Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1913-12-29
BRIGHT Ho'''ss FOR.
WOMAN StF RAGE
Richmond Minister Believes
Movement Will Help Our
Civilization.
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Speaker Shows in His Sermon Yester-
day How WOman's Influence Has
Aided Christianity.

Richmond, Va, Dec. 29.-Declaring
that he believed woman's suffrage
was coming, and that it ought to
come, the Rev. w. Russell Bowie rec
tor of St. Paul's Church said last
night that not until woman express
es herself in our civilization will the
Lords Kingdom come"
1T is not desirous," he said, "to
argue for woman suffrage in the
pulpit, but | mention it merely to in
terpret the spiritual influence women
would exert on our civilization if they
had the right of suffrage" He saii
that all masculine virtues had found
expression in modern civilization, but
that it now needed, and needs more
than ever, the leaven of the feminine
virtues as shown in the life of Christ,
who was possessed of the essentia!
virtues of both men and women.
I'VE need" he said, an our social
lift woman's purity, sweet and stern,
the purity that will ostracise the NOR
al leper, the purity that will guard
her own purity, the purity that will
strike down as serpent the false, ly-
ing, double Standar& which now exer-
cises it's baneful influence on our civ
iliZation."
1 Mr.Bowie took is his subject "Ghria-
tianity and Women" tracing through
the life of Christ and the history of
the earlier nations the gradual growth
of woman's power and Influence, from
something essentially negative and de-
grading to something that is positive
ennobling am uplifting. He said that
the life of Christ was intimately as
! sociated with womenhood and that his
life made a tremendous difference in
the attitude of the world toward wo'
men. Christianity had served to up
| lift women to higher sphere; where
! as he said that the heaviest blight or
the Mohammedan religion was its sub
+; lection of women. "Women'S influence
lis needed more in education he said
1--WE have in schools and universitle:
a code of honor, but the students art
taught to uphold technical honor.
They may however, be impure an
stain their lives with grosser viola
tions. We need woman's influence
in our social life to rid our civilization
of its cursed double standard. thlnl
we need woman's purity, and thlnI
we need her spirituality in the order
ING of the community and the state.
"In ordering our city the men ar
concerned mainly with figures, stree
5 lights, trade sheets and financial mat
ters more than with human values
We need woman to emphasize tn
value of human life There are YER
= few now who are opposed to hlghe
5 esucation for women. Once men wer
5 opposed to women becoming tralne
, nurses. but they were found stron
: enough to go into the crowded place
and carry their virtue and guard i
I with strong hands.
S Yzpshr mht mht mht mhtmhtmf
. 80 I am in favor of eual sufi
I rage. | do not believe that 1t IS de
!. sirous to discuss it in the pulpit, nc
n to argue on its merits, but mentlo
!. It to interest the spiritual lntluen'
: woman would bear on our civilization
IF I thought equal suffrage wou
o take away her charm. then wouI
5, NOT he for it. Butt do most ear
S estlyr say that l hope it will come, b
:. cause I think it is the only way !
which her soul will find eXpresslc
ani come into its larger heritage
our civilization. l believe it Is gor
to come, and it ought to come. It
IS the only way in which woman's so
J., can find expression and interpret
!. self in real terms, and in the valu
\ which man can't see in virtue, NEE
m ness and charity"
If "We need not be fraid OF It, for
Is will bring something very sweet o
N Christian civilization needs not on
A. the ma seuline virtues, but the teml
line virtues as we'll, purity, spirituali
and meekness.. Only as womans sc
's expresses Itself in our elvlllzatloI
shall the Lords Kingdom come"