The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-01-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TALK ABOUT WOMAN'S USE
FULNESS.
There Arc Dangerous A!urements or
Traps That Must Ever BE Avoided
-''she Shall BE Called Woman
Gen. ii: rs.

God, who can make no mistake,
made man and woman for a specific
work and to move in particular
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 talk 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 womans world? You come
out with your stereotyped remark that
a man is superior to woman in INTEL
lect; and then l 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 ask
you where was there more capacity to
love than in John the disciple-and
Matthew Simpson the bishop and Hen
ry Martyr, the missionary? The heart
of those men was so large, that after
you had rolled 1t into two hemispheres,
there was room still left to marshal
the hosts of heaven, and set up the
throne Of the eternal Jehovah. l deny
to man the throne intellectual. l deny
to woman the throne affectional. No
human phraseology will ever decline
the spheres; while there is an intui-
ton by which we know when 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 a woman wants to vote she ought to
vote and that il 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. My
theory is that you have no right to in
terfere with any ones doing anything
that is righteous. albany and Wash
ington might as we'll decree by legis-
lation how a brown-thresher should
fly, or how deep a 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
woman is prepared to preach, she will
preach, and neither conference nor
presbytery can hinedr her. When
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. 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
noon or at night, and then tarry a COM
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 do, that
this outside world and the business
world are a 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. Undertaking. 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
q Victoria's coronet. Better be there |
than carry the purse of princess.
Your abode may be humble, but you
can, by your faith in God, and your
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;
neighborhood; and yet
there is a man who would die on the
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
Iet down to that house Over the