Part II.
LET us now look for a moment at the actual condition of women in
America, in connection with the predicted elevation. We are told they
are to be elevated by the suffrage--and that by hanging on to the
election tickets in the hands of their wives, the men are to be
elevated with them. What, therefore, is the ground women now occupy,
and from whence they are to soar upward on the paper wings of the
ballot? The principal facts connected with that position are
self-evident; there is nothing vague or uncertain here; we have but to
look about us and the question is answered. We already know, for
instance, from daily observation and actual experience, that, as a
general rule, the kindness and consideration of American men have been
great, both in public and in private life. We know that in American
society women have been respected, they have been favored, they have
been protected, they have been beloved. There has been a readiness to
listen to their requests, to redress grievances, to make changes
whenever these have become necessary or advisable. Such, until very
recently, has been the general current of public feeling, the general
tendency of public action, in America. If there appear to-day
occasional symptoms of a change in the tone of men on this point, it is
to be attributed to the agitation of the very question we are now
discussing. Whenever women make ill-judged, unnatural, extravagant
demands, they must prepare to lose ground. Yes, even where the
particular points in dispute are conceded to their reiterated
importunity, they must still eventually lower their general standing
and consideration by every false step. There are occasions where
victory is more really perilous than a timely defeat; a temporary
triumph may lead to ground which the victors can not permanently hold
to their own true and lasting advantage. On the other hand, every just
and judicious demand women may now make with the certainty of
successful results. This is, indeed, the great fact which especially
contributes to render the birthright of American women a favorable one.
If the men of the country are already disposed to redress existing
grievances, where women are concerned, as we know them to be, and if
they are also ready, as we know them to be, to forward all needful
future development of true womanly action, what more, pray, can we
reasonably ask of them? Where lies this dim necessity of thrusting upon
women the burdens of the suffrage? And why should the entire nation be
thrown into the perilous convulsions of a revolution more truly
formidable than any yet attempted on earth? Bear in mind that this is a
revolution which, if successful in all its aims, can scarcely fail to
sunder the family roof-tree, and to uproot the family hearth-stone. It
is the avowed determination of many of its champions that it shall do
so; while with another class of its leaders, to weaken and undermine
the authority of the Christian faith in the household is an object if
not frankly avowed yet scarcely concealed. The great majority of the
women enlisted in this movement--many of them, it is needless to say,
very worthy persons as individuals--are little aware of all the perils
into which some of their most zealous male allies would lead them.
Degradation for the sex, and not true and lasting elevation, appear to
most of us likely to be the end to which this movement must necessarily
tend, unless it be checked by the latent good sense, the true wisdom,
and the religious principle of women themselves, aroused, at length, to
protest, to resist. If we are called upon for proof of the assertion,
that American men are already prepared to redress actual grievances, we
find that proof in their course at the present moment. Observe the
patience with which our legislative bodies are now considering the
petitions of a clamorous minority demanding the redress of a fictitious
grievance--a minority demanding a political position which the majority
of their sex still utterly reject--a position repugnant to the habits,
the feelings, the tastes, and the principles of that majority. If men
are willing to give their attention to these querulous demands of a
small minority of our sex, how much more surely may we rely on their
sympathy, and their efficient support, when some measure in which the
interests of the whole sex are clearly involved shall be brought before
them by all their wives and mothers?
And again: they are not only already prepared to redress grievances,
but also to forward all needed development of true womanly action.
Take, in proof of this, assertion, the subject of education. This is,
beyond all doubt the vital question of the age, embracing within its
limits all others. Education is of far more importance than the
suffrage, which is eventually subject to it, controlled by it. This is,
indeed, a question altogether too grave, too comprehensive, and too
complicated in some of its bearings to be more than briefly alluded to
here. But let us consider education for a moment as the mere
acquirement of intellectual knowledge. This is but one of its phases,
and that one not the most important; but such is the popular, though
very inadequate, idea of the subject in America. Observe how much has
already been done in this sense for the instruction of the woman of our
country. In the common district schools, and even in the high schools
of the larger towns, the same facilities are generally offered to both
sexes; in the public schools brother and sister have, as a rule, the
same books and the same teachers. And we may go much further and say
that every woman in the country may already--IF SHE IS DETERMINED TO DO
SO--obtain very much the same intellectual instruction which her own
brother receives. If that education is a highly advanced one she will,
no doubt, have some special difficulties to contend against; but those
difficulties are not insurmountable. The doors of most colleges and
universities are closed, it is true, against women, and we can not
doubt that this course is taken for sound reasons, pointed out by good
sense and true sagacity. It is impossible not to believe that between
the ages of fifteen and five-and-twenty young men and young women will
carry on their intellectual training far more thoroughly and
successfully apart than thrown into the same classes. At that age of
vivid impressions and awakening passions, the two sexes are
sufficiently thrown together in family life and in general society for
all purposes of mutual influence and improvement. Let them chat, walk,
sing, dance together, at that period of their lives; but if you wish to
make them good scholars, let them study apart. Let their loves and
jealousies be carried on elsewhere than in the college halls. But
already female colleges, exclusively adapted to young women, are talked
of--nay, here and there one or two such colleges now exist. There is
nothing in which American men more delight, nothing more congenial to
their usual modes of thought and action, than to advance the
intellectual instruction of the whole nation, daughters as well as
sons. We may rest assured that they will not fail to grant all needful
development in this direction. One female college, of the very highest
intellectual standard, would probably be found sufficient for a
population of some millions. The number of women desiring a full
college education will always, for many different reasons, be much
smaller than the number of male students. But there is no good reason
why such colleges, when found desirable, should not enter into our
future American civilization. Individual American women may yet, by
these means, make high progress in science, and render good service to
the country and the race. Every branch of study which may be carried on
thoroughly and successfully, without impairing womanly modesty of mind
and manner, should be so far opened to the sex as to allow those
individuals to whom Providence has given the ability for deep research
to carry them to the farthest point needed. But as regards those
studies which are intended to open the way to professions essentially
bold and masculine in character, we do not see how it is within the
bounds of possibility for young women to move onward in that direction
without losing some of their most precious womanly
prerogatives--without, in short, unsexing themselves.
The really critical point with regard to the present position of women
in America is the question of work and wages. Here the pocket of man is
touched. And the pocket is the most sensitive point with many men, not
only in America, but all the world over. There can be no doubt whatever
that women are now driven away from certain occupations, to which they
are well adapted, by the selfishness of some men. And in many
departments where they are day-laborers for commercial firms they are
inadequately paid, and compelled to provide food, lodging, fuel, and
light out of scanty wages. Yes, we have here one of the few real
grievances of which American women have a just right to complain. But
even here--even where the pocket is directly touched, we still believe
that women may obtain full justice in the end, by pursuing the right
course. Only let the reality of the grievance be clearly proved, and
redress will follow, ere long. Providence has the power of bringing
good out of evil; and therefore we believe that the movement now going
on will here, at least, show some lasting results for good. The "Song
of the Shirt" shall, we trust, ere long become an obsolete lay in our
country. Our women, twenty years hence, shall be better paid in some of
their old fields of labor; and new openings, appropriate to their
abilities, mental and physical, shall also be made for them. And here
they are much more likely to succeed without the suffrage than with it.
It is not by general law-making that they can better themselves in
these particulars. Individual fitness for this or that branch of work
is what is required for success. And if, by thorough preparation, women
can discharge this or that task, not essentially masculine in its
requirements, as well as men, they may rest assured that in the end
their wages will be the same as those of their fathers and brothers in
the same field of work.
And how is it with our homes--how fares it with American women in the
family circle? To all right-minded women the duties connected with home
are most imperative, most precious, most blessed of all, partaking as
they do of the spirit of religious duty. To women this class of duties
is by choice, and by necessity, much more absorbing than it is to men.
It is the especial field of activity to which Providence has called
them; for which their Maker has qualified them by peculiar adaptation
of body and mind. To the great majority of American women these duties
are especially absorbing, owing to the difficulty of procuring paid
subordinates, well qualified for the tasks they undertake. The task of
positive labor, and the task of close supervision, are both
particularly burdensome to American wives and mothers. Thus far, or at
least until very recently, those duties of wife and mother have been
generally performed conscientiously. The heart of every worthy American
woman is in her home. That home, with its manifold interests, is
especially under her government. The good order, the convenience, the
comfort, the pleasantness, the whole economy of the house, in short,
depend in a very great measure on her. The food of the family is
prepared by her, either directly or by close supervision. The clothing
of the family passes through her hands or under her eye. The health of
the family is included within the same tender, watchful, loving
oversight. The education of the children is chiefly directed by her--in
many families almost exclusively so. Whether for evil or for good, by
careless neglect or by patient, thoughtful, prayerful guidance, she
marks out their future course. This is even too much the case. American
fathers love their children fondly; no fathers more affectionate than
they are; they pet their children; they toil ceaselessly for them; but
their education they leave almost entirely to the mother. It may be
said, with perfect truth, that in the great majority of American
families the educational influences come chiefly from the mother; they
are tacitly made over to her as a matter of course. The father has too
often very little to do with them. His work lies abroad, in the world
of business or politics, where all his time and attention are fully
absorbed. In this way the American mother rules the very heart of her
family. If at all worthy she has great influence with her husband; she
has great influence over her daughters; and as regards her sons, there
are too many cases in which hers is the only influence for good to
which they yield. Is there so little of true elevation and dignity in
this position that American women should be in such hot haste to
abandon it for a position as yet wholly untried, entirely theoretical
and visionary?
It will be said that all women are not married, that all wives are not
mothers, that there are childless widows and many single women in the
country. Quite true, but in a rapid sketch one looks at the chief
features only; and home life, with its varied duties, is, of course,
the principal point in every Christian country. The picture is
essentially correct, without touching on lesser details. We pause here
to observe also that almost every single woman has a home somewhere.
She makes a home for herself, or she is ingrafted on the home of
others, and wherever she may be--even in that wretched kind of
existence, boarding-house life--she may, if she choose, carry something
of the home spirit with her. In fact, every true woman instinctively
does so, whatever be the roof that covers her head. She thinks for
others, she plans for others, she serves others, she loves and
cherishes others, she unconsciously throws something of the web of home
feeling and home action over those near her, and over the dwelling she
inhabits. She carries the spirit of home and its duties into the niche
allotted to her--a niche with which she is generally far more contented
than the world at large believes--a niche which is never so narrow but
that it provides abundant material for varied work--often very pleasant
work too. Let it be understood, once for all, that the champions of
widows and single women are very much given to talking and writing
absurdly on this point. Their premises are often wholly false. They
often fancy discontent and disappointment and inaction where those
elements have no existence. Certainly it is not in the least worth
while to risk a tremendous social revolution in behalf of this minority
of the sex. Every widow and single woman can, if she choose, already
find abundance of the most noble occupation for heart, mind, body, and
soul. Carry the vote into her niche, she certainly will be none the
happier or more truly respectable for that bit of paper. It is also an
error to suppose that among the claimants for suffrage single women are
the most numerous or the most clamorous. The great majority of the
leaders in this movement appear to be married women.
A word more on the subject of home life, as one in which the interests
of the whole sex are most closely involved. It is clear that those
interests are manifold, highly important to the welfare of the race,
unceasing in their recurrence, urgent and imperative in their nature,
requiring for their successful development such devotion of time,
labor, strength, thought, feeling, that they must necessarily leave but
little leisure to the person who faithfully discharges them. The
comfort, health, peace, temper, recreation, general welfare,
intellectual, moral, and religious training of a family make up,
indeed, a charge of the very highest dignity, and one which must tax to
the utmost every faculty of the individual to whom it is intrusted. The
commander of a regiment at the head of his men, the member of Congress
in his seat, the judge on his bench, scarcely holds a position so
important, so truly honorable, as that of the intelligent, devoted,
faithful American wife and mother, wisely governing her household. And
what are the interests of the merchant, the manufacturer, the banker,
the broker, the speculator, the selfish politician, when compared with
those confided to the Christian wife and mother? They are too often
simply contemptible--a wretched, feverish, maddening struggle to pile
up lucre, which is any thing but clean. Where is the superior merit of
such a life, that we should hanker after it, when placed beside that of
the loving, unselfish, Christian wife and mother--the wife, standing at
her husband's side, to cheer, to aid, to strengthen, to console, to
counsel, amidst the trials of life; the mother, patiently, painfully,
and prayerfully cultivating every higher faculty of her children for
worthy action through time and eternity? Which of these positions has
the most of true elevation connected with it?
And then, again, let as look at the present position of American women
in society. In its best aspects social life may be said to be the
natural outgrowth of the Christian home. It is something far better
than the world, than Vanity Fair, than the Court of Mammon, where all
selfish passions meet and parade in deceptive masquerade. It is the
selfish element in human nature which pervades what we call the world;
self-indulgence, enjoyment, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye,
the pride of life, receive, in that arena, their full development.
Society, on the contrary, in its highest meaning, becomes the practical
development of the second great commandment, loving and serving our
neighbor. In every Christian country there are many individuals,
especially among women, to whom social life practically bears that
meaning. Public worship itself is a social act, the highest of all,
blending in one the spirit of the two great commandments--the love of
God and the love of man. And whatever of social action or social
enjoyment is not inconsistent with those two great commandments becomes
the Christian's heritage, makes a part, more or less important, of his
education, enters into the great stream of the better civilization. And
it is here that we reach what may be called the more public duties of
woman. From all duties entirely public she is now, or she may be if she
choose, relieved by man. These more public duties of hers are still but
the outgrowth of her home life, and more or less closely interwoven
with it. They are very important, never to be neglected with impunity.
The really unsocial woman is in great danger of becoming also
un-christian. Every friend crossing the threshold brings social life
into the home. The genial smile, the kindly greeting, the cheering
word, all these and a thousand other gracious impulses, are, of course,
but the first instinctive movements of the social feeling. And from
these we move onward over a vast field of action, to the very farthest
point reached by the higher charities of Christianity. There can be no
doubt that the charm, the grace, and the happy cheerfulness of society
are chiefly due to women; and it is also true that the whole unwritten
common-law of society is, in a great measure, under their control. The
world is constantly encroaching here, enervating and corrupting social
life. To oppose wisely, skillfully, and effectually these treacherous
encroachments, these alluring temptations, is one of the most difficult
tasks possible. To contribute her full share toward purifying and
brightening the social atmosphere about her, in accordance with the
spirit of true Christian civilization, such is one great and essential
part of woman's work in life. It is a work more especially her own.
Man, without his helpmeet, can do but little here. His faculties are
absorbed by other tasks, not more important, but more engrossing and
essentially different. The finer tact, the more graceful manner, the
quicker wit, the more tender conscience, are all needed here. Every
woman in the country has her own share of this work to do. Each
individual woman is responsible for the right use of all her own social
influences, whether for good or for evil.
To keep up the standard of female purity becomes emphatically one of
the most stringent duties of every Christian woman. For her own sake,
for the sake of all she loves, for the sake of her country, for the
service of Christ and His Church, she is bound to uphold this standard
at a high point--a point entirely above suspicion. This task is of
importance incalculable. But, owing to the frivolity of some women, and
the very loose ideas of many men, it is no easy task. Undoubtedly, the
very great majority of women are born modest at heart. Their nature is
by many degrees less coarse than that of man. And their conscience is
more tender. But there is one temptation to which they too often yield.
With them the great dangers are vanity and the thirst for admiration,
which often become a sort of diseased excitement--what drinking or
gambling is to men. Here is the weak point. Yielding chiefly to this
temptation, scores of women are falling every day. Vanity leads them to
wear the extravagant, the flashy, the immodest, the unhealthy dress, to
dance the immodest dance, to adopt the alluring manner, to carry
flirting to extremes. Vanity leads them, in short, to forget true
self-respect, to enjoy the very doubtful compliment of a miserably
cheap admiration. They become impatient of the least appearance of
neglect or indifference, they become eager in pursuit of attention,
while men always attribute that pursuit to motives of the coarsest
kind. It is generally vanity alone which leads a married woman to
receive the first disgraceful flattery of dissolute men. Probably nine
out of ten of those American women who have trifled with honor and
reputation, whose names are spoken with the sneer of contempt, have
been led on, step by step, in the path of sin by vanity as the chief
motive. Where one woman falls from low and coarse passions, a hundred
fall from sheer levity and the love of admiration.
To counteract this fatal influence young women must be taught to
respect themselves, to be on their guard against vanity and its
enticements, to cherish personal modesty in every way. The married
woman who is quietly working by example or by precept among the young
girls nearest to her, seeking to cherish and foster among them this
vital principle of pure personal modesty in dress, in language, in
reading, in tone of voice, in countenance, in manner--the natural
outward expression of true modesty of heart--is doing far more for her
country than if she were to mount the rostrum to-morrow and make a
political speech eloquent as any of Webster's.
Sensible women may always have a good measure of political influence of
the right sort, if they choose. And it is in one sense a duty on their
part to claim this influence, and to exert it, but always in the true
womanly way. The influence of good sense, of a sound judgment, of good
feeling may always he theirs. Let us see that we preserve this
influence, and that we use it wisely. But let us cherish our happy
immunities as women by keeping aloof from all public personal action in
the political field. There is much higher work for us to do. Our time,
our thoughts, our efforts may be given to labors far more important
than any mere temporary electing, or law-making, passed today, annulled
to-morrow, in obedience to the fickle spirit of party politics.
THAT WORK IS TO PROMOTE BY ALL WORTHY MEANS THE MORAL CIVILIZATION OF
THE COUNTRY.
Toward this work legislation, the mere enacting of laws, can do but
little. We have all heard of the shrewd mind who considered the songs
of a people as more important than their laws. The moral condition of a
nation is subject to many different influences--of these the statute
book is but one, and that not the most important. No mere skeleton of
political constitution can, of itself, produce moral health and
strength. It is the living heart within which does the work. And over
that heart women have very great influence. The home is the cradle of
the nation. A sound home education is the most important of all moral
influences. In the very powerful influences which affection gives them
over the home, by teaching childhood, by guiding youth, over the men of
their family, women have noble means for working good, not only to
their own households, not only to the social circle about them, but to
the nation at large. All these influences they can bring into action
far more effectually by adhering closely to that position which is not
only natural to them, but also plainly allotted to them by the revealed
Word of God. In no position of their own devising can they do that work
half so well.
Political and social corruption are clearly the great evils to be
dreaded for our country. We have already gone far enough in the path of
universal manhood suffrage to feel convinced that no mere enlargement
of the suffrage has power to save us from those evils. During half a
century we have been moving nearer and nearer to a suffrage all but
universal, and we have, during the same period, been growing more
corrupt. The undisguised frauds at elections, the open accusations of
bribery in legislative assemblies, the accusations of corruption
connected with still higher offices--of these we read daily in the
public prints. And these accusations are not disproved. They are
generally believed. It is clear, therefore, that something more
effectual than universal manhood suffrage is needed to stem the
torrent. And it is simply ridiculous to suppose that womanhood suffrage
can effect the same task. Who can believe that where men, in their own
natural field, have partially failed to preserve a healthful political
atmosphere, an honest political practice, that women, so much less
experienced, physically so much more feeble, so excitable, so liable to
be misled by fancy, by feeling, are likely, in a position foreign to
their nature, not only to stand upright themselves, but, like Atlas of
old, to bear the weight of the whole political world on their
shoulders--like Hercules, to cleanse the Augean stables of the
political coursers--to do, in short, all that man has failed to do? No;
it is, alas! only too clear that something more than the ballot-box,
whether in male or female hands, is needed here. And it is the same in
social life. The public prints, under a free press, must always hold up
a tolerably faithful mirror to the society about them. The picture it
displays is no better in social life than in political life. We say the
mirror is tolerably faithful, since there are heights of virtue and
depths of sin alike unreflected by the daily press. The very purest and
the very foulest elements of earthly existence are left out of the
picture. But the general view can scarcely fail to be tolerably
correct. Take, then, the sketch of social life as it appears in some
half dozen of the most popular prints from week to week. You will be
sure to find the better features grievously blended with others
fearfully distorted by evil. There are blots black as pitch in that
picture. There are forms, more fiend-like than human, photographed on
those sheets of paper. Crimes of worse than brutal violence, savage
cruelty, crimes of treachery and cowardly cunning and conspiracy,
breach of trust, tyrannical extortion, groveling intemperance,
sensuality gross and shameless--the heart sickens at the record of a
week's crime! It is a record from which the Christian woman often turns
aside appalled. Human nature can read no lessons of humility more
powerful than those contained in the newspapers of the day. They preach
what may be called home truths with most tremendous force. From this
record of daily crime it is only too clear that universal suffrage has
had no power to purify the society in which we live. If no worse, we
can not claim to be better than other nations, under a different
political rule.
This admission becomes the more painful when we reflect that in America
this full freedom of fundamental institutions, this relief from all
needless shackles, is combined with a well-developed system of
intellectual education. We are an absolutely free nation. We are, on
the whole, and to a certain point, intellectually, an educated nation.
Yet vice and crime exist among us to an extent that is utterly
disgraceful. It is evident, therefore, that universal manhood suffrage,
even when combined with general education, is still insufficient for
the task of purifying either social or political life. The theoretical
infidel philosopher may wonder at this fact. Not so the Christian.
Great intellectual activity, and the abuse of that power for evil
purposes, are a spectacle only too common in this world. Look at the
present condition of the most civilized nations. Of all generations
that have lived on earth, our own is assuredly the most enlightened, in
an intellectual sense; mental culture has never been so generally
diffused as it is to-day, nor has it ever achieved so many conquests as
within the last half century; and yet mark how comparatively little has
this wonderful intellectual progress accomplished in the noble work of
improving the moral condition of the most enlightened countries. To the
mind humbled by Christian doctrine, living in the light of a holy
faith, these facts, though unspeakably painful, can not cause surprise.
We are prepared for them. We have already learned that no mere
legislative enactment and no mere intellectual training can suffice to
purify the human heart thoroughly. An element much more powerful than
mental culture is needed for that great work. For this work light from
on high is sent. A thorough MORAL EDUCATION is required, and the
highest form of that education can be reached in one way only--by
walking in the plain path of obedience to the will of the Creator, as
revealed in Holy Scripture. We must turn, not to Plato and Aristotle,
but to inspired Prophet and Apostle. We must open our hearts to the
spirit of the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount. We must go to
Sinai and to Calvary, and humbly, on bended knee, receive the sublime
lessons to be learned there.
We should never have expected moral progress as an inevitable
consequence of free institutions and mere intellectual education, had
it not been that, like other nations, we indulge in idolatries, and
among our "gods many" are the suffrage and mental activity. We are
gravely told by philosophers that, with the vote in the hands of woman,
the moral elevation of the race is secured forever! "Great is Diana of
the Ephesians!" The feeling is common in America that to doubt the
omnipotence of universal suffrage in its extreme development is not
only treason, but a sort of blasphemy. And this feeling is now leading
many minds, unconsciously, perhaps, to shrink from opposing the present
movement in favor of womanhood suffrage. They bow the knee to the
common idol. They dare not believe it possible for the suffrage to be
carried too far. For ourselves we have no sympathies whatever with
idolatry. We fearlessly declare our opinion, therefore, that no
political institutions whatever, neither despotic, nor monarchical, nor
aristocratic, nor yet the most free, are capable, in themselves, of
achieving moral education for a people. Neither do we believe it more
possible for abstract intellectual culture to gain this most important
of all ends. Institutions wisely free are a very great blessing. Let us
be fervently thankful for them. Intellectual education is equally
important and desirable. These are both noble and admirable means to
work with, provided we still look above and beyond them for a further
development of the race--for fullness of MORAL CIVILIZATION. In fact,
if we wish for a vigorous, healthful, lasting development of republican
institutions, we must necessarily unite with these not only
intellectual teaching, but also a sound MORAL EDUCATION. This is a fact
to which men, in the whirl of their political or commercial struggles,
too often willfully shut their eyes. They are quite ready to
acknowledge the truth of the assertion in a general way, but they
choose to forget its vast importance in political or commercial
practice. They recklessly lower the moral standard themselves, whenever
that standard is at a height inconvenient for the attaining of some
particular object toward which they are aiming. They are lacking in
faith. Unlike women, who carry faith with them in private life, men act
as if faith were not needed in everyday public life. At least the great
majority of men, nominal Christians, fail to carry Christian principle
with them into common business or politics. Faith, in the heart of
women, is connected with love; consequently it is less easily stifled.
They more frequently carry this principle with them in daily
practice--not to the extent that they should do, but far more so than
most men do. And here, Christian women, is your great advantage. It is
the Lord's work to which we would urge you. The work of true faith,
however lowly, is sure of a blessing. With faith unfeigned in your
hearts, giving purity to your lives, you have it in your power to
render most effectual service to the nation in your own natural sphere,
far beyond what you could possibly accomplish by the path of common
politics. You have never, as yet, done full justice to the advantages
of your own actual position in this respect. You have overlooked the
great work immediately before you. We have no magic talisman to offer
you in carrying out that work. We shall not flatter you with the
promise of unlimited success; we shall not attempt to gratify any
personal ambition of public honors. We have no novel theories or
brilliant illusions with which to dazzle your imagination.
FIDELITY TO PLAIN MORAL DUTIES--THIS IS THE ONE GREAT PRINCIPLE TO
WHICH WE WOULD MOST EARNESTLY CALL YOUR ATTENTION.
There is absolutely no principle so sorely needed in the civilized
world to-day as this. We live in an age of false and inflated
ambitions. Simple moral truths fare badly in our time. Imposing
theories, brilliant novelties, subtle sophistries, exaggerated
development, arrogant pretensions--these too often crowd simple moral
truths out of sight, out of mind. And yet, without that class of duties
in healthful action, corruption more or less general is inevitable.
Truth of word, honesty of action, integrity of character, temperance,
chastity, moderation, sincerity, subordination to just authority,
conjugal fidelity, filial love and honor--these duties, and others
closely connected with them, bear old and homely names. But, Christian
women, you can not ask for a task more noble, more truly elevating, for
yourselves and your country, than to uphold these plain moral
principles, first by your own personal example, and then by all pure
influences in your homes and in the society to which you belong. In no
other mode can you so well forward the great work of Christian
civilization as by devoting yourselves to the daily personal practice,
and to the social cultivation, by example and influence, of these plain
moral duties. Your present domestic position is especially favorable to
this task. You have more time for thought on these subjects; you have
more frequent opportunities for influence over the young nearest to
you; you have more leisure for prayer, for invoking a blessing on your
efforts, however humble they may he. It is not enough to set a decent
example yourselves. You must go to the very root of the matter. You
must carry about with you hearts and minds very deeply impressed with
the incalculable importance of a sound morality; you must be clearly
convinced of the misery, the shame, the perils of all immorality.
In this nineteenth century the civilization of a country must
necessarily prove either heathen or Christian in its spirit. There is
no neutral ground lying between these boundaries. Faith or infidelity,
such is the choice we must all make, whether as individuals or as
nations. Thanks be to God we are not only in name, but also partially
in character, a Christian nation. Faith is not entirely wanting. We all
in a measure feel its good effects. Even the avowed infidel living in
our midst is far more under its influences, though indirectly so, than
he is aware of. And where there is life, there we have hope of growth,
of higher development. To cherish that growth, to further that higher
development by all gracious and loving and generous influences, is a
work for which women are especially adapted. They work from within
outwardly. Men work chiefly by mental and physical pressure from
without. Men work by external authority; women work by influences. Men
seek to control the head. Women always aim at touching the heart. And
we have the highest of all authority for believing that this last is
the most efficient mode of working.
"Out of the heart are the issues of life." This, therefore, Christian
women, is your especial task. Use all the happy womanly influences in
your power to forward the moral education, the Christian civilization,
of the country to which you belong. Be watchful, with the unfeigned
humility of the Christian, over your own personal course, and the
example connected with it. Aim at keeping up, on all occasions, a high
practical standard of sound morality at all points. Cultivate every
germ of true moral principle in your own homes, and in the social
circle about you. Let the holy light of truth, honor, fidelity,
honesty, purity, piety, and love brighten the atmosphere of your homes.
What heathen civilization means we know from many sources, more
especially from the records of Rome under the empire, in the days of
St. Paul, when it had reached its highest development.
What Christian civilization means we learn from the Apostle: "Let him
that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." "Whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report--think on these things."