But there is more than this harvest of debts, and lessons,
and sorrows, in the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic.
There is a great ideal. It is clearly outlined and set before
the mind and heart of the modern world, to approve and follow,
or to despise and reject.

It is, "Women and children first!"

Whatever happened on that dreadful April night among
the arctic ice, certainly that was the order given by the brave
and steadfast captain; certainly that was the law obeyed by
the men on the doomed ship. But why? There is no statute
or enactment of any nation to enforce such an order. There
is no trace of such a rule to be found in the history of ancient
civilizations. There is no authority for it among the heathen
races to-day. On a Chinese ship, if we may believe the report
of an official representative, the rule would have been "Men
First, children next, and women last."

There is certainly no argument against this barbaric
rule on physical or material grounds. On the average, a man
is stronger than a woman, he is worth more than a woman,
he has a longer prospect of life than a woman. There is no
reason in all the range of physical and economic science, no
reason in all the philosophy of the Superman, why he should
give his place in the life-boat to a woman.

Where, then, does this rule which prevailed in the sinking
Titanic come from? It comes from God, through the faith
of Jesus of Nazareth.