Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-01-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TALK ABOUT WOMAN'S USE
FULNESS.
There Are Dangerous Alurements or
Traps That Must Ever BE Avoided
-"she Shall BE Called Woman"---
Gen. IL; IS.

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
marked than this distinction between
the empire masculine and the empire
feminine. 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 ,alk about the superiority of one
sex to the other is an everlasting
waste of ink and speech. A jeweler
may have a 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 a woman's world? You come
out with your stereotyped remark that
a man2is superior to woman in intel
| lect; and then / open on my desk the
swarthy, irontyped, thunder-bolted
writings of Harriet Martineau 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 l ask
you where was there more capacity to
love than in John the disciple-and
Matthew Simpson the bishop and Hen
ry MaFHn, the missionary? The heart
Of those men was SO large, that after
you had rolled it into two hemispheres,
there Was room still lett to marshal
| the hosts of heaven, and set up the
thronspf the eternal Jehovah. deny
to manthe throne intellectual. deny
to woman the throne affectional. No
human puraseology will ever decline
the spheres; while there is an intui-
ton 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. No bungling legis-
| lature ought to attempt to make a def
milton, or to say: This is the line and
that is the line" My theory is. that
II woman wants to vote she ought to
vote, and that If a man wants to en-
| broider and keep house, he ought to
| be allowed to embroider and keep
| house. There are masculine women
and there are effeminate men. Ny
theory is that you have no right to in
tertere with any ones doing anything
that is righteous. Albany and Wash
ington might as well decree by legis-
lation how a brown-thresher 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 capricity will settle finally the whole
question, the whole subject. When a
woman is prepared to preach, she will
preach, and neither conference nor
presbytery can hinedr her. When a
woman is prepared to move in high
est commercial spheres, she will have
gerat influence on exchange, and no
boards of trade can hinder her. l 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.
My chief anxiety is, not that woman
have other rights accorded her; but
that she, by the grace of God, rise up
to the appreciation of the glorious
rights she already possesses. First, she
has the right to make home happy
That realm no one has ever disputed
with her. Men may come home at
| of nj fnr o
paratively little while; but she all day
long governs it, beauties it, sancti-
fies it. 1t is within her power to make
1t the most attractive place on earth.
1t is the only calm harbor in the
world. You know as well as l do, that
this outside world and the business
world are long scene of jostle and
contention. The man who has dollar
struggles to keep it; the man who has
It not struggles to get it. Prices up.
Prices down. Losses. Gains. Misrepre-
sensations. Underselling. Buyers de-
preciating; statesmen eXaggerating.
Tenants seeking less rent; landlords
demanding more. Struggles about Of
fee. Men who are in trying to keep
in; men out trying to get in. Slips.
Tumbles. Defalcations. Panics. Ca
tastrophes. Oh, woman! thank God
you have home and that you may be
queen in it. Better be there than wear
Victoria's coronet. Better be there
than carry the purse of princess.
can, by your faith in God, and your
cheerfulness Of demeanor, gild it with
splendors such as an upholsterer's
hand never yet kindled. There are
abodes in every city-humble, two
stories; four plain, unpapered rooms:
undesirable neighborhood and yet
there is a man who would die on the
threshold rather than surrender.
Why? 1t is home. Whenever he thinks
of it he sees angels of God lowering
about it. The ladders of heaven are
let down to that house. Over the
child's rough crib there are the chant
ings of angels that broke over Beth
lehem. 1t is home. These children
may come up after awhile, and they
may win high position, and they may
have an affiuent residence; but they
will not until their dying day forget
that humble roof, under which their
father rested. and their mother sang,
and their sisters played. oh, IL you
would gather up all tender memories.
all the lights and shades of the heart.
all banquetings and reunions, all filial.
fraternal, paternal and conjugal affec-
tons, and you had only just four letters
with which to spell out that height.
and depth, and length, and breadth.
and magnitude, and eternity of mean
ing, you would, with streaming eyes.
i I'D oil of %