s class. Several months ago
when this class was organized, a gentleman, not myself, was invited to
come here and offer prayer, and give the young ladies a few common
sense ideas, such as would benefit them in after life. My friend
failing to come, I was called upon to fill his place, which I did to
the best of my ability, and when I look over this programme and find
that there are more than forty in this class who are to graduate
to-night, I take it upon myself to say that they received some very
sound advice, for they are about to graduate; that is, I have made
forty-four converts, at least, in seven months.

I am very glad to have opened this class, although I have had nothing
to do with the instruction of it, for in that event the graduating
class would not be so large, but I do feel very great pride in being
here.

Were I so disposed, and you very anxious to be tired with a long
address, I could say a great many things touching the real purpose and
idea of these young ladies and their instructors. There was a time in
the history of the world when it was a very grave and serious question
as to just what the position of woman was in society; what God meant
by her creation, what was her place. There are some men who think the
highest ambition of woman is the wash-tub; that when she finds her
vocation there she has fulfilled her mission, and when God has
prepared a place for her in the Kingdom of Heaven, He takes her home,
and gives her a diploma. There are others who have an idea that the
place for woman is a little higher up; that she is to bask in the
sunshine of life--that she is a kind of butterfly. That is an
erroneous idea. I think personally, and I am sure there are not men
enough here to out-number the ladies, that the position of woman in
this life, socially, politically, religiously, or in a mercantile
sense, is right alongside of the best man the world can produce.

I remember, while pastor of a church in an Eastern city, the smartest
man and preacher of that city was a woman. She was a man in every
sense of the word, she had the power of a man and the charms of a
beautiful woman; I was a little jealous of her, because her church was
a little too close to mine and she drew a great many more. She was a
beautiful, godly woman, and took out of me some of the false ideas and
thoughts that I had, relative to the work of woman in the world. So I
have lost all sense of jealousy, and I am perfectly willing to be