The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-23
IDEAL WOMANHOOD,"
Rev. Dr.. Harris Welcomes the Ample
Culture and Opportunity of the Pres
ent Day Woman.

Outure ana Opportunity of the Pres
ent Day Woman.
Rev. DR.. M. H. Harris preached yes
terday morning at All Souls church on
Ideal womanhood," from the words
found in Luke i:48-"For he hath re-
garded the low estate of his hand
maiden; for behold, from hencefortb all
generations shall call me blessed" He
said in part:
One of the greatest revolutions of the
modern ages is that which has so ma
terially changed the position of woman.
During the last fifty years new legal
and political rights have been granted
her ana new educational and philan-
throplc responsibilities have been
placed upon her Woman has assumed
leading, if not the leading position in
the most important battle which this
generation has to fight the battle with
the unSpeakable evils and perils of the
drink appetite and the drink traffic. She
mas undertaken with burning zeal and
far-sighted wisdom the gigantic task of
nrting into Christian light and liberty
the four hundred million of her sex in
pagan lands. Singularly noble and ig-
noble developments of character mark
are feared. The woman in political life
is not anticipated with general favor.
The woman in literature and the woman
In benevolent work have won some of
the brightest laurels in our century.
DeVotedness of spirit is the core of
Woman's beautiful nature, as it is
and must remain of all, highest woman
Illness. True woman's God Is no ice
pound voyager of the Arctic seas I'M
able to reach these lower ATTITUDES. Her
life is embosomed in the warmth of
Gods immediate glory and she worships
daily at the inmost shrine OF that tenn
pie which to many of us looks like a
cloud palace in the skies, visionary and
unreal. God be praised, not only for the
Shekinah which glorifed the old sane
tuary of Jewish worship, but also for the
Shekinah that glorif1es the heart of
perfect womanhood 1t was given to
Raphael above all other men to paint
the splendors of an ideal maternity.
Pilgrims seek the galleries of Italy, the
land of the Madonna, to dwell enrap-
tured of the features of her into whose
face the infant Savior looked and whom
he addressed by that name which child
hood most loves
Friends, let the thoughts of your
quiet hours be in your lives like the
dews which fall at nighttime on the
mountain side, or the gentle rains on
the uplands. From these quiet distilla-
lions shall be gathered together the
streams which make the broad flood of
your existence pouring its volume of
waters into the eternal oceans. Oh, fill
your minds with holy thoughts, with
blessed memories with the sweetness
and the light of sanity meditation. AS
the human soul turns it's eye upon itself
let it rest peacefully and happily on
scenes which, if not angelic, shall make
the bliss of solitude. The grace of Mary
was not the cold briliancy of Minerva
the grace of intellect 1t was not the
manufacture of the modiste or the pro-
duct of the ball room. 1t was none of
these. But rather the slow ripening
loneliness that came from within: the
outward expression of a heart that
brooded over gracious and mysterious
disclosures from heaven of a soul that
from the hill of Nazareth had daily lock-
ed off on the great sea, that mighty SYM
Dol of immensely dashing at the foot
| of Carmel; had gazed on the lofty snow
peak of Mount Hermon to the north and
rested on all those reminders of her ma
tons history that impearled the great
| plain of Endralon; and yet while thus
brooding over the most suggestive of
earthly landscapes had for thirty years
carried in her own consciousness mem
cries and histories and hopes more sub
lime than all that the sea and the noun
tains and the plains have awakened in
her thoughts.
! Humanity is a characteristic of ideal
womanhood. 1t has in it a devout re-
gard for the supremacy of God and a
meek and trustful submission of sell
fish pride to this will: 1t is all the more
| lovable when found in strong natures
| This is the essence of noble humility.
A swift and instant reference of all
| things to God. If one has a truly noble
nature, you will never find him more
humble than in the hour of triumph. I
welcome the ampler culture and oppor-
tunity which are woman's in our day.
By her meekness and meditative piety,
by her courageous long suffering and
submissiveness and the dignity above
all other dignities which she has given
to motherhood. She represents those
elements of power by which you, o
woman, hold in your hands the future
of the world,