them; "what an honor and good fortune, for you have Him for your bridegroom Whom the purest Queen of Virgins was alone worthy to love as a Son! He honors you not indeed as His Mother, but he loves you as His brides."

   But why all this honor in the mouth of God and His Saints? Only view chastity in its innermost being, and it will soon become apparent to you! Chastity is the perfection of all virtue and holiness, it is the very acme of a Christian life, in its most translucent form. As the greatest of virtues over oneself and over the wildest of all impulses, it is the crown of all virtues, and Christian holiness as far as may be obtained on earth. Chastity changes us from men into angels in the flesh, as Our Savior says: "For in the resurrection they shall neither marry, nor be married; but shall be as the Angels of God, in Heaven." 

 To the Christian maiden there can be no virtue and no perfection without chastity. In it alone consists your being, as the name you bear indicates. In it lies your whole value, your whole worth, your glory, as the name implies which you bear. Without chastity you are a body from which the soul has escaped, and which must corrupt as a body not vivified by the soul. Without purity you are a temple from which the Holy of Holies has been torn away. Without chastity you are as the tabernacle from which the Blessed Sacrament has been stolen with criminal hands; you are a living lie and sin.

   Christianity, the pure dove of Heaven, had hardly flown upon earth and set its feet upon this poor sin-worn world when hundreds and thousands of Christians strove to exercise this preeminent and excellent virtue. Animated by the praise which the Savior of the world bestowed upon this grandest of human virtues and taught by the example of His Own life and His blessed Mother, numberless souls choose the virgin life as all do who draw near to Christ. The graces of Christianity were the seeds out of which grew this virtue, almost superhuman in the eyes of the world before Christ.

   If I now pass over to the prerogatives of this virtue, let me first recall to your minds how the same was honored even among the pagans. Heathenism had lost the ethical or moral power to exercise this virtue, but the esteem for holy purity never disappeared even in this terrible corruption; and although the debauchee cannot suffer the sight of a chaste virgin, and as the loss of virginity in a lawful way appears to natural man to be a giving up and renunciation of a perfection; be it that heathenism admiring the strength of the man, who celebrated the greatest victory by the conquest of his lower nature, or be it that the hope of all people, that a virgin should bear the Mediator before God and men impelled them to honor every maiden -----we have the strange fact that perfect chastity had certain privileges and prerogatives all over the world.

   Almost all nations of antiquity had their vestal virgins whom they regarded as higher beings. The senator had to rise in pagan Rome before a priestess of Vesta and uncover his head. In case a vestal virgin met a criminal who was on the way to execution, he had to be pardoned at once. Holy virgins guarded the temple of Minerva in Athens, whilst in Rome they took care of the sacred fire. Such priestesses consecrated to perpetual virginity we find in India and Peru, as also in China and Japan; and it is peculiar how the violation of their vow was followed almost everywhere with the same punishment as at Rome.

   But by far higher are the privileges and prerogatives which the Church and Jesus Christ accords to the virgin maiden. From the first centuries of the Church we find virgins consecrated to God. They wore special clothes blessed by the Bishop and belonged in a certain sense to the clergy of the Church. During diverse services they were nearer to the altar and they enjoyed precedence over all the other women. Special liturgical prayers were offered up for them.

Our Divine Savior has accorded to virginal souls the greatest privileges. He calls them blessed and says of them that they shall see His face. St. John has this to say about them in his Apocalypse: "And they sung as it were a new canticle before the throne and before the four living creatures and the ancients; and no man could say the canticle, but those one hundred forty-four thousand-----who were purchased from the earth. These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were purchased from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And within their mouth was found no lie for they are without spot before the throne of God." "And whither does the Lamb go?" Adds St. Augustine. "He goeth where one tastes unspeakable joys, the enjoyment of which is peculiar to virgins and will be different from the joys of other Saints who were not virgins."

   Virginal souls were deemed worthy to come nearer to Our Lord than others even in the days of His earthly career. His Mother was a Virgin, His foster-father was a virgin. The Apostle St. John, who by a special preference of love was permitted to rest on the heart of Jesus, was a pure virgin boy. A chaste and virgin priesthood alone is worthy to carry the Body of Our Lord in its hands. Virginal souls alone will enjoy in Heaven the most intimate union with the Lamb.

   Every virtue brings joy and happiness to man-----because virtue is the reward of a struggle and a victory, and victory begets joy in the heart of him who wins it. The greater and the more uninterrupted the struggle which it costs to acquire a virtue, the greater will be the joy because of the victory. He who preserves the chastity of his heart untarnished in the victory over the world and over his sinful heart, will carry in his heart unimpaired the peace of God which accompanies purity, and which is the reward of it. Like the sun this virtue will shine upon the soul, and every fog of sin and the most gentle discord of the heart will remain at a distance.

   Christian women, so long as you remain free from this stain, no great sorrow and grief will torment you. No vice will be able to grow up in your heart. Small imperfections will indeed tarnish the beauty of your soul but mortal sin will not stain it. Nothing will be able to rob you of your happiness. Every new victory will render the peace of your heart more secure. But if the vice of unchastity, reigns in your soul-----then your happiness will vanish forever. Then all the portals of evil are open; the mire of sin wallows in your heart and the most terrible struggles must then be encountered. Unchastity is followed by all kinds of vices and by consequent corruption and ruin.

   Virginal chastity renders you amiable, joyous, happy. It is your glory and the true and only beauty of your being. It is the rouge which God has given you Himself and which no artificial means can counterfeit or explain. It is the guardian of all tenderness and true love. Vice and luxury make men cruel, hard and bitter. Chastity on the contrary begets mildness and meekness. This virtue saves you from lies and falsehood. A pure heart is as clear and transparent as water. A pure maiden has nothing to conceal or fear before others. There is nothing in her chaste heart that would make her blush to have others see. Purity loves truth and is open-hearted towards parents, brothers, sisters and towards every one who approaches her. All is light and clear in her. Her thoughts and desires, her memory and imagination, her whole being is so pure, that neither she nor her surroundings could suggest any vice or uncleanness. Chastity is the pure temple of God from which everything unholy is banished. Purity is the transfiguration of your being, and the wreath of virtue which she winds around your head will increase the blessedness of your heart.

   What shall I say of the bliss of Heaven which chastity procures for you? "But more blessed shall she be, if she so remain," says St. Paul, meaning a virgin. And Our Savior promises those who are of a clean heart-----the vision of His Countenance. Whoever follows Him shall upon His return sit on the same throne with Him. And every one that hath left home or brother or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife or children or lands for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold and shall possess life everlasting." Whoever renounces the lust of the flesh-----in which, as Holy Scripture says-----all is lust-----and preserves chastity amidst continual warfare shall receive the highest reward in Heaven. Whoever gains the greatest victory, shall also wear the most beautiful crown. If the soul that observes conjugal purity receives a reward of thirty-fold, if a widow that lives up to her state in stainless purity after the husband's death, receives sixty-fold reward, a virgin must receive a reward of an hundred-fold.

    Will you not then do all in your power to preserve this glorious, this excellent and blessed virtue? You are bound to do it; for it is also a virtue of tenderness. Chastity is easily violated and lost. What Our Lord says of the grace of faith in our heart is also true of chastity. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency may be in the power of God and not in us." An unchaste wind blows over the earth and seems to affect our whole modern society. Our fashions are often full of boldness; also our theaters, our literature and paintings, which our days bring forth and multiply so terribly. Full of lewdness and shamelessness is our public life. The cry for pleasure fills our cities, and wherever it is heard, it is sure to call out the vipers of unchastity which spread like wildfire.

   With the dangers about us, come the weakness of our own hearts and the desires of the lower man. The inclination to sin has its roots even in the purest souls, and the germs of vice are ever in the hearts of our fallen nature. The first motions of the natural passions are not sins, but they lead to sin, and their power is often stronger than would appear to us-----if we are not on the alert from the very beginning. We all can say with Holy Writ: "My strength is not the strength of stones, nor is my flesh of brass."

Should we not with fear look upon the treasure of chastity in the earthen and sinful vessel of our heart, when we remember how the Devil goes about like a thief, like a serpent, like a roaring lion to rob us of this precious gift! Satan hungers for pure souls. He is the unclean spirit, and he hates with an unquenchable hatred every clean and pure heart. He is the sworn enemy of Jesus Christ, and persecutes on that account every chaste and virginal heart, who are special friends and favorites of the Savior.

   And how easy this virtue can be wounded. Christian young women, don't think of this vice. Even a mere thought stains a pure soul, as the gentlest breath darkens the crystal. The most distant representation of this sin, stains the temple of the chaste heart, as the least dust lessens the luster of gold. One single word is a coarse discord that disturbs the peace of the soul. Whoever is not faithful in little things, will not be faithful in important things. Whoever does not avoid the smallest, in a short time will not avoid the greatest dangers to the virtue of chastity.

   Almighty God gave to every flower an ornament and a protection for the bud within its leaves. The most noble and delicate organs of the human body are especially guarded from wounds by shields of nature. The eye for instance is a proof of what I say. Just in the same way, the virtues protect one another-----the more delicate and heavenly the virtue, the more it will be protected by others. The virtues are the pearls, ornamenting, beautifying, giving a setting to the jewel or diamond. 

Now what are the virtues, that give the setting, the encasement as it were, to the most precious of all pearls, Virginity-----and protect and beautify it?

   First humility and modesty. Humility is a precious vase which encloses all virtues and guards them from corruption. Humility is the good soil in which they feed and grow. Humility obtains from Heaven God's grace, guarantees us God's help and assistance, and without God's grace we can do nothing. All virgins were humble, from the humble Virgin Mother of Christ, and Queen of virgins-----to the last of her devoted followers. Virginity brings forth humility and humility preserves, enhances and elevates the purity of heart. The haughty maiden will soon cease to be a maiden at least in heart. All those who weep bitter tears over the sins of their youth were led step by step to fall by pride. First they flattered their vanity and tried to please men, soon they bent every effort to encompass the utter ruin of others and reap approval and praise. Like a newly rigged vessel they plowed the waves of life in order to conquer; the storm arose, rent the sails and crushed the proud vessel, and stranded it a pitiful wreck upon the rocks. Pride precedes the fall, and shame follows it everywhere.

The humble maiden is modest and unpretentious in her conduct and behavior. She seeks her worth and beauty not in the accidents of exterior appearance but in the noble qualities of mind and heart. She boasts not in thought or conversation, but will always aim to preserve through humility God's good pleasure. Mindful of her human weakness and sinfulness she looks up to God always, and expects from above every help and strength, in every trial. To Him she commits the care of the future.

   It is a morbid sign of the times, which we deplore in so many parents, that it seems as if they could not send their children too soon into the world and its pleasures and passions. I think that Almighty God granted to man His best care at his birth, by endowing him with manifold powers of body and soul. Never did I see the just abandoned. Not everyone is destined for holy wedlock, just as every fruit is not sown again. It is not impossible nor unreasonable to go through life in single blessedness. The mania of some parents to have their children provided for, sows seeds of dissipation in the hearts of their daughters who soon lose that candor, joyousness, proper to their age. This strikes at the root of humility in the soul, and is the usual road to a life of sin.

   In the heart of the maiden modesty goes hand in hand with humility. What faith is to the priest, activity to the man, tenderness to the mother, earnestness to the aged, obedience to the child, courage to the soldier, knowledge to the learned, modesty is to the young lady-----a virtue without which she cannot exist. The nature of modesty can more easily be perceived than described. It is that refined gentleness and politeness which is by nature peculiar to woman in a high degree. Modesty is that virtue which enables the young woman to measure aright all her words and thoughts, all her ways and the bearings of her person.

The modest young lady will never pronounce an unbecoming word, or permit such in her presence. The most gentle, yet unbecoming will cause a blush to mantle her cheek. She will avoid every danger and by some peculiar instinct she knows when danger is approaching.

   This gentle modesty is the protection of every virtuous woman. Modesty protects the purity of her heart, as the eyelids protect the pupils of our eyes. It is the rampart built by God around the chastity of the soul. And when this rampart is tom asunder, then the way is open to ruin. An immodest young woman is on that account despised by all the world. With all other accomplishments, she is a corpse adorned with costly wares-----an ugly, an offensive sight. This virtue should be esteemed by you in the highest degree. This virtue must be cultivated and become still more refined, in order that the purity of the soul veiled by it may not suffer any loss.

   Besides humility and modesty the pearl of chastity must be surrounded for her own honor and protection, by watchfulness, in union with Christian fortitude.

   I have already spoken of the dangers to the chastity of the soul. They arise from within, from our own weakness, and they come from without, and it is hard to say which is the most subtle and dangerous. Only a fearful vigilance will overcome them, inasmuch as she is always exposed to them: "Watch and pray," Our Lord tells us, "lest you fall into temptation; for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." "The Devil goeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." David, the holy king of Israel, fell into sin. Are we more holy than he? Solomon, who was once loved by God, who was Divinely called to build the temple of the Most Holy, fell. Are we more perfect than he? Thousands have fallen, though they thought a fall impossible. Are we greater and stronger than they? Listen to what St. Paul, mistrusting his own strength, says: " I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest that when I have preached to others, I myself may become a castaway." The greater the treasure to be guarded, the greater must be the care taken to protect it.

   Be watchful over yourselves; over what originates in your heart, or enters it through the wide portals of the same. Alas, the germs of our passions grow unconsciously in our sinful souls. Beware of all inquisitiveness to know things that should remain hidden to you. Be watchful over the senses of the body, in particular over your eyes and ears, so that sin shall not enter like a spark of fire into the easily enkindled depths of your soul and ruin it. St. Chrysostom compares an unchaste book to an arrow which pierces an animal's flesh. A deer, he says, that is not mortally wounded will still run about in the face of his foes, until finally from loss of blood he falls dead. "O Lord, turn Thou my eyes away that I see not the vanities of the world," prayed David. An unchaste look tempted and caused David to sin.

   Be careful whom you choose for friends. Instead of angels you will meet men who are like the serpent that caused the fall of our first parents, that caused them to disobey God's Commandment. Many who call themselves your friends and who wish to have your future placed in their hands, carry honey on their tongues, but poison in their hearts. They play in a shameful way with the fortune of your life; they play in the passion of their hearts with your immortal soul. Be watchful over your reading and conversation. The cheap literature of today with few exceptions is bad. The novels especially are like the serpent's shining scales, for they present what is worst in human nature and human passion, in pleasant words and attractive form to the young soul. It speaks to the youth as of old: "No you shall not die the death. For God doth know in whatsoever day you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil." It awakens impulses in your souls that should be at rest, and awakens even compassion and enthusiasm for vice in your souls.

   But vigilance really in earnest, must be invested with fortitude; for fortitude is the perfection of vigilance. All pure and chaste souls were brave, because they knew the temptations and the weakness of the human heart. They knew that flight in this case is courageous, and that the greatest exertion is necessary to preserve the golden treasure of purity in the weak vessel of clay. Have you not heard how St. Agatha and St. Agnes suffered Martyrdom sooner than permit their chastity to be violated? Have you not heard how St. Benedict, tempted to unchastity, rolled his body in a heap of thorns and briars? Have you not heard that St. Bernard, in the strength of his heart, leaped into a frozen pond? You have heard of Saints who have disfigured their faces so as not to be too much exposed to the blandishments of the world. Their penitential girdles and garments, the bloody scourge with which they chastised their bodies-----the vows which they made, were so many acts of fortitude to overcome the weakness of the human heart.

   But without the grace and assistance of God, all our good resolutions to imitate the Saints would fall to the ground. On this account the purity of the heart must be made invincible and inviolable by prayer and the Sacraments.

   The young lady must cultivate the spirit of prayer. Women have by nature a larger fund of piety. It is their particular inheritance and ornament. In His wisdom God has willed it so, not only because woman destined to be mothers must plant the seeds of religion and piety in the hearts of her children, but also because she cannot overcome the dangers of life without true piety. The Christian woman says, in the words of Holy Scripture: "And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, and this also was a point of wisdom, to know whose gift it was: I went to the Lord, and besought Him with my whole heart."

   "With expectation I have waited for the Lord and He was attentive to me. And He heard my prayers and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs. And He set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps." Every morning the Christian woman will look upon the Cross and its splendor of rays and will honor the Mother of God. The Queen of Virgins will hold her strong and powerful hand over every soul that is prepared to walk in her footsteps. 

 But the most abundant grace and the greatest help in her struggle for virtue, the Christian woman will draw from the frequent reception of the Sacraments. Frequent Confession will retain in her heart a tender dislike for the smallest sin, and ever increase her former conscientiousness. Confession will remove the slightest wrong from her soul so as not to become a dangerous leaven. Nourished and strengthened by the Body and Blood of Our Lord, she will be able to overcome every obstacle to her chastity. The virginal flesh of the Savior and His Sacred Blood will as the prophet of old has said, "bring forth virgins," repel all unchaste desires, will quench the fire of lust, and elicit only what is pure and chaste. Every Christian maiden who is before God what she ought to be-----no thoughtless child of the world-----not a lady of the world-----but a woman pure and chaste, consecrated to her heavenly Queen-----should receive on all feasts of the Blessed Virgin the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. This is the most beautiful occupation for your age and the best preparation for after life, whether God destines you to enter holy wedlock or to blossom a lily before God in perfect chastity.

   My dear good maidens, you must be trained and educated to virtue. The vocation of man calls him from home. The cultivation of science, and activity in public life is the duty and calling of man. To adorn your house with virtue, with favors, mercy, devotion, devotedness, kindness and tenderness-----this is your duty and destiny. In this you possess excellent mastery. For this purpose you are created, and from your earliest days you must practice and perfect yourselves in these occupations. Be pure and chaste young women, and you are living temples of God; then you will be best prepared for the station in life to which God may call you. Amen.