The San Francisco call., 1895-11-24

record woman mas maze Tor nerSelf there. See
Miriam as she caught up her timbrel ana sang
the song OF nations exultant joy. God
inspired her to do it, and it has come sound
| ing down the ages for four thousand years.
Then there was that great teacher, Deborah
not only teacher, but judge in Israel. She
| was woman of brain as well as of heart. She
was brimful OF courage, She stirred up the
hating old King Barak to throw off the
| Egyptian yoke. Look at Huldah the prophet
| ess, who lived in the time of that lachrymose
old prophet, Jeremiah, who was full OF weep
| in the wisdom of Huldah that he used to send
| his counselors to her instead of jeremiah She
| lived i'll the college at Jerusalem and taught
| the young prophets. She was actually sort
| OF theological professor, and SO far as I know
| her theology was never called into question.
| Hannah was before the Lord in the temple
when she sent up her song of thanksgiving.
| So was it with Anna, the prophecies, when she
| proke forth into praise for the promised Mes.
| siah. Then there were Mary and Martha and
| Salome. The last named did not hesitate to
ask of Jesus that her two sons might have the
| best places in his kingdom. She wanted them
| to be prime ministers-Secretary OF State or
Secretary of War, or something OF that sort.
Then there was Dorcas, full OF good deeds, for
whom everybody wept when she died, and
"the honorable women not few" TO Whom
Paul refers.
"on my handmaidens will pour out my spirit,
and they shall prophecy" There is nothing in
the Gospel that places any limitations to the
rights, and duties, OF women. we near Paul
quoted forever and forever in regard TO women
keeping silence in the churches but we do not
hear that Paul was addressing hlmseH TO
Grecian assemblies, and the Greek idea OF
women's sphere was that she should not rise
above the level of domestic knowledge. She
could not go to the door to welcome her nus
band home, lest some one should see her.
virtuous woman in Greece was an Ignorant.
domestic drudge. Those who were enlightened
were supposed to be of questionable repute. L
wish Pauls commands i'll regard to women
could be explained. when quoted so gl1bly. II
Paul had only known how stupid people would
misinterpet his words he would have said
plainly: at is not best for women to teach,
So say again, the old Bible, justly interpre-
TED, is good enough for me. Human life and
experience is the best commentary on the
Bible. Do Gods will and the doctrine will be
clear. The letter kills the spirit gives life. 1t
is the spirit and not the letter that makes the
Bible so valuable. Whoever would criticize
the Bible must be spiritual, for spiritual things
are spiritually discerned. Finally, the Bible
is not alone in the predominance which 1t
gives to the masculine element. Preachers,
writer's, lecturers invariably use the mascu-
line pronoun-speak of "him'' and say "he.'
1t is but an emblem of history. If this habit
of speech is to be thoroughly corrected through
and through, the "revisers" will find they
have very large job on their hands.
e. r. Ollie says:
The woman's Bible? 1 have not seen it and
can scarcely pronounce judgment from a few
newspaper excerpts, but if they are a fair
sample OF the volume 1t is not likely to add
1Ducn TO the OIL OF OF ScllOi-
arship, and is calculated to do the cause OF
woman's advancement serious damage SO far
as its influence extends. AS well talk OF a
woman's multiplication table. Truth has no
sex.
l think Bible for humanity is better than
mans Bible or woman's Bible. Yet the old
Bible just as we have it, while it is everybodys
book, might be not unity called the womans
Bible, it has done so much more for woman
than for men.
The debt of woman to the Bible is simply
hlo II hac orniI,o tod from he
| tyranny of force and lust, broken the yoke OF
unjust laws, given honor 10 womanhood,
sanctity to maidenhood and wifehood, holiness
Hume says that in the Roman family the
wife was slave with every degradation that
attends slavery. The husband had the power
| of life and death over his wife, she coming in
|, the language OF the law ad manem t.'into the
| HANDY of her husband.
/ But the Roman law, touched by the gospel,
| declared woman mans equal, abolished the
| loose divorce laws that prevailed, and made
the husbands obligation to fidelity and chas-
| tity the same as that OF his wife.
/ Among our ancestors in Northern Europe
| the old Teutonic tribes, from which our Anglo
! Saxon race sprang. a wife was bought and sold
| like any other ehattel. and the husband was
an absolute and irresponsible tyrant, who
might break the limbs or put out the eyes OF
his unhappy wife.
| But ever since Christianity has held sway
| the home comes to its best in Northern Europe,
and the domestic virtues flourish nowhere as
among the Teutonic, Scandinavian and Celtic
races.
| And to-day where the Bible has not gone
| with its humaniZing and refining influence,
! woman is the slave of the stronger sex, branded
| by the sears OF his brutal violence. One OF the
| women revisers alludes to the fact that most
pagan nations to-day deny to women the pos
| session OF souls. In China, while you can
| scarcely buy boy at any price, you can buy a
girl for 10 cents. The market rules there little
| lower than on our Barbary Coast in this City!
The infan tieide OF girls in India ard China
| is an ordinary occurrence; in some provinces
oae-third Of the girls born are murdered
The Koran comm ands wife-beatlng.
| But where the Bible holds sway woman is
! mans peer and equal ''two in council, two
beside the hearth, yoked in all exercise OF
| AS Jesus Christ took the maiden by The hand
and said, Arise" SO he has lifted all woman
! hood to larger, nobler life. He glorifed
| woman hood by being born OF woman; allo ed
one poor outcast woman to weep herself back
| to virtue at his feet, and taught when another
| guilty woman was before him that guilty
woman is no worse than guilty man. In his
| final agony his last look was to his mother, a
work;ng-woman, he: hands hard with toll; his
| lastt 4 was to provide her a home; his last
| word her dear name.
| From the Bible all woman's future enlarge
| ments and emancipations must come. 1t is
| the ethics of the Bible and spirit OF Christi
anity that are yet TO give woman an equal
! place in the councils of state and church.
| II. W. Beecher was consistent advocate of
woman's rights to speak in the house OF Goa,
and on one occasion one of the shrieking sis
| terhood addressed the congregation OF Ply
mouth Church al wearisome length.
| At the close the Plymouth pastor rose and
with significant emphasis said, "Nevertheless,
brethren, believe in women speaking?'
So in spite of womans fool friends and in
spite of the puerilities and hysteria of those
who would put out the light OF Gods word by
which woman has been led to the queenly po-
sition she holds, l believe in woman having,
like the daughters OF Job, an equal inheritance
with their brethren.
Mrs. L. l.. White said:
The effect of new translations, so far as they
vary from the old ones, is and must be to un-
settle belief in the divine origin of the Scrip
lures.
When versions shall sufficiently multiply,
ma jority of the verses and chapters will have
different meanings attached, and faith, the
basis of religion, will vacate her seat and rea-
son will be enthroned. The right to translate
the Scriptures is q natural right of man, and
many persons have exercised it, and no fault
can be found if women do so. If the Bible is q
divine gift it was bestowed for the good of hui
maniiy, and not for the glory OF GCd, and
translation by women Will no doubt render
service to mankind. A woman's Bible, there
fore, will be welcome and useful addition to
the literature of the age, ii for no other
than that of showing the difference between
the times when women believed that they were
destined forever to follow lines assigned them
by the prizes thood, and those of to-day, when
women view themselves reasonable souls,