The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-07-18
"COnseCrated WOmanhOOd."

with classic culture. But all this aside,
in our text the hand is the symbol of
all kinds of work. When God calls
for c~onsecrated hand, he asks that all
energy and skill be sactiied. In
school or factory, in shop or store, in
field or forum, all the modes of energy
and all the variety of skill are to be
given to God for his glory.
Il am talking to young ladies, and I
say have a purpose to use the knoWl-
edge you are acquiring. Many of our
girls look upon education as a pious
fraud they never expect to use it, or
to have any use for it. I have seen
a young lady throw away an educa
ton; and when she had to make a
living, che must go back to school
later in life and do it all over again.
Why not carry it along with you now
80 that you will have it with you when
you need it. To walk eff and leave
your education is as Dish as to pack
your trunk with finery and then not
take it with you en- your journey.
Take. as an example the one item of
music. Thousands of girls spend
thousands of dollars studying music,
and then walk eff and leave it. They
will not serve the needs of the church,
nor will they make home joyous with
this fine art, and the talent and cul.
ture God has given them perishes.
Have a purpose to do something with
what YOU know.
"a woman's hand is different from
a mans. His is coarse and strong:
hers is fine and graceful. | do not
believe in palmistry, but the hi9ro
glyph of lines in woman hand teaches
that it was made for a different work
from mans. 1t is sad for any of us
to miss his calling in life, saddest of
all for woman; sad because she goes
on with the unnatural work so Cour
ageOusly, cheerfullY and successfully.
ALI honor to cur fair women who do
we'll what they have to do in order to
get along in a world that is perpetu
ally making them do what they ought
not to have to do. I do not blame the
women but the world. To day many
a dear girl is playing Home, Sweet
Home" or a typewriter, when she
ought to be executing that divine mu
sic IN some cozy cot all her own-and,
nia. Many women with no hope OF
this life are hearing with wistful ears
dus y looms sing Of "a Land That Is
Fairer Than This; and many more
with bleeding fingers are rubbing all
The music they hear out OF the hard
surfbc3 OF a wash board; and some
kneel perpetually at the mental altar
of a scrubbing brush and g6z9 at the
dim pictures of distant bliss reflected
on the surface of hard floors polished
with tqeir ears. | am coming TO be-
lieve that, for every woman who is
forced to do what she ought not to do,
there is some rascal Of a man who per
eists in b 5ing what he ought not 10 be.
However sad it may he for woman
to miss her mission, il is infinitely sad
der for her not to have any mission at
all. Many OF our yourg Lads from
middle life to upper crust ere without
a mission. Tney seem to think there
10 nothing for them ID do ave to stand
for q few brief moments under a mar
riage bell and listen TO it's ring forever
after. They do not bring to the high
calling of wife and mother q ripe intel
ligence AID a holy purpose to build a
home according TO the specifications
of the divine architect and to lifE life
up to the divine ideals. Oh, woman, il
you would find your mission and full
fill is, learn your calling Of GOD. He
made you and He alone knows what
you we're made for. Wheeler it be to
sing to ell the world as Miriam and
Mary sang, or to sit in a home as the
silent power behind the throned life OF
kingly man, learn your calling of
God. Your sphere ia a wide circle;
your mission reaches all the way from
craftsmanship to art, from the nursery to