Christian literature for children; Women -- Social and moral questions; Young women -- Conduct of life
In Christian lands the occupations and habits of woman are such as to
give scope for moral eminence. She has fewer worldly interests and
engagements than man. She is not here accustomed to command armies, nor
lift up her voice in the Senate chamber. Nor is she subjected to those
coarser employments, and that severe bodily toil, which elsewhere rob
her of all true delicacy. What an immense chasm do we see between the
Christian female, devoted to her quiet domestic duties, and the
inhabitant of Van Dieman's land, for example, diving into the sea for
shell-fish, while her husband sits by the fire, pampering his appetite
with the choice morsels which she has procured for him.
But Christianity must be pure, to produce this change; we shall else
retain, under the light of the Gospel, the spirit and practices of
Paganism. "In one place on the road," says a recent traveller in Italy,
"we saw at least one hundred young girls, mixed up with as many rough
coarse men, carrying baskets of earth, some fifty rods, upon their head,
for the purpose of filling up an embankment or road." "Heathenism, and
paganized Christianity," he remarks, "degrade woman to a level with the
slave." "In none of the slave States which I have visited," says
Professor Stowe, "have I ever seen negro women drudging in such toilsome
out of door labors, as fall to the lot of the laboring women in Germany
and in France." "Haggish beldames fill all our markets," says Chevalier,
"and three-fourths of our fields."
But in the beautiful language of another, when speaking of the sect
called Friends, which language I would apply to all genuine piety, "The
Inner Light sheds its blessings on the whole human race; it knows no
distinction of sex. It redeems woman by the dignity of her moral nature,
and claims for her the equal culture and free exercise of her
endowments. As the human race ascends the steep acclivity of
improvement, the Quaker cherishes woman, as the equal companion of the
journey." The Christian's home is a scene of retirement favorable to
moral culture and to growth in grace. There the soul may contemplate its
Creator, and hold communion with the lovely image of his Son. Far from
the fields of ambition and gain, away from the agitations of a public
arena, in sacred seclusion pursuing her domestic avocations, why should
not woman be distinguished for her spiritual attainments? Can it be,
that with the same watchfulness, and self-denial, and toil, she should
not surpass man in the acquisition of holiness and purity?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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