Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1875-04-16


who are so fond of picturing what woman
might be if she was not so often satisfied
with decorating her body with furbelows
to the utter neglect of her mind, and now
that the door of reform is opened, by
turning her thoughts into more lofty
channel, you not only hesitate to enter
yourself, but endeavor to dissuade others
from entering. / cannot understand
you. What is your idea Of woman's
mission?
You have, by your remarks, Nellie,
called out SO many ideas that it is diff
cult to concentrate them In the first
place, can it be sacrifice for woman to
resign any position to occupy a throne ?
Is she not queen in her own right, and
is not her realm, the hearts of her hus-
band and children, and her scepter,
| love?
In the second place, It's sad to see so
many of our sex so PROSTATE their powers
of mind and soul as to chain them to the
car of fashion not that would have
you imagine ! think it wrong or unnatu-
raj that she should love to be brightly
and tastefully attired, but that this desire
should carry her to such an excess as to
become its slave.
Finally, | come to your question
+" What is woman's mission p We will
go to the fountain source of all knowledge
for the answer, ''She shall be help-meet
to man" Man in his Eden home was
placed lord of creation, tho you con-
temptuously called him so, for was not
dominion given to him by the Great
Creator Himself, over all the creatures
He had made ? But sovereign tho he
was, mans happiness was incomplete, un-
til God found him heIp-mect, bone Of
his bone, and flesh Of his flesh, to be a
companion for him in Paradise and enjoy
with him the beauty of their garden Of
delight. And was she not formed from
rib taken from near mans heart and be-
meath his arm, thus showing his heart
to be her throne, his strong arm her de-
fence? She was by her devotion and
loveliness to make the straight path so
beautiful, that man would not wish to
deviate therefrom or walk in forbidden
paths.
But alas even there she was untrue
to her great commission she was recre-
ant to her trust, and mans bitter taunt
has often been that woman beguiled him
from his garden home. Yet the taunt
has lost its sting since Mary became the
mother of Jesus, and woman was first at
the tomb of the crucifed Saviour, the
FIRST to see her risen Lord
Thus she must have the lamp that il
lumined Dayid's pathway shed its divine
radiance across her life journey if she
would find the true position the great
Architect designed for her to occupy,
and its teachings are plain King Solo
mon says, "she looketh well to the ways
of her household and eateth not the bread
of idleness." Paul says, wives submit
yourselves unto your own husbands as
unto the Lord, for the husband is head
of the wife, And dare we who have
gained so much even in this life by the
teaching OF the gospel advocate any
: measure that is contrary to its doctrines !?
We have had but to look at the harems
of the cast, where its light has not dissi-
pated the darkness of heather idolitary
and see the situation Of our sisters there
at one time mans playthng, at another
his slave. In childhood and girlhood
she must ever live in the seelusion Of the
harem, without any of the pleasures Of
literature or knowledge Of the gospel
and, when womanhood dawns upon her,
it only brings the time when she must be
he hoe
losing all the pleasure Of the wooing }
and who may already have several wives,
to spend the remainder of her miserable
existence in ignorance and wretchedness,
and when death comes she knows moth
ing Of the dreadful beyond.
Contrast her condition with that of
woman in Christian lands. There she
is mans companion; he lives and labors
for her he enthrones her in his heart /;
he labors that he may make home for
her. She has the blessed knowledge Of
the gospel she has heard of the Son Of
Righteousness and the Prince Of Peace /;
she may worship Him in His sanctuary
and labor for Him in His vineyard, and
when the closing hour draws near if she
has been faithful in life, she has this as
surance Of bissful Immortality in the
great beyond.
Well, Cora, must say you have
grown quite eloquent and made woman's
) position quite exalted, but fear it is on
ly imaginary.
J Nellie, tbs carnestness, not eloquence,
that your words have called up. When
you, my friend, speak Of looking with
Joy to the day when We shall fight hand To
hand with man in the great arena of life,
! am aroused to earnestness. When
first remembered hearing the subject of
woman's rights agitated, it was an idea
so preposterous that woman would com
nit an act so detrimental to her best in
tercsts, that it seemed scarcely to deserve
a passing notice But the influence has
been widening until i; has begun to as
sumo dangerous proportions, and every
true woman should, however humble her
sphere, bring all her influence to bear
against it.
But, Cora, how can it so seriously af-
feet us !? think you put the case too
strongly.
Nellie, have you ever observed, in
crowded cars or assemblies, how man ever
awards woman the preference IT'S so
in all the walks Of life, where each are
frne IN tho nohiIifv of their uature he