Consecrated Womanhood: A Sermon Preached in the First Congregational Church, Portland, OregonMarvin, Frederic Rowland
Religion
Consecrated Womanhood: A Sermon Preached in the First Congregational Church, Portland, Oregon
Marvin, Frederic Rowland
Sermons, American; Women -- Biblical teaching; Women in the Bible
Nothing assuredly can be more broadminded or more generous than Dr.
Marvin's whole treatment of the claims of women, whether in politics,
in the religious life, or in the domestic circle. In my humble opinion
it would do infinite service in awakening thought and dispelling
prejudice, could the sermon on "Consecrated Womanhood" be preached in
every church and chapel in England. The good Quakers alone, so far as I
know, have no need for its admonition.
FRANCES POWER COBBE.
Hengwrt,
Dolgelly, North Wales,
June 21, 1903.
Consecrated Womanhood
"She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the
distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she
reacheth out her hands to the needy. Strength and honor are
her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She
openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of
kindness."—_Proverbs._
It is the peculiarity of the Bible that it honored woman when every
other book was blind to the true dignity of her character and the
royal possibilities of her nature. The old Testament exalted her not
only as wife and mother, but as citizen and ruler, and some of the
most stirring songs and daring deeds of patriotism are recorded in
the Bible to the honor of woman. Her inspired pen is immortalized in
the Word of God, and if it be not meet that her voice sound from the
halls of Congress, it is a fact of history that it was heard on the
field of battle and in the chamber of justice more than three thousand
years ago, when, by the mouth of Deborah and the hand of Jael, the Lord
delivered Israel from the power of the spoiler. She may not be thought
competent to have part in framing the laws of a State, but she was
competent to judge the chosen people and to mould the character of the
world's Redeemer.
The conservative who would obstruct the wheels of progress endeavors to
accomplish his end by an appeal to the Bible. Sacred Scriptures were
represented as the friend of slavery; they are now cited in defense
of Papal idolatry and Mormon impurity; and how often we hear them
quoted against the emancipation of woman. But the Bible is the most
radical book in all the world, and its maxims of wisdom and virtue
are in advance of every age. Whatever has been accomplished for the
improvement of woman's lot may be traced to its hallowed influence.
"It found her the slave of man's appetite in the East, the servant of
his cupidity in the West, and the victim of his cruelty in the South,"
and it broke the chain that bound her soul in darkness and the social
fetters that linked her womanhood with dishonor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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