"That was the net result of Christianity, and of the activity of the Christian Church in spreading abroad a spirit of kindliness, humanity and brotherhood! The coquetry of Christianity with Labor within the last generation or two is only what one would expect. But it is clear that the one constant function of Christianity has been to encourage loyalty to existing institutions, no matter what their character so long as they were not unfriendly to the Church. Slavery and the oppression of labor continued while Christianity was at its strongest and wealthiest; its own wealth derived from the oppression it encouraged. Slavery died out when social and economic conditions rendered its continuance more and more difficult. And the conditions of labor improved when men ceased to talk of a 'Providential Order,' of 'God's Decree,' and dismissed the evangelical narcotic served out by the Church, and began to realize that social conditions were the products of understandable and modifiable natural forces." (_C. Cohen: "Christianity, Slavery and Labor."_) CHAPTER XVII RELIGION AND WOMAN _She was the first in the transgression therefore keep her in subjection._ * * * * * _Fierce is the dragon and cunning the asp; but woman has the malice of both._ ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUM. _Thou art the devil's gate, the betrayer of the tree, the first deserter of the Divine Law._ TERTULLIAN. _What does it matter whether it be in the person of mother or sister; we have to beware Eve in every woman._ _How much better two men could live and converse together than a man and a woman._ ST. AUGUSTINE. _No gown worse becomes a woman than the desire to be wise._ LUTHER. _The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation._ ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. It is noticed in most calculations of churchgoers that women have remained attached to the churches in a far higher proportion than men. The proportion of women in the churches is vastly greater than their proportion in the general population. Most of the men who still passively attend their churches do so under the pressure of professional interest or social or domestic influence. The degree of religiosity has always been associated with the free play of the emotions and woman being more imaginative and emotional than man, it seems clear that this strong emotional factor in woman accounts, at least partly, for the greater proportion of women as churchgoers. And this, be it noted, lies not in any inherent inferiority in the mental make-up of woman, but rather in the environmental influences that until very recently shaped woman's education in such a manner that it was little adapted to strengthening her reason, but rather calculated to enhance her emotionalism.