The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1926-05-06
Great Personages
of the Bible
BY
REV. LEONARD A. BARRETT



It's gorgeous splendor, Ahasuerus,
known as Xerxes the Great ruled as
king.
In a magnificent palace garden
Ahasuerus entertained his friends
with marked and extravagant hospl-
tally characteristic of the East. When
the revelry had reached its height,
Ahasuerus commanded that VaslIti be
brought unveiled before the assem-
bled guests. The rule of the East was
that no woman was permitted to APP
pear unveiled in a public place, and
her consent to comply with the kings
wishes would have at once involved
her high sense Of propriety and honor.
Should she disobey, Vashti would be
compelled to pay the price of her re-
fusal. That night facing future
dark and unknown, regal con-
science left that Persian palace, for
the soul of Yashti had fought and
conquered in the struggle for her ideal
of what was right. Here was a char
aeter true to ali that is implied In that
noble word woman. Vashti was ev-
/
sacrifice her conscience she was will
ing to abandon wealth, a life of luxu-
rious ease, and all the prerogatives
which belonged to her as queen Of the
Persian palace.
In the veins of Vashi there must
have flowed the inherited blood of
true aristocracy of character How
! Al -
such a high conception of woman
hood? We know that she acquired 1t
through no influence of the Persian
palace. She brought to Ahasuerus a
high conception of womanliness which
was instilled into her life in the far
earlier years of her development.
Back of all the gifts which crowned
Vashti queen, we can see the molding
influence of a mother. Yashti had a
mother. Back of every woman
adorned with those queenly gifts OF
womanhood, is mother ALI Vashti,
something stood strong within your
heart in the hour of that crisis, and
there is something that must stand
strong in every woman's heart and
life, as she holds in her hands that
power which determines the future of
American citizenship.
In the career of every child there
come times of doubt and perplexity
when the music of the Ave Marie is
very real experience. Where shall
child go in such hours, save
to mother? 1t is the mother that
speaks, and it is the mother who
stands up and answers the all-perplex-
Ing questions and solves the intricate
problems in the life of her child Be-
fore we can ever bring to the present
social and economic problems sure
and a permanent solving power, Amer
lean motherhood must have absorbed
early in its infancy those high
and noble ideals, those commanding
and all-illuminating motives. those ex-
allied and queenly conceptions of char
acter, which we discover in the moth
er of Vashti Let Christian mother
hood rise to this proclamation, that
every child has the right to be we'll
born It is a fearful thing to send
young soul voyaging to eternity. but
| it is a perilous thing to send child
on that voyage with the poison of an
cestral blood flowing in his veins.
Many solutions are offered for the
evils of our age To the task of sow
ing our social and economic problems
every person should contribute his
share of service and money, but even
then have we solved the problem?
There is a cause for crime more far
reaching in its influence than poverty
and the social conditions, out of
which much evil arises, The cause
for crime harks back to the problem
of heredity. which argues again-ev-
cry child has the right to be born.
1t harks back to the earlier days when
into the development of child life
| there must be infused those ideals
and motives for which true American
motherhood stands. This idea is mag
nifcently expressed in Mothers day
proclamation recently handed down to
the people of Michigan by the gov
ernor of the state. Never did the
word mother have broader and
deeper meaning than it has today.
! The welfare of the world is related
to motherhood Would that the moth
ers of our sons and daughters fully
realized the power they WELD.
Through the double standard of virtue
established by man long ages ago
mothers have unconsciously granted
their sons license to disregard the
sanctity of womanhood. When moth
ers shall insist upon as clean men for
husbands of their daughters as they
now insist upon clean daughters for
wives of their sons a new era will
have dawned in which the social evil
and the white-slave traffic will have
largely disappeared from our fair
land The highest type of woman Is
the motlss The word mother thrills
the heart with Joy and gratitude and
gives to memory priceless treasures
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