Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/115

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80

to the last moment of our days on behalf of the cause dear to us as the very life-blood in our hearts.

Remember the relation between the sexes is so intimate,so potent,on account of the strong,natural instinct the very hand of Providence has implanted in us, that into every concern of life, into every little act that you do, this relationship will enter, as a determining factor. It has been said of a shrewd judge that the first question he would ask of the lawyer at the beginning of a trial was,'Who is she?' He believed that a woman had a distinct part somewhere in every case. So in the leading concerns of life — in the one great 'cause' of existence, if I may use the phrase-— vast, incalculably vast, as an uplifting lever or as a depressing load, is the influence of woman. And, therefore, we have to train and habituate ourselves by systematic discipline to look upon this momentous relationship as a sacred and holy trust committed to us. One way in which this obligation brings itself home