Part 9 (1/2)

”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 G.o.dless woman. In their eyes she is monstrous, unreasonable and offensive. Even an utterly G.o.dless 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 G.o.dliness 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 n.o.ble 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 statesmans.h.i.+p. 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 G.o.d, and the laws of her own higher nature.

Look at the facts. Who demand the ballot for woman? They are not the lovers of G.o.d, nor are they the believers in Christ, as a cla.s.s. There may be exceptions, but the majority prefer an infidel's cheer to the favor of G.o.d 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 uns.e.x 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 n.o.ble 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 s.e.xes 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?'”