Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-10-25
SAYS MAN AND
WOMAN EQUAL
REV. CHARLES E. LOCKE TELLS
OF RESPONSIBILITIES
DECLARES NATIONS MAKE Ma
TIoNs ENDURING
Clergyman Shows Great Men Bear
Testimony to Power of Love
and Teachings of Their
Mothers

Charles Edward Locke at the First
Methodist Episcopal church delivered a
sermon last evening on the subject
Wrongs, or Upon Whom Rests the
Greater Responsibility for the Moral
and Religious Progress of Mankind
Men or Women?" The text was: For
unto whomsoever much is given of him
shall be much required" Luke 12:4S.
DR.. Locke said the inquiry of his
theme had very frequently been pro-
pounded to him. In answering the
question he spoke in part as follows:
Our opportunity and our talents are
the exact measure of our responsibility.
Concerning man and woman, each is a
special creature; male and female
created he them Each is the equal of
the other, for they twain will be one
flesh the Bible says.
Man has unique possibilities. By
virtue of his physiological and psy-
Geological endowments and limitations
man is the provider, the defender and
the warrior He is the father, the hus-
band, the support of the home. He Is
the soldier who goes forth to battle,
the statesman to make and execute the
laws and the public factor, the GUS
todian Of a nations welfare. But
woman can aid man In his response
bilities. She is not the soldier, but by
her love and blessing she has won
many battles. She is not the bread
winner but toll is easy to the man
whose home is happy. She is not the
statesman, but Miltiades and Julius
Caesar, and Charlemagne, and Wash
ington were wife-made and mother
made men. AS De Tocqueville says:
Women give to every nation moral
temperament which shows itself in pol
tiles.
Man GIorlfes Ideal Woman
"Man glorifies the ideal woman-the
ancients deifed and worshiped her To-
day, the symbol of justice is a woman
blindfolded with scales in her hand.
and the symbol of liberty is a graceful
female figure enwrapped with the Stars
and Stripes. Woman thus becomes
mans complement and chief inspira-
ton.
Woman also has unique RESPONSE
bllities by virtue Of her physiological
and psychological endowments. She is
the wife, the mother and the home
keeper. She is in partnership with God
in the creation Of a soul. She may
largely determine the character of the
home. She has the first chance at the
child. AS mother she has a kingdom
all her own. The Spartan mother and
the Roman matron made their nations
great and enduring. Nearly all great
men bear testimony to the power of a
mothers love and teachings; while
David Livingstone and Gladstone stand
for a multitude of men who speak in
grateful eloquence of the influence Of
wife's devotion. Civilization is a good
woman
but notice that woman unaided can
not save our civilization; she needs
mans cooperation in the responsible
ties peculiar to her. 1t is true she has
the first chance at the child, but she
needs mans help as the lawmaker to
save her children from the vices which
threaten the future of this republic, be-
cause they destroy the lives of multi
tudes of our youth. The boy may love
his mother, but he is much Influenced
by the example and ideals of his father.
Responsibility Rests on Man
when will the glad day come when
men will supplement the careful,
anxious training of the mother by de-
stroying the licensed evils which are a
menace to her children? Men are the
voters, and this grave responsibility
rests on them.
at Is not that woman is more re-
ligious than man. She has been pro-
tected from the coarse contact with the
outside and often wicked world. AS
wife and mother she Is sheltered from
the hard knocks and cruel collisions of
the man in the battle of the bread
winners. Mans religion does not man
ifest itself in those delicate and di-
vinest forms, but it shows itself in the
mans frank, downright honesty, his
fidelity to his wife and children and his
stalwart defense of the lofty principles
on which the church, the home and the
state securely rest. If the men forsake
the highest ideals the women cannot
long retain those ideals.
Each then is the equal of the other
by creation. If man should dominate
woman then the greater moral and re-
ligious responsibility would rest on
men; II women were the dominating
factor, then it would rest on women.
But because they are equal, and our
Bible our sentiment, our lives and our
religion recognize that equality, the
burden of responsibility must rest
equally on the man and the woman. If
the world is saved from the wrongs and
vices which enthrall humanity 1t will
be when men and women bear an equal
share the responsibility and together
labor for the emancipation of man
kind"