LECTURE XI.

MARY OF BETHANY, OR WOMEN AS CHRISTIAN WORKERS.

THE

HERE are two erroneous and pernicious views held with reference to the part woman is to perform in this world. One has crystallized in an expression which has become the watchword of a party, namely, "Woman's rights." That is, the advocates of this view want to give women the right to do any thing that men can do; to be leaders in the profes. sions, the managers of business enterprises, candidates. for political office, and of course with the right to vote -the right to elbow their way up to the polls amid the jeers and insults of drunken men, and shriek for whatever cause is nearest their hearts or ambitions. These women want the right to unsex themselves, to do that which God says in their mental and physical constitution they cannot, shall not do.

The second view goes to the opposite extreme, and takes the position that woman has no rights whatever, but is to play her part, not by suffrage but sufferance. This view is susceptible of a subdivision; some maintaining that women are to be the so-called queens of home, but really the playthings of man, kept in cages like canaries to charm him with their beauty, or delight him with their songs. Others make woman the

slave of man, regarding her only as his cook, chambermaid, or laundress, supervisor of his home, or tender of his dairy or poultry yard; who because of her domestic engagements, has no time or fitness to do anything for the cause of Christ, or the world.

That woman's chief place is the home is not to be questioned. That her great business there is the helping of her husband, and rearing of her children, none can deny, although in this last she must be assisted by her husband, or her efforts will be in vain. But while she must work at home, her work must not stop there. She must still do what she can for the benefit of this lost and ruined world.

The whole subject of woman's duty is brought out in the case of Mary of Bethany, and in the words of Jesus spoken concerning her on the occasion of her anointing Him for His burial. It is said that "Jesus loved Mary." She, with her sister Martha and brother Lazarus, had given Him the shelter of their home at Bethany, two miles from Jerusalem, to which after the fatiguing labors in the great city He would repair for rest. Jesus had highly commended her on a certain occasion, when entering the house she "sat at His feet and heard His word," while Martha was busied with housekeeping and reproached Mary for not assisting her. He said: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." A still higher commendation awaited her, as she too engaged in an active service, not indeed of housekeeping, though that

is important in its place, but in ministering to her Lord with such an offering as was at her disposal.

Before that awful tragedy was enacted on Calvary, the mighty Victim, to secure a little rest from His persecutors, went over to Bethany, "and being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at meat there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she brake the box, and poured it on His head." The male disciples present were indignant and cried out, "Why this waste?" just as men cry out against women when they wish to do some good work at this day. "They are noisy," say some. "They are making innovations," say others. "They are fanatics and cranks," say yet others. But what did Jesus say about Mary at Bethany? He said, "Why trouble ye the woman?" and so I say to all the hypocritical horde who are forever frowning upon, or sneering at the efforts of good women, Why trouble them? Why impugn their motives? Why throw obstacles in their way? Why not encourage them and bid them God-speed in their noble endeavors ?

What was the second thing Jesus said? "She hath wrought a good work upon me." What more could be asked? The tree was known by its fruits, even then shedding blessing, healing, mellowness, fragrance all around the head and body of the sacred Redeemer. Point to a single organized work of woman in all this land that is not a good work, and then you may begin

to condemn her.

What else did Jesus say? He said she should be

remembered for what she had done. "I say unto you, that wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, then this also that she hath done shall be told for a memorial of her." There are many woman's memorial associations at this time, in which she seeks to honor the chieftains and heroes who have laid down their lives for their country; but Jesus Christ has erected a memorial to this good woman more lasting than brass, more enduring than marble, which will still exist when the proud monuments of earth have perished, when the pyramids of Egypt shall have mingled with the sands of the desert.

Told for a memorial of her. There has been erected, in New York harbor, one of the grandest statues of earth, called "Liberty Enlightening the World." The female figure is 151 feet high; length of the arm 40 feet; length of the index-finger 8 feet; width of the eye 2 feet, length of nose, 3% feet. Forty persons can stand within the head at one time; eight persons can stand within the torch which she holds in her hand; height of pedestal and figure, 329 feet. It is wonderful, but here is a grander monument still. Its height reaches to heaven; the inscription on its sides was penned by the Son of God, "She hath done what she could." The pedestal is literally the whole earth, for "wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, this thing that she hath done shall be told for a memorial of her." And wherever this story is told light goes forth, grander than Liberty's torch supplies; a light “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."