Let us notice this truth. In making woman's work a work of charity, he continued in the New Dispensation the work which was commenced in the Old. He lifted the thread where woman broke it, and reuniting it again sent her forth into the world to bless it with love, with sympathy, with ministrations of tenderness, with an elevating companionship, which makes man worthy of his origin, and helps him to fulfil the mission of God's anointed.

And though Satan has taken this new thought and perverted it, as he has perverted all the rest, and though he has employed the Church of Rome, by organizing women into orders and sisterhoods of charity, so that woman may again be enslaved and destroyed; though the story of her confinement in nunneries and establishments little better in form than prisons, and far more cruel in character, has been written, let us not be discouraged, but believing that Christ's plan is best, let us learn what his will is, and then let us do it in the fear of God and in the love of truth, assured that his ways are higher and better and grander than ours, and that it is safe to trust God even where we cannot trace him, remembering that "he doeth great things, past finding out; yea, and wonders without number."

In considering Woman's Work and Woman's Mission, we discover that they go hand in hand, and faith is the bond which unites them. Separate woman's work from her mission, and you divorce it from that which makes it honorable and praiseworthy. It is the spirit of faith, and love, and hope, and charity, which pervades the life of the true woman, that is her glory and her praise. The difference between woman as a drudge and woman as a helpmeet, describes the relation existing between her work and her mission. Work separated from this path of faith, love, and charity, becomes unholy to the world and unbearable to her. The holiest of all work for a mother is to care for her child. That child, so helpless now, is to reward her by acts of love and deeds of valor. Take away from woman her faith, let her feel that her work is a degradation, and there is nothing more beautiful in her attentions to a child than there would be in her attentions to a pig.

When in the country the children and their parents were floating in a little boat on a river's surface, they admired the lilies with their white leaves spread out on the wave. After they had looked upon the flower, I asked them to observe the roots, and see in what they were embedded. They replied, "The roots are in the mud." That lily illustrates truthfully the spiritual character of woman's work. Though her life may be passed in drudgery, yet the flower of her life is seen in the neatness, beauty, and comfort of the home, and her joy is derived from the commendation received by her diligence and toil. Truly has the poet told, in this homely way, how

LOVE LIGHTENS LABOR.

A good wife rose from her bed one morn, And thought, with a nervous dread, Of the piles of clothes to be washed, and more Than a dozen mouths to be fed. There were meals to be got for the men in the field, And the children to fix away To school, and the milk to be skimmed and churned; And all to be done that day.

It had rained in the night, and all the wood Was wet as it could be, And there were pudding and pies to bake, And a loaf of cake for tea. The day was hot, and her aching head Throbbed wearily as she said— "If maidens but knew what good wives know, They would, be in no hurry to wed."

"Jennie, what do you think I told Ben Brown?" Called the farmer from the well; And a flush crept up to his bronzed brow, And his eye half bashfully fell; "It was this," he said, and coming near, He smiled, and stooping down, Kissed her cheek—"'twas this, that you were the best And dearest wife in town!"

The farmer went back to the field, and the wife, In a smiling and absent way, Sang snatches of tender little songs She'd not sung for many a day. And the pain in her head was gone, and the clothes Were white as foam of the sea; Her bread was light, and her butter was sweet, And golden as it could be.

"Just think," the children all called in a breath, "Tom Wood has run off to sea! He wouldn't, I know, if he only had As happy a home as we." The night came down, and the good wife smiled To herself, as she softly said, "'Tis sweet to labor for those we love— 'Tis not strange that maids will wed!"

There is a glory in motherhood which robes woman in beauty, and fills the home with the light of heaven. The mother, busy with her cares, and attending to the wants of her children, is honored wherever Christ is loved.

Now, because the world links woman's work and mission together, the world is full of pictures of the mother and the child. To a true-hearted man, it is almost impossible to find any picture to which his nature turns with fonder delight than to that of a mother with a child sleeping on the breast, full of sweet trust and enjoying a dreamless repose, or being ministered to in his nude state in the morning bath. The spiritual covers the common with a halo of glory, and robes woman in the light of love.

The same is true of the housewife. In the daily routine of duty, which is essential to the comfort and bliss of home life, there is nothing very attractive in the ordinary occupations of the home. Let a woman attempt the task with no outlook, with no hope. Let her do it for so much money, and nothing more, and she becomes morose, discontented, sad and cheerless. Let her do this for love. Let her feel that she is contributing to some one's joy, or that she is to use the money earned for some worthy purpose, and at once the loftiness of her purpose sanctifies her deed, and renders that which would have been unbecoming, if done without a motive, right and noble when performed under the pressure of a great and noble aspiration, for "'tis sweet to labor for those we love."

Woman's work is defined by her Creator to be a work of charity. She is a helpmeet. A gift she came to man. Her life is a constant giving up of rights and privileges for the happiness of others. She waits on man not for pay, but for love. She ministers to him in sickness and in health. It is not the deed, but the spirit which sanctifies the deed, that makes it lovely. Compel her by force, by fear, or by rewards, to do what she performs because of love, and you destroy all the beauty of the action, and convert the ministering angel into a menial, the God-appointed woman into a brutalized slave. God made her a gift, and the law of her life is in giving. She fulfils the functions of her life by living in harmony with the law of love. The woman, described with such inexpressible tenderness by Luke (vii. 37-50), attracts attention by this feature. She came to Christ while he was reclining at table. She had sinned. Still she loved. Here were Christ's feet hanging over the table's edge, while Christ reclined. As he was talking, behold this woman bending over them, her hot tears raining on them, and she busy wiping off the tear-drops with her hair, and kissing them, anointed them with costly ointment. She loved, and therefore evidenced it by deeds. Her love, blossoming into action, won Christ. He saw that she loved. Perhaps love had led her astray at first. No matter. Love she possessed, and love she desired to lavish on some object worthy of her regard. That object she discovered in Jesus. She took her alabaster-box of precious ointment, and went after him. She enters the Pharisee's house; it may have been the house where she had fallen. The Pharisee seemed to know her character, and so he said, "This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner." Christ did not at once recognize the suspicion, but supposing the case of the two debtors, and having obtained from Simon the declaration, that the one would love most who was forgiven most, turned upon him the force of the logic, by saying, "Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she both washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss; but this woman, since the time I came, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace."

Let woman's work be regarded as a work of charity by man, and the larger portion of women will be satisfied. The servant finds pleasure in service, when the obligation is recognized as a debt not to be paid for in money.

No wife would do what she is compelled to perform, or suffer what she is compelled to endure, for her board and clothes. It is when man refuses to give her more than these, she revolts. Man never won woman to leave her single life and her home comforts to enter his house as a helpmeet by a consideration of the work to be done. It was not in the contract. He talked then of love, of companionship, of help. The other was in the bond by mutual consent, but it was regarded as beneath their notice to talk about it. Her nature yearned for love, and lives on love.

Now, when a man forgets that love, companionship, and the thousand attentions which sweeten and brighten life, are due to his wife, and when he lifts up the drudgery and the slavery of life into prominence, and tells her that she is only fitted to hold a menial place, he insults, if he does not destroy the woman, and degrades himself. On the other hand, let a woman refuse to be influenced by this law of charity, and she becomes a curse instead of a blessing, a hinderance instead of a helpmeet.

It is a very common complaint that a good servant is difficult to find. Some are slovenly, some are dishonest, while those who are both able and truthful, are pronounced intolerable, frequently because of their impertinence. All can understand the reason. The servant has no interest in her employer who refuses to give anything. The servant works for so much money. "As to rights, privileges, and perquisites, it is not unfrequently either a battle or a sort of armed treaty between kitchen and parlor." Many will admit this, and will forget or ignore the cause. Listen to the servants' story, and you will find them complaining of the stinginess, or tyranny, or selfishness of the employer.

Let the law of charity rule both employer and employed, and behold the change. The mistress recognizes her weight of obligation to a good and faithful domestic. She feels that her services are beyond price, invaluable to her. The effect is seen at once. The sluggish step is quickened. Love takes the place of indifference if not of dislike, and the relations of friendship are at once recognized. No mistress has a right to expect that her servants will be bound to her by the ties of friendship, if she manifest no friendly feeling for them; or that they will become devoted to her interests, if she take no interest in their welfare. The law of mutual dependence must be recognized and obeyed. God is love. God loves. Therefore, it is a pleasure to love and serve God. It is a pleasure to serve whoever is appreciative and lovable. It is a task to serve those who are unappreciative and unlovable. At the same time a Christian servant has no right to slight her work, or be unfaithful, because of the harshness or unkindness of her employer. Live for God, and serve Christ in serving well those by whom you are employed, and you will not lose your reward on earth nor in heaven. Trusty and true, your services will become of immense importance, and doors to usefulness will open before you because of the superintending care of Him who is too wise to err and too good to be unkind. Let not woman dislike the term service or servant. Christ honored it by becoming the servant of all, and made it honorable by commanding that he who would be chief must serve, and by his service rise.

Woman sometimes revolts because her work is classed under the head of domestic, and yet this is the chief characteristic that must distinguish it. That is, her work must have a look homeward, whether she toils in the store or factory or printing-office or kitchen. Somehow the stream of love must sing as it goes babbling by, "Home, home, there is no place like home," else woman fails in her life-work.

Her education must fit her for a home and for home work. Let a man learn that he married a toy, a plaything, a lay figure, useful only for the purposes of exhibiting his taste in jewelry and dress, who desires to be petted and fondled, to be caressed and flattered, but who is incapable of doing anything to contribute to his happiness at home or to his influence abroad, and he comes to feel that she is an encumbrance. If he clings to the old love, and cherishes the old conviction, he learns to treat his wife as a plaything, and to forget her as a helpmeet. He thinks of her as of a toy, which may be used or cast aside at pleasure. She knows and feels the lack of his love. If she becomes dissatisfied, and refuses to make the effort to become a helpful wife and a loving companion, or to be influenced by the law of charity; if she determines to seek happiness in obtaining the admiration of others, which once unwittingly came from her husband; then is she probably ruined, and becomes a "body of death" fastened to one who looks forward to the grave as a refuge and a release, or who finds in the society of other women that pleasure which is denied him at home. Perhaps nothing is more disgusting than to see an empty brain hidden behind a pretty face, or an empty heart concealed beneath costly drapery. A woman who is handsome and is illiterate, who is incapable of speaking entertainingly, is far more homely than a plain face in front of a well cultivated intellect; and a plain dressed woman, with a heart full of love, is to be preferred to a splendidly dressed form which is destitute of soul. Jewels, laces, and silks are not a fit dress for a corpse, and yet a heartless woman is to a man who knows her as soulless as an inanimate body coffined for the tomb. Having thus briefly considered the necessity of linking woman's work and mission together, let us define her work, and consider what is her mission.

Woman has work to do. Though idleness does not destroy her as it does a man, yet it does not become her. Merely to display her charms for the admiration of others cannot be the destiny of one created with a woman's hand and head, and endowed with woman's soul. From the nature of the case, her work should be womanly in its character; that which is within doors rather than without; which belongs to the ornamental rather than to the mechanical. There is no sense in woman's working in the field while man measures tapes or counts thimbles, or in his doing other in-door work for which woman's light touch renders her better qualified. When we look at women who have become coarse in the expression of their features, and ungainly in form and movement, through the weight of their daily toil, we see the folly of those who would make the woman the equal, or the rival, instead of the helpmeet of man; and feel indignation that, since many of our women must earn their own livelihood, we have not a more natural division of labor, which would assign to man the heavier, and to woman the lighter kinds of work. As woman's faith blesses as well as saves her; it is essential that her work be linked in some way to the exercise of faith, and to the unfolding of love. For the character of the work exerts an influence upon woman's body as well as upon her soul. If you will contrast the looks of a happy housewife or domestic with the looks of a majority of the faces that are seen in factories, the truth of the position taken will be abundantly sustained. It matters not so much where the roots of woman's life-work grow, if up through it all, and above it all, the vine may twine its tendril, and send forth its flower, and yield its fruit. For this cause the love of Christ and the hopes of a Christian life seem so essential to her growth and development, that it is almost impossible to write of a happy, contented woman, without describing a woman whose faith in Jesus has regenerated and disinthralled her. Love is the prime requisite to successful endeavor on a woman's part to be her husband's true helpmeet; and so, in discharging the duties incident to a life of toil, woman must be soothed and sustained in her tasks by the joys of a Christian life. Hence the ruin wrought in shops and factories, in stores, and homes where Christ is cast out, and where the bliss of high and holy living is denied.

Woman's mission is to be inferred from a consideration of the wants of man. Created to be a helpmeet for man, it is essential, if we would determine her mission, that we ascertain for what purpose man needs her influence.

God declared, "It is not good for man to be alone," and woman was brought to him as a companion, to charm his life, to prolong it by sharing it with him. Her vocation, by birth, is a vocation of love. To be his helpmeet, not his rival; not to increase, but to lighten, or to support him, under his cares; to recognize him as the immediate object of her existence, instead of fancying that he was formed to wait on her; this is the end for which God has called her into being. As has been said, "This representation may not satisfy the ambition of some, who do but degrade themselves by aspiring to occupy a position for which they are neither intended by God nor qualified by nature,—even as men and angels fell when they sought to become as gods,—but in reality it tends to woman's elevation; and, as the whole history of Christianity doth show, where its truth is most recognized and relied upon, there woman is happiest and greatest."

The word "mission," as applied to woman, refers to the purpose for which she was created and brought to man. In considering her mission, we are safe in avowing that woman found her mission, 1. At home. Her mission is in the home. Her training must fit her for the home, whether she serves as a wife or as a domestic. Her life is a success when she makes home a pleasure and a joy to those to whom the home properly belongs. It is for this reason that there is deep concern on the part of many thoughtful minds because the drift of the times is against educating women for the home. Of the women who are compelled to earn their own subsistence many prefer the factory and the store to the work in the family, and, as a result, there are large numbers of young women who cannot make a loaf of bread or cook a meal, who would not hesitate to become wives of working-men, who expect to find in them a helpmeet in building a home like that which blessed their childhood. The result is dissatisfaction and recrimination, leaving the wife for the club, and turning from the joys of the home to the revel of jovial companions.

The same is true of the class of young ladies who know something of music, vocal and instrumental. They can dance. They have studied drawing sufficiently to be able to sketch a few flowers and figures. Perhaps they can speak French and translate German. They know in what position to sit, and how to move gracefully. All very well these things in their places, and fitted to increase the charm of manner when the eyes are lighted up by the informing soul; not undeserving notice either in their influence upon man, when they are accompanied by something better, for, amid all the weighty cares of life, he is sometimes in the mood when such things do please; but sadly over-estimated when they are made the sole substance and end of a woman's education. They might nearly all be done by a being without a soul. They do nothing to draw out the noble qualities of her deep womanly nature. They leave her altogether unfitted for her peculiar mission of a wife and mother.

Now, there are times when a woman, despite her imperfect education, acquires after marriage the knowledge which fits her for the duties appertaining to wifehood. But where nature yields to such training, the woman fails both in filling her sphere and in fulfilling her mission, and falls beneath her true position as the helpmeet of man. How bitter his disappointment, who, having been smitten by these gewgaw attractions, and having put faith in the mother of the child that with this outward attraction she had corresponding qualifications to fill the home with helpful counsel and sustaining sympathy, when he comes to find that, instead of a wife, he has married a plaything, and that his children are being committed to the care of a helpless, unformed companion, rather than to the guidance of a true and noble wife.

A proper conception of woman's mission as the helpmeet of man would tend greatly to her elevation. A man who knows for what woman has been made, and what advantage he should look for from the woman whom he calls wife, will not select a mere toy as the partner of his life; and when woman properly recognizes her place, mothers will not be content to give their daughters, nor will daughters be ambitious, or even content to receive only such a training as fits them for amusing or pleasing man in his playful hours, but leaves them altogether unfit to be his companion under the weightier cares and graver concerns of life.

Let it be understood that woman's life and labor, mission and work, point ever homeward, and whether she serve in the store or shop, in the factory or in the home, she will be ready, whenever God's providence opens the way, to make home bright for another, because it has been made bright for herself. In her reading, in her planning, in her waking dreams and in her night visions, let her live to make her own home joyous, and she will not live in vain. To do this successfully in the future, she must make home bright and beautiful in the present. It is the girl, whose hand is skilful in the home, who is prized as a companion, because of the substantial linked with the ornamental. The same is true of a man. Talent, genius even, is valueless unless it can earn bread. There must be something to make home pleasant with, which it is the duty of man to provide, else woman finds it hard to do her work or fulfil her mission. This does not disparage woman. Her intellect should not be regarded as inferior to man's because it differs from his. Her mind is formed for a distinct work and sphere, just as truly as is her body. In that sphere she is endowed with faculties superior to that of man. Here she has her requital: here she proves herself mistress of the field, and employs those secret resources which might be termed admirable, if they did not inspire a more tender sentiment, both towards her, and towards God, who has so richly endowed her. "Her practical survey, equally sure and rapid; her quick and accurate perception; her wonderful power of penetrating the heart in a way unknown and impracticable to man; her never-failing presence of mind, and personal attention on all occasions; her numerous and fertile resources in the management of her domestic affairs; her ever ready access and willing audience to all who need her; her freedom of thought and action in the midst of the most agonizing sufferings and accumulated embarrassments; her elasticity,—may I say her perseverance,—in spite of feebleness; her tact to practise it, were it not instinctive; her extreme perfection in little things; ... her incomparable skill in re-awakening a sleeping conscience, in re-opening a heart that has long been closed; in fine, innumerable are the things which she accomplishes, and which man can neither discern nor offset without the aid of her eye and hand. Thus, mentally as well as physically, is she predestined for a work and sphere different from those of her stronger companions. And, as everything is beautiful in its place and season, so is woman most beautiful and useful when, like a modest flower, she blooms in the privacy for which her nature fits her, and perfumes, with the fragrance of her character, the hallowed precincts of home."[A] "No man," says Mr. Jay, "was ever proof against the kindness of a sensible woman; but where, in all history, can an instance be produced in which an ascendency over him has been obtained by forwardness, scolding, and strife for preeminence? No wife has such influence with, or even such control over, her husband, as

"'She who never answers till her husband cools, Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules; Charms by accepting, by submission sways, Yet has her humor most when she obeys.'"

[Footnote A: Woman's Sphere and Work, by Rev. Wm. Landels, D.D., London.]

2. Woman's mission is social as well as domestic. The domestic part of her life is the garden, in which the seed is planted, which brings forth the flower of social joy. A woman who is the soul of a beautiful home is a power in society. No matter what her talents may be, let it be known that she is a slattern at home, and she is without influence. The pen may serve as a feather to adorn her social life, but it looks mean when the use of it causes the neglect of the needle.

Woman may be a secret power in the home. She may make home attractive to the refined and cultured, and thus prove to be the magnet attracting to herself and to her fireside those gifted sons and daughters, the scintillations of whose genius and the dissemination of whose beautiful thoughts make the home luminous with a light which is inextinguishable. The influence of such a woman over her children and over the young cannot be overestimated.

"Such a sphere, so far from being insufficient to satisfy a true woman's ambition, is well fitted, by its tremendous responsibilities, to excite her fears. There is not one, perhaps, which a human being can occupy, on which hang more stupendous issues. Though less public, it is still more potential than man's."

The influence of a true woman cannot be confined to the home. Home is the fountain, and the world gladly furnishes channels for the diffusion of her influence. In promoting the cause of reform, in alleviating the woes of the unfortunate, in carrying forward the cause of temperance, in ministering to the sick, either as a nurse or a physician, in using her pen to delight and guide the thoughts of the young and old along the garden paths of her own loving life, thick with the blossoms of hope, and made glorious by deeds of charity,—in these, and in numberless other ways, woman, finding her throne in the house, is welcomed as a ruler in the world.

For woman there is a felt a necessity which should send her forth as a missionary to those like herself in everything but blessings. Think of our large factory towns, where women are congregated by hundreds and thousands. Let it be remembered that there is something unnatural in all this. Woman was made for man, for home, for love. Separate her from them all, herd her with her kind, subtract from her the incentive to endeavor, leave her mind to brood in fancy, to welcome unholy aspirations and degrading thoughts to her soul, and you leave her to prey upon herself. Let woman see to it that reading-rooms for women be established in our factory towns, that their boarding-houses be warmed and rendered inviting, that the talented be encouraged to exertion, and that tidiness and neatness be made an incentive for all, and woman will do a work of immeasurable importance,—a work on which God's blessing will rest,—and those who toil to accomplish it will obtain an abundant reward from Him who declares, "Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these, ye did it unto me."

In the cause of Reform woman's help is needed. From the earliest commencement of the temperance movement, appeals, arguments, and expostulations have been addressed by earnest reformers to woman, because it was felt that on any great social question the power of woman to help, or to hinder, was all-important. When it is remembered that woman is the greatest sufferer from the vice of intemperance, that she regulates the customs of society, it is apparent that she should seek to abolish bad, and promote good customs. More than others she trains the young and builds up character, and therefore she should, by example and precept, implant such habits as may be not only a safeguard in childhood and youth, but become fixed as moral principles in those she has reared, when the responsibility arrives; because of these, we find reasons in abundance why woman must help, or aid cannot reach the imperilled and undone.

Again: Woman needs help. Addison well said, "Women are either the best or the worst of human beings." The very feelings which, rightly directed, prompt her to soar even to the apex of the pyramid of human virtue, warped from their right exercise, precipitate her to the lowest and most grovelling depths of human vice. Is woman intemperate, she differs from man in the gratification of her appetite. He seeks the social club. Woman seeks retirement, and drinks alone and apart. Her appetite, from this very cause, becomes unmanageable. Men will stop drinking, oftentimes, when the open bar is closed. Woman, with an appetite formed, drinks the more, because she drinks in secret. Because of this fact, woman is in peril if she form an appetite for strong drink.

Woman as a Mother has work to do as a teacher. "We hear a great deal about education in the present day; but," said Mrs. Ellis, "my strong impression is that there will have to come a teaching out of the mother's heart and life,—herself being taught of God,—such as alone can save us as a nation and a people from falling from our high material prosperity into a condition of moral degradation, which it is terrible to contemplate." Such being the case, every woman should ask, What have I done in those opportunities which God gave me with the young? What did I pour into that open heart and mind? Was my influence for Christ or against him? Which way did I point out to those uncertain feet? Who can estimate a mother's influence! There is a power in a mother's love greater than any other human power,—a power to suffer, to serve, and to save; a power which many waters cannot quench, and which is stronger than death. As she leads, the broodlings will follow. Does she sanction card-playing, theatre-going, dancing, and what are called innocent recreations, or does she set herself against them, and turn the thoughts of her children to books that treat of science, of philosophy, and of religion? Upon the answer to this question the future of children and the young depends. Many a boy has been checked in a career of shame by a mother's sad look; many have been encouraged by a mother's smile. God help women to know how to use their power for home, for woman-kind, for man-kind, for country, and for God!

"No one has such power over a river as he who stands near its source. No one has such power over the tree as he who plants and tends it while yet it is a pliant sapling. And no earthly power is to be compared with that which, humanly speaking, determines the course and destiny of an immortal soul. Under God the mother is the first guardian of the child's eternal interest. It is from the mother, who moves constantly among her little ones, much more than the father, whose vocation necessitates his absence from home, and prevents his being much in their presence, that children receive their bias. Her gentle hand gives to our ductile natures the impress which we wear through life; her loving voice awakens in the soul those sweet echoes which never cease to sound; and her look and manner fill the mind with images which haunt our memory until our dying day."

"O, Mother! sweetest name on earth; We lisp it on the knee, And idolize its sacred worth In manhood's ministry."

A mother's hand gave us our first welcome, and hers was the last we grasped in our farewell. She is the nurse of both of our childhoods; the queen of the home, and the friend of the heart.

"And if I e'er in heaven appear, A mother's holy prayer,— A mother's hand and gentle tear,— That pointed to a Saviour here, Shall lead the wanderer there."

Woman's mission is religious. Christ recognized her as a helpmeet, as a comforter, and a companion. Woman ministered to him with delight, and gladly made a resting-place for him in the quiet retreat of the home in Bethany. He recognized her faith as an element of strength, which saves her when properly exercised. The spiritual life of woman is her glory. We think of the woman who had sinned looking in love and faith on Jesus, bathing his feet with her tears, and wiping them with her hair, kissing and anointing them, with a feeling akin to devotion. The Magdalene, delivered of her seven demons, because of her devotion to Christ, and the triumph won by her faith, achieved a position which, in the regards of the church, is equal to that held by the Mother of our Saviour.

Woman's daily life is to her spiritual life what the debris of the stream is to the water-lily that floats upon the surface. What cares the servant girl of Rome for the place where she toils? The cathedral, and the wonderful pictures that hang upon its walls, are her glory and pride. Look at her toil from that stand-point, and she becomes a helper in the estimation of the world that cannot be ignored. We have said woman's work is a work of charity. Satan has warped the truth and wielded it against Christ; but as it is wrong to give up a good tune because bad men sing it, so we must not give up a truth because Satan takes advantage of it. This work of charity,—of giving up for others, of denying self for another's advantage, of abandoning comfort to assuage another's grief,—so wonderfully illustrated by a Florence Nightingale, and by women quite as worthy in our own land, whose presence in the hospitals was like a benediction from God, and whose presence in our homes, in our churches, beside the sad and sorrowing everywhere, is proof that woman has a mission which she alone can fill, and a work which she alone can perform. "And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, and the greatest of these is charity." Man has faith, he has hope; but he lacks, to a large extent, in the charities which come to woman as gifts of God, because of which Christ employed her as an agency to win men back to faith in God. In the sick chamber she moves with step noiseless as falling snow-flakes, and speaks in a voice soft as an angel's whisper. Her touch is so gentle that it soothes the sufferer, and her sympathy is more precious than rubies. On this account she is man's first and last solace. Suffering never appeals to woman in vain. "I never addressed myself," says Ledyard, "in the language of decency and friendship to woman, whether civilized or savage, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man it has often been otherwise. In wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden, frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide-spread regions of the wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, woman has ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so; and, to add to this virtue,—so worthy of the appellation of benevolence,—these actions have been performed in so free and kind a manner, that if I was dry, I drank the sweet draught, and if hungry, ate the coarse morsel, with a double relish." Park, and many other travellers, bear similar testimony.

"Woman all exceeds In ardent sanctitude, in pious deeds; And chief in woman charities prevail, That soothe when sorrow or desire assail; Ask the poor pilgrim on this convex cast,— His grizzled locks, distorted in the blast,— Ask him what accents soothe, what hand bestows The cordial beverage, raiment, and repose. Ah! he will dart a spark of ardent flame, And clasp his tremulous hands, and Woman name. Peruse the sacred volume. Him who died Her kiss betrayed not, nor her tongue denied; While even the apostles left Him to His doom, She lingered round His cross and watched His tomb."

How precious is such sympathy in her who is to be the solace, because the helpmeet, of man! How it qualifies her for being the priestess of the temple of home; the gentle nurse of helpless infancy, manhood's counsellor and comforter!

"O Woman! Woman! thou wast made, Like heaven's own pure and lovely light, To cheer life's dark and desert shade, And guide man's erring footsteps right."

This is a power which monarchs well might envy,—a power to bless mankind and honor God; a power which, working in obscure and limited sphere, is yet felt in the high places of the earth, and identified with the deeds of men whose names are renowned in the history of the world, and shine as stars in the diadem of God.



WOMAN versus BALLOT.

Three facts stand in the way of Woman's being helped by the Ballot,—God, Nature, and Common Sense. The purpose for which God made or "formed" woman is clearly avowed in the history of her origin and in the assignment of her duties.

In discussing this question, whether the ballot, and all the immunities growing out of the right to vote, shall be granted to woman, it is essential that we inquire reverently and earnestly, on which side is God. That the question in its philosophical treatment can only be fathomed by the profoundest intellect, and that it can be embraced, in all its details, only by the most comprehensive knowledge, is but a partial statement of this truth. The question can only be understood, measured, and gauged by that Being who sees the end from the beginning, and can follow into its infinite ramifications the influence which must result from our actions. God does understand it. Being infinitely wise, there can be no new issues, no new facts, or combinations of facts, to influence the decisions of the Omniscient Mind. It becomes us then to inquire what sphere God assigned to woman. Having found it, we shall see that Nature and Common Sense unite in making manifest the wisdom in adhering to the Divine Plan.

The necessity of recalling attention to the portraiture of woman as God made her, is the more apparent, when we remember that those who ask the ballot for woman practically ignore the teachings of the Bible and the right of God to rule, and claim by word, as well as by deed, that they have outgrown the wisdom of the past, and have entered upon a stage of progress in advance of old time precedents. We believe in the rule of God, and in the wisdom of God, and claim that Omniscience is not dependent either upon a morning newspaper, or upon the crude conjectures of a godless Infidelity, for wisdom or light in adjusting means to an end, or in assigning to woman her proper sphere.

Again. We are impelled to seek wisdom from God, because we seek for it in vain elsewhere. As to how the ballot is to help woman, even its advocates give us no light. Whether it is proposed to lighten by its aid the penalties, and do away with the ruin of the fall, we are left in doubt.

If we give to woman the ballot, shall the equality which woman lost, when she ate of the forbidden fruit, be restored, and shall she be made again the equal of man? Shall the sorrow in child-bearing be removed? Can housework, or the duties of motherhood, and wifehood, and sisterhood, be met and discharged by the use of the ballot?

These are questions which deserve to be answered. It is patent to every one that this attempt to secure the ballot for woman is a revolt against the position and sphere assigned to woman by God himself. It is a revolt against the holiest duties enjoined upon woman. It is an attempt to reorganize society upon a new basis; to change the relations of men and women; to secure the millennium by a vote, and by majorities to do away with the rule of God. The Bible declares that the headship of the house devolves on man. Man is lawgiver. Woman is not slave: she is helpmeet; the sharer of man's joys and sorrows; the light of his home, if there be any light in his home; the solace of his life, if his life have solace; the mother of his children, if children there be. Now, as then, woman, in her natural state, before she makes the attempt to unsex herself, and render herself a monster, finds it in her nature to look to man as lawmaker, and expects to submit to his rule in the home. We do not say that all women submit cheerfully to this rule, for there are some who do not. But when this is the case, from the nature of things, happiness takes its flight, the marriage-bed is defiled, woman becomes an outlaw in her heart, and the two bound together by a chain rather than by the silken cord of love, are candidates for a peaceable divorce or a continuous battle.

The advocates of the ballot for woman hope through its aid to secure an overthrow of this rule, or escape from this so-called bondage. They demand a change in public sentiment regarding the sphere woman is to fill, securing to her an equality before the law, in representation, in privileges, and in wages.

In other words, there are women who hope and expect to do away with the disabilities incident to the female portion of the community, and by education and culture, obtain for woman this same strength, this same ability to study, to think, to work, and to plan, that is enjoyed by man. In short, some believe that a woman can be so changed that she can, for all practical purposes, get on without man's help or protection.

Against this revolutionary scheme we protest, because, by a reference to the Word of God,[A] we find reasons for believing that it is in the constitution and nature of woman, with some slight modifications, to occupy the place assigned her in this land, where Christian influence unites with the better instincts of humanity in lightening her burdens, smoothing her pathway, and filling her lap with the tributes of manly regard.

[Footnote A: I am aware that this sneer is often made: "The same class oppose us who defended the divine right of slavery." This is untrue so far as I am concerned. I was second to no man in condemnation of slavery, because the Bible condemned it. That one utterance, "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," was the seedling out of which liberty, equality, and fraternity grew. Liberty was won because of the faith, and prayers, and efforts of a God-believing and a Christ-loving church. Their prayers and their faith girded the nation with strength, and their prowess, aided by those who followed their lead, secured victory.]



I.

The Scriptural Argument.

To state our faith more definitely, we believe that in Eden woman enjoyed an equality with man; that she took advantage of her privilege, and, transgressing the law of God without consulting her husband, proved treacherous to her high trust, opened the gate of perdition to the enemy of souls, and brought upon man and the race the curse consequent upon sin, and the ruin wrought by the fall. In consequence of this, God pronounced a curse upon her; gave her sorrow in child-bearing, as he gave to man fatigue in toil; changed the relations hitherto subsisting between man and woman, and compelled her to live henceforth in another; to sink her own individuality, and merge it in that of her husband. This is the language. Unto the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." This is her portion of the curse. This portion endures. Man from that moment became ruler. The wife's desire was to the husband, so that whatever she desires is naturally referred to him. He became adviser, lawmaker and head. The right or wrong of God's action it does not become us to discuss. It is right because God did it. Dispute the right who will, but the curse lives. The serpent crawls on his belly and eats dust. The wife has sorrow in conception; her desire is to her husband, and he rules her; and man, by the sweat of his brow, eats his bread.

But, says some one, did not the coming of Christ change the status of woman, and place her again on the same equality which she enjoyed when Adam led the beautiful Eve to her nuptial bower, and found it impossible to exist without what the poet describes as

"Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire?"

If we have not mistaken the relations subsisting even in Eden between the original pair, woman was not the ruler even there. Milton has truthfully said,—

"For well I understand in the prime end Of Nature her the inferior, in the mind And inward faculties which most excel, In outward, also, her resembling less His image who made both, and less expressing The character of that dominion given O'er other creatures; yet when I approach Her loveliness, so absolute she seems, And in herself complete, so well to know Her own, that what she wills to do or say Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best: All higher knowledge in her presence falls Degraded; wisdom in discourse with her Loses discountenanced, and like folly shows; Authority and reason on her wait, As one intended first, not after made Occasionally; and to consummate all, Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat Build in her, loveliest, and create an awe About her, as a guard angelic placed."

With woman, as God made her, we are not acquainted. Glimpses of her pristine beauty, and characteristics of her former excellence, shine forth; but sin has marred the original picture, and defaced the model fashioned by the Creator's hand. The ruin wrought by the fall brought Christ to earth. He opened a way back to Eden—not on earth, but in heaven. The curse remains. The race is under it, because sin is in the world. The law, formed after the fall, is the expressed will of God. Christ did not come to do away with it, but to fulfil it. Then, as now, it was a law of love, of good will, of peace. When Christ came, woman's condition was deplorable. She was the abject slave of man in nearly all the world. Yet Christ made no attempt to break down their original arrangements. He knew that without a change in woman herself, no external changes in her condition could be of any benefit to her. He recognized the great fact that she herself must be educated to a better life, that she must have a character which in itself would command respect, and make her worthy of a higher place and a larger liberty. Truly has it been said, "Institutions, of themselves, can never confer freedom upon a people. They must be free men, capable of liberty, and then they will be able not only to make their own institutions, but keep and defend them also. So the emancipation of woman can be effected only by breaking the bonds of her ignorance, frivolity, and vice. A character must be given her, and then the iron door of her prison-house will open to her of its own accord, and she will find that the angel of liberty has been leading her forth indeed." In this direction Jesus labored. Paul, in his Epistles, gave emphasis to the teachings of the Old Testament, and so he wrote, "Let your women keep silence, in the churches, for it is not permitted them to speak; but they are to be in subjection, as the law also says; and if they will to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church,"—I Cor. xiv. 34, 35.

Against this command many arguments have been brought to bear, and despite this apostolic command, some women insist upon their right to preach. It is a significant truth, that whoever does this, enters upon a conflict with public sentiment born of God, and subjects herself to terrible mortification. The refusal of lending Universalist divines to share the exercises of an ordination with a woman, illustrates this principle. The recognition given to man as the head of the household, involves the loss of woman's individuality, and of her right to a support. It opens a window to life, and shows why our higher nature revolts against woman being compelled to labor in the field. That is man's place, and the labor elevates him. It degrades a woman. The praises of agricultural toil for man find a place in song and story; but labor in the field is destructive of womanhood, of motherhood, and of wifehood.

We have seen that the Scriptures declare, 1. That it is not well for man to be alone. He is not complete until woman is joined to him in marriage. 2. Woman was made for man. Manliness is an attribute that belongs to man; it disgraces a woman. To be womanly, is the noblest tribute that can be paid to woman; but it disgraces a man, because God, the Creator, placed this characteristic within the heart and soul and nature, just as he gave a difference of nature, mould, and form, to the outward appearance of man and woman. He made them for a particular purpose, and not for the same purpose. They were not made in the same manner, nor of the same material. If woman be the weaker vessel, she is of the finer mould. God made man in his own image, and woman was created to be his helpmeet.

3. We have noticed the change in the relations which was the product of the curse. Woman in Eden was the source of influence. After it, man became the head, and her desire was unto him.

4. Since the fall, labor has been multiplied to man, sorrow to woman; but such is the kindness of God, that these two facts are sources of perpetual joy in the home. The wife is proud of her toiling husband, the man is tender of his suffering wife; and in the bliss of childhood happiness both find their reward.

These statements shrine all the facts of the separate histories of man and woman. It were easier to change earth to water, and sea to land, than it is to make a womanly woman consent to appear manly. Her God made her a woman. It is not a fault. It is a glory. The bird that skims the wave would not exchange places with the bird that goes to meet the sun; but this is not to bring a charge against the eagle or the swan.

One more truth, and then we will pass to the consideration of the lessons discoverable in woman's nature. All the Scripture requirements, such as refer to the plaiting of the hair, to being uncovered in public, are said to refer to the customs of the East, and not to bind woman in this age of progress. The principle covered by those requirements then, rules now. Paul said, Let not a Christian woman break through any of the restraints of womanhood, and so appear as do the harlots, with uncovered faces and with plaited hair, who mingle freely with men, and are shorn of that modesty and weakness so becoming woman. Woman's right to be a woman implies the right to be loved, to be respected as a woman, to be married, to bring forth to the world the product of that love; and woman's highest interests are promoted by defending and maintaining this right.

There are those who object to the word service, and claim that those who take the Bible as authority wish to reduce woman to slavery. No charge could be more absurd; and God's care for woman is manifest, both in the teachings of the Bible and in the constitution of the race. Woman owes to Christianity all she enjoys. Leave her to be subject to the conditions imposed on her by unregenerated manhood or womanhood, and you leave her to become either a thing in society, or else reduce her to a level with the beasts of burden. In old savage and pagan tribes the severest burdens of physical toil were laid upon her. She was valued for the same reason that men prize their most useful animals, or as a means of gratifying sensual and selfish desires. Even in the learned and dignified forms of modern paganism, the wife is the slave rather than the companion of her husband. She is kept apart from him. The education of her mental faculties is neglected. She is not allowed to walk with him; she must walk behind him. She must not eat with him, but eat after he has done, and eat what he leaves. She must not sleep until he is asleep, nor remain asleep after he is awake. If she is sitting down, and he comes into the room, she must rise up. She must bow to no other god on the earth besides her husband. She must worship him while he lives, and when he dies she must be burned with him. In case she is not burned, she is not allowed to marry, and is considered an outcast. There is little social intercourse between the sexes, little or no acquaintance of the parties before marriage, and, consequently, little mutual attachment. Women are not allowed to learn to read, because there can be no solid foundation laid for future influence.

Under the Crescent the condition of woman is worse rather than better, for in pagan India she is permitted to share in the hope of religion; but in Mohammedan countries it is a popular tradition that women are forbidden paradise; and it requires some effort for the imagination to conceive how debased and wretched must be the condition of the female sex to originate and sustain such a horrible and blasphemous tradition.

Even in the refined and shining ages of Greece and Rome, where the cultivation of letters and the graces of polished style, the charms of poetry and eloquence, the elegances of architecture, sculpture, painting, and embroidery, the glory of conquest and the pride of national distinction, were unsurpassed,—even then and there, woman was but the abject slave of man, the object of his ambition, avarice, lust, and power.

Truly has it been said that nothing more surely distinguishes the savage state from the civilized, the East from the West, Paganism from Christianity, antiquity from the middle ages, the middle ages from modern times, than the condition of woman.

In China, she is used as a beast of burden. The Chinese peasant woman goes to the field with her male infant on her back, and ploughs, sows, and reaps, exposed to all the changes of the weather. In Calcutta, women are the masons, and maybe seen daily conveying their hods of cement, and spreading it on the tops of their houses.

In a country where no European man can labor, where the native rests until compelled by his conqueror to work, seven thousand of these women might have been seen, in 1859, climbing to the edge of ravines, with baskets of stone on their heads, to fill, with these tedious contributions, thousands of perpendicular feet, in order that a railroad might wind among the mountains.

In Australia, she carries the burden which man's indolence refuses; and in Great Britain, the condition of women among the lower classes, revealed by the statistics of her mines and of her manufacturing districts, is such as to make a moralist blush. Behold her, with a strap around her waist, dragging the coal-cart in the mine, and so ignorant, that when asked if she knew Jesus, replied, "He never worked in our shaft."

Do we turn to America, we find that in the providence of God her fortune has been advanced and improved by the extension of the era of free government, and by the diffusion of the principles of the gospel of Christ.

True, in the past, throughout the South, a negro woman worked in the field as a beast of burden; but emancipation and the diffusion of the principles of Christianity changes all this in the South, as it has changed it in Turkey and in the East. The colored man builds for his wife a house, and toils for her in the field or shop, while she keeps the house, and beautifies the sanctuary of the heart.

Now, in all this land, woman's right to be a woman is recognized, and "woman's right to be a man" is opposed, though eloquent orators of either sex may declaim in its behalf. God's law, natural and revealed, is against it. Woman's nature will be woman's nature no longer when she shall desire it.

An illustration of this fact was recently furnished. A female orator had just left the platform for the horse-car. She was tired, and, doubtless, needed a seat. She had been speaking in favor of woman's rights, and had berated the opposite sex for their unwillingness to grant them. Worn out with fatigue, and excited, her lace red, her eyes flashing, she looked around for a seat. The car was full, and among the number sitting down was a workingman.

She spoke so that all could hear her, saying, "You are not gentlemen, or you would not let a woman stand." The workingman looked up, and replied, "Did I not just hear you speak in behalf of woman's rights?" The woman, supposing she had found a friend, replied in the affirmative. "Well," said he, "I will stand up any time, with pleasure, for a housewife or a kitchen girl; but you contend for an equality of rights with men; take it, and stand up among them." The shout of approbation proved that the argument was not on the side of woman. She did not herself believe in the theory advanced. Down in her heart she felt that, because she was a woman, she was entitled to be treated with love and respect, with honor and consideration.

The right which exempts her from certain things which men must endure, grows out of her right to be a woman. We feel that it is her privilege and her right to be relieved from the necessity of working in the field, from doing many things which it is manly in man to do.

We do not object to woman's sharing in the toil of the store, the shop, or the factory. Better this than idleness and want; yet there is a reason for pondering the question whether woman is wise in trying to displace man for her own advantage. If any one must be idle, let it be woman, and not man. It has been well said, "There are in Massachusetts over seventy thousand more females than males, and probably twice that number in the State of New York. It is an unnatural condition of things. At the West the number of men greatly preponderates."

"Our young men go off early in life, leaving fathers, mothers, and sisters behind them. The prospect for their sisters to marry, then, is lessened by every emigration." Now, what shall be done in behalf of these thousands of virtuous, educated, and noble girls? The cry is, make them into clerks, and bookkeepers, and bankers, and give them all the employments of men. Think it over. Suppose now we make these girls into clerks in stores and counting-rooms, say ten thousand in Massachusetts, and twenty thousand in New York—don't we displace so many young men; drive them off to the West; prevent so many new families from being established here; take away thirty thousand chances of marriage from these females, and enhance the evil we are trying to remedy?

Is it a blessing to woman to lessen her opportunities of marriage?

Again, a woman can be idle, and not be lost. Whereas man, if left unemployed, runs to mischief, if not to crime.

The history of those manufacturing districts in England, so eloquently described by Charlotte Elizabeth, where woman is preferred because of the cheapness and skill of her labor, proves this position correct. The husband lives in idleness, and has the care of the house. The result is, that comfort and neatness are at an end. The children are reared in crime, in indolence; the men pass their time in drinking and in gambling, prostitution abounds, and the health of the community, socially, physically, mentally, and morally, is destroyed.

On the other hand, enter one of those manufacturing towns where the skilled labor of man is rewarded, and where women keep the house with thrift and care, and you behold order, virtue, and prosperity. This is not poetry. It is fact. It proves that God's laws must be heeded and obeyed. "Marriage," said Gail Hamilton, "is a friendship of the sexes so profound, so comprehensive, that it includes the whole being. The inflow of the divine life,

"'Bright effluence of bright essence increate,'

"blends the man nature and the woman nature into an absolute oneness, which shapes itself ever thereafter into the only perfect symmetry. Thus alone comes humanity in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Thus marriage forever tends to its own annihilation,—not the annihilation of a stream swallowed up in desert sands, but of a river broadening to the boundless sea. The more perfect its substance, the more yielding its form. As it gathers power it diminishes pomp, till, by a pathway which the vulture's eye hath not seen and never can see, marriage itself leads to the land where they neither marry nor are given in marriage.

"Wherever man pays reverence to woman,—wherever any man feels the influence of any woman, purifying, chastening, abashing, strengthening him against temptation, shielding him from evil, ministering to his self-respect, medicining his weariness, peopling his solitude, winning him from sordid prizes, enlivening his monotonous days with mirth, or fancy, or wit, flashing heaven upon his earth, and mellowing it for all spiritual fertility,—there is the element of marriage. Wherever woman pays reverence to man,—wherever any woman rejoices in the strength of any man, feels it to be God's agent, upholding her weakness, confirming her purpose, and crowning her power,—wherever he reveals himself to her, just, upright, inflexible, yet tolerant, merciful, benignant, not unruffled, perhaps, but not overcome by the world's turbulence, and responding to all her gentleness, his feet on the earth, his head among the stars, helping her to hold her soul steadfast in right, to stand firm against the encroachments of frivolity, vanity, impatience, fatigue, and discouragement, helping to preserve her good nature, to develop her energy, to consolidate her thought, to utilize her benevolence, to exalt and illumine her life,—there is the essence of marriage. Its love is founded on respect, and increases self-respect at the very moment of merging itself in another. Its love is mutual, equally giving and receiving at every instant of its action. There is neither dependence nor independence, but inter-dependence. Years cannot weaken its bonds, distance cannot sunder them. It is a love which vanquishes the grave, and transfigures death itself into life."

These laws are varied by God's word, and written indelibly upon the nature of man. Surely nothing can be more manifest than that they must be obeyed.



II.

Nature teaches us the Wisdom of adhering to the Divine Plan.

Anatomists tell us that in the embryo skeleton there is a marked difference of general conformation in the two sexes; that in the male there is a larger chest and breathing apparatus, which, affects the whole organization, forming a more powerful muscular system, and producing a physical constitution which predestines him to bold enterprises and daring exploits. The woman, being differently constructed, finds it natural to content herself in the house, removed from the gaze of the world, and from rude contact with its jostling cares.

There is an outside and an inside world. The work of the street, or the shop, or the field, is no more essential to the well-being of the family than is the work performed in the house. God assigned to man the field, or out-door work, and to woman the home and housework. In proportion as men and women fill well their separate spheres, there is harmony and happiness. Man toils, and provides for the wants of his household. Woman toils, and sees to it that the children are well reared, and that the house is well kept. Woman is respected and supported, not in idleness, but in caring for the wants of those committed to her care. The attempt is being made to disregard these natural laws, by those who claim to have outgrown divine legislation, and who have the hardihood to trample upon the laws of nature. But in vain. When God made our first parents, he made them male and female, and it will not be difficult to believe in the impossibility of the finite being able to undo the work of the Infinite. Each has his and her place, and nothing goes continuously right if husband and wife change places. Keep the positions assigned them by the laws of God and nature, and all will go well.

Give to woman the serious consideration due from every man born of woman's agony, and you build her up in love, endow her with respect, encourage her to cultivate her mind, and to develop the graces of her nature. The mightiest influence which exists upon earth is concealed in the heart of woman. It follows that her elevation and her happiness, her education and usefulness, are objects of deep concern. We have seen that the legislation of Heaven provides for the gratification of the early longing of the soul for companionship in making marriage honorable and love the holiest of instincts.

It is fashionable to talk against an early love. It is wrong thus to do. "Youth longeth for a kindred spirit, and yearneth for a heart that can commune with his own. He meditateth night and day, doting on the image of his fancy." It is the tendency of an early love to inspire youth with grand aspirations and lofty aims. "They that love early, shall become like-minded, and the tempter shall touch them not. They shall grow up, leaning on each other, as the olive and the vine."

It is only when love is scorned, when passion takes its place, when man forgets that the idol of his heart is a probationer of earth like himself, that it is his duty to be chary of her soul, feeling that it is his jewel. It is only when a man ceases to be a man, and becomes a beast, that he can consent, even in thought, to despoil woman of her virtue; to trample upon the sacred instincts of her nobler nature. A real woman will delight to make herself worthy of love. In the advancement of her mind, quite as much as in the adornment of her person, she strives to make herself beautiful as well as lovable. If she forgets her duty, and consents to seem to be what she is not, so that her admirer finds that the appearance which charmed him was not real, then the future of that woman is dark indeed. Her husband will discover, when too late, that "the harp and the voice may thrill him, sound may enchant his ear, but, by and by, the hand will wither, and the sweet notes turn to discord; the eye, so brilliant at even, may be red with sorrow in the morning; and the sylph-like form of elegance must writhe in the crampings of pain."

Naturally the man and woman will recognize the rule of God in the choice of their vocation. He will go abroad, and she will stay at home. He will earn the bread, and she will make it. He will build the house, and she will keep it. The difference between their spheres of labor seems naturally to be this: one is external, the other internal; one active, the other passive. He has to go and seek out his path; hers usually lies close under her feet. Yet, if life is meant to be a worthy one, each must resolutely be trod.

"When the man wants weight, the woman takes it up, And topples down the scales; but this is fixt As are the roots of earth and base of all: Man for the field, and woman for the hearth; Man for the sword, and for the needle she; Man with the head, and woman with the heart; Man to command, and woman to obey; All else confusion."

Woman is not content to remain separate and apart. She will give her love to some object, and desires to repose her faith in some person worthy of her regard. She lives for man. She dresses and studies for him. She acquires knowledge and accomplishments, which are known to please and to allure.

Woman, being by nature dependent, finds it easier to lay hold of the offer of salvation than does man. His independent spirit keeps him back. Woman has only to recognize her dependence upon One higher than man, and in doing this is obliged to do but little violence to her habits of thought and feeling, and no violence at all to such sentiments of independence as stand most in the way of man. Hence men shrink with horror from coming in contact with a godless woman. In their eyes she is monstrous, unreasonable and offensive. Even an utterly godless man, unless he be debauched and debased to the position of an animal, deems such a woman without an excuse. He looks on her with suspicion. He would not intrust his children to her care. Oh happy lot, and hallowed even as the joy of angels, where the golden chain of godliness is entwined with the roses of love, as one of our own poets wrote:—

"O, what is woman—what her smile, Her lip of love, her eye of light; What is she if her lip revile The lowly Jesus? Love may write His name upon her noble brow, Or linger in her curls of jet; The bright spring flowers may scarcely bow Beneath her step, and yet, and yet Without that meeker grace, she'll be A lighter thing than vanity."

Thus wrote N.P. Willis. He felt that a woman, with Christ in her heart, was the beau ideal of man. The home is her kingdom, and the heart of husband or brother is her throne. In that sphere her influence is the most potent instrumentality on earth.

Demosthenes declared that by this influence she can in an hour upset the legislation of a year of statesmanship. Her power is, however, through man, not apart from him.

This is the scriptural view. Nowhere do we read of woman as though she had a mission apart from man. We talk of men and forget women. It seems almost impossible to legislate for woman and forget man.

Mankind includes womankind, but womankind does not include mankind.

It may not be complimentary, yet it remains true, that the Scriptures fail to furnish us with a model woman.

Jesus was the model man; but Eve, and Mary, and Rebekah, and Rachel, were model women to none besides those to whom they were given as wives. This, perhaps, is well, for it would be injudicious to try and prove to any man that his wife should differ radically from herself.



III.

Having considered the teachings of the Scripture and of Nature, let us listen to the Voice of Common Sense.

Under this head we hesitate not to declare that the hope of woman lies in the recognition of the laws of God, and the laws of her own higher nature.

Look at the facts. Who demand the ballot for woman? They are not the lovers of God, nor are they the believers in Christ, as a class. There may be exceptions, but the majority prefer an infidel's cheer to the favor of God and the love of the Christian community. It is because of this tendency that the majority of those who contend for the ballot for woman cut loose from the legislation of Heaven, from the enjoyments of home, and drift to infidelity and ruin.

Our wives and mothers do not ask the ballot. Our young ladies do not care even to hear the question discussed. They believe that whatever hinders woman from being the helpmeet of man does her injury. It is claimed that woman needs the ballot to secure equal laws. This claim is urged, because, it is said, women are required to obey laws which they had no share in making. It is a mistaken notion. Woman has had a share in the legislation of the country. Her influence pervades society. Let her be true to temperance, and intemperance is restrained. Let her be true to freedom, and the pulsations of her heart find their way through the entire framework of society. Let her be true to her own glorious nature, and this attempt to unsex and discrown her will meet with the swift and terrible condemnation it deserves.

Another has said, "The Amazons have often been met with the statement, that a large majority of the women do not wish to vote, and would not if they could. The truth of this statement is not denied. The advocates of the ballot confess that many noble women affect a womanly horror of being thought strong-minded," and to offset this tendency they declare it to be the "imperative duty of women to claim the suffrage." "Does this mean that women are to be coerced in this matter? that our mothers, wives, and sisters are to be punished for staying away from the polls? We have never supposed it the imperative duty of every man to vote. And we know that many of the most intelligent and upright do not vote. Such is the inexpressible nastiness of our elections, especially in the larger cities, that men of the cleanest morals think it right to keep away from them. The foulest portions of the men go first, stay longest, and stand thickest at the places of voting. How then will it be when the foulest portion of the women get packed into the same crowd, and drive modesty away by the foulness of their speech and presence? When the aggregate filth of both sexes shall have met together at the polling stations, as it will be sure to do, we hardly think any chaste or modest home-loving woman will go near this stench unless compelled to do so."

It is because this scheme lifts the gate to the increasing wave of corruption and pollution, that we are surprised that so-called statesmen give their countenance to it. Give to woman the ballot, and this country is hopelessly given up to Romanism. The priest loses the man, but he keeps the woman. Give to the priests the control of the votes of the thousands of servants in the great cities, and there is an end to legislation in behalf of the Sabbath, the Bible, and the school system, temperance, or morality.

The right to vote implies the right to rule, to legislate, to go to Congress, and to take the Presidential chair. On this point hear Miss Muloch. "Who that ever listened for two hours to the verbose confused inanities of a ladies' committee, would immediately go and give his vote for a Female House of Congress, or of Commons? or who, on the receipt of a lady's letter of business,—I speak of the average,—would henceforth desire to have our courts of justice stocked with matronly lawyers, or thronged by

"'Sweet girl graduates, with their golden hair?'"

Well has Gail Hamilton said, "How will the possession of the ballot affect in any way the vexed question of work and wages? One orator says, 'Shall Senators tell me in their places that I have no need of the ballot, when forty thousand women in the city of New York alone are earning their daily bread at starving prices with the needle?' But what will the ballot do for those forty thousand women when they get it? It will not give them husbands, nor make their thriftless husbands provident, nor their invalid husbands healthy. They cannot vote themselves out of their dark, unwholesome sewing-rooms into counting-rooms and insurance offices, nor have they generally the qualifications which these places require. The ballot will not enable them to do anything for which their constitution or their education has not fitted them, and I do not know of any law now which prevents them from doing anything for which they are fitted, except the holding of government offices. ... What can the ballot do towards equalizing wages, where work is already equalized without affecting wages, as is not unfrequently the case? There are shops of the same sort, on the same street, with male clerks in one and female clerks in another, where the former work fewer hours and receive higher wages than the latter.... Moreover, the question of female clerkship is not yet settled. There are conscientious, intelligent, and obliging shopkeepers, who say that female clerks are not satisfactory. Their strength is not equal to the draughts made upon it. They are not able to stand so long as clerks are required to stand. They have not the patience, the civility, the tact that male clerks have.... All the voting in the world can never add a cubit to a woman's stature."

Woman is not naturally a law-maker. Even in our homes she desires the head of the house to lay down the law. Never shall I forget the influence exerted by the utterance in a convention of Sabbath school teachers. A paper was read, complaining that in a certain Sabbath school there was a lady superintendent, because no man could be found to take the place. In conclusion, the writer said, "We need a man in our town. We have things that wear pantaloons, but we need a man, to give direction to the school, and to attract the nobler and better portion of community." It was an honest declaration, and voiced a truth. Every town, every Sabbath school, every home, needs a man. Women of talent have tried to figure in politics and in the pulpit, but a sorry figure they have made of it.

Think of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton in the train of George Francis Train, perambulating the country in favor of the ballot in Kansas. These are the leaders; but let it not be forgotten that they sided against the ballot for the negro in hopes of getting it for themselves, and proved their utter worthlessness and untrustworthiness by trailing the banner committed to their keeping in the slime of a convention which went for the repudiation of the national debt, the defeat of the party of progress, and for the overthrow of republican liberty. Had woman possessed the ballot, and had the course pursued by the leaders of this movement exercised an influence over the majority, this wonderful victory over the rebellious spirits of the land had not been achieved; but, in its stead, the stars and bars would have resumed their sway, and the stars and stripes, which now kiss the breeze, and greet the rising hopes of uncounted millions, would have been furled in gloom and night.

It is claimed that the ballot will secure for woman social respect. The claim is not well founded. Those who seek it lose social respect, because they step out of the path marked out for them by Providence and by Nature. Woman, in her sphere, is man's good angel and helpmeet; out of it, she is man's bitterest foe and heaviest curse.

There is an instinctive respect for woman in her proper sphere, which is of itself a power superior to any merely conventional position that a woman can build up for herself by her own hands, even through the aid of the ballot.

How natural to see woman waited on by man! Sir Walter Raleigh was praised because he cast his cloak into the mud to save the foot of his Queen from being soiled. As noble acts have been performed by many men, times without number. The uprising of gentlemen in the cars when a tired woman enters with a child; the disposition to lighten her cares and sweeten her joys, is everywhere considered manly.

Education is essential for her. She is the educator of the home, for she is its soul. If one must be ignorant, let it be the man, and not the woman. Many of our most intelligent men have had cultured mothers. Very few sons ever grew to be learned whose mothers cared not for books. This fact is appreciated, and leads us naturally to conclude that if woman lacks social respect it is her own fault. If a woman prefers superficiality to thoroughness; music, drawing, and dress, to a knowledge of housework, an acquaintance with literature, and the endowments of common sense, simply because brainless men are disposed to seek out the effeminate and the frail in preference to the rugged and the well-endowed, then she must suffer the consequences. If a young lady, compelled to toil for support, will prefer the factory or the store, with its hot air and depressing associations, to work in the home, because she hopes in the store or factory to secure the hand and heart of a husband sooner than elsewhere, she must suffer accordingly. But if woman will unite in securing a reform in this direction,—if the pure and the virtuous will say, Such a life as is offered me in the family is in harmony with my future well-being, and I will scorn the allurements elsewhere held out, and fit myself, by study, for companionship with the noble of the land, she will succeed. If woman will respect herself, she will be respected.

It is not by clamoring for rights that have been conferred upon others; it is not by restless discontent, by partisan appeals, by stepping out of her God-given sphere, and by attempting to destroy the network of holy influences by which he ever has surrounded her; it is not by ridiculing marriage and casting scorn on motherhood, that she is to obtain the blessings she courts, but by tranquilly laboring under this heaven-imposed law of obedience. Woman's weakness is transmuted into strength when she opens her nature to the influences of love, and when she consecrates herself to the happiness of others. Then it is she obtains a moral and spiritual power to which man is glad to do homage. Ambition, pride, wilfulness, or any earthly passion, will distort her being. She struggles all in vain against a divine appointment. It is from the soul of meekness that the true strength of womanhood is derived; and it is because it has its root in such a soil that it has a growth so majestic, showering its blessing and fruits upon the world.

It was the sun and the wind that in the fable strove for the mastery; and the strife was for the traveller's cloak. The quiet moon had nought to do with such fierce rivalry of the burning or the blast; but as in her tranquil orbit she journeys round the world, she gently sways the tides of the ocean. Woman's influence resembles that exerted by the queen of night. In the conflicts of life she has little to do; but her influence is felt from the cradle to the grave, and the sphere of it is the whole region of humanity. Woman's worst enemy is he who would cruelly lift her out of her sphere, and would try to reverse the laws of God and of nature in her behalf. They deceive woman who cause her to believe that she will find independence when she abandons the position assigned her by her Creator, and reaches one against which her nature, the interests of society, and the laws of God contend. Woman has her sphere and her work, and she is only happy when she finds pleasure in lovingly, patiently, and faithfully performing the duties and enacting the relations that belong to her as woman. She is not the natural head of society. Man, rough, stern, cold, and almost nerveless, is made to be the head of human society; and woman, quick, sensitive, pliant (as her name indicates), gentle, loving, is the heart of the world. As the heart, she has power. She rules through love, and finds the work set for her to do in the doors opening before her loving nature. She rules through love, and becomes a blessing greater than we can ever acknowledge, because it is greater than we can measure. Let woman take heart. She is not in captivity. The law of service is on her, as it is on man. Much of her service consists in suffering; much of man's consists in toil. Before both there are fields of endeavor, white with beckoning harvests. In literature, in reforms, in ministering to the wants and woes of humanity, in making home more and more like heaven, woman has an open door set before her, which no man will desire to close. Let her enter it and work. There is a law of companionship far deeper than that of uniformity and equality, or similarity—the law which reconciles similitude and dissimilitude, the harmony of contrast, in which what is wanting on the one side finds its complement on the other; for,—

"Heart with heart and mind with mind, When the main fibres are entwined, Through Nature's skill, May even by contraries be joined More closely still."

Such was the exquisite companionship of the sexes as they were represented by our first parents, and such, however they may be momentarily disturbed, they will remain, as the ideal for all the generations of men and women. Let woman repose her trust in man, and then, lifting up her heart, she may sing,—

"Though God's high things are not all ours, 'Tis ours to look above; All is not ours to have and hold, But all is ours to love."

THE END