Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-05-27

From the New York Sun

From the New York Sun
Is the church losing It's hold on the
women? If 80, 1t is in greater danger
than 1t ever was before.
An observant Englishwoman IL sat
isfied that there Is no room fol doubt
as to the fact; that the peril il real and
imminent. She asserts that among
the most intelligent women In Eng.
land unbelief Is spreading year by
year, and at a rapid rate. The educat-
ed countrywomen of Harriet Martlneau
and Frances Power Cobbe are not por-
ing over the Bible and prayer book ~
their mothers and grandmothers did.
They are reading Darwin and Spenser,
Huxley and Tyndall.
Is this true to any appreciable extent
of the educated women Of thessUnited
States? Weknow 1t was not true even
SO recently as Margaret Fuller's time.
Unbelieving or doubling women were
as rare here then as white ckbirds.
! But since then there has been nota-
BILE increase In the number and Inn
provement I'm the quality Of girls
schools; well equipped colleges for
young women have sprung up; col-
leges heretofore sacred to the educa-
ton Of the young male Of the human
species have opened their doors 10 his
sisters; even the conservative Harvard
has somewhat tardily aud grudgingly
shown as disposition 10 adjust itself to
the changed conditions. The Amerl-
can girl Of % who has "had advantag.
es," to borrow New Englandism, is
very different young person from that
other American girl whom her father
courted, loving her all the better per-
haps for her simplicity, sweet isnor-
ance, and undoubting piety. The
modern girl has studiesl, more or less
thoroughly, the higher mathematics.
and the natural sciences; she has read
or skinned the books Of the day; she
has heard some Of the lecturers; she
keeps the run of the magazines; she
has her reading club, possibly social
literary club as well; very likely she H.
writing a novel. or getting ready to do
so by assiduous magazine practice; she
has her head full and her hands full.
Certainly the church does not fill tho
same place In her thoughts or In her
life that 1t did In her mothers Mt her
age. Still 1t remains tn be proved that
she Is ceasing to be Christian aud be-
coming an unbeliever.
IF she is, the outlook for the church
is disquieting. Ever since 1t was writ
ten, the preachers have been fond Of
quoting q verse setting forth that wo-
man was
Last at His cross and earliest at His grpvs."
From time immemorial the clergy
and the women have been close allies.
The day that saw this alliance broken
would be cloudy day for the former.
What would they do for hearers? In
very many churches Of this city, any
where from two-thirds to nine-ts nths
OF the weekly congregation ara women.
Moreover, OF the comparatively small
number of men who are habitual or
casual churchgoers, how many would
be In the pews II they had not been At
tracted. coaxed. or gently coerced thith-
er by women?
Yet II is not In looking down upon .
dwindling congregation that the
preacher would feel most acutely the
Of that potent womanly in
fuence which Goethe has sung In tho
last lines Of "Faust." II the mothers
turn unbelievers, what chance will
there be for the children?
II the preachers are at . loss for .
topic at their meetings next Monday,
let them take this one: "Is the higher
education sappins the faith and chill
Ia. the v,fotw NJ xuvosvono,p