The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-04-09

Is Vashti defying the bacchanaI 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 chrisrn ON the head of
Christ, the aroma lingering all down
the corridor of the centuries. Here is
Lydia, the rnerchantes 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 earth? TO relieve the embarrass-
Inent of womanly housekeeper at the
falling short of a beverage Why did
Christ break up the silence of the tomb,
and tear off the shroud, and rip up the
rocks9 1t was to stop the bereavement
of the two Bethany sisters. For whose
comfort was Christ most anxious in the
hour of dying excruciation? For a
woman, an old woman, a wrinkle faced
woman, n 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,
"Bellold thy mother" Does the Bible
antagonize woman?
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 American There is no
difference except that which the Bible
makes. In lands where there is no Bi-
BILE she is hitched like beast of bur
den to the plows, she carries the hod,
she submits to indescribable indigni-
ties. She must be kept in a private
apartment, and if she come forth she
must be carefully hooded and relig-
iously yelled, as though it were 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-
day3 Hold up both your arms and let
us see your handouts. Oh, we see the
handouts! They are bracelets of gold
bestowed by husbandly or fatherly or
brotherly or sisterly or loverly affec-
ton. Unloosen the warm robe from
your neck, o woman, and let us see the
yoke of your bondage. Oh, 1 find the
yoke n careenet of silver, or string of
carnelians, or cluster of pearls that
must gall you very much! How bad
you must all have it'll
Since you put the Bible on your
stand in the sitting room has the Bible
been to you, o woman, a curse or a
blessing? Why is it that a woman
when she is troubled will go to her
worst enemy, the Biblea Why do you
not go for comfort to some of the great
infidel books-Spinoza's Ethics" or
Hume's Natural History of Religion, I"
or Paine's age of Reason" or Dedro's
Dramas" or any one of the two hun
dred and sixty volumes of Voltaire2
No; the silly, deluded woman persists
in hanging about the Bible verses,
LET not your heart be troubled, I"
"All things work together for good"
weeping may endure for night" 81
ain the resurrection" peace, be still. {"
Furthermore, rather than invite l re-
sist this plague of infideIity because it
has wrought no positive good for the
world. and is always a hindrance. l
ask you to mention the names of the
mcrciful and the educational institu-
tons which infidelity founded and is
supporting, and has supported all the
way Observation-Disclosures pronounced
against God and the Christian religion,
and yet pronounced in behalf of suffer
ing humanity. What are the names of
them9 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 infidelity and supported by
infidelity, pronounced against God and
the Bible, and yet doing work for
the alienation 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-
ton from which a diploma would not
be a disgrace. Do you point to the
German universities as exceptions2 l
have to tell you that all the German
universities today are under positive
Christian influences, except the univer-
sity of Heidelberg, where the rufianly
students cut and maui and mangle and
murder each other as a matter of pride
instead of infamy. Do you mention
Girard college, Philadelphia, as an ex-
ception-that college established by
the will of Mr.. Girard, which forbade
religious instruction and the entrance
of clergymen within its gatesl My re-
ply is that lived for seven years near
that college and knew many of its pro-
fessors to be Christian instructors and
no better Christian influences are to be
found in any college than in Girard
college.
INFIDELITY A KNOW-NOTHING AND A
DO-NOTHING.