The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-12
eechor and Talmase on Petticos
Preachers.


~ WAS Out natural to suppose that the re-
markable trial of Christian minister which
took place in Brooklyn last week would, as
1t did, arrest the attention of Mr.. Beecher
and Mr.. Taimage-the two most popular
preachers in Brooklyn, though of different
denominations. Mr.. Beecher remarked
that Miss Smiley had long spoken
in churches, and edifcation had fol-
lowed, and that was the sign that Peter said
should authenticate preaching. The simple
question before him was, he said, whether
the New Testament does prohibit women to
speak in the churches? Are these words Of
Paul of universal application, of all time,
everywhere, finally? For himself he held to
the view that this command to women to keep
silent in church was local, national and
transient, and is not to be taken as the
reasons for this view are that it is not the
function of Christianity to determine the
external. It aims at the spiritual develop
ment Of man by bringing him into direct COM
partnership with God. But there can be no
greater imposition upon men, Mr.. Beecher
thinks, than to affirm that there is in the New
Testament any attempt to decide details.
What will Revs. Patton and Van Dyke say to
this? And Mr.. Beecher demonstrated this by
the fact that there is not one element of
organization in the Church to-day that resem-
bles those of two thousand years ago. Woman
among the Jews, he asserts, was teacher, q
poetess, ruler. aud the presumption is that
Christianity did not step in and paralyze
woman's tongue and shut her mouth. This
would have been doing violence to the Jewish
idea. But Peters quotation from the Prophet
Joel on the day Of Pentecost is strong
circumstantial evidence that neither he
nor his compeers had any right or
any design to interfere with this Jewish
idea of woman's work in the Church. eff you
undertake TO set up the letter of Paul., said
Mr.. Beecher, II set up the letter of the Holy
Ghost. 1t was forbidden to women to speak
in the synagogues, but this was because the
exercises of the synagogues were liturgical
and not extemporaneous, and the technical
knowledge of this liturgy was not open then
to women. There is nothing in all the letters
to Jewish Christians that contravenes this
Hebrew spirit and custom. This direction of
Paul was written to the Greek Christians"
whose women were degraded to level that
we can hardly conceive. After reviewing
the condition of women in Greece Mr..
Beecher declared that virtuous woman
was merely a domestic drudge, and that for
woman to rise and speak in the churches
would be to endorse courtezanship. Had st.
Paul known how stupid people would be in
this day he would have added to the words
Sin Greece" to his prohibition to women to
speak. Mr.. Beecher honored his brother
Cuyler, and gave a rap at the inconsistent
Presbyters who could quote st. Paul
80 glibly against women speaking in
church, but not against their braiding of
hair and wearing of jewels and costly
apparel Mr. Talmage reviewed the condition
and treatment of women of different nations,
and advocated women voting since 'Ege voted
in Paradise to enslave the world in sin and
Mary voted in the manger to emancipate the
human race" After showing woman's useful
ness in the sick chamber, in the hospital, in
tuo oapoa1n Scnoois U0'' no o""o o4""ioy
up to the Presbyterian blunder and asked, sar-
castically, had Miss Smiley horns or hoofs
that his brethren were so much afraid society
would tumble to pieces because she preached
in church? She did not preach treason;
she simply told the story of the Cross. Her
right to preach to ten or twenty-five was not
questioned; why should her right to preach
to thousand be?