{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_49427/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_49427","id":"gutenberg_49427","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49427","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Sermons, American","Women -- Biblical teaching","Women in the Bible"],"text":"Transcriber's Note: Spelling has been harmonized, punctuation and\nprinter errors corrected. Italic is denoted by _underscores_.\n\n\n\n\n    _Five hundred copies of this\n    edition have been printed\n    from type in the month\n    of August, 1903\n    by the Gilliss\n    Press_\n\n\n\n\n  Consecrated Womanhood\n\n\n\n\n    Consecrated Womanhood\n\n    A Sermon\n\n    PREACHED IN\n\n    The First Congregational Church\n\n    PORTLAND, OREGON\n\n    BY\n\n    FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN\n\n    WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE\n\n    BY\n\n    FRANCES POWER COBBE\n\n\n    NEW YORK\n\n    J. O. WRIGHT & COMPANY\n\n    MDCCCCIII\n\n\n\n\n  [Illustration: THE\u00b7GILLISS\u00b7PRESS\u00b7 logo]\n\n\n\n\n  Introductory Notice\n\n\nTo those who have long lamented the prevailing tendency in Christian\nchurches to deny to women the honors and responsibilities of sacred\noffices and duties, such a sermon as \"Consecrated Womanhood,\" written\nby an American clergyman is like a breadth of fresh air in Neapolitan\nchurch-buildings that have never known the beauty of sunlight, and the\natmospheres of which have grown heavy through the centuries with the\noppressive weight of suffocating incense.\n\nThe preacher opens his discourse with the statement that \"the Bible\nhonored woman when every other book was blind to the true dignity\nof her character.\" Scholars differ, and little is certain when we\ngo back far enough in the ancient writings of our race. But I think\nthere can be no doubt that in all the earliest literatures of which\nwe have knowledge, the thought of the world was more favorable to\nthe development of womanly independence, than in later compositions,\nespecially such as have come from patristic and monastic sources.\nCertainly we find the great Greek tragedians unfolding their noblest\nideals in the character of an Alcestis, and expressing through the\nlips of an Antigone their loftiest conceptions of virtue, and their\npurest and bravest ethical teachings. The Jews did not stand alone,\nas this eloquent sermon clearly shows, in honoring woman; but the Old\nTestament is devoid, as its most careless reader cannot but see, of all\nthat wretched admiration for feminine feebleness of mind and body which\nseems to have sprung from masculine vanity, and has been fostered by\ncenturies of priestly instruction and popular superstition. As the most\nillustrious Jewess now living, Lady Battersea, wrote in her admirable\nbook some years ago, when she was Miss Constance de Rothschild, \"The\nideal woman of the ancient Israelite was always strong and fearless\u2014a\nMiriam, a Deborah, a Judith, an Esther. Not a word in that older Bible\ndenies to woman the right to exercise every power of speech or action\ngranted her by Jehovah.\"\n\nNothing assuredly can be more broadminded or more generous than Dr.\nMarvin's whole treatment of the claims of women, whether in politics,\nin the religious life, or in the domestic circle. In my humble opinion\nit would do infinite service in awakening thought and dispelling\nprejudice, could the sermon on \"Consecrated Womanhood\" be preached in\nevery church and chapel in England. The good Quakers alone, so far as I\nknow, have no need for its admonition.\n\n    FRANCES POWER COBBE.\n\n    Hengwrt,\n    Dolgelly, North Wales,\n    June 21, 1903.\n\n\n\n\n  Consecrated Womanhood\n\n    \"She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the\n    distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she\n    reacheth out her hands to the needy. Strength and honor are\n    her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She\n    openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of\n    kindness.\"\u2014_Proverbs._\n\n\nIt is the peculiarity of the Bible that it honored woman when every\nother book was blind to the true dignity of her character and the\nroyal possibilities of her nature. The old Testament exalted her not\nonly as wife and mother, but as citizen and ruler, and some of the\nmost stirring songs and daring deeds of patriotism are recorded in\nthe Bible to the honor of woman. Her inspired pen is immortalized in\nthe Word of God, and if it be not meet that her voice sound from the\nhalls of Congress, it is a fact of history that it was heard on the\nfield of battle and in the chamber of justice more than three thousand\nyears ago, when, by the mouth of Deborah and the hand of Jael, the Lord\ndelivered Israel from the power of the spoiler. She may not be thought\ncompetent to have part in framing the laws of a State, but she was\ncompetent to judge the chosen people and to mould the character of the\nworld's Redeemer.\n\nThe conservative who would obstruct the wheels of progress endeavors to\naccomplish his end by an appeal to the Bible. Sacred Scriptures were\nrepresented as the friend of slavery; they are now cited in defense\nof Papal idolatry and Mormon impurity; and how often we hear them\nquoted against the emancipation of woman. But the Bible is the most\nradical book in all the world, and its maxims of wisdom and virtue\nare in advance of every age. Whatever has been accomplished for the\nimprovement of woman's lot may be traced to its hallowed influence.\n\"It found her the slave of man's appetite in the East, the servant of\nhis cupidity in the West, and the victim of his cruelty in the South,\"\nand it broke the chain that bound her soul in darkness and the social\nfetters that linked her womanhood with dishonor.\n\nWe have in the Bible pictures of womanly tenderness and nobleness,\nand also of womanly debasement unequaled in secular literature. I\nknow how exalted are the women of Homer\u2014\"The Heroes' Battle-Prize,\"\n\"The Heavenly-Minded,\" \"The Sought-For,\" \"The Sister of Heroes,\"\n\"The Widely-Praised,\" \"Ruling by Beauty,\" \"The Far-Thoughted,\" \"The\nHospitable,\" \"The Ship-Guider,\" and \"The Web-Raveler\"\u2014names that\nindicate the queenly beauty of the women who bore them; but I search\nIliad and Odyssey in vain for one trace of that glorified character,\nsublime self-sacrifice and unwavering faith which \"crowned the\ndaughters of Israel and made them daughters of Jehovah.\" On the other\nhand, Shakspeare's \"Lady Macbeth\" is weakness itself when compared with\nJezebel, who from the harem of Ahab mounted with blood-stained feet the\nthrone of God's chosen people, and there defied the majesty of heaven.\nHow cold, cruel, implacable and lost to all that is human was that\naccursed daughter of murder, whose crimes were far greater in number\nand turpitude than those of her infamous father Ethbaal. We hear from\nher lips no cry,\n\n                \"Come, you spirits\n    That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here;\n    And fill me, from crown to the toe, top-full\n    Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,\n    Stop up the access and passage to remorse\n    That no compunctious visitings of nature\n    Shake my fell purpose!\"\n\nHer entire nature was not only unsexed, but dehumanized. In her\n\"woman's breasts\" the milk was turned to gall.\n\nLord Lytton, the elegant and shallow trifler, tells us, \"A woman's\nnoblest station is retreat,\" but \"retreat\" is a word forever unpopular\nwith the women of the Bible. Miriam, Huldah, Deborah and Anna were\nnot of Lord Lytton's opinion. They joined in one temperament silk\nand steel, and added to the sweetness of womanhood the strength of\nmanhood. Keen and flexible as the Damascus blade, they were not wanting\nin the gentleness and modesty which are a woman's crown of honor. I\nopen Exodus and read a song from Miriam, the prophetess, that is older\nthan the most ancient pagan lyric, and that will continue when English\nliterature is forgotten. And there is Deborah, the nurse of Rebecca;\nhow tenderly the Bible records her humble but faithful service. In\nancient times and in the East nurses were held in greater esteem than\nnow with us. Homer sang their praise; Virgil celebrated their virtues;\nand Ovid extolled their wisdom and kindness. It is no trivial office to\nguide and direct the development of a child's life. The nurse is second\nmother, and her influence is sometimes, perhaps often, deathless as the\nsoul she instructs. The Bible teaches respect and consideration for\nthose who are socially beneath us as servants, nurses, and dependent\nchildren of humble toil. The true lady takes her politeness into the\nkitchen; it is her ability to do so that makes her the lady she is.\nNot fine manners in the ball-room, but a genuine and gracious dignity\nseasoned with womanly kindness, creates the true lady. Few think of the\nBible as a book of social and domestic etiquette, and yet such it is.\nLet a man follow its precepts, and he shall become not only a good man,\nbut a _gentleman_; and whatever woman will conform to the spirit of the\nSermon on the Mount shall find her life steadily developing into all\nthat makes a beautiful character and fine address.\n\nAnd there is the other Deborah, a prophetess and judge in Israel\u2014the\nwoman divinely illuminated. I turn to the fifth chapter of Judges,\nand read a song she wrote long before the gods of Greece held sacred\ncounsel upon snowy Olympus\u2014centuries before the lyric muse took up her\nabode beneath the shadow of the Parthenon. To what glorious victory she\nled the hosts of the Lord when the enemies of Israel perished among the\n\"oaks of the wanderers.\"\n\n    \"After the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,\n    After the Helper's days,\n    The highways were deserted,\n    The traveler went in winding ways.\n    Deserted were Israel's hamlets, deserted,\n    Till I Deborah rose up\u2014rose up a mother in Israel.\"\n\nWhat a lovely poem is that of Ruth, and who does not linger with\ndelight over the story of Esther, so royal and so simple, so queenly\nand so modest?\n\nTurn to the New Testament and see how honored is Mary, the mother of\nJesus. Hear the angelic salutation:\n\n    Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee. Fear not,\n    Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou\n    shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt\n    call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called\n    the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him\n    the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the\n    house of Jacob forever: and of his kingdom there shall be no\n    end. (Luke i:28, 30-33, Revised Version.)\n\nIs it surprising that the name \"Mary\" is the most popular in all the\nworld, and that nearly a third of the women of France bear it in\none form or another? What noble service was rendered to the early\nchurches by the four daughters of Philip the Evangelist, Priscilla who\ninstructed Apollos, Ph\u0153be, Persis, Tryphosa and Tryphena.\n\nThe opinion prevails that Providence intended woman to occupy a place\nof humble dependence; that she is inferior in the composition of her\nmind and fragile in physical constitution; that she is called of God\nto lead a life of entire self-abnegation; that she was created as an\neverlasting sacrifice to man's pleasure and ambition; and that it is\nher peculiar mission to be wife and mother to an extent to which it is\nnot man's mission to be husband and father. Lord Lytton's dictum is\nwidely received\u2014\"A woman's noblest station is retreat.\" It prevails in\nthe State, robbing her of civil rights, debarring her from the exercise\nof popular suffrage, and closing against her the door of public office.\nIt permeates society, circumscribing her influence, dispossessing her\nof individuality, and preventing her from the full and free exercise\nof whatever taste, talent or genius God has given her. It is in the\nchurch, forbidding her to enter the pulpit, restraining her from the\nimportant offices of deacon and trustee, and, in some churches, denying\nher even a voice in the ordinary government of the society.\n\nMen who advocate the subjection of women plant themselves upon the\nBible and say to us, \"You radicals want to turn things upside down. You\nhave no respect for the settled order of society. You would destroy the\ndivine harmony Heaven has established. You set aside the teaching of\nthe great Apostle who said, 'I suffer not a woman to usurp authority.'\"\nBut the Bible is always on the side of progress. Jesus and his\nimmediate followers were innovators, agitators and leaders of public\nthought and morals. The Jews quoted the Old Testament against them as\nSouthern preachers quoted the New Testament against us when we demanded\nthe abolition of slavery. We must remember that it is the mission\nof the Bible to lead men and not to follow them. The age that shall\novertake the New Testament will be right in discarding it. Open the\nBible\u2014what does it teach? \"The genuine perfection of humanity, instead\nof being the forced obedience of one-half to the other half, is the\nspontaneous obedience of both halves to the law of God. The incomplete\nstatement of Paul, 'I suffer not a woman to usurp authority,' is\nsupplemented by the far deeper words of Jesus, 'Ye know that the rulers\nof the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise\nauthority over them. Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would\nbecome great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be\nfirst among you shall be your servant.' (Matthew xx.:25-27, Revised\nVersion.) _That is the ideal of the future._\" Neither man nor woman\nshall usurp authority, but both, in mutual helpfulness, shall yield\nwilling obedience to the perfect law of God. A consecrated womanhood is\na womanhood of surrender, not to social prejudices and superstitions,\nnor yet to political disability, but to Heaven. It is a surrender\nwithout defeat and a victory without conquest. A woman may dance a\nballet or sing in an opera, but the moment she enters the pulpit to\npreach a sermon, steps upon a platform to deliver a lecture, or goes\nto the polls to vote, society rises in indignation and disgust. If a\nwoman may tend as a nurse, why may she not practice as a physician?\nIf a woman has a calling to medicine, divinity, law, literature, art,\nmechanics, instruction or trade, what law of God prohibits? But is it\nwise to open our colleges and schools of science to women? Why not?\nAre they not capable of receiving a liberal education? The part woman\nhas played in ancient and modern history, in the arts and sciences,\nas well as in political life, constitutes not only an answer to the\nquestion, but a positive demand for admission to every department of\nknowledge and industry. Open all the doors and remove every barrier.\nSubject girls to the same requirements you exact of boys in colleges,\nbut in all justice and fairness set before them the same rewards.\nThe best educators tell us that some of the finest mathematical\nstudents are girls. They read Virgil and Cicero, Xenophon and Homer\nas well in every way as do young gentlemen. In mixed schools you will\nfind, as a general rule, more girls than boys, and they are found in\nexamination to carry off the greatest proportion of prizes. Wherever\nco-education has been honestly and competently tried, girls have shown\nthemselves the intellectual peers of their brothers. They have more\nthan held their own. There have been women every whit as well educated\nas the most learned men of their day, and much better educated than\nthe majority of men in any age. When Elizabeth was Queen of England\nthe languages were an essential element of a lady's education. The\ndaughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, to whom was committed the instruction\nof the young Edward VI., were thoroughly trained in both ancient and\nmodern languages, and in the literatures of many lands and ages. One\nof those gifted women wrote Latin verses of great beauty; another\nwas, according to Roger Ascham, one of the best Greek scholars of\nthe age, with the single exception of Lady Jane Grey; still another\nwas an accomplished theologian who corresponded in Greek with Bishop\nJewell. The distinguished Reiske affixed his wife's portrait to his\nexcellent and famous edition of \"The Greek Orators.\" And in the\npreface to that work he acknowledged his great indebtedness to her\nlearning and industry. So well acquainted was she with the language and\nliterature of ancient Greece, that she shared with her husband his most\nprofound investigations, and read for him, correcting as she read, the\nproof-sheets of his book as they came from the press. There is nothing\nin the constitution of a woman's mind nor in the anatomy of her body to\nprevent her from following the same studies that occupy the time and\nattention of young men in an ordinary college course. On the contrary,\nthe duties of the class-room are often far less fatiguing than those of\nhousehold labor.[A] I believe in co-education. Boys and girls should be\nbrought up together so far as possible. The influence they exert over\neach other is in itself a great civilizer. The separation of the sexes\nin church, state, family and school has always been productive of evil,\nand of evil only.\n\n    \"The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink\n    Together, dwarfed or God-like, bond or free.\"\n\nMiss Sophia Jex Blake, whose opinion in all questions connected with\nthe education of women is of great weight, has thus expressed herself\ntouching the subject of co-education: \"That society is most happy\nwhich conforms most strictly to the order of nature as indicated in\nthe family relation, where brother and sister mutually elevate and\nsustain each other.... A school for young men becomes a community in\nitself, with its own standard of morality and its laws of honor; but\nin a college for both sexes the student will find a public sentiment\nnot so lenient as that of a community of associates needing the same\nindulgence.\"\n\nMiss Blake elsewhere answers, it seems to me with reason and justice,\nthe oft-repeated objection to co-education, founded upon the imaginary\ndanger of a too early romance and a hasty attachment, followed by an\nunwise and to-be-repented-of marriage:\n\n\"There is something in the association of every-day life which appeals\nto the judgment rather than to the fancy, and weeks and months of\nsteady labor over the same problems, or at the same sciences, will not\nbe more likely to create romances than casual meetings at f\u00eates and\nballs.\"\n\nBut I turn from the secular and civil aspect of the subject to inquire\nwhat service woman may render the church, and here I am confronted\nby another question it would be difficult to answer: What service\nhas she not rendered? Our churches, most of them, will not ordain\nher to the ministry, and yet do they not derive their spiritual life\nfrom her influence? Could they exist without her effort and faithful\nservice? Who preached the first Christian sermon, and proclaimed to\nan unbelieving world, \"He is risen from the dead!\" if not the women\nwho ran with great joy from the empty sepulcher, bearing with them a\nlicense to preach from the Christ himself, given through the Angel of\nthe Resurrection, who said, \"Go quickly and tell his disciples that he\nis risen from the dead, and behold he goeth before you into Galilee;\nthere shall ye see him?\" That was a very short sermon and had no text,\nbut no pulpit rhetoric and no Sunday oratory will ever eclipse its\nsublime eloquence. If priests received their commission to preach from\nthe Apostles, the Apostles received theirs from the women who mourned\nat the sepulcher and found it empty. Women can better afford to remain\nout of the pulpit than the pulpit can afford to exclude them. When the\nChrist shall return and His kingdom be established forever, the nations\nshall hear once more the old Easter sermon first preached by a woman,\n\"He is risen from the dead!\" The most tender and faithful friendship\nour Saviour ever found in his weary and painful pilgrimage upon earth\nburned in the heart and shone in the life of a noble and consecrated\nwoman.\n\n    \"Not she with trait'rous kiss her Master stung,\n    Not she denied him with unfaithful tongue;\n    She, when Apostles fled, could danger brave\u2014\n    Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave.\"\n\nAnd if the church was cradled in the arms of Mary, have not the\ndaughters of Mary been singing to the child Jesus all along the ages?\nIt was Charlotte Elliott who wrote, \"Just as I am without one plea,\"\nand Mrs. Adams who gave the church that immortal hymn, \"Nearer, my God,\nto Thee.\" \"Fade, fade, each earthly joy,\" \"I need Thee every hour,\"\n\"Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,\" \"I think when I read that sweet\nstory of old,\" \"I love to tell the story,\" and \"How blest the righteous\nwhen he dies\"\u2014all these were written by women. What sweet singers chant\ncradle hymns to the child Jesus\u2014Felicia D. Hemans, Joanna Baillie,\nElizabeth Barrett Browning, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Eliza Cook, Mrs.\nBaxter, Mrs. Codver, Mrs. Bonar, Mrs. Barbauld and the Cary sisters. If\nwise men came from the East with gold, frankincense and myrrh for the\ninfant Redeemer, wise women are coming every day from all parts of the\nearth with gifts of heavenly song.\n\nThe success of every church depends in large measure upon the\nconsecration of its women. I never knew a church in which there\nwere not more women than men; they constitute the majority in every\nreligious meeting; and it would seem as if fifty women go to heaven\nfor every man who makes even a moderate effort to get there. It was\nthe service of faithful and active women that saved Israel in the hour\nof national peril. \"When the men of Israel,\" to employ the language\nof another, \"bowed in helplessness before Pharaoh, two women spurned\nhis edicts and refused his behests. A father made no effort to save\nthe infant Moses, but a mother's care hid him while concealment was\npossible, and a sister watched over his preservation when exposed on\nthe river's brink. To woman was intrusted the charge of providing for\nthe perils and wants of the wilderness; and in the hour of triumph\nwoman's voice was loudest in the acclaim of joy that ascended to heaven\nfrom an emancipated nation.\" The same womanly courage, patience, love,\ntact and wisdom must be the hope and strength of modern Israel.\n\nThe men who have accomplished most owe much to woman's influence.\nFrom her counsel the hero derived his courage, and in her approving\nsmile received his reward. The great poems of the world are, many of\nthem, from her inspiration. Blanche of Lancaster lives in the antique\nEnglish of Chaucer, Laura in the sonnets of Petrarch, and Beatrice in\nthe Divina Commedia of Dante; and who can look upon the marbles of\nMichel Angelo and not behold the influence of Vittoria Colonna? In all\nliterature there is not a nobler sonnet addressed by man to woman than\nthis which Michel Angelo laid with bowed heart and reverent hand at the\nfeet of Vittoria Colonna:\n\n    \"The might of one fair face sublimes my love,\n    For it hath weaned my heart from low desires;\n    Nor death I heed, nor purgatorial fires.\n    Thy beauty, antepast of joys above,\n    Instructs me in the bliss that saints approve;\n    For, oh! how good, how beautiful, must be\n    The God that made so good a thing as thee,\n    So fair an image of the heavenly dove.\n    Forgive me if I cannot turn away\n    From those sweet eyes that are my earthly heaven;\n    For they are guiding stars, benignly given\n    To tempt my footsteps to the upward way;\n    And if I dwell too fondly in thy sight,\n    I live and love in God's peculiar light.\"\n\nJohn Stuart Mill, dedicating his immortal \"Essay on Liberty\" to\nthe memory of his beloved wife whose earthly frame he had laid to\nrest beneath the shades of beautiful Avignon, described her as\n\"the inspirer, and in part the author, of all that was best in his\nwritings.\" The three \"guardian angels\" whom Comte associated with\nhis secret thoughts, and whom he enshrined in his innermost heart as\nthe sacred judges of his every wish and achievement, were his mother\nRosalie Boyer, his friend Clotilde de Vaux, and his servant Sophie\nBliot. Of Madame de Vaux he wrote six years after her death: \"Adieu,\nmy unchangeable companion! Adieu, my holy Clotilde, who art to me at\nonce wife, sister, and daughter! Adieu, my dear pupil, and my fit\ncolleague. Thy celestial inspiration will dominate the remainder of\nmy life, public as well as private, and preside over my progress\ntowards perfection, purifying my sentiments, ennobling my thoughts, and\nelevating my conduct. Perhaps, as the principal reward of the grand\ntasks yet left to me to complete under thy powerful invocation, I shall\ninseparably write thy name with my own, in the latest remembrances of\na grateful humanity.\" The Taj Mahal which the poet Heber describes as\n\"a dream in marble, designed by Titans and finished by jewellers,\"\nis a tribute of love raised over the tomb of Moomtaza Mahul by her\nhusband, the great Mogul, Shah Jehan. She died in giving birth to a\ndaughter, and her last request was that her husband would hallow in\nhis heart her love as the solitary and immortal sanctity of his life.\nThe Taj holds directly under the centre dome, \"gleaming like a silver\nbubble at the edge of the sky, almost as transparent in appearance\nas the azure itself,\" the tombs of Shah Jehan and his beloved wife.\nThere the \"married lovers\" rest, encased in jasper from Punjaub,\nturquoises from Thibet, agate from Yeman, garnets from Bundelkund,\nand onyx, amethyst and lapis lazuli; and over them a single stone is\ninscribed with the ninety-nine names of God. To this day fresh flowers\nare placed upon the marble sarcophagi, and above them is to be seen\nthe ostrich egg, symbol of the all-encircling Divine Providence. \"The\nmost exquisite building on the globe\" is a memorial of the love a\nnoble and beautiful woman inspired in the heart of a devoted husband.\nWho shall measure the power and authority of woman in the worlds of\nart, literature and social life? And yet, great as is her influence in\nthese, it is even greater in spiritual matters. Woman turns through a\nnatural instinct to the field of religious usefulness, and Renan is\nnot mistaken when he tells us that she has a special tendency to \"long\nafter the infinite.\" Of this Frances Power Cobbe gives us a forcible\nillustration in a foot-note to her able essay on \"The Fitness of Women\nfor the Ministry of Religion.\" The illustration is taken from Mrs.\nKemble's autobiography, and runs as follows: \"She describes the late\nLady Byron as often expressing envy of her (Mrs. Kemble's) public\nreadings, and her longing to have similar crowds in sympathy with her\nown impressions. 'I made her laugh,' says Mrs. Kemble, 'by telling her\nthat more than once when looking from my reading-desk over the sea of\nfaces uplifted toward me, a sudden feeling had seized me that I must\nsay something _from myself_ to all these human beings whose attention I\nfelt at that moment entirely at my command, and between whom and myself\na sense of sympathy thrilled powerfully and strangely through my heart\nas I looked steadfastly at them before opening my lips; but that on\nwondering afterwards what I might, could, would or should have said to\nthem from myself, I never could think of anything but two words\u2014'_Be\ngood!_'\" Miss Cobbe writes: \"I believe that nine women out of ten of\nthe better sort would, if they had the choice, oftener speak of duty\nand religion than of any other theme.\" Is not Go\u00ebthe right?\n\n    \"The eternal womanly\n    Draws us upward and onward.\"\n\nGreat is the power of consecrated womanhood in domestic life. It has\nbeen shown by able writers that boys who have sisters, and grow up in\ntheir society, are more likely to develop into strong and noble men\nthan boys who are deprived of woman's influence. Whatever separates man\nfrom woman separates both from God. The great objection urged against\nsocial clubs is that they destroy domestic life by isolating the sexes;\nthey furnish an amusement for the husband in which the wife cannot\nparticipate. Open the social club to both sexes, and its evil tendency\nis removed.\n\nThen there is the marriage relation. How many wedded lives come to\nfailure through ignorance. Men and women assume the most sacred\nresponsibilities without preparation, and with no knowledge of\nthemselves nor of each other. We say in the marriage service, \"What God\nhath joined together let not man put asunder;\" but when God does not\njoin, is there anything to sunder? Passion dies, novelty disappears,\nyouth fades, and unless love be founded upon an intelligent and mutual\nesteem, shall it not also crumble? It has been said, \"one cannot be\nat once lover and friend,\" but you may be sure one will not long\nremain the former who is not as well the latter. We need to cultivate\nfriendship. Passion will come and go like the shadows of clouds\nover the smooth surface of a lake, and no love is abiding without\nfriendship. He was right who exclaimed, \"They who are joined by love\nwithout friendship, walk on gunpowder with lighted torches in their\nhands!\" They who build love upon the foundation of mutual esteem\u2014\n\n    \"Make life, death, and that vast forever\n    One grand, sweet song.\"\n\nHow shall we strengthen love that it may endure when the fires of youth\nand passion are cold? Only by the cultivation of those noble virtues\nwhich like bands of steel weld together in one life and faith honest\nand pure hearts. How shall two hearts grow old together? Only by the\npersistent cultivation of those qualities which are ever young and\nwhich age not with declining years. The young man will not be guilty\nof an act tainted with meanness or baseness lest the maiden he loves\nblot his image from the pure heaven of her heart; let the young husband\nand wife cherish the same fear and honor, and they shall grow nearer\nand dearer as the years silver their brows. The happiness of marriage\ndepends upon the very highest and most delicate of reserves, the most\nnoble and careful speech, the best and most honorable perception; upon\na kindness greater than that of a mother to her child.\n\nThe supreme glory of consecrated womanhood lies in the consecration\nitself. The love of God makes every other love immortal. What love\nthrough Him we give to others is forever. Only as we consecrate our\nlives to the Divine Love can we hope to become heavenly-minded; and\nthey only consecrate themselves to the Divine Love who, in imitation\nof our Saviour, give heart and hand to the service of mankind. There\nis a fable that four young ladies, disputing as to the beauty of\ntheir hands, called upon an aged woman who had solicited alms, for\na settlement of the dispute. The three whose hands were white and\nfaultless had refused her appeal, while she whose fingers were brown\nand rough had given in charity. Then the aged beggar said: \"Beautiful\nare these six uplifted hands, soft as velvet and snowy as the lily: but\nmore beautiful are the two darker hands that have given charity to the\npoor.\" Learn the lesson of consecrated womanhood. In olden times, when\nthe children of Israel prepared the Tabernacle in the wilderness, \"all\nthe women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought\nthat which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet,\nand of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in\nwisdom spun goats' hair.\" The wise-hearted women of to-day are the\ndaughters of modern Israel who from the love of God serve faithfully\nthe great family of mankind.\n\nFootnote:\n\n[A] It may be a matter of interest to some who read this sermon to\nknow who was the first woman to graduate from an American college. In\nan article on \"The First Female College\" (the Georgia Female College),\nin the \"Century\" for May, 1890, Mr. H. S. Edwards states that he has\nbeen unable to obtain the name of any woman who graduated at Oberlin\nin 1838. An Oberlin College catalogue, however, gives the name of\nMiss Zeruiah Porter (afterwards Mrs. Tweed) as the graduate of 1838,\nand therefore the first graduate of an American college. Miss Porter\ngraduated in the so-called literary course, which did not include\nGreek. In 1841, Miss Mary Hosford, Miss Elizabeth S. Prall, and Miss\nMary C. Rudd took the degree of A. B. at Oberlin.\n\n\n\n\n  Books by the Same Author\n\n\n    \"LAST WORDS OF DISTINGUISHED MEN AND WOMEN.\" Large Paper\n    Edition, with Portrait of the Author. $4.00.\n    Popular Edition. (Fourth Edition). $1.50.\n\n    \"FLOWERS OF SONG FROM MANY LANDS.\" Being short poems and\n    detached verses translated from various languages. Large Paper\n    Edition with Portrait of Author on Parchment. $5.00.\n    Popular Edition. $2.00.\n\n    \"CHRIST AMONG THE CATTLE.\" A plea for the kind and just\n    treatment of animals. Third Edition. 50c.","title":"Consecrated Womanhood: A Sermon Preached in the First Congregational Church, Portland, Oregon","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":5520}