a fact standing out boldly on the face of life. And
this influence is more powerful in refined and cultured life than in
savage and primitive existence. As individuals, nations, and races
advance in the arts, principles, and culture of civilization, the
influence of the sexes becomes more general and irresistible. So far as
a people advance morally, religiously, and spiritually, this influence
becomes more direct, constant, and powerful. The truest men and the
truest women we have are most under each other's influence. They bow
most reverently in each other's presence and entertain the highest
opinions of each other. Their feelings toward each other are most pure
and truthful. One of the most intellectual, religious, and refined women
that it has been my privilege to meet in life's sequestered vale, while
speaking in a private conversation, made this significant remark: "Next
to my God do I adore man, for he is God's best image." She was a
matronly woman about sixty years of age, who had tasted life's full cup
and been blessed by its richest and most profound experiences, and who
said of her religion: "For twenty-five years it has been my meat and my
drink." It is a joy and a blessing never to be forgotten to have known
such a woman. The best men I have ever known, considered both in
relation to their spiritual experiences and their influence in life,
have joyfully and reverently expressed their feelings of profound
respect and sacred affection for woman, confessing that, under God, she
had wrought in them a mission of redeeming love. So frequent have been
similar expressions both from men and women in the highest spiritual and
practical walks in life, and so clear and strong has been their
experience, that it can not be doubted that the influence of man and
woman upon each other is potent and penetrating in proportion to their
degree of refinement and spiritual culture. The tendency of moral
training and religious discipline are to strengthen and elevate this
influence.

Woman improves in man's view as her nature is cultivated and her soul
blessed with sanctifying influences. Man grows in woman's sight as his
mind is developed and his heart subdued. They mutually exert a higher
and deeper influence over each other by their progress in things good
and true. If I am correct in this, it presents us with a strong
inducement to develop our best powers and live our best lives, that our
mental joys may be most deep and holy