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Show CHILD IN MiW EXALTS CHILDHOOD The morning service at the First Methodist church yesterday was attended at-tended by many members of the cnurch and the sermon preached by Re Rassweiler was listened to With much interest The pastor took as his text, Duke 2:16. "And they found Mary and the Babe lying in a manger. mang-er. In part, he said "In the Virgin Mother, God has revealed to us the spiritual type of womanhood Africa has given the vol-upttous vol-upttous woman, Greece the statuesque woman, Rome the virile woman, Asia the suhjugated woman, the Teutons the chaste woman, the French the gay woman, the Georgians the beautiful v oman, and America the liberated .Oman, but here the Bible presents to us the spiritual woman. "In Mary we learn that the crown of womanhood Is spirituality. Greece representing unspirltualised humanity human-ity generally, holds up for the world's adoration her ideal of womanly superiority supe-riority m Venus, jealously vain and lustfully passionate, while God pre sents Mai v. pure of soul lofty of aspiration, as-piration, loving nf heart, strong of v ill Through her God iB saying to all women everywhere: 'Be not sat-sfied sat-sfied with mere physical beauty, or st-nsuous charm or bodily grace, or intellectual brilliancy or cultivated sensibilities, but cherish the spiritual graces of loving kindness and faith, and trust and lofty aspiratiou. and moral excellence.' ' What do we mean by the spiritual v oman? Xot imagination or aethet ics, or poetical genius, but soul qualities qual-ities of earnestness, lofty morality I and unselfishness On the face of the pictured Madonnas we never see the j smile of mixed lustful leer and a mischievous mis-chievous grin, nor the vain gaze ol a Psyche admiring herself in the mlr-j mlr-j tor of the waters, nor the lustful intensity in-tensity of an Ariadne but always the look ot contented. joyottB. peaceful sobriety, as of one who realized the rich meaning of life, and was joyously joyous-ly taking her part in the scheme of God Spirituality then means that we are not made frothy with the agitation agita-tion of folly, but In the calm depths of thp soul mirror the sublime peaks of life's possibilities. Glorified Womanhood. "Artists hap surrounded the brow or irradiated the face of the Virgin Mother with light as if the glor of the Lord was upon her Multitudes for these many centuries have wor-snipec! wor-snipec! her as the Mother of God. Though thus to supplant Christ is unworthy, un-worthy, yet it bespeaks a disposition en the pan of mankind to idealize the spiritual woman, to exalt her and fp before her the awe of a higher presence. And it is well for young men to keep this Ideal before their minds and not let it be supplanted by the flippant and wanton that press themsehes into view Whatever Is Inconsistent with the thought of the Madonna, let that be far from us. Here, girls, is your example One can i eoognize so readily what Mary would do. "In this Christmas scene God has forever sanctified motherhood This) picture ot Mary with her babe is the ;dea picture of womanhood. Indi.i nap given US her idea of the goddess Kali with her necklace of skulls and in her hand the severed head of her husband, and we are horrified Fph-esus Fph-esus sculptured her Diana with abnormal ab-normal bodily development and we I turn awa while Greece represented j her Venus as rising in vain and lustful lust-ful display from the foam ol the sea her Ariadne as seated n sensuous exuberance upon a lion, or her Athens as clothed in armor, but we say these ' nre not the ideal, but wlipn we see Mary and her child, we say this is I ideal womanhood, it is not given to all to be mothers but all women ; should have the mo'her heart. 'This child In the manger has exalted ex-alted childhood for all time. No longer shall childhood be despised or deprived of its richts wlthoui protest. Before Christ the plea of greatness was in pomp and self-assertion and the display of force, but Christ placed a child In their midst and s.-id j you would be grea; in the Kingdom of I God become as a little child If the oeople of Israel could have had their ideas realized they would h;i bad 'heir Messiah come down to them full grown and in clouds of angels Hut God would sanctify childhood and give us the right idea of true greatness great-ness in humility by becoming a child in a humble stall. Nowhere has childhood been appreciated as where the story of Bethlehem's babe has been told In the ancient world the child had no rights and the father could slay It without crime, but In thp modern world we have Child Culture Cul-ture societies and orphanages and children's hospitals and professorships professor-ships of child psychology and child nurture! and the child is coming to his own." |