The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1909-05-27

are. And what the homes of nation
are that nation is, or will become.
The weakness OF France today, her
immortality and godlessness, is the
product OF her lack of approximately
ideal homes. The civil and religious
welfare of our future then is with the
homes, and is therefore largely in
woman's keeping. Give Us a commu-
nifty or a nation with homes and
mothers according to he pat terms OF
| Gods Word and ] have no fear for
its future. Lose either and the
gravest dangers threaten us. You
speak of our local problems, civil and
religious, and their solution. III tell
you the solution-Godly mothers
| Hannahs, and homes like that at
Bethany with a room for Jesus. We
need no further justification other
than a realization that the place
| woman, and especially mothers, fills
IN lif+- is SO supreme that if she fails
in her duty, human life lis whole is
II failure. THE hand that rocks the
cradle rules the world"
Coming now to the portrait of the
| ideal woman, we notice:
She is a wife 1.-The heart of her
husband doth safely trust in her"
| The modern conception of woman
as an independent person, living
alone. with no other companion than
IL cat or a canary bird, engaged in
business and complete in her isolated
life, finds no place in the book OF
Proverbs, or in the Bible for that
matter.
Some one has said that there are
three classes of unmarried women:
Those single by choice, those, by cir
cumstancos and those who are born
''sich" This latter class deserves
our sympathy, our prayers and
tears; the second our admiration; but
the first our censure. No one denies
that she is useful She is almost
necessary; maiden aunts are among
earth's richest treasures and LIES
greatest blessings, but they are not
ideal. The portrait of the perfect
| woman Is woman married. just as
the highest type of manhood is al
ways found among those whose life
has been touched and tempered and
!
noble wife, so the highest type of
women are those whose composite
nature-as many-sided as the moon
has phases-has been developed and
perfected in this God-ordained rela-
tion. Man unmarried is only half
man. A true and noble woman be-
comes on marrying woman and a
half
Nor is this all She is also mother.
Her children rise up and call her
blessed. The ideal woman is not
simply wife, With nothing running
aroundt he house but the yard fence
or perchance poodle dog. She has
taken a step toward perfection when
she becomes a wife. There are many
noble women who are wives only
but she has truly come into her own
only when she is mother. 1t is no
accident that when the artists of the
world have attempted to paint
woman idealized, that it has never
been woman as warrior like Joan Of
Arc, or as a diplomat like Elizabeth,
or poet like Catherine Rossetti, or
novelist like George Eliot, but
woman as mother. This is the rela-
ton she sanctifies and where her
noblest qualities of mind and soul
shine forth
1t is not said how many children
she should rear. People differ as to
how many constitute model family.
A distinguished professor of psychol-
ogy gives four as the ideal number,
two boys and two girls. A little con;
servative and modest, | think, for
North Carolina. At any rate she is
not a hen with one chick, if she can
do any better, for cher children rise
up and call her blessed
Let us consider now some of the
characteristics of this wife-mother,
this perfect woman:
| l. We are surprised and almost
disappointed that she is not repre-
sented as necessarily beautiful, but
on the contrary we are advised that
''favor is deceitful and beauty is
vain"
Continued on fourth page)