American essays -- 19th century; Short stories, American
Man may turn his back upon Revelation, and feed upon the dry husks of
infidelity, if he will; but sure I am, that _woman_ can not do without
her Saviour. In her happiest estate, she has sorrows that can only be
intrusted to an Almighty ear; responsibilities that no human aid can
give her strength to meet. But what if earthly love be poisoned at the
fountain?--what if her feeble shoulders bend unsupported under the
weight of her daily cross?--what if her life-sky be black with gathering
gloom?--what if her foes be they of her own household?--what if
treachery sit down at her hearth-stone, and calumny await her without,
with extended finger? What then--if no Saviour’s arms be outstretched
to enfold her? What if it be “absurd” (as some tell her) that the God
who governs the universe should stoop to interest himself in her petty
concerns? What if the Bible to which she flies be “a dead letter?” and
“Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden”--only “a metaphor?”
What earthly accents can fall upon her ear as sweet as these--“A bruised
reed will I not break?” Woman may be “weak;” but blessed be the weakness
which leads her to lean on that Almighty arm, which man in his pride
rejects; listening rather in his extremity, to the demon whisper--“Curse
God and die.”
Woman may be “weak;” you may confuse her with your sophistries, deafen
her with your arguments, and standing before her in your false strength,
exclaim like the unbelievers of old--“Away with him!” and still her
yearning soul cries out, with a voice no subtlety of yours can satisfy
or stifle--“_My_ Lord and _my_ God!”
TO LITERARY ASPIRANTS.
My heart aches at the letters I am daily receiving from persons who
wish to support themselves by their pens; many of these letters,
mis-spelt and ungrammatical, show their writers to be totally unfit for
the vocation they have chosen; and yet, alas! their necessities are for
that reason none the less pressing. Others, unexceptionable in these
respects, see no preliminary steps to be taken between avowing this
their determination, and at once securing the remuneration accorded to
long-practiced writers, who, by patient toil and waiting, have secured a
remunerative name. They see a short article in print, by some writer; it
reads easy--they doubt not it was written easily; this may or may not be
the case; if so--what enabled the writer to produce it in so short a
space of time? Long habit of patient, trained thinking, which the
beginner has yet to acquire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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