The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-12-21

s-4la.4g.py1I suit her. We all
know Gail Hamilton, and weare all
compelled to like her, despite the
perilously free and reckless habit she has
of charging full upon us when we least ex-
pect it, with that sharp lance of hers, and
remorselessly piercing, in her dashing on
slaught, che tough hides and tender con-
sciences of foes and friends alike. What
though the lance is never permitted to rust,
and when in action has ever been freshly
dipped in gall! There is honey mingled IN
the gall, If we only choose to find 1.-THE
sweet and soothing honey of womanly
tenderness, with which her bitterest femi-
nine vindictiveness is never quite untinged.
For Gail Hamilton never ceases to be a
woman. Her fercest assaults have been
made with the delicate though deadly steel
of the skilled and graceful woman cham
pion, entering with all her soul into the
forefront of the conflict, or standing deli
antly alone if need be, to fight for what
she believes to be right never with the
coarser and heavier weapons of the ANA
Zon. She can bind wounds as well as make
them. and though some of her antagonists
feel that she has relentlessly passed them
by after disabling them, or thinking that
she has disabled them, they are not going
TO quarrel with her forever, for even her
victims are compelled to feel IN the long
run that there was, after all something
very attractive in her way of Strengthening
them. But what hornets nest Gail Ham
ilton is going TO stir up about herself now
She has entered into the arena Of theologi-
cal discussion. and the objects of her as
sault are religious creeds and the men who
made them, as well as the men who now
defend them. The title Of her book is "A
Washington Bible Class"
And Gail Hamilton last winter was the
leading spirit and chief Instructor of that
Bible class. Its organizers were the women
who stand highest in what has come 20 be
known as the Administration social set OF
the national capital. Gail Hamilton, who
at present belongs in that set as a near
relative and member of the household OF
Secretary Blaine, found last winter many
distinguished women, and wives of distin.
gulshed men, who, although leading mem
bers, many of them, of orthodox denomina
tions, confessed TO a persistent feeling OF
religious unrest Their minds were not il
full sympathy with the creeds they pro
fesse0, or, in someinstances, their children
absolutely rejected sundry received doc
trines, and the mothers knew not how t
act. ION all sides,'' says the writer ''tht
unquenchable thirst for God, the free
action Of thought, were battling with eccle
siasGicism, and would not be put off witt
authority or put off from religion"
And so 1t was that a woman, described
In the introduction as one Ito whom the
ology is the breath of lifen-and we car
easily recognize in her the author Of thu
new book-said TO the questioners: "Le
US leave speculation to itself: let US ceast
TO question error, and let US search fol
truth. The Bible is the source of our for
I'D F,s~ - =
not nothing else is authoritative. Let u
see, not what is Calvinism, or Lutherism
or Agnosticism, or Catholicism, or Univer
salism, but what is scripture; not wha
men say scripture says and means, blu
what scripture itself means and says.''
And so the Bible class was formed, 9Th
wife of the President" we are told, wit
highest interest IL highest things, wa
foremost in support. The wife of tn,
proffered her drawing room for the stud
of the holy scriptures. But before tn
class had formed itself for its first gather
ing, fieecy, filmy cloud, that had BODIED n
evil in a sunny sky, suddenly deepened an
darkened with the thunderbolts of Goo
From the home which would have wei
coined the Bible class, from home whic
had held four and thirty years of unbroke
family unity, son Of rare promise,
daughter of tender love,
Went pressing, almost hand in hand.
Too early to the unknown land
and all the world was changed"
Not alone here but elsewhere in II
work is the great grief that then fell upo
the Blaine family-a grief in which no or
may dare attempt to describe how full
Gail Hamilton shared-most tenderly an
feelingly referred to. Soon, however, upo
the suggestion of the wife of the vice pres
dent, the idea of the Bible class was r
yived. Was there ever such Bible elias
in the world before. Look at it as d
scribed by its historian:
The wife OF the President promptly renewe
her fealty. and remained constant, suggestiv
enthusiastic student, commanding her childrt
and her household after her not only in stimula
ing attendance and attention, but in an alway
generous consideration. Both houses OF Co
gresS. the circles of science, OF literature
education. OF diplomacy, sent their delegate
PresbyterianlSm, Congregatlonalism, Unital
anism, Episcopalcy, were ably and amiab
represented, and never more agreeably thu
when, in Horatian phrase, beautiful daughte
came with their more beautiful mothers. Tt
English church and the Greek bent to ea(
other with stately courtesy. The Quaker fat
was there. robed according 10 the last dainr
imported touch OF the children of this world b,
with all the gentle aspect and sanity bearing
George Fox and the Whittiers, brother an
sister. IgnatouS Loyola and Jonathan Edward
sat side by side In French costume of faultle.
cut and wonderful combination: and the OF
had danced no more lightly or deeply Into Satu
day night than the other Young Radicals
found the text for old orthodoxy: and bo
smiled approval whenever the sword of u
spirit slipped in between the loosened Joints
Errors gaping armor. All came together, r,
10 advocate any theory or repel any doctrii
whatever, but TO learn for themselves what Il
Bible teaches
Women were at first. with single exec
ton, the only attendants, but soon the gre
men of the capital began to dropin on tho.
Sunday afternoon gatherings, and Ga
Hamilton had most distinguished audience
for il soon happened that the members
the class left left the woman in the chair
again we can guess her name-to do 6
the talking. She modestly says that whs
at the end of an hour, she tried to stop, Il
members, 'filibustered after the straigh
forward fashion of women and force
her to go on. After that "sne ostent
iously placed an open watch on the table
the outset-and never consulted it." He
is her first line shot at her friends of tt
pulpit:
She begs to announce modestly to her broth
clergymen that her only difficulty was to indu
her congregation to dispense when the sermt
was over: that she had TO buy them OF with q
tea and cakes OF the secretary of state; al
that. without any extraneous assistance of {
version from music, or litany. or liturgy
even passing around the contribution box. b
congregation sat for an hour and half of sol
sermon and seemed always surprised not
say indignant. that that was all.
When summer approached the Bible ella
dispersed for the season and Gail Hamiltt