The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1889-06-13

souls lost-besides women and Children
1t is both curious and interesting to
note the transition that opinion has
undergone during the present century in
regard to woman;s ability and her place
in the economy of society.
1t has been said that the extent and
variety of scientific research is the dis
tinguishing glory of our century, but
submit, that its chief claim to the graft
tude of the human race is that it is the
first to endow women with the opportu-
nifty of a thorough and liberal education.
She is beginning to regain the position
she occupied during the early centuries
of Anglo Saxon rule in England, when,
as Taine tells us: awe find her associating
with the men at their feasts, sober and
respected. She speaks, and they listen
to her. She is person and not thing.
The law demand her consent to mar
riage, surrounds her with guarantees,
accords her protection. She can inherit.
possess, bequeath, appear in courts of
justice, in county assemblies, in the great
congress Of the elders. Frequently the
name of the queen and of several other
ladies is inscribed in the proceedings of
the Witenagemote. Law and tradition
maintain her integrity, as if she were a
man, and side by side with men,
What women owes to Christianity is
often proclaimed, but the other side
what our civilization owes to woman,
remains, for the most part, an unwritten
chapter, in the history of progress. Not
for moment would l depreciate the
influence of Christianity in elevating
woman. The Old Testament opens with
a divine recognition of her importance,
and in Gods second dispensation she
receives the greatest of honors: "When
the fullness of time was come God sent
forth his son made of woman From
this has developed woman's religious
and social equality-and it should be
added that this is the first dispensation
to admit her to equal hopes and inter-
ests with man. The fathers of the early
church, Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, and
st. Augustine recognized her religious
equality; but let us remember that it
was through the instinct of Germanic
Christianity that she has been advanced
to social equality. Apart from the super
stition which has grown up about it,
there is to me, something beautiful in
the reverence paid the mother of Christ
in Catholic countries. Those of you
who have travelled in Italy will remem-
ber having seen the weary traveller stop
by her shrine on the roadside, reverently
kneel and petition her to intercede for
him. This at once suggests to us the
influence of woman from the days of the
primitive church to the present time. 1t
is not necessary that reference should
be made to woman's connection with
early Christianity, but as members of the
Germanic race it is eminently fitting
that we note her services in having our
fore-fathers accept the teachings of Christ.
That they should have exerted such an
influence is not strange. Chivalrous feel
ings toward women are not the product
of our age. Such sentiments form a
marked element in the life of our prime
tive Teutonic ancestors and when 1T Is
remarked that we pay such honor to the
fair sex, it should be remembered that
the early Germans believed in a close
intercourse between their heroes and
the superior female existences to whom
they gave the name of Walkyren. These
Heavenly maidens were believed to con-
duct the warriors who fell in battle into
Walhalla, where they entered upon
eternal joys. Among the ancient Ger
manic races, as Merivale has so interest
ingly pointed out in his lectures on "The
Conversion of the Northern Nations"
Woman was the associate of man in all
of his gravest concerns. He guarded her
purity, he defended her honor: in return
she cherished his manly virtues, soothed
his cares. attended him to the verge of
the battlefield, received him in return
ing from it, unloosed his armor and
staunched his wounds. But neither did
he enter into quarrel with his adversary
till first he had taken counsel of her, had
deferred to her Judgment, and inquired
of the divine instinct which he believed
to reside in her, to which he ascribed a
mysterious sympathy with the future
She was his mistress, his priestess, his
prophecies. She was the fountain of his
religious life and spirit. She was the
angel or messenger of God to him. 1t
was such sentiments as these which
influenced the Northern nations to
Christianity. Their veneration for purity
and their strong religious instinct which
courted- the mysteries of the unseen.
opened the way for the gospel of the Son
of the blessed Virgin. What student OF
History but knows that it was through
the influence of his wife, the Burgundian
Chlotilde, that Clovis, the leader of the
Franks, renounced the worship of Wodin
and Thor and became, as were his sue
| cessors, the. defender of orthodox Chris
tianity in Europe; how it was that Eth
Gilbert, who had married a Frankish
| princess, Bertha, Hospitality received ST.
| Augustine when he landed in England
how through the influence of Theode-
linde, the fierce Lombards accepted the
| orthodox faith. Surely America, the
| latest home of the Germanic race, will
not deny to woman the recognition she
| deserves as promoter of Christian civil
| ization.
| AS rulers, warriors and law-givers,
women occupy conspicuous place in
history. To you, young ladies of the
| Academy, it is, l am sure, only necessary
| to mention the name of Deborah, the
| great .law-giver of Israel; of Jeanne
! d Arc, the saviour of France; of Marga
ret, the Semiramis of the North, who
united Sweden, Denmark and Norway
under one crown; of Isabella, of CASTLE
whose iberality enabled Columbus to
discover new world; of Elizabeth oi
| England; of Maria Therese of Austria
and-of Louise of Prussia, to recall to
your minds chapters in history that to
you have been and are sources of pride
and inspiration.
/ Doubtless in this audience it would be
carrying Goals to New Castle to speak o.
women as authors-a field in which they
have displayed such signal ability !
can not, however, forbear brief refer
ence to women as reformers. The bes
exponents of great principles are grea1
lives and where examples are so numer
Gus it is difficult to fix upon one to illus
trate my thought. But there is one name
that is held in grateful and honoree
remembrance by two continents-that o
Dorothea L. Dix. Her labors for human
1 ity began about 1910 and for nearly hal
century her life was one of noble deeds