The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-04-25

has made every one realize its ~yleness, as never
before.
The temperance sentiment seems TO have been
aroused more earnestly and thoroughly, than
would wears Of lecturing and political engineer
ing have aroused It. How can men drink, or sell
drink, when the true women Of the land feel so
about il! And this crusade has only sbolrH holC
they feel The fact that they look on II in that
light, curses the entire traffic with O great curse.
The very fact Of their pleading and praying with
them that drink and them that sell, reveals the
abFss of ruin on which seller and drinker both
stand. And Sd We are not surprised TO read that
in whole villages every dram shop IS closed, and
that multitudes have reformed, and that q deep
blush has come upon the cheek Of many q man,
who had not bhshed before at the work of de-
struction that be was doing. Many q one has
felt as never before, that the business is 4 wicked
and shameful one. The leading thought that
goes through most minds IN regard 70 this move
ment is, not that woman has oyerstepped her
propriety. but that the selling and drinking Of
alcoholic drinks is q most fearful evil, vile and
ruinous.
The particulas method of procedure inaugu-
rated bv the women of Ohio may not be the best
for all places. 1t probably viii not continue
there. 1t mightnot be SO successful elsewhere,
but il shows what woman can do, and that with
pure earnestness in her heart she need not fear
for her proprietie, and need not consider herself
as one TO stand in the background in the great
reforms Of society. She has but TO take her
position and lift lp her standard, and society re
cards it. What She does not tolerate can not
maintain itself il her presence. 1t is she more
than man who puts the ban upon vice. 1t is she
who most determines the character Of society,
not merely in itsgrades Of responsibility, but in
its actual quality and worth. She lays down its
platforms. She marks out its course and deter
mines it's tendencies. She leads 1t whithersoeyer
she will. If she is superficial and untrue and
unrefned, men nay try In vain to make society
pure and good. If she is Indifferent TO its best
interests. it's character Will be Indifferent in spite
of everything else 1t is for her to say to q very
great extent whatshall be regarded as its virtues
and what its Yies. Ii is she principally who
moulds it, and is the measure Of its culture and
morals. We judge of it by her. She is so to
speak the living spirit of the community-the
social spirit that presides over man. She fixes
the goals of his ambition, directs his aims, and
is responsible in a great measure for the very
habits he forms. What she ~tOlerates is consider
ed permissible, and what she does scarcely ever
fails of being initiated. That which receives her
frown scarcely ventures to smile IN public, and
where she bestows her encouragement boldness is
at once assumed. Her favor or disfavor is gener-
ally the dividing line between the reputable and
the dIsreputable. For this reason she is more
than others the custodian of public morality, aud
for this reason also she is capable of retaining
more men from sin, and of leading them to a true
and blessed life. If her words can not touch the
heart, that heart must be hard indeed. 4
CdhIOI > lONG On I lips ulSllb lHlO uttElS OF
stone and her influence also, on the other side,
is no less great. Many a man who could not
have been tempted by men, has gone his way to
ruin through the temptations that were thought
lessly put in his way by woman. Many q one
has sunk never to rise whom she might have re-
stored. Not only upon individuals is her infu-
ence thus great, but every community has its
character, its standard, not only of culture but
of morality and religion, and she very largely
forms it.
1 think none will dispute this. But this i'm
plies, does it not, o power, an influence, whose
reach it is impossible to measure. 1t is felt in
every department of life. 1t shapes souls for
happiness or woe. 1t goes where no public in
s%truction can reach. 1t moulds the national
character and gives nature to the very civilization
of a people, so that with great truth it is said,
the mothers make the nation.
She may not blow the trumpet on the battle
field, or wrangle in the stormy debates of men,
where after all very little is accomplished in the
real results of life, but at her shrine man perhaps
too often pays his homage. She rules and lives
in the destinies of men more than he. Too
many indiscriminating praises may perhaps be
iavIs a upon 5er, ana the very batteries she re-
huence and responsibility. Once TO be a woman
was to be something inferior, and in many lands
still to be a woman Is scarcely 10 look I'M into
the light of heaven, or to be considered of anv
account in the make up of affairs but in Chris
tan lands what is there that is beyond her
power. She stands in a high place, and there is
none too great to pay her Compliment. And
there is no fact that stands out more clearly in
history than that it is Christianity that has given
her such position and power. To it she is in
debted for her great influence and, we might saw
also, principally her worth. From it she gathers
her best charms, and in its name her best trophies
are won. Where the gospel has not gone She is
still as an hireling, still in greater or less degree
q creature to be bartered for. But the Bible has
made her worth to shine. 1t has polished her as
n jewel, and set her in rich esteem. 1t has given
into her hands the dominion, though man still
holds as he ever should the scepter.
1t would seem almostn needless to say still fur
ther that such influence carries with it a CORE
spending responsibility. 1t is an old axiomatic
truth that obligation is commensurate with
ability. If woman has such power for good she
is responsible for It's use. 1t of course would he
unjust to throw upon her the blame for all the
prevailing faults and sins of society, for its info
rior tendencies, it's evil habits and destructive
vices and yet what other position can we take
than that we all are responsible for the good we
might do, and for the evil that we might prevent.
And so how many a woman, as well as many n
man, who now perhaps thinks it not may find
immortal ruins lying at her door. Could She 90
to the drunkard's hell, she might find that the
heaviest of his curses would fall upon her. Could
she 90 to the Hbertines woes, she might find
that it was the very customs which she untbink-
ingly sanctioned and lent her graces to that led
him there. Could she 60 to the gamblers pit
she might there be stung with reproach at the
thought that she in the social circle first caused
the stumbling that made him fall into such
depths. We all know that it is chiefly through
the pleasures of life that men begin the downward
way. Could she have a view of the dissipated
wasted energies, the hardness and recklessness
and unbelief of the goddess. in eternity, and then
see all the part that she perhaps played in max
ing them thus, she would begin to feel that it is
Il responsible matter to have influence. Or could
she tell over the number that she might have in
spired to high and manly aims, that she might
have led to a Christian hope and walk, she would
realize how sacred and solemn a thing it is 10
have a woman's power. Such power working to
the uplifting, saving and blessing Of human
hearts and lives is something above mere admira-
lion. But on the other hand how peculiarly
addening is power thus clothed in loveliness.
working itself out in results of sin and woe. 1t