acred is that
part of a woman's influence.
3. VIRTUE OF A COMMUNITY.--There is yet another mode, by which woman may
exert a powerful influence on the virtue of a community. It rests with her
in a pre-eminent degree, to give tone and elevation to the moral character
of the age, by deciding the degree of virtue that shall be necessary to
afford a passport to her society. If all the favor of woman were given only
to the good, if it were known that the charms and attractions of beauty,
and wisdom, and wit, were reserved only for the pure; if, in one word,
something of a similar rigor were exerted to exclude the profligate and
abandoned of society, as is shown to those who have fallen from
virtue,--how much would be done to re-enforce the motives to moral purity
among us, and impress on the minds of all a reverence for the sanctity and
obligations of virtue.
4. THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN ON THE MORAL SENTIMENTS.--The influence of woman
on the moral sentiments of society is intimately connected with her
influence on its religious character; for religion and a pure and elevated
morality must ever stand in the relation to each other of effect and cause.
The heart of a woman is formed for the abode of sacred truth; and for the
reasons alike honorable to her character and to that of society. From the
nature of humanity this must be so, or the race would soon degenerate, and
moral contagion eat out the heart of society. The purity of home is the
safeguard to American manhood.
* * * * *
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Personal Purity.
"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power."--TENNYSON.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
1. WORDS OF THE GREAT TEACHER.--Mark the words of the Great Teacher: "If
thy right hand or foot cause thee to fall, cut it off and cast it from
thee. If thy right eye cause thee to fall, pluck it out. It is better for
thee to enter into life maimed and halt, than having two eyes to be cast
into hell-fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
2. A MELANCHOLY FACT.--It is a melancholy fact, in human experience, that
the noblest gifts which men possess are constantly prostituted to other
purposes than those for which they are designed. The most valuable and
useful organs of the body are those which are capable of the greatest
dishonor, abuse, and corruption. What a snare the wonderful organism of t
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