Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-12
WOMEN AND CHURCH.
Bessie Bramble Takes DR.. Talmage to
Task as to His Facts.
NEW YORK CONFERENCE DEBATE.
Freedom of Pagan Days Compared With
the Prejudice of To-Day.
WHAT THE FUTURE HAS IN STORE
lwRITTEN FOR THE D1sPATcH.I

iwRTTTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.1
In his sermon last Sunday DR.. Talmage
asks with emphasis: "Oh, woman, where
are your chains today" If he reads the
papers and takes in the fact that last week
the women of Massachusetts, sustained their
twenty-fith defeat in their demand for free
dom at the hands of the Legislature, he
will, perhaps, become aware that some of
the most intelligent women are not satisfied
with bracelets of gold and necklaces of sill
yer. If he can put himself in their place,
he will perhaps have some idea of what
gals them.
The women of this country want the very
same thing that the men resolved to fght
for in 1776-political freedom. "What is
it that the gentlemen wish?" said Patrick
Henry. "What would they have? Is life
SO dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased
at the price of chains and slavery?" When
the women of the United States 90 up to
the halls of legislation year after year and
| petition for representation in the Govern
ment under which they live; when they
protest against taxation without their con-
sent, they have precisely the same wrongs
to be righted, the same chains and slavery
to endure of which Patrick Henry, and
John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, and
| George Washington SO energetically COM
planned.
The King Georges of To-day.
George III. thought the men of America
had all the rights that were good for them,
just as Talmage and the other brethren
think to-day that women have no wrongs to
complain of. II freedom is good for men, it
10 Iaau for iof arNIa
for women. but q city is made up of homes
aud it concerns women greatly that
there should be good clean streets; that con-
ditions should not exist that are detrimental
to health or morals; that law should be re-
spected and good order maintained. They
pay millions of money in taxes to this end,
and they are denied any voice or vote as to
how these taxes should be expended. DR..
Talnage may not consider this hardship,
but perhaps if he himself were denied such
right or privilege he might feel there was
something wrong about it.
The stern opposition women meet in the
churches, if they presume to think they
would like to DO something beyond
raising money for their support by
fairs and tea parties, working for missions
and collecting contributions for sending the
parsons to Europe, cooking and setting up
dinners for presbyteries, conferences and
conventions. is we'll known. In the
debate in the New York Methodist Confer
enee last week Rev. Delos Lull asserted that
sit would be violation of Gods and
natures constitution to admit women as
delegates to the General Conference. This
is dogmatic uttersnce, not an arg rgument,
but ne evidently thinks he knows all about
it.
II Susannah Wesley We're Alive.
=
Methodism, was alive to-day she would not
be admitted into the Conference; she would
not be permitted to become a regularly Or
dained preacher in its pulpits; she would
have it borne in upon her that her business
in the church was to raise money for the
heather, to do such unpaid-for work that
men did not care to do. to keep her head
shut, and when the Conference was in ses-
sion to see to it that the clergy were set up
with good dinners.
As we read her story, Susannah Wesley
was better fitted to be preacher of right
business than her reverend husband, who
forbade her to read prayers and sermons to
her children and neighbors, because it
seemed to be in the nature of public
function. These meetings were continued
for some time, and DR.. Clarke writes "that
God had done more in a few months by her
irregular ministry than he had done by that
Of the rector and his eurates for 1s years be-
FORE"
The Women In the Galleries.
1t must have been rather bitter pieee of
humble pie for the good Methodist sisters in
the gallery to hear the speeches of the boys
they had raised, and of the men they sup
ported in the pulpits in opposition to their
admittance to the councils of the church,
on the score Of their being women, and
tn ho ahY1f huo q nf fa fo~
lack Of intelligence, or piety, but simply
because of their belonging to the persuasion
that wears petticoats. However, that 60
voted in favor of the admission of the sisters
Is great gain. It shows that prejudice is
giving way, even in New York, where
Brother Buckley-who voices the Metho-
dists in the New York Christian Advocate
shows himself to be dead sot agin"
Frances Willard and the foremost women Of
the denomination.
But notwithstanding the efforts Of the
reverend brethren to keep the sisters in sub
lection in the church, the world moves. On
all sides are to be seen the evidences of
the coming change for women that
will make the daughters of the peo-
pie American citizens. It should make
the good men Of this country blush to think
that the rights-freely accorded to the most
depraved criminals, the most besotted Doors
are denied to their own mothers, wives
and daughters, in all except one State of the
Union.
Back to Pagan Days.
DR.. Talmage is plainly not posted in the
early history of the church, and still less, it
would appear, as to the condition of women
under paganism. Does he forget that when
masculine power was strongest in the
church, women by the decree of Council in
578 were forbidden to receive the sacrament
into their bare hands on account of their i'm
purity? Does he fail to remember that they
were forbidden to sing in the churches on
account of their sinfulness; that
boy cnoirs are survival of this
ecclesiastical idea? In his statement
that Sin lands where there is no Bible
woman is hitched like beast of burden to
the plows, she carries the hod, she submits
to indescribable lndignities" does he forget
that it is in the land of Luther-Germany-
in Christian Europe, that women are hitched
to plows and carts, and carry the hod, and
even in Pennsylvania, where there is no
lack of Bibles certainly, that they break
stones on the road because it pays better
than housework at nothing day.
It is not lack OF Bibles or Christianity
that forces European women into such en-
ployments, but rather the lack of men
caused by their being drafted into the stand
ing armies which are maintained in coun-
tries where the gospel of love and peace il
industriously taught in theory, but where
the rules of force, of hatred and self interest
are in common practice.
VIII Not Accept Untruths.
r II -