The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-03-16
PURELY PLAYFUL"


"To say and straight unsay argues no leader"
So said Milton, and so say we, and we
will add on our own responsibility, |
neither does it argue fit qualifications
for teacher, as minister and editor of
q church paper certainly claims to be.
Brother Acton, of the Advocate, came |
out few weeks since in an editorial
endorsing women ministers in unquali-
fed terms. His comments thereon
were widely copied and very generally
commended by the press, as we doubt
not they were by the larger and more
intelligent class of his readers. But it
is evident that there sis power behind
the throne greater than the throne" or,
in other words, that those who employ
Brother Acton employ him merely as
an amanuensis, and if, perchance, he
expresses his own views, they speedily
find means to make him retract. Hear
him in his issue of the 9Th inst:
Our editorial on "Women Preaching" has
been productive of some funny criticisms for
and against We did not think it was such
a serious question, and our treatment of it was
purely playful. While we confess we have
never found satisfactory evidence of absolute
prohibition in the Scriptures-nothing which
may not be accounted for in existing customs
and forms of the ancient church, and which
for this reason would pass away with these
customs-yet we are far from having a clear
Judgment that licensing women and regularly
placing them in the pastorate will better the
or add fo nj
We want women to preach without license
preach as they only can; through all the
graces and virtues and talent of the sex, every
where and in all ways. We think it a small
thing that a woman must obtain license of
some church or be regularly installed, a thing
too small in her case to be troubled about, and
under the present ecclesiastical law of our
church, we cannot quite see how it can be le-
gally given. But the law may be at fault. One
thing is certain, we shall not at present vote
for our wife to receive license, and it is not be-
cause she cannot preach either.
1t is indeed something new for a min
lister of the gospel, and a teacher,
through the organ of the great Metho-
dist Episcopal Church on the Northwest
Coast of the entire membership through
out the jurisdiction of at least two con-
ferences, to declare that his treatment
of the fitness of persons for the ministry
was "purely playful" and to confes:
that he did not think it "serious ques-
tion." We had supposed that such fit
ness was as serious question as evel
was discussed in church councils, and il
our brother tries to create the impres
sion that he considered it question tt
be dealt with in levity, and, if possible
rendered ludicrous because aUOnlen werC
the subject of discussion, every consci
entious Christian woman who believe
in using, according to the counsel 0
Jesus of Nazareth, the talent God ha
given her, according to her own convic
tions of right and duty, should spurn hi
teachings. The light in which he woult
view his "purely playful" mood would b.
intensified sufficiently to make him Sc
plainly, and seeing feel ashamed of hi
cowardly withdrawal from a position
voluntarily assumed, if he could bu
realize the insult he has cast upon two
thirds of the working members of tn
Methodist church that are found in tn
homes his paper visits.
He "thinks it is a small thing tina
women must obtain license of som
church" Women have supposed, a
godly men seemed likewise to do, ths
procuring license to preach and "bC
ing regularly installed" in the ministr
O
BILE, and when, with humble mien an
reverent voice, they have asked to /
thus recognized as laborers in Christ
vineyard by His professed followers,
has been asked in no "playful' moo
but with full conception of its ''seriou
ness"
The truth is, in ecclesiastical matter
as well as in judicial, legal recognitic
by the powers that be foreshadows leg
authority, and regular installation in
pastorate promises attendant saIar
and this is the whole secret. So long
woman will labor and pray and exho
and preach without being recognized
a minister by her brethren in the mi
istry, so long will she be shut of fro
authority, or influence in church cou
ellis, and SO long will she be unable
draw pay for service rendered. We a
not one of those who think preache
should work for nothing; we believe t
laborer is at all times entitled to col
pensation, and this regardless of sex.
INCONSISTENCY.