AN ADDRESS TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF AMERICA.
My Dear and Honored Countrywomen:
When I wrote the first address in this volume, I had a very imperfect idea of the scope and magnitude of the questions which the women of this nation, who aim to be followers of Jesus Christ, will soon be called to investigate and to decide—questions which are the very foundation principles of both morals and religion—questions which every woman must settle for herself aided by common sense, the Bible, and the Divine aid obtained by prayer.
To us Jesus Christ appears as the only one born into this world who lived to maturity, then died and then returned to life again; first to prove that death does not end our existence, and next to teach what awaits us in the invisible world to which we all are hastening.
Let those who have mused in lonely sorrow
by the grave of the dearest friends and asked with infinite longings—where are they? is this the end? are we too to lie down in utter annihilation?—say how we could have these questions answered so as to best secure a comforting belief? Should we not say let our well-known, well-beloved friends, come forth from the tomb and live with us again—walk, talk, eat, sleep, and act, as in past times—and this for days and weeks and not alone with us, but with many others who had known them through life? Can we imagine anything to ask more satisfactory than this, to prove that death does not end our existence?
Suppose that Abraham Lincoln, after his body had lain in state for three days, had risen from his coffin and for thirty days had been surrounded by his family, his cabinet, his personal friends, and by as many as three hundred persons who knew him well; can we conceive of anything more satisfactory to prove that death does not destroy the soul? And would not his honest teachings of what is to be experienced after death, be sought as the most reliable evidence possible of what awaits us all when we pass to the invisible world?