The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-13
Woman-shall She Preach2

advance thought, Of orthodoxy, heterodoxy
paradoxy, and every other kind of doxy
the one which is looming up on the the
illogical horizon is: Shall women be
allowed to preach from the pulpit Shall
they really become ministers of the gospel,
10 TAKE charge of churches, administer all
the rites OF a church. to baptize, to marry,
TO bury the dead. and do all things that reg
ular ordained ministers now doa That is the
question. and it is beginning to be a very
live one in Atlanta. The issue has been
made, and ministers are divided upon the
issue. DR.. Hawthorne is most decidedly op-
posed to the right and authority of women
TO I'LL the pulpit, while Rev. r. e. Bram-
lett and Others do not object to the innova-
ton. At the north, it is beginning to be
common thing; but as the south does not
take her politics or her morals from the
aaor1n, she will hardly be in
in such matters. II this thing is good in il
self, If there be common sense In it; IL it
strikes the southern mind as an evolution
and development worthy Of being evolved
or developed, 1t will be done, regardless of
what the north, the ''world, the flesh and
the devil" may have to say about 1t. The
southern people are sui geneyfs In their way
OK thinking, and their innate sense of honor,
right, falr treatment, gallantry, wisdom,
Justice and moderation will govern the
southern mind In every and anything it
does.
IL there is field for women and she can
MI 1t well. 10 will certainly be given her.
AS to preaching. those who have gift that
way and desire to be. heard. will
pc heard. and the endorsements may
come afterward perhaps. We have no
objection to woman telling all about
her Christian and religious experience,
but we do object In advance for
any woman to get into the pulpit and tell
the people how bad her past life had been:
how she drank and got drunk; how she
swore, gambled and broke the Sabbath day.
was reckless with her money, etc., but,
by the grace Of God, she was now changed
woman. We don't want to hear any such
talk as that. We would ask that the grace
OF God be kept In the background on those
points. It may do very well for the Revs
Smith, Jones. Brown and others to so talk,
but God forbid that woman should so
ever bank on the grace of God. Mary Mag
dalene had seven devils cast out of her, but
we have no record that she ever boasted OF
her evil ways and was saved by grace
From Bible authority, about seven devils
possess a woman, while men has legion in
him, and hence, original sin is chronic in
him. Ii he happens TO get out the devils
who make him drink, curse, gamble and
llcentious, he is rather inclined to boast
about 1t in the pulpit.
St. Paul seems to be the great authority
on the subject as to what position a woman
should occupy in the church; and like good
many other things he said he is on both
sides OF the fence at one and the same time
He was very partial to Priscilla, but down
on the women in Corinth. Jesus had
nothing to say on the subject, but he took
twelve men into his confidence aud taught
them. He did tell Mary Magdalene at the
sepulcher to go tell Peter. John and James
he had risen, but coming from a woman
they doubted.
From our reading of all that st. Paul
| had to say about women, he was all things
| to all women according to his surroundings
| When be thought he saw O clear-headed
woman be was inclined to be very polite,
| but when be got among q noisy, chatting
babbling set, he was rather inclioed to tell
theIn TO keep silent, and to ask their bus
bands for information. The husbands of
81. Paul's day must have been pretty good
| theolegians il their wives had to get
information from them; for, if we know
anything about the average husband Of to-
| Day, his wife would about as we'll fish in a
| frog pond to catch a string Of fish as to get
q clear Well-defned and sensible idea from
her husband about the doctrine Of election,
predestlnatfoD, free grace, faith without
| and faith with works, the nature of the
trinity, the immaculate conception, the
nature or the resurrection OF the body, and
marriage In heaven. Snch questions would
drive husbands to club rooms or the lunatic
asylum.
st. Paul does not belong to this age, He
had his day, and filed his part very we'll
| St. Paul never attended female college
| commencement. He never heard the essays
the girls read for II he had his Jewish idea
OF woman's ability. self-reliance and self
| composure would have received a Sc
| we're shock. The Jewish woman of
| st. Paul's day is not the same wo-
man of this our day. Some Jews taught
that a woman did not have a soul and
from the way they were treated in the tenn
pie it looked that way. il actions meant
anything. In this, our day, the women run
! the churches. Take the women away aud
our minister's could go on excursions on
Sundays. The churches would be orphans,
| 30 to speak; certainly motherless, for the
women nurse the church; for in every good
work she is to the front, from dressing the
| church to building parsonages.
As Jesus was silent on the subject of
women apostles or preachers, for he knew
all things; as ST. Peter was silent or non
commital, and st. Paul on both sides of the
question, it will not hurt to let a woman
spread herself in the pulpit if she 80 desires
1t may be the means Of working up many
dull, dry and prosy ministers of the male
gender. R.M.O.
+. o. Hoffman, editor Times, Rocky
Mount Va writes. az am y1laaaad IN COW