This is the scriptural view.  Nowhere do we read of woman as though she had a mission apart from man.  We talk of men and forget women.  It seems almost impossible to legislate for woman and forget man.

Mankind includes womankind, but womankind does not include mankind.

It may not be complimentary, yet it remains true, that the Scriptures fail to furnish us with a model woman.

Jesus was the model man; but Eve, and Mary, and Rebekah, and Rachel, were model women to none besides those to whom they were given as wives.  This, perhaps, is well, for it would be injudicious to try and prove to any man that his wife should differ radically from herself.

III.

Having considered the teachings of the Scripture and of Nature, let us listen to the Voice of Common Sense.

Under this head we hesitate not to declare that the hope of woman lies in the recognition of the laws of God, and the laws of her own higher nature.

Look at the facts.  Who demand the ballot for woman?  They are not the lovers of God, nor are they the believers in Christ, as a class.  There may be exceptions, but the majority prefer an infidel’s cheer to the favor of God and the love of the Christian community.  It is because of this tendency that the majority of those who contend for the ballot for woman cut loose from the legislation of Heaven, from the enjoyments of home, and drift to infidelity and ruin.

Our wives and mothers do not ask the ballot.  Our young ladies do not care even to hear the question discussed.  They believe that whatever hinders woman from being the helpmeet of man does her injury.  It is claimed that woman needs the ballot to secure equal laws.  This claim is urged, because, it is said, women are required to obey laws which they had no share in making.  It is a mistaken notion.  Woman has had a share in the legislation of the country.  Her influence pervades society.  Let her be true to temperance, and intemperance is restrained.  Let her be true to freedom, and the pulsations of her heart find their way through the entire framework of society.  Let her be true to her own glorious nature, and this attempt to unsex and discrown her will meet with the swift and terrible condemnation it deserves.

Another has said, “The Amazons have often been met with the statement, that a large majority of the women do not wish to vote, and would not if they could.  The truth of this statement is not denied.  The advocates of the ballot confess that many noble women affect a womanly horror of being thought strong-minded,” and to offset this tendency they declare it to be the “imperative duty of women to claim the suffrage.”  “Does this mean that women are to be coerced in this matter? that our mothers, wives, and sisters are to be punished for staying away from the polls?  We have never supposed it the imperative duty of every