The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-26
DR. DICKINSON SAYS WOMEN OUGHT ID ADORN THEMSELVES Pastor Tells Why They Are Right in Making Them
 selves Attractive DRAWS A LESSON
 FROM DAYS TEXT Tells Why Hat Purchased for the Wife Is Worth Every Cent the
 Husband Has Spent
 For It

Dr. 4. J. Dickinson, pastor of the
 First Baptist church, believes in wom-
 an adorninE herself and he gave his
 reasons In his sermon yesterday morn ing.
 He said the money man spends for his wife's hat brings in moral and social val
 ues Ito you and your home much more than that which you spent in mules and
 land and goods.''
 Along with his remarks the pastor ap- piled an impressive lesson. His topic
 was Holy Women, Their Adornlng and Worth
 The text was: After this manner afore- time the holy women also, who hoped in God adorned themselves" I Peter 3-5.
 ''The Apostle Peter was a married man, and his wife woman of no little im- portance in Christian service" said Dr. Dickinson. Both she and her mother, whom Jesus healed of fever belonged to that company of women that followed Jesus ministering unto him of their sub-
 stance, both in Galilee and in Judea;
 and who are said to have been last at the
 tomb and first at the resurrection to hold their risen Lord by the feet in worship Paul tells us that Peter used to lead
 her about with him as his companion in travel in his missionary journeyings; and
 he seems somewhat to envy Peter in that happy privilege. She joins Peter in the salutations at the close of this epistle. where her husband is complimentary enough to term her "eIect together with ! me-" But not only did she share his apostolic work during the 40 years of his | ministry; for good tradition, found in the | writings of Clement of Alexandria, says l that she shared his martyrdom also If
 was in his wife's home that the early disciples were wont to meet In writing
 the passage in the morning lesson I am
 sure Peter is describing his ideal of holy women In the terms of womanhood as
 he had come to learn 1t during his more
 than 20 years of married life from his | owr wife; and he is here portraying her womanly virtues, unconsciously perhaps, 1 but for that very reason all the more in
 reality. From her he had learned the | winsomeness of 'chaste behavior the
 adorning of the hidden man of the heart, the incorruptible of a meek and quiet
 spirit in the passing years of their long
 married life as joint heirs to the grace
 of life He saw in her one of those holy women,' who also aforetime used thus to
 adorn themselves.
 GODS HOLY WOMEN
 1 Holy women are they who hoped in ] God, predicated life on Gods faithful
 ness, deriving confidence and assurance I for it's tasks from the certainty of God 8 1 helping presence and grace. They have in all ages and peoples been present in the world, and every religion needs them; but especially is this true with the religion of
 Jehovas, and that of Jesus, where holy women have found an ever larger and richer field of service with the passing years. They obey the word of God, expressing that word in their chaste be-
 havior coupled with piety; and thus be- come most winsome preachers of 1t in their homes, even when their heather | husbands are without the word They are engaged in the life of doing good, in gracious living; from which no terror or threat can alright them. Surely in these holy women we have the richest fruitage of religion.
 Ut is significant that Peter in se- | lecting his ideal for expressing holy womanhood should take a wife for l that purpose, rather than some ec- cleSlaStlcal SplnSter, clerlcaI female or monastic devotee. It does not probably
 mean that he is less appreciative of l those who prefer to live in single estate; but he finds in the station of wife. and mother that environment which will be conducive to the cul- | ture of this holy womanhood and knows that such will be the economi- | cal and domestic situation of almost all women. The estate of the married woman is here frequently mentioned l in the phrase being in subjection to 1 8 hIsband;" but it is doubtful wheth- | CT Peter here considers that a help holy womanhood. Possibly in some cases 1t was one and in others the | other, but the holy womanhood could be cultivated in either. for some of l the wives here exhorted are supposed to have heather husbands who arc Q | terror. To my thinking celebacy Is a | less fertile field for tho culture of personal sanctity than marriage; and 1 the holiest of the worlds women will, ,ebe found among the wives and the i.eothers.
 THEIR MORNING
 Tt is the function of holy women to express in their lives the content of the religion of Jesus Messiah to | the extent and in the way their own natures impel and incite. Christianity 5 1 as world religion for all men in all | ages of every variety of mankind, a l catholic religion, demands many kinds ! of people to give it full expression in