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The Home Circle

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Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 21, 1879

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 32.

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The Home Circle.

By John B. Waterbury

THE MOTHER'S LOVE.

The mother's life is full of prose, From early dawn to daylight's close. But oft, amid her household cares, Some little poem unawares Is written down within her heart, And of her life becomes a part. Some loving words a child may say, A golden curl long put away, A half-worn shoe upon the floor, An outgrown dress the baby wore, A broken toy or faded flower, May touch the heart-string any hour.

Moral Education of Females.

WHAT kind of training is required that woman may fulfill the duties which the Creator has assigned to her?
The answer to this includes the whole range of female education; but we shall confine our remarks to one point, namely, the culture of the moral affections. Piety and virtue bear to intellectual endowments a relation somewhat similar to that which light bears to vision; they are the graceful and appropriate media of their development. Any system of education, therefore, which does not include, as of pre-eminent importance, the culture of the moral affections, is essentially defective. But should not this department be left with the parent, or be assigned to the divine? Is the mere instinct to be charged with so delicate a task? Without wishing to lessen the responsibility of the two former in this matter, we still must insist on the teacher's duty, to keep this point in view in all the discipline which he may exercise, and the instructions which he may impart.
We cannot conceive of a well-regulated system of education which does not include it. Strenuous efforts have been made to separate the two departments; but experience will prove, if it has not already, that such is the mutual dependence of the moral and intellectual faculties, the latter cannot be properly developed, without a co-ordinate attention to the improvement of the former. Hence the instructor of youth should be a religious man; and the standard of piety and virtue should be the Bible.
What is woman's loveliest trait? Is it not a high sense of moral virtue? Is it not a character, chastened and purified by the influence of religion? There is more poetry than truth in the idea of innate perfection, even with respect to that sex, confessedly superior in natural grace and loveliness. Woman partakes of the sad inheritance of the fall. Once the companion of man in holiness, she is now his co-partner in sin and its dreadful consequences. Religion must therefore exert upon her its transforming effect, ere she is fitted to discharge fully the duties of her station. Her filial duties, her conjugal duties, her maternal duties, are all, in a very important sense, religious duties. They should be contemplated in the light of religion, and discharged, not simply from the promptings of natural instinct, but through holier motives. Where this is not the case, passion is very apt to supply the place of principle, and selfishness may become the only stimulus in her responsible vocation.
In Paradise, woman was the helpmeet and fit companion of man. The fitness was complete in moral, as well as mental and physical adaptation. The greatest loss which has accrued through sin, is the overthrow of that moral perfection which assimilated her to angels. Unless that loss be supplied by the grace of God, she must remain disqualified, in a very important sense, for the sphere to which she was originally appointed.
If, as the companion of unfallen man, her crowning excellence was holiness, is it less needful now, when there is so much in his rough and selfish nature that calls for her softening and chastening influence? Having originally proved the medium of moral delinquency to her partner in bliss, there is a moral propriety, it would seem, in her becoming now the instrument, under God, of leading him by example and by persuasion back to the "fountain of living waters."
The moral education of females, is, in one point of view, more important even than in the case of the other sex. We refer to the agency which they have in forming the character of future generations. The earliest impressions—the very germs of subsequent character—are given through female influence. National characteristics are traceable to the nursery. There, in its sequestered duties, toils and sacrifices, are we to look for the nation's future efficiency and glory; there are we to look for the material to improve our social and political state; and thence are we to derive the standard-bearers in the army of God. The world's redemption is intimately connected with female influence. Already a signal mark of this has been given in the exalted honor assigned to one of the sex, as a medium of introducing to our lost world "the mystery of godliness;" and from that period onward, woman seems destined, by her Christian virtues and energies, to indemnify, to some extent, the loss which her priority in sin brought upon the race.
How contemptible, in this view, is a merely fashionable education, in which the high attributes of woman's nature are overlooked, and the child of fortune is trained in merely graceful motions, and to flippant and heartless ceremonies! We have no patience with a system of education, which robs her of her legitimate influence, and makes her the plaything of a day. Without denying the importance of exterior polish, we yet place the moral education of females first and highest. This is the grade which divine wisdom has given it. It bears to every other adornment the relation which the central gem bears to the rest of the diadem.
Woman never has risen—never will rise to the region of her proper dignity without it. Insulated instances of unsullied virtue, of heroic patience, of a chaste simplicity, have been transmitted to us through the pages of the classic historian. But the infrequency of such examples, and the laudatory strains in which they are exhibited, only serve to show the general laxity of female morals, and the insufficiency of any motives, less powerful than Christianity furnishes, to elevate and perfect the character of the sex.
Where shall we look for the finest and most natural exhibitions of female character? Some would point us to the writings of Sir Walter Scott, or to the pages of his subsequent imitators. But we are not satisfied with these. The very perfection with which the novelist seeks to invests her, his heroine, deprives her of her naturalness—makes her evidently the creature of fancy, rather than the type of real existence.
But a still more important defect is the want of a moral basis for her virtues. The grace of God has little to do in the production of these heroines. Instinctive loveliness is all the religion which such writers seem to consider necessary. Poor human nature, with its deep under-current of evil, is dressed up in hypocritical garb, and presented to us as an angel of light.
How different are the moral portraits which the unerring pen of inspiration has sketched! If we would see the character of woman truly and faithfully drawn, with its weaknesses and its virtues—weaknesses the result of sin, and virtues the production of holiness—if we would see her as she is, as she ought to be, and as by divine grace she may become, we must resort to that book, whose sketches are based on deeper and more accurate views of human nature, than are to be found even in a Scott or in a Shakspeare.
The perfection with which the writers of romance seek to clothe their characters, without any reference to religion, is calculated, in several very important respects, to mislead the young and confiding heart. Human nature, by the fictitious impersonation, is more traduced than honored, whilst the necessity of religion to perfect the character is virtually denied. The contrasted reality seems actually worse than it would have seemed, but for the delusive impressions which had filled the imagination; whilst, in the view of many, characters so perfect in all the social relations are pronounced as fit for Heaven as for earth.
Human nature suffers, and religion suffers, by such fictitious representations. Though committed in the regions of fancy, the error is not so venial as many suppose: for the education of our youth—more especially that of young females—is influenced by the false coloring and indirect skepticism of this species of writing. The realities of life, and the duties of life, are so unlike that all that has been portrayed and presented, that domestic and household virtues are contemned, whilst the motives which should inspire and sustain them are neither felt nor appreciated.
Truth of every kind is lovely, and error of every kind is productive only of evil. But moral truth is more lovely than all; and whatever tends to obscure or to pervert, or to annihilate it—whether the malign influence operate through the reason or the imagination—strikes a blow at the dearest interests of our individual and social being.
As the companion and helpmeet of man, in a world like this, where there is so much of sympathy under trials and encouragement under difficulties; where woman's province is to strengthen man's purpose of good, and to repress his tendencies to evil; where she is a ministering, rather than a governing spirit; where affection should always be under the control of principle; in such circumstances, who will not see and admit the necessity of a thorough moral education? Compared with it, all other adornments are but as the chaff to the wheat. They who seek in female education nothing more than exterior accomplishments; those things which captivate, but will not endure; which are more calculated to draw together superficial admirers than to awaken and secure the interest of virtuous minds; inflict an injury upon the sex and upon society, more serious and lasting than is generally apprehended. The ulterior view, it may be supposed, with young females and their natural guardians, is an honorable connection in life; and the prospect from such connection of at least an ordinary amount of happiness. But if the lighter accomplishments are the only, or the principal, education bestowed upon them—whilst the moral training is overlooked—how, in the very nature of things, can such hopes be realized?
How little companionship can the man of sense find in a wife thus superficially educated; and how strongly tempted he would be, under such circumstances, to seek society elsewhere than at his own fireside. In perplexity and trouble also—circumstances as common, surely, as an unanxious and prosperous state—of what value would be the opinion, even if sought, of such a mind? How slender a basis for mutual sympathy would exist! But the woman of mere external accomplishments may be still more unfortunate. She may find herself linked to one destitute of moral principle; whose admiration soon changes into indifference, and whose respect—a feeling not to be despised even in so intimate a relation—she has not the power of securing.
As to the education of children—especially their moral training—what unsuitable hands are hers to conduct a business of such vast moment!
There is reason to believe that no small amount of domestic infelicity may be traced to the defective moral education of females. Self control and self-sacrifice are principles which enter very sparingly, we fear, into the education of young ladies. And yet, on the exercise of these principles, more than on anything else, depend the realization and security of domestic bliss. For the want of these, learning, even, is no equivalent; and brilliant accomplishments, without them, are like the verdure on the sides of a volcano, which a man might be willing to admire, but among which it would be perilous to take up his abode.
The idea, then, of a thorough moral education, based on Christian principles, should never be lost sight of, either by parents or instructors. Other things may be useful and important; but, in relation to domestic life and the general interests of society, this is indispensable.—J. B. Waterbury.