The San Francisco call., 1899-04-17
THE RELATION
Of WOMAN TO
THE GOSPEL
Rev. Wilson on Evils
of the Times.
CIVILIZATION A FAILURE
HOPES TO FOUND A HOME FOR
WORKING WOMEN.
An Able Sermon in Which the Speak
er Outlines Practical Plan for
the Protection of the
Weaker Sex.
CIVILIZATION A FAILURE
HOPES TO FOUND A HOME FOR
WORKING WOMEN.

Not for many a day has broader, more
liberal sermon issued out of any San
Francisco pulpit than that delivered last
night at Howard-street Methodist Epis-
copal Church by the Rev. DR. John A. b.
Wilson DIR. Wilson dealt with woman's s
place and womans power in the propaga-
ton of the gospel, not as they are but as
they would be were the conditions of the
day as they should be. He spoke to his
subject forcefully and practically, and
held the wrapt attention of his congrega-
ton through the three-quarters of an
hour he required.
DR.. Wilson took his text from the fourth
chapter. third verse of the Philippians,
Help those women who labor together
with us in the gospel" There are those
who tell us every day" said he, that this
world is getting worse instead of better.
That crime is increasing and the gospel
more seldom heard. This is not true. l
can look around me and see Chinatown
and this wide-open city, and l can turn
again and find people who have lived here
for twenty or thirty years who will tell
me that both have improved morally in
that time; that crime has grown less and
that the gospel is heard in quarters which
never knew it before. And so it is in New
York and the other great cities in the
East; the world is getting better and we
must help II TO 90 SO. We HluSI puI a
candle in the dark places and help those
to see who would but cannot.
''It is the women who must help US TO
do this. From the time that band OF
noble women helped Paul in ancient Rome
the propagation of the gospel has been
womans proper mission, and they must
be enabled to help us now IN our ex-
tremity We must all work and we must
remember that if all of us cannot build
houses we can at least lay brick. So
many of US will not do anything unless
we can do a great big thing, and want
to say to. you that If you can not 90 "a
great big thing then in the name of the
suffering humanity do small thing. The
gospel has no wings to fly, no sails to
move it. nor any locomotive power behlnd
il IT needs the human personality be-
hind II, The gospel as a human uplift
needs labor in its propagation. 1t is sue
ceeding so poorly to-day not because
there is not enough of it preached but be-
cause there is not enough OF 1t practiced.
Il have a quarrel with the conditions
of the times They are wrong, but L do
not know how to remedy them. Women
arc forced into the martS of trade and
with their weak strength compelled to
fight against men for their bread and
kept away from the gospel. This IS not a
sign of success, but sign or tallure IN
orr civilization. When our men nave not
enough virility, enough manhood to take
care of our women and provide shelter
for them, it is nothing less than failure.
At the same time as many wotleen seed say say
ton for a $500 man. This is not the right
condition. but, as 1 said, | do not know
how to remedy it. We must find way.
II cannot be done in this generation, nor
in the next. but we must begin the work
that tl1 tN will give woman her proper place and
her rights and place her in that relation
to the gospel as were the women when
the gospel was a tnousdnu years anu
more younger" 80
DR.. Wilson closed his sermon with a
sincere and powerful appeal for the
ries upon which they cannot live in the
big cities, are forced from the ways of
righteousness that they may live at all,
and he outlined a plan which he and his
wife and a number of the sturdy workers
with them are now engaged in furthering.
They have started on a small scale home
for such women as he had spoken for
during the evening, with every promise
of success before them, and he requested
the moral and financial aid Of every one
of his congregation.