the light by which we have seen the world's need, and the power by which we adapt woman's work to the need, both radiate, directly or indirectly, from the cross. To rally multitudes of women to work in its spirit, until the world is drawn to its feet, and its principles become the renovating, redeeming power at the heart of human work and lifethis is the ultimate power in organization, and this is doing in very truth what Columbus did in words, claiming, not in the name of one, but of many, queens, the nation's work for God.

ADDRESS ON THE SAME SUBJECT BY REV. IDA C. HULTIN OF ILLINOIS.

As a distinctively woman's work there has not been so much organization in religion as in other branches of activity, and until woman is organized in every church there will not be much organized work. Of course woman organizes in church affairs-in raising money, in doing the kitchenwork at oyster-suppers, the painting and papering and carpeting of the church, and holding church fairs; but this is not distinctively church work, although it has a great deal to do with that which paves the way to religion. The clubs that women have entered for industrial and philanthropic work have helped them to know how to work together. Woman has been the great organizer in home life, and because she has been so successful in this organization it has come to be said, "Home is her only sphere." But she has begun to realize that outside of this there is a larger sphere for organization, by which she will be enabled to do better work in religion.

What is religion? It is not a theory; it is not a creed; it is not a gathering of certain formulas. Religion is the underlying current of human life which carries it upward. It is the science of the highest development of humanity. It is that something which makes life worth living. It is that something which puts the key in the gate and lets us

into the so-called heaven. It is that which saves you and me, and forgives the universe. It has to do with the morning, noon, and night of life. It helps men know how to trade, and talk, and how to look up into the heavens, and see that God is there, and feel the divinity in the stillness of the night.

Truth and goodness are not parts of religion; they are religion. Religion is that which makes us know not only the fatherhood of God, but also the brotherhood of humanity; it sees God in the clods as well as in the stars, and makes us know that in every atom we shall find a divine purpose and a divine inspiration. There is no place where God is not.

THE ELEVATION OF WOMANHOOD WROUGHT THROUGH THE VENERATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN ADDRESS BY EMMA F. CARY.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." So says Saint Paul in the third chapter of Galatians; and a few verses below he adds, "God sent his Son, made of woman, made under the law; that he might redeem them who were under the law; that we might receive the adoption of sons."

"Neither Jew nor Greek" yet to the present day nation. rages against nation; "neither bond nor free" but centuries passed before the voice of the church could procure for those in servitude more than a slight mitigation of their wrongs. How has it been with the third part of the prophecy, “neither male nor female"? From the first days of Christianity we can see the beginning and the course of its fulfillment. Softly as the dawn, gentle as the power of that woman of whom Christ was made, arose the influence of women in the church. From the earliest days of apostolic times we see them, in all modesty, but with the valor

of men, taking their share of work, of peril, and of commendation.

To prove by quotations from great authorities that this recognition of the just claims of women was the natural as well as the supernatural result of the Blessed Virgin's place in the scheme of the redemption would be to fill the short space allotted to this paper with a list of illustrious names, and to leave that list unfinished. Beside the figure of the sacred humanity of Christ there stands his Mother, the feminine impersonation of wisdom, fortitude, grace, mercy, purity; as far below her Son as the created is below the creator; yet offering a standard of womanly perfection so exalted that it urged forward to maturity one element of civilization, while others toiled for centuries, only to have their importance acknowledged by the noblest, most enlightened spirits of each age. Nay, to this hour there are claims of humanity which cry vainly, in the name of Christ and his church, for recognition, and the crimes against them hide behind the shield of virtues, such as justice, prudence, liberty, patriotism, and valor.

I will not touch on the dangerous ground of theology; I appeal to history to show that public opinion was so purified by the veneration felt for the Virgin Mary as to lift at once the service of women in the early church to a position of dignity; to hold it at the same high level when the simple relations of Christians toward each other became involved with social and political combinations; and in time to make the protection of distressed or oppressed women one of the holiest duties of the clergy and of the patrician class. We have the women of the apostolic age, beginning with those halcyon days when, “continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart." The Blessed Virgin was the direct guide of the women of the earliest church. Tradition tells us that "she spoke little, but she spoke freely and affably; she was not troubled in her speech, but grave, courteous, tranquil." Who in

reading this does not recall the manners of religious women of our own time? In convents are still found the exquisite manners which spring from a perpetual consciousness of God's presence. We often see in pupils of convent schools the same deference, sweetness, and dignity. Perhaps they have not as yet in perfection the "higher education," but time will soon bring that about; and they have the highest education to-day in possessing a perfect standard of womanly behavior, drawn from the household of Nazareth.

But the scene changes; political problems become entangled with religious questions; a more active participation in the trials and perils of men is called for, and in the arena, on the scaffold, in banishment and persecution, we find that there is in Christ neither male nor female.

In the thirteenth century, painting, poetry, and theology all united in lifting on high the ideal of womanhood through the veneration of "Our Lady"; for then she was OUR LADY, SO called through the devotion of the knights of chivalry, who saw her in all women, and found for her a thousand lovely epithets. "Our Lady of Liberty," cried captives; "Our Lady of Sorrows, " moaned the afflicted: "Our Lady of the Cradle," prayed mothers: "Our Lady of the People," cried those who saw in her the elevator of labor.

Dante calls her "Ennobler of thy nature" in that magnificent apostrophe, which so satisfied religious feeling that Chaucer and Petrarch, nearly one hundred years later, paraphrased it in words as beautiful as Dante's. Saint Thomas and Saint Bonaventura among theologians, Giotto and Cimabue among painters, were her panegyrists. No wonder that in the succeeding century we have two women of transcendent gifts- the Saint of Siena, controlling the youth of her city and molding the political events of the day; and the Saint of Genoa ranked among the theologians of the church.

Meanwhile, through the ages preceding the thirteenth century, three phases of civilization had tended to develop