The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1872-07-17
ADDRESS
Delivered by Rev. W. 7. Capers Before
the Amelan Society Of the Due
West Female College, at tho
Annual Commencement,
July 18th, 1872.

Annual Commencement,
July 11th, 1872.
Yo,ta1 Ladies of the Anae2icn Society,"
Honored by your invitation to deliver
the Anniversary Address to-day, con-
fess to no slight degree Of embarrassment.
Star-eyed Genius performing a service ut
the bidding of youth and beauty finds the
task easy and delightful. Such speaker
would feel like the brave knight eagerly
waiting for the word that gives the op-
portunity to do gallant deed in honor
of fair woman. Responding to the bu-
gle's call for her champion, proud of the
plume her white fingers had fastened to
his helmet, relying on his own heart and
arm and on his good steeG's courage and
strength, he would take his place in the
lists, radiant and rejoicing. But when
the arm trembles as he lifts the lance,
and the charger that should spring for
ward at the touch of its masters spur
tamely ambles to the front o pacing
pony, not fiery courser, then it is diff
cult to command the spirit and keep
right on, applying the steel and holding
with both hands the heavy spear-then
ones apprehensions overwhelm his zeal.
O, for an imagination fearless and free,
to bound along course Of light and joy,
bearing loyal will over the plains of
thought in the ennobling service of the
hope and flower of humanity!
4 College Commencement is the most
interesting of all the festivals of modern
civilization. IT is soul-stirring to see
ingenious youths arrayed for the Journey
of life and standing at its opening gates.
And, oh! quick and warm beats the
heart to see tho maiden, wearing the
wreath twined by the hands of knowl-
edge, taste and piety, bowling her fair
head to receive the counsels of expert
ence, the blessings Of affection and the
benedictions of age. Here intellectual
tastes, social impulses and Christian
graces all find exercise and qualification.
How much more befitting the dignity OF
human nature, the capabilities and aspi-
rations of immorta! beings, an occasion
like this, than mere carnival of gaiety
or brilliant assenablage of fashion and
folly for purposes of vanity and dissipa-
ton! In the saloons of revelry, beguiled,
intoxicated with music, wine and dane.
ing, in the abandonment of sensuous er-
joyment, they cry: ;
"On with the dance: let joy be uncon.
fined;
No sleep till morn, when youth and
pleasure meet,
To chase the glowing hours with flying
feet"
Alas! the morning finds the bloom
and freshness, the sparkle and the glad
ness, gone-the head aching, the spirit
decomposed, the mind paralyzed and the
conscience i'll at rest. This is better
festival, furnishing pure enjoyment and
dismissing its guests invigorated and re-
freshed-a festival to celebrate the difiu-
sion Of intelligence and virtue, the mis-
sion of woman, the progress OF hu-
manity.
Standing at Due West to-day, on the
broad platform of d liberal Christian cul-
ture for all human beings; believing in
the fatherhood Of God, human brother
hood, the reign of infinite love, the dig
nifty of spiritual freedom, the consecra-
ton of toll, the glory of sacrifice, the
beauty of holiness, the conservative
power of woman in the relations Of
daughter, sister, wife, mother and friend
the ultimate triumph of truth and the
complete vindication of Divine wisdom
Justice and beuevolence ;-standing here
beneath the ''pinions Of purple and
gold,n Amelia's
- "fair angel that floated all free,
With wing on the land and wing on
the sea,n
glance eastward along the track of the
centuries, Pause at that Roman amphi.
theatre, with its vast multitude assem-.
bled for grand qualification see the
lcient Senators, with their wives and
daughters, feasting their eyes upon the
spectacle of the struggling, mangled, dy'
ing gladiator, and compare hecthen with
Christian civilization.
MY theme, young ladies, is !" Hon1an's
Mission and Glory" Woman has mis-
sion, is constituted for it, adapted to it
q mission peculiarly her own. Her posi-
ton requires humility, for it involves
subiection and service-don't be alarm
ed!-and demands sacrifice and charity
Her work, her life, is her own. Man
cannot live her deep life Of suffering, pa
t;ence and love. Coleridge well says
There is a sex in our souls." Man--we
man is duality in unity, two IN one
after our own likeness so God created
man in his own image, in the image oi
God created he him > and yet male and
female created he them" The Almighty
designed to reveal his character through
& the humanity lie made and separated as
. male and female, but united as the Adam
In his own image. The masculine and
the feminine features together exhibit
the likeness of the perfections of the
great Creator. The union of Adam and
Eve was the union of law and loVe-the
marriage of strength and tenderness, ot
thought and taste, of invention and emo.
ton. When our Lord assumed our na'
ture, his human soul possessed all the at
tributes and graces Of the unfallen hui
manity, man and woman in Eden. AS
a human being he had hemeekness and
the majesty, the yearning compassion
and the commanding strength of the lof.
tiest conceptions of manhood and wo-
manhood. The lightning and the tear
alike flashed or fell from his eye. From
his face there beamed on the lowly and
the penitent the softest look, from his
ljps there flowed OH such the sweetest
tones of maternal tenderness but hy-
poerisy and cruelty expressing, the race,
received only the conVicting glance and
stern rebuke of manly indignation. Wo.