FEMALE FRANCHISE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 226, 25 September 1893, Page 2

FEMALE FRANCHISE.

At St. John's Wesleyan Churob, on Sunn day evening the Uev. Geo. Bond preached on the subject of the female franchise to a large congregation. He tjok as his text I. Corinthians 11th chapter and 11th verso. He began by stating that Christianity knew no geuder, for in Christ there is "neither mile nor female,'' all are one. The condition of woman was the touchstone of civilized society. The couditijn of the woman of imtiqutt.y was one of servility. Jew aud Gentile, Hebrew rabbi and Greek philos ipher had conspired in an unconscious conspiracy to keep her in subjection. A moral resurrection was needed, and it was for Him whose mission it was to inculcate thn great 'essons of fraternity and equality to onea the dojr of her prison, resuscitate dormant life, aud restore her to her rightful position. This He di.l, but it hid taken eighteen hundred years to remove the graveclothes that hid bound,;her aud crippled her energie?. New Zealand h:id now passed a measure which gave the right to which woman was naturally and socially entitled. This wan more thaa a political measure, it was one of great sochl and moral simian cuioe. 15 came not as a revolution but as an evolu'io >. The great question for all Christian, women was Whit were to oe the results/ Were they to be beneficial, or baneful / Was the me isure to be the forerunner of similar measures in other countries aud colonies/ or was it to be nipped in the bud as a failure/ That entirely depended upon the wise and conscientious ase the women of New Z9aland made of it. Hero Mr Bond pointed out the grave responsibilities whioh rested upon the womeu, aud several cogent reasons why the franchise should be exeroiscd as a duty to the home, the commonwealth, and to Chrisr, the emancipator, who was " Lowly to woman, for Maid Mary's sikef Lifting our sister from the duat, to take In homes her equal place, the household's Queen Crowned aad august, who sport and thrall lmd been." The sermon lasted nearly an hour, and was listened to with grffßt attention.