The record-union., 1894-09-19
RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF
WOMEN.

The Rev. John Hemphill asks and at
tempts to answer the question: Has
woman all the rights and privileges
which Christ meant she should have?
There are no positive declarations in
the teachings of the Savior which might
be quoted as concerning this question.
There are no declarations of practical
policy in the teachings of Christ. There
is, however, pure spirituality, which,
when once acquired by men, will lead
them into the ways of truth. Conditions
of the mind and heart are all-powerful as
guides to right conclusions in everything.
He who loves mankind will be far more
likely to arrive at just conclusions as to
what is best for humanity than the mis-
anthrope. The perception of truth arises
out of a spiritual condition which enables
one to perceive the high spiritual truths
possible to human perception.
st. Paul was the author of Christian
theology. Its metaphysical analyses and
theological doctrines are due entirely to
him. st. Paul announced clearly and
unequivocally broad distinctions between
the relative sphere of activity as between
men and women. His oft-auoted declara-
ton that women should keep silence in
public ssemblies-that if they hungered
for knowledge they should acquire that
knowledge only through inquiry of their
husbands at home-means just what it
says and implies vastly more.
1t is the habit of theologians to accept
the obvious meaning of scriptural text
for ages, and then finding the growth of
the world to be away from the teachings
of the text, to attempt by skillful inter-
probation to twist the obvious meaning
into a new shape, SO that the declarations
and the Interpretation are often at wide
variance.
If st. Paul were party to the current
controversy concerning the rights and
privileges of womanhood he could not
be elected delegate to any woman's
rights convention that has been held
within century. This is the plain, SIM
pie truth, and it will be gainsayed only
by species of causistry which is of itself
hypocritical and dishonest.
Religious thought has capacity for
growth, and Christian theology has made
some progress beyond ST Paul. The
very probable truth underlying this mat
ter is that st. Pau's Injunction in the
direction of women keeping silent in
public assemblies was from the stand
point of the conceptions of the time in
which he lived and taught Intellectu-
ally, st. Paul was the giant of Christian
theology. He is the one distinctive the
ologian of the Christian faith, and as such
he has survived all the ages of preachers
and teachers. But theology belongs to
to the world of intellect; religion to the
realm of spiritual development. Re-
Hgion grows by the expansion of the
spiritual powers of men; theology loiters
with the intellectual progress of man
kind.
ISI6 IL AO lll1StdhAAS OI duI L6dcQ-
ings of the rights and privileges of
women. To his conception, their sphere
of intellectual. moral, spiritual and in
dustrial activity had distinctive bounds
and limitations. To his mind there was
an appropriateness in division of all the
realms of human activity, and that divi-
sion was the natural suggestion of sex.
The modern conception is that every hu-
man being has right to engage in such
pursuits and follow such callings, or en-
gage in such intellectual or other employ
meuts as are best suited to their taste;
that this right is common to men and
women. This conception will ultimately
triumph.
.rfNrr nznrn