San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-05-10


planning, patient, careful, helpful
mother That this Is natural in
the earlier stages Of boyhood Is to
be accepted, but when that boy,
grown a strong man, still lives on
the substance OF his mother, &C
cepts all and gives nothing, repudi-
ating all her natural rights, then
1t is a sad thing, perhaps the very
saddest on earth. Yet it is the
spectacle that presents itself daily.
II these things are so in the life
OF the individual, how much more
so in the life OF communities.
These latter are not supposed to be
shut up to the narrow, selfish in
clusiveness Of the person, but to be
the centers of Effectiveness, gov
erned by reason, taking into con-
sideration all relations, judging
according to wide knowledges and
deep cons1derateness, acting only
upon these. 1t is sad spectacle
to see a great lout of boy, grown
strong through mothers care and
loving forgetfulness, turning his
back upon that mother, repudi-
ating her right to be heard in any
thing pertaining himself, denying
her the mind or the heart to speak
and Judge intelligently concerning
his life. 1t is not only sad, but
abominably unjust, to see commu-
mites, that are born and live
through maternal care, denying to
the women who create and sustain
them the right to be heard in their
councils.
Do such communities forget who
brought them into being ? Is,
there no recognition Of the facts of
relation in the men, the grown up
boys Of this mother of assemblies,
that they should repudiate the
mother who bore them ?
Have they no obligation to the
very power by which alone they
are continued in existence? Per-
haps in the councils of the profane
such nconsiderateness might be
allowed excuse, but in the councils
of the church is it to be excused? l
trow not. 1t is contrary to all the
spirit and temper and genius and
accepted origin of church work
and worship and government. II
the motherhood that gave to the
christian church its Christ, that
was first at the cross and last at the
sepulchre, that was the first to
greet his ascension, that has been
foremost in all the work and SER
vice of the church, that has paid
its bills and done it's drudgery,
that has ever been the patient SER
want of the temple without wages,
honors or reward-if this mother
hood is denied recognition by the
church and refused seat In her
council chamber, where is the sense
Of justice in that church?
That this has been the work and
place Of the women, the mothers
of the sons who repudiate her
place at the headship OF church af-
fairs, is no more to be denied than
any other fact Of history. There
is not a church in the world of
ecclesiatic operation that is not
q church of women, when numbers,
influence, contributions, patient
service and unwelcome work are
considered. Not ten per cent Of the
money that now flows into church
Golfers would go there without the
women. The men may pay it, but
the women constrsin them thereto.
The membership is largely that OF
women and it is the husbands and
the relatives of these women who
pay the church bills, not on their
own account, but on account Of the
women who are denied a voice in
the councils Of that same church.
1t is case of the boy growing
too fast and tall for his pants. 1t
is the saucy young Tomcat over
again. 1t is the male pretension
and conceit taking advantage Of
the infinite patience and unself-
ishness of mother. 1t is a survival
Of the old barbaric idea that the
woman, the wife, the mother, is
tho infarinr To this ic Sn hnW ia