USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Congress of Women : held in the Woman's building, World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 : with portraits, biographies and addresses > Part 56
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MRS. MARY ELIZABETH LEASE.
Two great forces have for centuries contested for supremacy; Cæsarism, the doctrine of hate, and the religion of Jesus Christ, the doc- trine of love. We have professed Christianity, filled God's blue sky full of church spires and preached the doctrine of love while practicing the doctrine of hate. Te Deums are chanted in our churches and thanks returned to a God of peace for bat- tles won and murderous men triumphant. The horrible inconsistency between relig- ious belief and action is dawning upon the hearts of the race, and they declare that the real sin against the Holy Ghost is to strike at God through His image, man; that we have been living a gigantic lie, and that unless we practice what we profess to believe we had best stop building churches and supporting ministers, and take down our signs of Christianity and go out of the business. An honest Pagan is exemplary compared with a lying, hypocritical Christian.
The hatred implanted in the minds of unborn children by the mothers of the North and South thirty years ago is today struggling to give expression in force. The world is ready for another baptism of blood. The " dragon's teeth " sown in that fratricidal war are springing up "armed men." A dark cloud, surcharged with the electricity of the coming storm, is suspended above the nation. The rumblings of discontent and mutterings of war are heard coming up from every side. The women of this nation can alone avert the conflict. Let them come into their kingdom, claim
Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease is a native of Pennsylvania. She was born September 11, 1853. Her parents were Joseph P. Clyens and Mary Elizabeth Murray Clyens. She was educated in the Allegany (convent) School, N. Y., and in the Yonng Ladies' Seminary, Ceres, N. Y., and has traveled in Great Britain, in the United States and in Canada. She married Charles L. Lease June 30, 1873. Her special work has been in the interest of women and the laboring classes. Her principal literary works are essays and lectures on economic subjects, and a volume of poems not yet published. Her profession is that of attorney at law. In religious faith she is a Christian, or Campbellite. Her postoffice address is Wichita, Kan.
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their own, assert their power and bid the murderous passions of men cease, as Christ stilled the stormy waves of Galilee. Peace! be still.
The mothers of this nation, the mothers of the world, shall no longer rear their sons to be slain, or give their loved ones to be butchered. If men can not get along without the shedding of blood and putting the knife to the throat of brother, let them no longer set themselves up as guides and rulers, but confess their self-evident ineffi- ciency and turn the management of affairs over to the mothers, who will temper their justice with love and enthrone mercy on the highways. Then shall that peace that surpasseth human understanding, the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, abide among men and redeem the world. Theirs the mission to bring about that time when the Golden Rule shall be incarnated in human affairs and govern the world; theirs the mission to usher in that time of which Isaiah sang and the prophets have so long foretold-that time, the hope of which has lingered in the hearts of men, and mingled with their hopes and yearnings, since the "morning stars first sang together when the earth was young."
" Oh Christ! Thou friend of men, When thou shalt come again In truth's new birth, May all the fruits of peace Be found in rich increase Upon the earth."
We are nearing the dawn of the Sabbatical period-the dawn of the glorious twentieth century-of which that inspired champion of human rights, Victor Hugo, makes prophecy.
"In the twentieth century war will be dead, famine will be dead, royalty will be dead, but the people will live." A fuller and holier comprehension of the Lord's prayer is filling the hearts of the people. "Our Father, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," will usher in that era when " the swords shall be beat into plow- shares, the spears into pruning hooks; when nations shall not go to war against nations, neither shall they learn war any more."
ÆSTHETIC CULTURE. By MRS. PRISCILLA BAIRD.
The progressive spirit of the age is certainly emphasized by the increasing and almost imperious demand for higher culture of the race. The rights of the individual and the claim of society are, that the greatest attain- ments within the possibilities of the human soul shall be realized fully and speedily. The highest possible culture can be compassed by nothing less than the most comprehensive, yet truly scientific, view of life as to its subjective and objective capabilities. The human organism is a miniature representation of the economy of the material universe. Diversity in unity, and harmony evolved from conflict. The glory of our world is the beautiful blending into harmonious co-operative forces that seem diverse and at times warlike. Nature without her sublime kaleido- scope would be disrobed of her matchless and end- less charms, snowy peaks and flowery vales, sunshine and shadow, moaning ocean and rippling rivulet, monarch oak and tender floweret, the raging storm and the whispering breeze-all enter into the full com- pleteness of this abode of man, this theater of life's progressive drama. Even so is life itself. Life is not an automatic monatone, it is the triple voicing of three in one organism, an organic union of mind, MRS. PRISCILLA BAIRD. soul and body. These distinct yet not separate factors of a unit combine to make the complete whole. There is no higher culture where aims and methods are lower than the capabilites and susceptibilities of the sub- ject. That is not true culture that exalts one factor of man's complex nature to the abasement of another factor, the exaltation of the intellectual at the expense of the ethical, or the display of superficial accomplishments at the sacrifice of the intellectual, or the excess of external blandishments to the neglect of the æsthetic spirit, tends to the unsymmetrical and the gross. Education, the handmaid of Christianity, must gird up her loins, and arrayed in her beautiful garments penetrate the regions beyond the traditional education that limps upon the crutches of conventional and arbitrary technique of the schools. The emancipated spirit of the age cries out for compre- hensiveness of scope, and harmony of methods with man's vast powers and God-like gifts; not only is enlargement of mental capabilities demanded, but a corresponding development of all the powers of a triune-nature.
The ethical element of our nature is as much a constitutional force as the intel- lectual, and functionally it ranks higher, its office is more influential in character, mak- ing its contributions to progress more munificent. Theories that ignore the wise and beneficent laws of our natures are downright cruelties. That is a malculture that sacri- fices the beauty, strength and grace of the human form divine to the exactions of intel-
Mrs. Priscilla Baird was born in Shelby County, Kentucky. Her parents were Virginians, Samuel E. Davis and Harriet Milton Bell Davis. She was educated by private tutors and at Mrs. Julia A. Tivis' school "Science Hill," in Shelby- ville, Ky. Mrs. Baird first married Jesse K. Baird, of Louisville, Ky. Her second husband is Mr. H. T. Baird, of Louisiana, Mo. For thirty years she has been interested in higher education, having been connected with various schools of the Baptist Church, and with public high schools. In religious faith she is a Christian, and is a member of the Baptist Church. Her ancestors were with Roger Williams. Her postoffice address is Clinton, Mo.
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lectual ambition. The body is the temple and agent of the mind; without it the soul has no earthly mission. But the more than incidental factor of higher culture is the æsthetic; it is by this that refinement distinguishes itself from the crudities of uncult- ivated nature, even as the loveliness and fragrance of the rose asserts its difference to the wild brier bloom; it is this that hangs the diamond-bestudded drapery about the portals and columns and corridors of the temple of humanity. If there were no love in man for the beautiful in nature and in human life, the uplifting of humanity above its conditions of savagery were a hopeless prospect. What makes life more than a struggle for existence? What dignifies labor above the demands of animal nature? What inspires human enterprise to more than a conflict with hunger and cold? Is it not a response of the spirit of man to the language of the beautiful? What has made homes more than the hovel, the wigwam and the hut? Have we not in ornate architecture, in decorated drawing-rooms, in cultured music and bower-bedecked lawns a symbol of the Divine impress upon the soul? Does not all nature voice God's love of the beau- tiful? We shadow the Divine image in man when his æsthetic culture is neglected. It is, indeed, next to impossible to intelligently think of a pure life and high social con- ditions where there is no development of the latent æstheticism of the soul. If man's material surroundings awakened in him no thought but that of sensual gratifications, and inspired no effort but for aggrandizement, what were he but a savage did he see no beauty in the sparkling worlds above? If to him there were no music of the spheres, no mountain grandeur, no awe in the fathomless deep, whence could come aspirations for soul-uplifting, and what could inspire heroic contests for the freedom of thought from the bondage of animalism? In every human soul there are germs of the beauti- ful; they may be hidden and suppressed by unpropitious conditions. The Divine mis- sion of culture is to evolve from lowest to highest forms all that is excellent.
Forms nearly angelic have been evolved from crude and rude originals. Sym- phonies as sweet as Apollo's lute have been tempted from rustic lips. The spirit and genius of a Mendelssohn or a Wagner may linger pent up in some breast waiting the touch of generous circumstances, that it may break forth in harmonies divine. Some- where in obscurity lives today one "who sees in stately trees, in frowning cliffs, in rolling clouds and in majestic rivers the symbols of that personal greatness, purity and lofti- ness of thought, splendor of diction, that is to enthuse multitudes, enchain senates and indelibly write his name upon his country's heart. If the æsthetic is a real force, can it be intelligently denied that the ethical element of our nature is quickened and refined by æsthetic culture? May I not the better express my thought by re-shaping my ques- tion? Can there be, is there any true culture where the æsthetic is ignored, or even neglected? He who sees no beauty in an autumnal sky as the luminous king slips behind the gilded curtains of the Occident, no charms in the morning beauty of the diamond-decked grass and flower, is he who sees no beauty in virtue, no charm in pure love, no merit in right, and no loveliness in sympathy; such a one, be he an astute logician or an accomplished linguist, an expert mathematician, a skillful chemist, a learned jurist, a Napoleon of finance, or a prince of politicians, yet void of sympathy with life as it is, has not met the demands of his nature. For true culture is the modi- fication of intellect under the force of ethical principles, developed and refined by cult- ured love of the beautiful in nature and in life. My plea is for the rounded, symmet- rical development of humankind into the highest forms of culture, that man may be a full expression of power and beauty.
WOMAN IN SACRED SONG. By MRS. EVA MUNSON SMITH.
Without doubt Eve sang in that garden of gardens, at first for very joy, to express her love and gratitude to the Creator for the boon of life. Some of the most gifted and imaginative of our woman poets have put songs in her mouth depicting her sorrow after the edict of banishment had been pronounced. "Must I leave thec, paradise?" is the saddest of songs, bringing out in the harmonic minor passages which form the most mournful of all intervals, the deep pathos and bitter anguish experienced by our first parents.
I am not before you today to affirm that the gift of song is particularly feminine, but simply to do jus- tice to woman, in setting forth, to some extent, the part she has taken in sacred song.
There is no sex in the gift of song writing; for years I doubt not that many of us here today sung " Nearer my God to Thee," and " Just as I Am With- out One Plea," before we knew that Sarah Flower Adams, in 1841, and Charlotte Elliott, in 1833, were, respectively, the authors.
Let us go back to the carliest sacred songs on record by women. About three or four thousand years B. C. we have the triumphal song of Miriam as she marched forth, accompanied by her maidens, with MRS. EVA MUNSON SMITH. timbrel and dance after the safe passage of the chil- dren of Israel through the Red Sea, chanting: "Sing ye to the Lord! for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea!"
Then there is the song of Deborah and Barak, which seem somewhat in responsive measure. Intense joy or sorrow calls for a song. No cause, or reform, or form of oppression takes deep hold upon the heart of a community until the service of song is enlisted. Ilence, in Russia, as in other lands that have been prosperous at times and oppressed at others, we find both the joyful and the sad; but the minor strains of sadness prevail in the so-called sacred or religious songs of that country. The Gregor- ian chant was the simplest, as it was the most primitive, and was weird and mournful.
Prominent among the names of the song writers among women of that country is Anna Brenin, born in 1774, who, under great difficulties, wrote much that was meritor- ious, and so won the heart of the Empress Elizabeth that she had a pension bestowed upon her. Very few of their hymns have been translated into English, though a con- siderable number are found translated into the French. The Countess Tolstoi is one of the leading composers of Russia today.
Among the hymnologists pre-eminent among women during the years of 1700
Mrs. Eva Munson Smith was born in Monkton, Vt., in 1843. Her parents were of stanch New England stock, and her father was one of the most eminent educators and patriots of his day. She was educated at Mary Sharp College, Winchester, Tenn., and at Rockford College, Ill. From the latter she was graduated in 1864. She has traveled extensively in the United States and has seen life in many phases. She married Mr. George Clinton Smith in 1869, in Nebraska. They have resided in Illinois for twenty years. Mrs. Smith is a temperance worker and philanthropist. At present she is president of the Suffrage Association of Springfield. For five consecutive years she was president of the North Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Her principal literary works are " Woman in Sacred Song," "The Field is the World," and a great number of sketches. Mrs. Smith is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Her postoffice address is 511 North Grand Avenue, Springfield, Il1.
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may be mentioned Lady Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, 1707, who wrote, “ When Thou, my righteous Judge, shall come," and " Fading, Still Fading, the Last Beam is Shining;" also Madame Guyon, who wrote while in prison,
" A little bird am I, Shut from the fields of air.'
Of her numerous hymns, the best known in the churches of the present day are :- "If life in sorrow must be spent; " " Oh Thou, by long experience tried; " and " Oh Lord, how full of sweet content !"
But it was Anne Steele (born in England in 1716, and died in 1778) who is the author of more hymns than any other woman of her time, which have been generally accepted and are still sung by the churches of all denominations, one hundred and forty-four of which were printed just after her death, the profits of sales going to aid benevolent objects, and gradually finding their way into all hymn-books in all Chris- tian climes.
Mrs. Anna Letitia Barbauld, whose name until recently was simply given as Barbauld by compilers, was of the same nationality as Miss Steele, and was con- temporaneous with her. All of us have sung hundreds of times her " Come, said Jesus' sacred voice;" " When as returns this solemn day;" "Again the Lord of life and light awakes the kindling ray;" "How blest the sacred tie that binds !" " Praise to God ! immortal praise !"
But it is when we have reached the year 1800 that a perfect flood of sacred song bursts forth.
In 1850 Caroline Southey, wife of the poet, wrote "Calvary," and near that date the well-known, "Oh, fear not thou to die;" and the celebrated, "Launch thy boat, mariner."
Of Mrs. Heman's sacred songs, so full of tenderness, pathos, beauty, and at the same time vigor and intensity, more is known.
When her name is mentioned, that of Mrs. Sigourney is at once suggested. The former, born in England in 1793, dying in 1835; the latter, born in Norwich, Conn., in 1791, dying in her later home, Hartford, Conn., in 1865, were, as is seen, contempo- raneous; and though they never met, as far as known, or became acquainted each with the literary works of the other, there is thought to be a similarity in their pro- ductions.
Mrs. Sigourney's hymns, "The Lord is on His Holy Throne; He sits in kingly state;" " Go to thy rest, fair child;" " Onward, onward, men of Heaven!" " When adverse winds and waves arise;" and especially the very familiar and greatly- beloved hymn, "Lab'rers of Christ, arise!" will endure as long as the world has need of such songs.
Of Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning what need be said? She whom even the most eminent among the brotherhood of poets acknowledge as their peer. Vigorous ' and strong in her utterances, she is yet tender and appealing. Her "Cry of the chil- dren" is known and quoted the world over wherever wrong and oppression exist toward any of earth's little ones. All of her poems seem sacred.
In her poem entitled "Work" occurs the oft-repeated words-
"God did anoint thee with His odorous oil, To wrestle, not to reign."
and-
"The last flower with a brimming cup may stand And share its dewdrops with another near."
Her " De Profundis " and " He Giveth His Beloved Sleep" are known everywhere. How many of us, while singing :-
" 'Tis religion that can give Sweetest pleasure while we live;" (27)
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ever thought of the words being by a woman-Mary Masters? I am glad to know a woman wrote it, and hundreds of others we sang so long with the supposition that they emanated from the heart and brain of the brotherhood. Not that they are any better for belonging to the sisterhood of authors, but because l' believe in " Honor to whom honor is due."
If women have written hymns so good and acceptable that all Christendom is sing- ing them, let them have the credit.
" Work for the night is coming," was written by Annie L. Walker, of Canada? For years after its first appearance in 1860, it was over the signature, Rev. Sidney Dyer; and in some of our standard and comparatively recent revisions and late com- pilations his name is still appended to it. But gradually the name of the true author is given with the song. Dr. Dyer did write a song of that name, but he does not claim this one that we all sing.
Even in a hasty, running review like this, in which only a comparative few can be mentioned, it would not do to omit the names of Mrs. Prentiss, author of " More love to Thee, O Christ;" Harriet B. Buell, in " I'm the child of a King;" Mrs. Dana, in " Flec as a bird to your mountain;" " Pass under the rod," and that famous old tem- perance song ---
" Sparkling and bright, In its liquid light;'
Mrs. Mackay's " Asleep in Jesus;" Mrs. Dr. Herrick Johnson's " The whole wide world for Jesus."
" The Ninety and Nine," by Mrs. Clephane, has been pronounced by some of our devout men and evangelists " the sacred song of the century," despite some lame or imperfect feet which unfits it somewhat for congregational singing, but does well for solo use. It is the sentiment so beautifully and touchingly expressed that goes home to the sinner's heart and wins him or her to Christ.
Let us beware of prescribing too narrow limits to what may be considered hymns of a high order.
Do not those who accomplish the most good deserve to be ranked very high? Are not the grandest of all those who set forth the doctrines of grace, the compassion of Jehovah, the condescension of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit? The "Ninety and Nine," and " Nearer, my God, to Thee," may be called the great world hymns, alike acceptable, as they are, to Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, the world over.
Mrs. Joseph F. Knapp, of Brooklyn, a lady of wealth, culture and position, and her sainted mother, Mrs. Phæbe Palmer, of " holiness" fame, gone years ago to her reward, have done much to enrich sacred song. Mrs. Knapp composes from very love of it-an inspiration that moves her to give expression to the well of joy and grati- tude that continually springs up within her consecrated being. Some of her best music is the setting she has given to the hymns of the blind hymnologist, Fanny Crosby ( Mrs. Van Alstyne), of New York.
And this brings us to this wonderful blind singer. It used to be said, a woman may be found now and then who has written one or two acceptable hymns, but it requires a man to write many that are meritorious. Fanny Crosby, seven years ago, was reported by Dr. Herbert P. Main as having written nineteen hundred for Bigelow & Bain's publications alone. She had also written for many other firms, and has been writing continuously ever since. She is certainly entitled to the crown, as the most prolific hymnologist of the day, regardless of sex, so far as diligent inquiry and research can determine, she having written, without doubt, over three thousand that have been accepted.
To mention all the musical productions of the lamented Frances Ridley Haver- gal, of England, would require several pages, and the incidents connected with them an entire day. Though she may not have written any greater number of hymns that are sung everywhere than has Fanny Crosby, she has composed much music of a high order; for instance, her setting of "Tramp, tramp, tramp, on the downward way,"
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" Resting," and her verse, so comforting to mourning hearts, or those going through the furnace of any affliction, fill numerous volumes; to say nothing of her booklets, and poems in illuminated and illustrated souvenir style. Among her best known and cherished songs, sung everywhere, are: " I gave My life for Thee;" " Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee;" "Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King!"
Among the song collections for use in temperance meetings, and they are numerous, with two-thirds of the contents by women, Anna Gordon's "White Ribbon Hymnal," and " Marching Songs for Young Crusaders," deserve mention, as does " White Ribbon Vibrations," by Mrs. Flora H. Cassell, of Nebraska.
· Frances E. Willard, chieftain of the temperance hosts, and Mary B. Willard, her sister-in-law, though making no. pretentions as poets, have written some rare verse that will live.
The cluster of Easter and Resurrection carols, by Mary Lowe Dickinson, cannot be excelled. One might dare challenge the world to produce a better set than those by this graceful and forceful, consecrated daughter of the King. There is a ripple of love and devotion in them throughout.
It was in 1841 that the Electress of Brandenburg wrote, " Jesus Lives," which was translated from the German into English by Frances Elizabeth Cox, the author of " In some way or other the Lord will provide."
Jane Taylor's "Far from mortal cares retreating;" " Come to the hour of prayer;" Ellen M. Gates' "I will sing for Jesus," set to music and first sung by Philip Phillips; " The Home of the Soul;" "Your Mission " (the great favorite of President Lincoln;" " If we knew;" " Beautiful Hands;" " The Prodigal's Return;" Anna L. Warner's " In heavenly love abiding," are among those that cannot be passed by.
Clara H. Scott is the only woman in the world, so far as known, to compile and publish an ånthem book. Her " Royal Anthem Book," of some three hundred pages, has met with great favor among church choirs, and her " Oh, when shall I be free?" and "Te Deums," are sung all over the United States.
May Riley Smith's "Tired Mothers" and "If" have brought comfort to many. Who does not know them, and that they belong to her, though often seen anonymously in the papers? Her "Sometimes " was once credited to Helen Hunt, whose verse all admit to be of a very high order. When asked if she was the author, she replied in the affirmative. "One day," she went on to say, "I was on the cars, going from Chi- cago to Springfield " (which latter was then her home), "and I noticed a lady and gentleman in front of me, the former of whom held in her hand the portrait of a lovely child. As she talked of the original, gone to her heavenly home, tears fell fast, and ofttimes she kissed the picture of the beautiful child. I grew sober, and then sad. Taking a pencil and crumpled bit of paper from my pocket, I composed that poem." Or, rather, it seemed to compose itself; she simply wrote it down as it rapidly came to her.
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