Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-28
WOMEN'S NEW SPHERE
Quite q Number of the Sex Are Now
Regularly Ordained Ministers.
THEY WILL NOT BE KEPT OUT.
4 Few Men Of the Cloth Still Inclined to
Oppose the Innovation.
NOT A VERY PAYING PROFESSION
unrrrrr For rn. prspArcr.,

bornly set against preaching BY women than
the distinguished and dignifed rector of
Trinity Church, New York-the Rt Rev.
DR.. Morgan Dix 1t grieves him to the soul
to think that there are such recreant and
''strange women" in the world as those who
imagine they have 'ta call" to teach or to
preach the gospel He hesitates not to SOL
emnly affirm that the Church and the Bible
, are dead set against such usurpation of the
holy Offices
81 suffer not Q woman to teach, nor to
usurp authority over the man, but to be in
silence" is-says Brother Dix-not to be
taken as merely the private opinion Of the
great apostle, but 'tas the mature and per-
petual judgment of the church, and the
mind of God"
This means that Brother Dix-speaking
with authority-knows precisely what the
mind of God is in this matter, and that the
| Judgment of the church as to women keep
ing their mouths shut is to be perpetually
| binding-even unto the end of the world.
If, however, women should prove renegade
to this article of faith and doctrine, then
Brother Dix sadly asserts that nothing can
come of it but Indignation and wrath,
tribulation and anguish.
Down to Question Of Respect.
"with women admitted to holy orders,
or ordained by the laying on of hands to
preach the gospel, baptize babies, and inn
pose upon men and women, for better or
worse, the holy bonds of matrImony, the
result will be nothing short of the destruc-
tion of scciety, the dethronement and de-
| gradation of women" This is the opinion
of the learned brother. unpublished in black
| and white, and furthermore, it is his solemn
conviction that when women enter upon q
| field in competition with men, when they
| push into professions already overstocked,
| it will end-not in enhancing their merits,
or exciting admiration for their talents
in the minds of men-but in
making them, to their brethren, offensive
and detestable. Moreover, the prediction is
ventured that if they 60 too far in such di-
rection, that men having put up with such
manners long enough, and having found
that the sisters are becoming social nui-
sance' and general tormentors, will finally
close all respect for them, and thrust them
away with loathing. and disgust, and bid
them behave themselves, and 60 back to
their old condition of inferiority."
There now, beloved sisters, you have it.
IF you will persist in pushing into forbid
den fields, if you will stick to it that you
have right to exercise your talents in any
line where they seem to fit, if you will
insist upon obeying an inward call to save
souls by preaching from pulpit-upon try
ing to promote health and cure disease by
the practice of medicine-upon aiming to
follow your bent by q study of the law
upon securing place to sell ribbons and
pins, rather than to steam over the wash
tub-upon finding . position as a book
keeper, rather than to clean windows and
scrub floors, then you know what to expect
Not Listening to Brother Dix.
'This is logical necessity" says the
learned brother, but evidently the sisters
have little faith in his prophecies They
take no stock In his direful predictions
Even it it be true that the Church-with
big C-is dead against them, they are
neither dismayed nor driven. back, but move
right on as seemeth unto themselves good.
It really appears as if some women were
losing their respect for "the cloth" and
were no longer distinguished for their
Difference and submission to their spiritual
pastors. In their growing intelligence they
manifest desire to think for themselves |
and to decide for themselves. They show |
disposition to act upon their own knowledge |
and convictions of right rather than to pin |
their faith upon even the dictums of the |
clergy.
Brother Buckley, of the Methodist church,
thinks it dreadful and as tending to upset |
the heaven-ordained order of things for |
Frances Willard to teach and to preach,
but the whole power of the great Methodist
church to-day could not compel her to re-
main in silence. Rev. Anna Shaw, who
felt herself ''called" to the ministry, and is
81 hn .ffo Il Jola
ers of the day, could not be crushed into
keeping her mouth shut by all the ecclesias-
tical authorities in Christendom. Men
think women need religion because it tends
to keep them meek, lowly, patient, long
suffering and self-sacrl6cing, but they for
get, as some one says, that "the strength of
the religious sentiment in Q woman is as
we'll seen when she resists her clerical adj
visers, as when she adores them, or pets
them" Not Calvin, or Luther, Or Wesley,
or even the Pope OF Rome, still less the
smaller fry that compose the general assem-
blies and conferences and presbyteries of
to-day could frighten Mary A. Livermore
out of the pulpit or of the platform.
Women Are Dangerous at Tim-a
In any cause upheld by truth, in any re-
form founded upon justice, in any great
question of conscience women are heroic in
their bravery, and in their devotion to what
they deem the right, and infexible, even in
heir bigotry. In olden times they dis
;inguished themselves among "the noble
army Of martyrs" They showed their
;tanchness and courage as heretics, as
Huguenots, as Quakers, as Puritans and as
Pilgrim mothers They unfinchingly faced
nobs and heroicalIy endured the sneers
md boots and Kisses of the multitude, as |
lbolitionists They showed their spunk,
ortitude and frmness-on both sides-dur-
ng the Civil War, and there need be no
ear that they will fall short of these quali-
les nowadays, however much their efforts
nay be decried and derided even by the
,lergy. 1t is too late in the day for them
% be frightened by predictions dire, and !
prophecies that would perchance make the
lair rise if they were not discounted by the
acts OF daily experience.
just think of it! How must the soul
# our reverend brother be affrighted,
nd his heart be disquieted within
Inn, when he hears that the Rev.
Mrs. Williams is the pastor of the
First Congregational Church of Beloit,
Wis! Will not he, and those who think /
With him feel that destruction draweth nigh
ghen the morning paper informs them that
drs Ada H. Kepley, of Efingham, ILL,
las been ordained to preach the Gospel and
administer the sacraments in the First Con-
regational Church at Shelbyville?
Women Pressing Into the Pulpit.
Their horror will not be; lessened BY the
act stated in the item, that she studied
aw, was admitted to the bar, practiced
nth her husband, but having received "a
ALI she has entered the Church, and val
les her law experience mainly tor the help
gives her in the line of reform, and in
he work of helping humanity. 1t will oc-
aston another shock to the conservative
rethren to learn that Miss Juniata Breck-