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Show WITH WOSIAN SUFFRAGISTS. BY CARDINAL GIBBONS. Every impartial student of history is obliged to admit that woman is indebted in-debted to the religion of Christ for the elevated station which she enjoys in social and family life. In pagan countries, coun-tries, before the Christian era, the woman wo-man had no rights which the husband was bound to respect. She was in a state of perpetual bond-ape bond-ape and tutelage. She was treated rather as the slave of man than as liis equal and companion. And even today to-day in countries where Christianity does not exercise a dominant influence, she is "the hewer of wood and the drawer of water." In a recent official ' report to our government, on "Irriga- tion in India." by Robert M. Wilson, we find that the work of draining and canal building in that country is chiefly : relegated to women, who receive for their labor 4 cents a day. I regard woman's rights women and society leaders in the higher walks of life as the worst enemies of the female sex. They rob woman of all that ia amiable and gentle; tender and wttrac-tive; wttrac-tive; they rob her of her innate grace of character, and give her nothing in I return but masculine boldness and brazen effrontery. They are habitually preaching about woman's rights and prerogatives, and have not a word to say j? bout her duties and responsibili ties?. They withdraw her from those sacred obligations which properly belong to hrr sex and fill her with ambition to usurp positions for which neither God nor nature ever intended her. Under the influence of such teachings we find woman, especially in higher circles, neglecting her household duties, gadding gad-ding about, never at pease unless she is irt perpetual motion, never at ease unless he is in a state or morbdd ex. I eitemont. She never feels at home ex- I " cept when she is abroad. J "When she is at home the home is irk- I some to her. She chafes and frers un- I der the restraint and responsibility of I domestic life. Her heart is abroad. It I - is exulting in imagination, in some so- I rial triumph of reveling in some scene j of gayety and dissipation. Her afflicted husband coms home tc find it empty or occupied by a woman whose heart is void of affection for him. She ia ill at ease; thence arise disputes, dis-putes, quarrels, recriminations, estrangements, es-trangements, and the last act in the drama is often divorce. I speak the ! sober truth when I affirm that for the wrecks of families in our country wo- Iman nas a larger share of the responsibility. respon-sibility. The remedy for this ia found in the teachings of Christ. Mother and wives, what an immense im-mense debt of gratitude you owe to the Christian religion of today! You are regarded as the equals and helpmates of your husbands, and not as their slaves, likf Asiatic women. If you are the mistresses of your household and not tenants at the will of your husbands, like the wives of pagan Greece and Home; if you are the honored queens of the domestic kingdoms king-doms and not confronted by usurping wives, like Mormons and Mahometan women, you are indebted for these blessings to the religion of Christ, and especially to the sovereign pontiffs, who have upheld your right against the encroachments en-croachments of monarchs and the passions pas-sions of men. If woman has been elevated and ennobled en-nobled by the Gospel, she has not been ungrateful. She deserves eternal gratitude grati-tude for the blessed influence she has exerted in the family and in society. i Not to spak of the grand army of consecrated con-secrated virgins who devote their lives to the sacred cause of education, of charity and religion, how many thousands thou-sands of homes there are from which I God withholds His avenging hand on account of some righteous mother, just as Christ showed mercy to the young man led to the tomb on account of the grief and sobbings of his mother, the Widow of Nain! How many brothers buried in a life of Fin have been raised to a life of grace by the intercession of a pious sister, as Lazarus was raised from the grave at the entreaties of Mary and Martha! ' .: 4 - |