Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1895-03-15
THE PEOPLES RELIGION.
THE CHURCH A SPIRITUAL MOTHER.

THE CHURCH SPIRITUAL MOTHER.
If the true philosophy Of the church organ
ization is that the church is a spiritual mother,
as is claimed by the Catholic church, then why
in the name of all that is consistent should not
the spiritual motherhood of the church be rep
resented before the world by women instead OF
priests? In other words, if the law of fitness
demands that the political fatherhood of the
state shall be represented in the "high places"
of political authority by man, instead OF wo-
man, then why does not the same law OF fitness
equally demand that the spiritual motherhood
of the church shall be represented in the "high
places" of spiritual authority by woman, IN
stead of man? Why notl 1t is poor rule
that won't work both ways.
woMAN's RIGHTS IN THE SPHERE OF RELIGION.
cit will overturn and overturn, saith the
Lord
"Behold, make all things new"
"Who are these that fly as cloud and as
doves to their windows?'
"Coming events cast their shadows before
What is the coming event that is now casting
its shadow before it? 1t is woman's spiritual
birth or, in the language of to-day, her devel-
opment into the knowledge that, by the primal
right of womanhood, it is the woman, not the
priest, who is the rightful authority in the
sphere of religion, which is 'woman's sphere"
What is the shadow that the coming woman
is casting before her? That shadow is woman's
search after what she deems her rights in the
sphere of politics. When, through her spiritual
development into the full knowledge of her
rights, she shall come to know that it is not the
sphere of politics which is the sphere of pater-
nal authority, but the sphere of religion, which
is the sphere of maternal authority-that IS, III
an especial sense woman's sphere she will then
see that, while she was blindy cropping her
way through the sphere of politics, in search OF
her rights, she was all the time sled in way
and guided by hand that she knew not
When the final history of woman's search
after her rights shall be written whenever that
may be), by that time the world will have come
70 know that her search in the sphere OF poll
tics was mainly educational. By that time the
world will have come to know that during the
wears of their sojourn in the moral wilderness
of politics, the Ghosts of women were but
gathering together preparatory to taking up
their line of march for their true promised
Land" the sphere of religion, which, being
the sphere of maternal authority is, therefore,
womar's sphere.
The standpoint from which to study the
question of human rights is not alone from the
lips of an Individual or of an individual nation,
but from the lips of the race, as well. In the
light of this thought, is it not evident that geo.
logical and astronomical eras must hold the
same relation to the life and development of the
race that the year holds to the life of the indi-
vidual2 To suppose the contrary would be to
assume that, while the life of the individual is
lived under the guidance and protection of law,
the life of the race is ruled over by the god of
chance. "Times and seasons" pertain to the
life and development of the race, as well as the
Individual
Is it not reasonable to suppose that the prin-
ciple of motherhood pertains to the soul of the
universe as we'll as of fatherhood? What else
can be the meaning of the scripture, "Let US
make man OUR image? or, "Shall bring to
the birth and not cause to bring forth2 saith the
Lord"7 In the sphere of physical parentage,
it is not the father, but the mother, who brings