I find, too, that Philip had four daughters which did _prophesy_; and what is still more convincing, I read in the xi. of I. Corinthians, some particular directions from the Apostle Paul, as to _how_ women were to pray and prophesy in the assemblies of the people--_not_ in the domestic circle. On examination, too, it appears that the very same word, _Diakonos_, which, when applied to Phœbe, Romans xvi. 1, is translated _servant_, when applied to Tychicus, Ephesians vi. 21, is rendered _minister_. Ecclesiastical History informs us, that this same Phœbe was pre-eminently useful, as a minister in the Church, and that female ministers suffered martyrdom in the first ages of Christianity. And what, I ask, does the Apostle mean when he says in Phillipians iv. 3.--‘Help those women who labored with me in the gospel’? Did these holy women of old perform all their gospel labors in ‘the domestic and social circle’? I trow not. Thou sayest, ‘the moment woman begins to feel the promptings of ambition, or the thirst for power, her ægis of defence is gone.’ Can man, then, retain his ægis when he indulges these guilty passions? Is it woman only who suffers this loss? ‘All the generous promptings of chivalry, all the poetry of romantic gallantry, depend upon woman’s retaining her place as _dependent_ and _defenceless_, and making no claims, and maintaining no rights, but what are the gifts of honor, rectitude and love.’ I cannot refrain from pronouncing this sentiment as beneath the dignity of any woman who names the name of Christ. No woman, who understands her dignity as a moral, intellectual, and accountable being, cares aught for any attention or any protection, vouchsafed by ‘the promptings of chivalry, and the poetry of romantic gallantry’? Such a one loathes such littleness, and turns with disgust from all such silly insipidities. Her noble nature is insulted by such paltry, sickening adulation, and she will not stoop to drink the foul waters of so turbid a stream. If all this sinful foolery is to be withdrawn from our sex, with all my heart I say, _the sooner the better_. Yea, I say more, no woman who lives up to the true glory of her womanhood, will ever be treated with such _practical contempt_. Every man, when in the presence of true moral greatness, ‘will find an influence thrown around him,’ which will utterly forbid the exercise of ‘the poetry of romantic gallantry.’ What dost thou mean by woman’s retaining her place as defenceless and dependent? Did our Heavenly Father furnish man with any offensive or defensive weapons? Was _he_ created any less defenceless than _she_ was? Are they not equally defenceless, equally dependent on Him? What did Jesus say to his disciples, when he commissioned them to preach the gospel?--‘Behold, I send you forth as SHEEP in the midst of wolves; be ye wise as serpents, and _harmless_ as _doves_. What more could he have said to women?