The need of rousing women in critical times from a state of self-satisfaction and self-complacency.
Women are less apprehensive than men, more inclined to suppose that the state of things to which they are accustomed will, as a matter el course, remain unchanged. They have, as a general rule, less historical knowledge than men, and less acquaintance with the condition of the world wherein they live. The self-complacency and unsuspiciousness of Marie Antoinette and the ladies of her court, when the French Revolution was drawing on, has been a matter of surprise to historians; but it is merely a striking instance of what is, in fact, the ordinary condition of things when great changes are imminent. Jezebel did not expect, or appreciate, the revolution initiated by Jehu; nor Athaliah that carried out under the auspices of Jehoiada the high priest (2 Kings 11:4-16). The instinctive belief in "continuance," of which Bishop Butler speaks ('Analogy,' part 1. Isaiah 1:1-31.), whereby we expect "all things to continue as we experience they are, in all respects, "and "to-morrow to be as to-day," only perhaps "more abundant' (Isaiah 56:12),—is especially strong in women, and explains their inapprehensiveness. The result is:
1. That reverses come upon them suddenly and unexpectedly, without their being prepared to encounter them, and are thus sorer trials, under which they often fall into despair and recklessness, to their great hurt.
2. That the men, who are their associates, through the contagion of their security, are rendered themselves less apprehensive, and consequently less inclined to realize the coming danger and guard against it by wise measures of precaution. Under these circumstances, it becomes the preacher's duty at such times to address himself especially to the rousing of the women from their "carelessness" and security, both for their own sakes, and still more for the sake of the community, whose prosperity or whose very existence they imperil.