Part 7 (2/2)
”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 a.s.suage another's grief,--so wonderfully ill.u.s.trated by a Florence Nightingale, and by women quite as worthy in our own land, whose presence in the hospitals was like a benediction from G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, because of which Christ employed her as an agency to win men back to faith in G.o.d. 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 coa.r.s.e morsel, with a double relish.” Park, and many other travellers, bear similar testimony.
”Woman all exceeds In ardent sanct.i.tude, in pious deeds; And chief in woman charities prevail, That soothe when sorrow or desire a.s.sail; 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 G.o.d; 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 s.h.i.+ne as stars in the diadem of G.o.d.
WOMAN _versus_ BALLOT.
Three facts stand in the way of Woman's being helped by the Ballot,--G.o.d, Nature, and Common Sense. The purpose for which G.o.d made or ”formed” woman is clearly avowed in the history of her origin and in the a.s.signment 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 G.o.d. 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. G.o.d 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 G.o.d a.s.signed 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, and in the wisdom of G.o.d, and claim that Omniscience is not dependent either upon a morning newspaper, or upon the crude conjectures of a G.o.dless Infidelity, for wisdom or light in adjusting means to an end, or in a.s.signing to woman her proper sphere.
Again. We are impelled to seek wisdom from G.o.d, 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 a.s.signed to woman by G.o.d 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 G.o.d. The Bible declares that the heads.h.i.+p 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 uns.e.x 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 G.o.d,[A] we find reasons for believing that it is in the const.i.tution and nature of woman, with some slight modifications, to occupy the place a.s.signed 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 cla.s.s 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, ”G.o.d 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 G.o.d-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.
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