The influence for good of a virtuous woman is beyond calculation. A chaste woman is the greatest help and blessing to a man; whereas an indiscreet woman has quite the reverse effect. The training of each generation is more in the mother’s hands than the father’s, for she, naturally, has more to do with her offspring than her husband, though he is assigned the position of head of the house, filling the place of authority and rule. A virtuous Christian mother, living according to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, is the sweetest and most enobling influence to be found on earth. Where homes are blest with such, and where a nation’s womanhood is truly womanly and modest, then we look for nothing else than the best results.
In the light of our Lord’s prediction that the last days would resemble the times of Lot (Luke 17:28), we can expect to see the breakdown of all moral restrictions and good standards in society, with an awful retrograde movement among women generally. Debase them, move them out of the place God has assigned them, then look for the complete corruption of the whole earth and the inevitable righteous judgment of God.
Since the Great War there has been a definite and dreadful move in this direction, so that conditions today are tolerated which would have shocked everybody in 1914. Look at the indecent attire, the smoking and drinking and bad language among young women, the painted and powdered faces, the cropped hair, the wearing of slacks, the mixed bathing on the beaches, lying in the sun almost nude to the public gaze: in short, a hideous familiarity with that which is fast and indelicate, arousing all the viler passions of men.
“Be not conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2) is a clear command from Heaven; and “Women adorn yourselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety” (1 Tim. 2:9), is another charge just as plain.