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242 this noble assembly. It is not in vain that the poet, our highly honored Kloppstock, says:

 Honor to woman! To her it is given! To garden the earth with the roses of Heaven!"

SEVERAL VOICES — Does Kloppstock say that?

REV. GOETZLING — ARH, so you, too, love the adorable poet? The singer of the "Messiah" has always been my favorite and he appreciated woman very highly. But as the expression "to garden the earth with the roses of Heaven" indicates, we are always to look aloft with one eye while the other is directed toward the earth. Only when the father in Heaven lends his assistance, can the worldly work, succeed. Even the unchristian Goethe says: "The blessing comes from on high." (Murmurs and laughter.) And, therefore, my sisters, allow me to remind you of the beautiful example set you by your American sisters, who convene their assemblies with an invocation from the word of God and open them with a prayer to Him. It is the deep interest that I take in your enterprise and the Christian sympathy I feel for you personally, that moves me to offer myself to you as mediator with Him to whom we owe everything. Let us, therefore, my beloved sisters, open our meeting with an ardent prayer.

PRESIDENT — It is self-evident that outside of the members proper of this convention no one has a right to participate in its deliberations. Nevertheless everybody, not a member, even every opponent,