Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-27
FROM TIE SACRED DESK
BaccaIaureate Sermon at the
 Atheneum by Mir. Barbour.
TOPICS IN OTHER PULPITS
The Words of Truth and Righteousness Which Fell Upon Attentive Ears at the Sev-
 eraI Places of Worship.

Rev. John Barbour preached the bac- calaureate sermon of the East Lake Atheneum graduating class yesterday The large Baptist church was filled with attentive auditors.
 Text: Proverbs Xxxi i31. "Giye her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates"
 The speaker said: No nobler motto could be written on the entablature of the woman's building at Atlanta, or over the lintel of a woman's college. This text. taken from the oldest book in the world, book sometimes charged with being unfriendly to womans advance ment. fixes upon woman the responsi- bility of choosing and working out her own career. The patronizing way in which some people were apportioning Woman's sphere for her was never au- thorized by the Bible-sanely read. Woman is no more anSwerable to man than man to woman in this regard Chivalry is very beautiful and more over an outcome of the Christian reli- gion but is woman to be kept forever weak that man may ride tournament for her?
 Is woman never to learn her own deep responsibility and lofty possibilities in d NpTlu lllO WHICH Silt NciS as helper of man-helper wherever man goes forth to labor?
 Congratulating the outgoing class of this institution that woman was never so free to be under God what her eon- science moved her to, l would urge upon you few things:
 1. There was never such a call for the peculiar power and ministry of woman. Now, what is woman's peculiar power? Wherein does she excel man? She has proven her intellectual power; she can solve mathematical problems; she can sometimes take Greek scholarships over men. Assume that she is yet to pro- duce Shakespeare, a Bacon and a Ma poleon; but would that mark the dis tnctiVe greatness of woman? Is that the direction in which the mass of women should move? 1 believe profoundly in woman's right to go and her ability to go, wherever her better angel carries her. l believe that the world will be iIn- measurably enriched by her awakeninG; that many mental problems wait for the light of womans mind upon them; that certain social questions can never be settled without her: that she can teach us something about administering and beautilying our cities; that she is yet to be (vote or no Vote) power in govern ment.
 All this, however, might happen and woman not appear in her greater char acter. But woman's peculiar power--is it not her heart?
 Of a celebrated French philosopher it was said: He has as good heart as can be made out ofbrains." Such men repel us. But woman without heart -a woman in whom the currents of the soul are frozen-what a monstrosity! She is brilliant she is dazzling, but sine does not give us woman s ministry. We fear such women as so many Amazons. Now, it is peculiarly infelictous for wo- man to forget this in this age. This is the spiritual age. This the age of the humanitieS.
 ward to her larger career-her brow kissed by new and diViner hopes. She should become "a very priestess of the wonder and bloom of the world"
 9 The times call woman to largeness of heart. Whatever the glory Of former days, it tended to make her narrow minded and self-seeking way has been found for the worldwide ministry of modest, home-loVing women. It was a woman who took to Crimean battle fields the touch of gentlenesS that has ameliorated all modern warfare. A woman leads the temperance hosts to- day. A woman has written the best book on the rights of the horse. An in- valid woman directed from her sick bed for twenty years the exquisite charities of the Flower mission. The most dis tinguished and practical philanthropist in Alabama, pioneer and chief In prison reform and in all humanitarian schemes, is a woman.
 3. But the greatest sphere, and the one most needing woman, is the home.
 The greatest of England's sovereigns was a woman. And yet could not com mend Queen Elizabeth to these young women as a model woman. Let me say in a word, woman looms grandest be- fore us as the representative of a home. Woman is the mighty reserve power or the world. There are times when she Is called to public work 1 believe she should come forth if the pressure of con science or public need requires.B But for the mass of women home is the arena os her powers. And here, believe me- is the storm center of the world today Every thing is fighting the home. The saloons are fighting the home. The society clubs, the card clubs, current social GUS toms current entertainments are max ing havoc of the home. Meanwhile for multitudes of women no call but culture social power, personal adornment seems to have any power Woman's greatest self is her spiritual self. I often recall Lowelrs exquisite tribute to the love of his youth:
 "She is most fair, and thereunto Her life doth rightly harmonize.
 Feeling or thought that was not true Never made less beautiful the blue, Unclouded heaven of her eyes," A. Woman's greatest beauty and power is attained in the school of Christ. She is herself the noblest conquest of Christ He has lifted her from slavery to the po- sition of queen of home and heart. A sad day is it for the world, and a sorry one for her when she allows her social ambition, her personal tastes, to mark her out selfish and sef-seeking course Only as Christs child can she attain her truest charm and greatest service to her fellows.
 The speaker closed by calling up some of the grand women characters of the