Connecticut western news., 1891-04-08

nalt-a hurricane stopped at the sight of a water lily, a dewdrop dashing back Niagara Here is Ruth, putting to shame all the modern slang about mothers-in-law as she turns her back on her home and her country, and faces wild beasts and exile and death, that she may be with Naomi, her hus- bands mother. Ruth, the queen of the harvest fields; Ruth, the grand mother of David; Ruth, the ancestress of Jesus Christ. The story of her vir- tues and her life sacrifice the most beautiful pastoral ever written. Here is Vashti defying the bacchanal of a thousand drunken lords, and Esther willing to throw her life away that she may deliver her people. And here is Dorcas, the sunlight of eternal fame gliding her philanthropic needle, and the woman, with perfume in a box made from the hills of Alabastron, pouring the holy chrism on the head of Christ, the aroma lingering all down the corridor of the centuries Here is Lydia. the merchantess of Tyrian pur. pie, immortalized for her Christian be- havior Here is the widow with two mites, more famous than the Peabodys and the Lenoxes of all the ages, while here comes in, slow of gait and with careful attendants and with espe- cial honor and high favor. leaning on, the arm of inspiration, one who is the joy and pride of any home so rarely fortunate to have one, an old Christian grandmother, Grandmother Lois. Who has more worshipers today than any being that ever lived on earth except Jesus Christi Mary. For what pur. pose did Christ perform his first miracle upon earth2 To relieve the embarrass- nent of a womanly housekeeper at the falling short of beverage. Why did Christ break up the silence of the tomb, and tear of the shroud, and rip up the rocks2 It was to stop the bereavement of the two Bethany sisters. For whose comfort was Christ most anxious i'll the hour of dying excruciation2 For a
 
 woman, woman who in other days had held him in her arms, his first friend, his last friend, as it is very apt to be-his mother. All the pathos of the ages compressed into one utterance, Behold thy mother" Does the Bible antagonize womanG
 CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN WOMAN CON
 TRASTED.
 If the Bible is SO antagonistic to woman, how do you account for the difference in woman's condition in China and central Africa, and her condition in England and America2 There is no difference except that which the Bible makes. In lands where there is no Bi ble she is hitched like beast of bur den to the blows, she carries the hod, she submits to indescribable indigni- ties. She must be kept in private apartment, and if she come forth she must be carefully hooded and relig- iously yelled, as though it were a shame to be woman. Do you not know that the very first thing the Bible does when it comes into new country is to strike off the shackles of woman's serfdom o woman, where are your chains to- day9 Hold up both your arms and let us see your handcuffs. Oh, we see the handcuffsl They are bracelets of gold bestowed by husbandly or fatherly or brotherly or sisterly or loverly affec- tion. Unloosen the warm robe from your neck, o woman, and let us see the yoke of your bondage Oh, I find the yoke carcenet of silver, or string of carnelians :, cluster of pearls that must gall ! very nuchl How bad you must ali have itl
 Since you put the Bible on your stand in the sitting room has the Bible been to you, o woman, curse or a blessing2 Why is it that woman when she is troubled will go to her worst enemy, the Bible2 Why do you not go for comfort to some of the great infidel books-Spinoza's Ethics" or Hulne's Natural History of Religion" " or Paine's Age of Reason" or Dedro's Dramas" or any one of the two hun dred and sixty volumes of Voltaire 2 No; the silly. deluded woman persists in hanging about the Bible verses. Let not your heart be troubled" All things work together for good" Weeping may endure for night" "I am the resurrection" Peace, be still. '"
 Furthermore, rather than invite re- sist this plague of infidelity because it mas wrought no positive good for the world. and is always a hindrance. ask you to mention the names of the merciful and the educational institu- tions which infidelity founded and is supporting, and has supported all the way through--institution pronounced against God and the Christian religion, and yet pronounced in behalf of suffer ing humanity. What are the names of them? Certainly not the United States Christian commission or the sanitary commission, for Christian George H. Stuart was the president of the one and Christian Henry w. Bellows was the president of the other. Where are the asylums and merciful institutions founded by nfidelity and supported by inidelity, pronounced against God and the Bible, and yet doing work for the alleviation of suffering? Infidel- ity is so very loud in its bragga- docio it must have some to men ton. Certainly, if you come to speak of educational institutions, it is not Yale, it is not Harvard, it is not Prince. ton, it is not Middletown, it is not Cam bridge or Oxford, it is not any institu- tion from which diploma would not be a disgrace, Do you point to the German universities as exceptions9 have to tell you that all the German