The Princeton union., 1895-06-27
T|.A1'LMAGE'S 7. SERMON.
WOMAN's OPPORTUNITY FOUND IN
a THE HOME.

Tie Insigniflcnncc Of Suffrnre nv
compared With the work OF
Irntning Kings and Queens for
God-Plntn Words for Women.
st. Louis, Special:-Dr. Talmage ar
rived IN this city on Saturday night,
expecting to preach here yesterday.
The fatigue Of the journey, however,
rendered 1T inadvisable for him to oc-
cupy any pulpit. He, therefore gave
out the following sermon to the press.
GOD, who can make no mistake,
made man and woman for a specific
work and to move In particular
spheres-man to be regnant in his
realm, woman to be dominant in hers.
The boundary line between Italy and
/ Switzerland, between England and
Scotland is not more thoroughly mark
Ell than this distinction between the.
empire masculine and the empire FEM
mime. So entirely dissimilar are. the,
fields to which God called them, that
you can no more compare them than
you can oxygen and hydrogen, water
and grass, trees and stars All this
talk about the superiority Of one sex
TO- the other sex is an everlasting
waste Of ink and speech. Al jeweler
may have scale so delicate. that he
can weigh the dust of diamonds; but
where are the scales so delicate that
you can weigh in them affection
against affection, sentiment against
sentiment, thought against thought.
soul against soul, a mans world
against woman's world? You come
out with your stereotyped remarks
THAT man is superior to woman in in
tellect; and then l open on my desk
the swarthy, irontyped, thunder-bolted
writings of Harriet Iartineau, and
Elizabeth Browning, and George Eliot.
You come on with your stereotyped re-
mark about woman's superiority to
man in the item of affection; but | ask
you where was there more capacity
to love than in John the Disciple-and
Matthew Simpson the Bishop, and
Henry Martyr the missionary? The
heart of those men was so large that
after you had rolled into it two hem
ispheres there was still room left to
marshal the hosts of heaven, and set
up the throne of the eternal Jehovah.
u.
l deny to woman the throne affection
al. No human phlaseology will ever
define the. spheres; while there Is an
intuition by which we know when a
man is in his realm, and when woman
is; IN her realm, and when either Of
them is out Of it. tho bupgling legis-
lature ought to attempt to make a de-
finftion, or to Say: 'This is the line or
fhOf iS linz
woman wants to vote, she ought to
vote, and that if man wants to en-
brolder and keep house, he ought to be
allowed to embroider and keep house.
There are masculine women and there
are effeminite men. My theory is that
you have no right to interfere with
any ones doing anything that is right
eous. Albany and Washington might
as we'll decree by legislation how high
brown thrasher should fly, or how
deep trout should plunge, as to try
to seek out the height and depth Of
Woman's duty. The question of ca
pacity will settle finally the whole
question, the whole subject. When
woman is prepared to preach, she will
preach and neither conference nor
presbytery can hinder her. When
woman is prepared to move in highest
commercial spheres, she will have
great influence on the exchange, and
no board Of trade can hinder her. I
want woman to understand that heart
and brain can overly any barrier that
politicians may set up, and that moth
ing can keep her back or keep her
down but the question Of incapacity.
was in New Zealand last year just
after the opportunity of suffrage had
been conferred upon won en-. The
plan worked we'll. There had never
been such order at the polls, and right
eousness triumphed. Men have not
made such wonderful moral success
of the ballot-boX that they need fear
women will corrupt it, In our cities
man has so nearly made the ballot-box
a failure, suppose we let the women
try. But there are some women I
know, Of most undesirable nature, who
wander up and down the country
having no homes Of their own, or for
saking their own homes-talking about
their rights, and we know very well
that they themselves are fit neither to
vote nor to keep house. Their mission
seems merely to humiliate the two
sexes at the thought of what any one
or us might become. No one would
want to live under the laws that such
women would enact or to have cast
upon society the children that such
women would raise. But 1 shall show
you that the best rights that woman
can own she already has in her pos
session; that her position in this coun-
try at this time is not one of commits
Grafton, but one Of congratulation: that
the grandeur and power of her realm
have never yet been appreciated; that
she sits to-day on throne so high that
all the thrones of earth piled on top
of each other would not make for her
a footstool. Here is the platform on
which she stands. Away down below
it are the ballot-box and the congress
sional assemblage and the legislative
hall. Woman always has voted and
always will vote. Our great-grandfa-
theirs thought they were by their votes
putting Washington into the presiden-
tial chair. No. His mother, by the
principles she taught him, and by the
habits she inculcated, made him presi-
dent. It was a Christian mothers hand
dropping the ballot when Lord Bacon
wrote, and Newton philosophical, and