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CONSTANCE L. MA7NARD, ON THE 



the man who is a Christian is the more of a hero. He has diffi- 

 culties that do not suggest themselves to us, both in body and 

 mind. He may weigh the claims of Christ to be the Light of the 

 whole World, he may find His rule of purity almost impossibly 

 strict, but the woman has another weight in the scale and should 

 listen to His elevating and consoling words, and kneel and kiss 

 His feet. I think on the whole we do. 



Let us now leave the sermons and endeavour to understand 

 the great principles laid down for all time for our guidance. The 

 aim of God is our perfection, but the progress is necessarily slow, 

 for, once having created us with a Free-will, He will not force 

 its obedience, but waits until it chooses to follow His leading. 

 Even Omnipotence can only persuade. Once created free, we 

 are free to commit spiritual suicide and to reject the offers of 

 eternal fife. This being granted, it is evident that we must 

 not come down on such a living will hke a hammer, not appeal 

 to the bare bedrock of authority, but must have principles given 

 us, which, illuminated by the Spirit of God, will by degrees 

 enlighten our minds and capture our wills for good. Even the 

 terrific splendour of Sinai was only for immaturity, only of use 

 in the childhood of the world, and the prophets, and still more 

 urgently the Gospel, restate the Law of God in terms of love 

 and entreaty. 



The civilised ancient world (for we do not here count the 

 savages) was ruled by three great fundamental errors : First, 

 that one nation was inherently better than another. Look at 

 the proud isolation of the Jew in matters of religion, remember 

 the contenipt of the Athenian for the whole world of bar- 

 barians," think of the quiet majesty of being able to say " Civis 

 Romanus sum." Outside races hke these there was no one 

 worth considering. 



Secondly, That one social rank was inherently better than 

 another. The world was quite naturally divided into two : 

 masters born to rule and slaves born to obey ; these were 

 people with no rights, no choice, no personal existence, but who 

 are merely extra hands and feet to their rulers. 



Thirdly, that one sex was inherently better than the other, 

 that women were so obviously inferior in force of muscle and 

 skill of brain, that anyone could see they existed solely for the 

 comfort of men and the propagation of the race. Cared for, 

 of course, like cattle, even looked on with some compassion, 

 but not as possessing genuine independent wills to win and 



