The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-08-28

this sufficient to produce that tendency p
Many of those who, unfortunately. ..reject
the doctrines of Christianity, are persons of
high moral worth and influence, possess
ing the most high and noble sentiment,
giving forth examples, both in public and
private lives, which might well put to
shame many protesting Christians.
They reject the Bible simply because
they are not acquainted with it. They
do not know ,chat it does teach. Instead
of receiving their impressions from the
teachings of men, let them go directly to
the Bible, and they viii see that it is
indeed the great advocate Of freedom,
that it pleads in the most glowing Ian
guage for the poor. the down-trodden snd
the oppressed of every class. That its
denunciations of the oppressor, and of all
who shield, countenance, or uphold the
oppression, are most terribly sepers. They
viii then fad that the gospel Of Christ
is, indeed, a message of "glad tidings, of
/ joy, of peace, of perfect liberty, which
shall be to all people," Then. instead of
rejecting the Bible, they win only reject
those false teachers, who, by the perver-
sion of its sacred doctrines and precepts,
hinder multitudes from embracing it, who
might otherwise have been the most
earnest and able defenders of its blessed
truths.
But with respect to the tendency of
woman's rights. Let us inquire whether
it is really the principle itself, or the op-
position which has been made to it by
the Church, which has produced this ten
dency. Had it taught, as the word of
God clearly teaches, that woman had
there a full warrant for all that she de-
manded; if, when woman maintained
her natural equality with man. she had
not been answered by the Church, no
your position is one of subordinstion, and
that the principal duties of wife are
submission, and obedience; that that holy
and blessed union of two in one, means
nothing more than that the wife was
thereby converted into and formed part of
her husband, band or instrument by which
he wills and works that he is the divinely
constituted lord, end she merely member
of his body. 1t is such misconstruction
of the word and spirit of the Bible, which
has driven, even soonlan, away from its
sacred protection. Whose fault is this !?
Had they to whom were committed the
Interpretation of the word of God, been
able to divest themselves of those preju-
dices and false impressions, derived from
the usages of barbarous nations, and which
were received by the Church during that
period embracing the dark ages, It would
never have become necessary for woman
to agitate the question of her own rights.
Those rights would never have been dis
puted. But as it has been, through the
influence of the Church, and misappre-
hension of the true spirit and teaching of
the word of God, woman has been SO long
deprived of her rights, SO it is through
the true light and teachings of christianity,
that she shall, ere long, attain to her true
position in the world, and the indications
at present, show that the time is not far
distant when the advocates of the rights
of woman, instead of turning their backs
upon the Bible, and establishing their
position upon the plain dictates of hu-
manity, of common sense, and of common
justice, with which they have unfortu-
nately believed the Bible to conflict, they
shall see that it is the great exponent of
those everlasting principles of human
liberty, and of the equal rights of all.
1t would be an easy task to show how
all the claims made by the advocates oi
woman's rights are amply and fully sus-
tanned by the word of God, but time and
space will not at present permit.
But in the mean time let the friendsoi
true religion rejoice, that this very ten
dency to infdelity, much as it is to be
deplored in itself, is producing the most
satisfactory effects, by its reaction on the
Church, and let US hope that the time is
not far distant when sbe shall arise and
shine in the true light of Gods word, and
when oppression, cruelty and injustice shall
no longer find shelter, or apology there.
But l shall conclude this rather too
lengthy epistle, requesting that you will
give it insertion in your paper, hoping
that these imperfect hints may possibly
induce some persons more capable of do
ing justice to these important subjects, to
take up the pen. j. B. a.
For Rs Herald Of Freedom.