Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-05-04

alteu ny the reverence IoI FlfSllilty anu
the belief in the sacredness of womanly
virtue This exaltation is the most en-
phatic assertion of the truth that woman's
sphere of activity is not bounded by the
duties Of wife and mother Christian his
tory, in the light of Christ's ideals, is dis
appointing, for the ideal never becomes
real in earthly existence. Ideals as are
| mountain peaks that CLEAN amid the azure
of the heavens We look up to them with
delight, but the ascent wearies, and once
| reached the air is too fine for our coarse
| breathing. But on these snow-capped
nights are born the spring showers and
summer rains that nourish the growing
corn. If Christian society has not real
lied its ideals of woman, it has never been
without their elevating and refining infu-
ence. The church withstood the kings
and barons when they sought to continue
polygamous practices that among the Ger
man barbarians were lawful. But for the
monogamy would have persisted among
the ruling classes of Europe, and woman
would have fallen to the place she to-day
| occupies in Mohammedan countries. The
| preservation of western Europe from the
| blight of Mohammedanism is due to the
| church, which alone was able to rule the
warning factions of western semi-barba-
| rians The family is an organic unity, and
| cannot exist without subordination and
authority, and hence the church makes
| the man the head, and since either hus-
band or wife must lie the depository of
domestic authority, there is no injustice
| done to woman unless it can be shown that
! woman is better fitted to exercise it. The
heart Of woman iustifes the headship of
man, in the impulse to look up to and fol-
! low the man she loves. Women arc supe-
rior to men in those virtues in which the
essential element is right feeling, because
"a wsman understands only what she
feels" Men are superior in the virtues
that spring less from sentiment and depend
rather on the nature of things, their eter-
nal fitness, as justice, fortitude, equa-
nimity, wisdom, prudence; because
a man may grow able to look
at things as they are in themselves, while
| Indifferent to their relations to himself
This difference in character determines
| their position in domestic and social re-
lations. "The opposition of men to So
called woman's rights comes in many in
stances from the belief that to throw wo-
man into public life is to make her less
womanly.' The causes that have led to
| the improvement Of womans condition
among the Christian nations are. in gen
| eral, the same that have developed our
| civilization. All the progress, the iniiu-
ence of which has led to the abolition of
slavery, the securing Of popular rights, the
bringing of knowledge within the reach of
all, thereby aiding the spreading abroad OF
.iuster and more humane principles of con-
| duct, is associated intimately with the So
! cial action of the Christian religion. 1t is
an evidence Of unenlightenment to charge
| that Christianity crushed out the feminine
element, and, more than all other infu-
ences combined, plunged the world into
the dark ages As Mrs. Stanton did say
what the Bishop attributes to her, his re-
ply, Ignorance" is personal blow SO,
too, when he says, to affirm that the doe
trine Of original sin throws the guilt ex-
| clusiyely or chiefly on woman, is merely to
affirm ones ignorance of Christian teach
ing" But more direct still is the SEN
| tence: To assert that in the Christian re-
ligion the Godhead is a trinity Of males, is
to be at once ignorant and coarse" Final
ly, his priestly indignation leads him to
deal Mrs. Stanton sweeping and singing
blow: To proclaim that the Christian re-
| ligion teaches that woman is an after
thought in creation, sex crime, marriage
condition Of slavery for woman and de-
Element for man, and maternity curse,
is to mistake rant for reason, and declana-
ton for argument" The Bishop dislikes
"scold," which he evidently considers
Mrs. Stanton to be, and suggests that to be
persuasive woman must be amiable and
to be strong she must speak from loving
heart, and not from a sour mind.