The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-11-06
.WOMAN'S CLUB WORK
MRS. WALTER HOOD,
Editor for November
.eMomanhod,,

'WOmanhood"
1t has come to be that the position
of woman, her power to fill any place
with credit has become the test of
national greatness. This statement
is particularly true of America.
That there should be occasion on
the very threshold to pause and ask
ourselves, what is the ideal woman
hood? is itself significant. 1t points
to the unsettlement of thought in our
day concerning woman's place in the
world. If we raise this question, it is
because society has raised it, because
women themselves have raised it.
There is mighty revolt in our day,
connected with the general upheaval
of the older order of things against
the Evolutionary lot of woman's eff
forts to better her condition, not
simply by ameliorating certain hard
ships and correcting certain abuses,
but by claiming for her an entirely
new sphere, and setting before her a
new standard of womanhood. A mar
row sphere, you say. What great
work of the world has ever prospered
without her help? What did not the
Reformation owe to the serene self
poise, the clear womanly insight, the
cheerful, steadfast faith of Catharine
Won Bora, by which Luther's fitful
humors were controlled and his moody
dependencies put to flight?
What does not American indepen-
dence owe to the cheerful endurance,
the heroic courage, the steadfast res
olution of the women of the Revolu-
ton? What have not missions owed
to the inspiring influence of such,
women as Mary Lyon, and the quiet,
gentle, thoroly womanly but fruitful
work of. such laborers as Fidelia
Fiske? Think you the planting of
Christianity would have gone on with
the same marvellous swiftness and
success without that presence and
helpfulness of women which the
Epistles so often recognize? Was
Paul conscious of no debt to Phoebe,
who had been a success of many, and
of himself also; TO Priscilla, who, be-
side her service in training the elo-
ouent Apollos, had for PauPs sake
laid down, as it were, her own neck
And to that Roman matron, the
mother of Rufus, who had been to him
as his own? Nay; did not the blessed
Master himself, notwithstanding his
lonely grandeur and his infinite suffi-
cheney for the work he came to do,
receive from those women who fol-
lowed him and ministered to him, and
from those sisters in the home at
Bethany, a comfort and cheer which
no disciple of the. other sex, not even
the beloved John, could have given?
A narrow sphere! Well, be it SO,
but it is one which you hold alone. In
! it you may WELD a more than imper-
ial power; and when you leave it to
strive for other masteries and to
grasp at other sceptres, you will leave
| it empty, and in its emptiness will be
written the ruin of home, the desola-
ton of society, and the degradation
of manhood.
j. II. Worcester in one of his great
sermons describes the ideal woman as
being gentle as the dove, modest as
the city of the valley, yet there is
no weakness in that gentleness,. no
cowardice in. that modesty. The ideal
woman is far removed from fabbi-
ness of character as she is from help
less inefficiency
How truly did the poet draw the
portrait of true woman in this poem:
A being breathing thoughtful breath;
A traveller between life and death
The reason firm. the temperate will.
Endurance. forethought, strength and
skill;
A perfect woman, nobly planned
To warn, to comfort and command,
And yet spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel light.
And now as to her influence. First
of all is the power of example. There
| is that in a pure and lofty woman
hood which by its. very presence in
spires reverence, rebukes sin, and at
tracts toward the goodness which it
reveals. Such in broad light is Shaks-
pere's testimony to the position and
character of women in human life.
He represents them as infallibly
faithful and wise counselors, incor-
ruptibly just and pure examples,
strong always to sanctify even where
they cannot save.