The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-04-13
DISCOUNTED THOUGHTS.
THE EDITOR OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:

DISCOUNTED THOUGHTS.
To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW NORTHWEST:
While Mrs. Martin is enlightening
ministers on the Bible and the woman
question, will you allow another Bible
reader the space for a few disjointed
thoughts?
I learn there that God made the first
pair and pronounced his work good.
Then the serpent interfered and spoiled
His work. Afterwards the voice of God
walked in the garden of Eden and dis
covered that these erewhile good and
now spoiled creations were nude, except
some fig leaves. Then "God made coats
of skins and clothed them;" after which
he drove them out to people the earth
with sinners, who were to be eternaIly
lost unless He could get Son born and
crucified to save His dignity; and even
then it was to be grand failure, so far
as myriads of the descendants of this
pair are concerned.
God commanded woman to be in sub.
lection to her husband, but the rebellion
began with Sarah, who exercised au-
thOrity over Abraham, in which it
seems that Jehovah acquiesced. Again
we find her commanding Abraham to
drive away the woman he had wronged,
and the 'lord of ereationn obeyed her,
though "he was much grieved because
of his son." God sustained Sarah in
this authority, too, and gave her son
of her own as an evidence that she had
found favor in His eyes because of her
authority over her husband.
If women were not rulers in the
church-a power behind the throne, but
a pO1OeT, nevertheless-the men who are
ministers would all find themselves
without financial support in a very
short time; and were it not for the sala-
ries which women as ministers would
command, or, rather, did women as
preachers command no attention from
the multitude to divert salaries from
men, think that clergymen would be
more than willing to give way to them
and let them do the work.
When men counsel women to be in
subsection, they simply demand an i'm.
possibility, all the Bibles in the uni.
verse to the contrary Notwithstanding
For men and women naturally rebe
against injustice. And when woman
rebels, her children, who receive theil
mental conditions from her, are rebels
also, and they rebel alike against hu
man and Bible authority. This law i!
the same, whether the children thu!
born are the future fathers or mother!
of the country. 1t is the law of Goo
and nature, and what are the ministers
going to do about it?
When find command in the Bible
or anywhere else, that conflicts with thu
laws of God, know that men, and no
God, were the authors of that command
and then 1 go straight to the grea
Fountain, and gather my inspiration
from Eternal Law, where I learn tha
, God is not the author of injustice, no
of anything that conflicts with the in
alienable self-hood of man or woman.
But, should woman obey man i'm
plicltly, as ministers so often advise
she would come in constant conflic
with the laws of men. When maj
commands her to commit a crime sh
must obey, for men say God has said
''Thy desire shall be to thy husband
and he shall rule over thee" Thi
r command takes away all responsibility
, from woman, and leaves her cat's-paV
in mems hands, with which to brin
destruction upon her own children
Why do women work to destroy tn
evils that men indulge in if they be
lieve this command to be just?
o, consistency, thou art jewel and
scarce! SYBIL.
!. Salem, March 80, 1877.