Parents as Reformers
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the word implies. We may safely say that the dignity and importance
of woman’s mission and distinctive duties are of a more sacred and
holy character than the duties of man.
There are speculations as to woman’s rights and duties in regard
to voting. Many are in no way disciplined to understand the bearing
of important questions. They have lived lives of present gratification
because it was the fashion. Women who might develop good intellects
and have true moral worth are now mere slaves to fashion. They
have not breadth of thought nor cultivated intellect. They can talk
understandingly of the latest fashion, the styles of dress, this or that
party or delightful ball. Such women are not prepared to intelligently
take a prominent position in political matters. They are mere creatures
of fashion and circumstance. Let this order of things be changed. Let
woman realize the sacredness of her work and, in the strength and
fear of God, take up her life mission. Let her educate her children for
usefulness in this world and for a fitness for the better world.
We address Christian mothers. We entreat that you feel your
responsibility as mothers and that you live not to please yourselves,
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but to glorify God. Christ pleased not Himself, but took upon Him
the form of a servant. He left the royal courts and condescended to
clothe His divinity with humanity, that by His condescension and
His example of self-sacrifice He might teach us how we may become
elevated to the position of sons and daughters of the royal family,
children of the heavenly King. But what are the conditions of these
sacred, elevated blessings? “Come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will
receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons
and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
Christ humbled Himself from the highest authority, from the posi-
tion of one equal with God, to the lowest place, that of a servant. His
home was in Nazareth, which was proverbial for its wickedness. His
parents were among the lowly poor. His trade was that of a carpenter,
and He labored with His hands to do His part in sustaining the family.
For thirty years He was subject to His parents. Here the life of Christ
points us to our duty to be diligent in labor and to provide for and
to train the weak and the ignorant. In His lessons of instruction to
His disciples Jesus taught them that His kingdom was not a worldly
kingdom, where all were striving for the highest position.