Bible -- Commentaries; Bible -- Feminist criticism; Women in the Bible
Until the feminine is recognized in the Divine Being, and justice is
established in the Church by the complete equality of woman with man,
the Church cannot be thoroughly Christian. "Honor thy father and thy
mother" is the commandment. The human race cannot be brought to its
highest state until motherhood is equally honored with fatherhood in
human institutions.
L. B. C.
EPISTLES OF PETER AND JOHN.
1 Peter iii.
1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if
any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the
conversation of the wives;
3 Whose adorning, let it not be that out, ward adorning of plaiting
the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge,
giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel.
Woman's influence is most clearly set forth by all the Apostles in
meek submission to their husbands and to all the Church ordinances and
discipline. A reverent silence, a respectful observance of rules and
authorities was their power. They could not aid in spreading the gospel
and in converting their husbands to the true faith by teaching, by
personal attraction, by braided hair or ornaments. The normal beauty of
a sanctified heart would be manifested by a meek and quiet spirit,
valuable in the sight of God as well as their husbands, and do far more
to fix their affections and to secure their esteem than the studied
decoration of fashionable apparel. Woman's love of satins, of velvets,
of laces, and of jewels, has its corresponding expression in man's love
of wealth, of position, and his ambition for personal and family
aggrandizement.
There is much talk of the poor and the needy, especially during
political campaigns. In the autumn of 1896, when the workingman's
interests formed the warp and woof of every speech, three thousand
children stood in the streets of New York City, for whom there was no
room in the schoolhouses and no play-grounds; and yet thousands of
dollars were spent in buying votes. Large, well-ventilated homes for
those who do the work of the world, plenty of schoolhouses and play-
grounds for the children of the poor, would be much more beneficial to
the race than expensive monuments to dead men, and large appropriations
from the public treasury for holidays and convivial occasions to honor
men in high places.
The Apostles having given such specific directions as to the toilets
of women, their hair, ornaments, manners and position, in the Church,
the State and the home, one is curious to know what kind of honor is
intended for this complete subordination. Man is her head, her teacher,
her guardian and her Saviour. What Christ is to him, that is he to the
weaker vessel. It is fair to infer that what he has done in the past he
will continue to do in the future. Unless she rebels outright, he will
make her a slave, a subject, the mere reflection of another human will.
E. C. S.
2 John i.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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