Evening star., 1896-01-28
WOMAN AND THE BIBLE
Miss Hamm Discusses the Question Of
Mr.. Stanton's Book.
The Relations of Women to the
Church-Denial of Her Right to
Take Part In Cove etnment.

Morgher1ta Arlfna ftZmm, granddaughter
of the late Bishop Spencer and the editor
of the woman's department of the New
York Mail and Express, is friend Of Mrs.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and has given
the latter's W/nan's Bible considerable
attention. Shy says: "The title is some
what a Elisnomer, and gives the impression
that a woman or women have made a
new translation or version of the Scrip
lures, when such is not the case. In fact,
the opposite extreme has been adopted
and many of the conclusions of modern
scholarship which have not been accepted
by Christians unanimously have not been
used. 1t is simply the good old Bible of
our childhood and Of our ancestors which
is referred to in the title.
Ihere is no attempt made to attack,
change or modify it. All that is done is
merely to comment upon the sacred pages.
Bible made from woman's point of view.
Why there should be any objection to such
work l cannot fathom, except where 1t
comes from people who believe that women
should not be taught the alphabet and
should have no opinion or knowledge upon
anything outside of the kitchen and the
dining room. There are hundreds and
even thousands Of commentaries by men,.
Many of these are OF the highest excel
lence and make noble and spiritual read
ing. Many Of them are the rankest nom
sense and make the judcious grieve and
the religious panied. Take, for example,
the Rev. Mr.. Miliers commentary, which
demonstrated that the world was coming
10 an end forty years ago and induced
4o,OOo misguided men and women to sit
upon the roof all night in long white
gowns, waiting for the last trumpet to
sound.
The Wilde Church.
1T was inordinately foolish, and yet 1
do not remember that either Mr. Miller or
his disciples were ever denounced by any
body. l recall the Rev. Dr. Wilde, who
made a commentary, in which he proved
that we were the lost ten tribes of Israel
and who started a poor little church, called
the Church Of the Primitive Identity, to
em5ody his views. Any one with the
slightest knowledge of philology, ethnol-
oSy, archaeology or history or Jewish bt-
era ture knew that the Wilde theories were
SO IN TACT as well as name, and that the
thing was a mass of pitiful ignorance, and
yet no one denounced Mr.. Wilde and his
handful of followers. Bishop Williams of
Rhode Island, in the last century, wrote a
commentary, in which he showed that the
Indians were the lost ten tribes and only
recently 1 received for literary review a
small book from London from the Rev Dr.
Baxter, who claims that the Bible predicts
earthquakes, wars, outburst of the
Spanish 1nquis,tion, wholesale poisoning
and the physical ascension of IA, 600 Chris
tlans between the present time and 1905
Baxter has been doing this now for MANY
years. Why, therefore, should anybody de-
nounce Mrs. Stanton, even were her
writings upon the low, imbeciie par of
these men?
"As a matter of fact her commentary is
that of a great-hearted, sweet-natured, de-
Vout and enthusiastic Christian woman
and expresses the views that hundreds of
thousands of women have felt heretofore,
but did not care or dare to express in
writing Her views harm
injure no ones faith. Read as they de-
serve, they are bound to improve the reader
They arouse an interest in the Bible, and
incite many women to study it critically
They do more than this; they try to drag
people out of their untruthful mode of look
ing at the Scriptures. There are thousands
of good people who read the Bible as if it
were a fairy tale, and never seem to think
that it is a record Of human beings like
ourselves, that 1t is story of human life,
OF human joy and sorrow, of power and
poverty, of right and wrong, just as life is
today. To them the Bible is dead book:
whereas in reality 1t is alive and thor
oughly vitaliZed. Mrs. Stanton's commen-
tary will also call attention to the literary
skill and finish which makes our Bible one
OF the masterpieces of human speech.
Mans Ingrntftude.
81 admit it Is bound to clash with one ele-
ment in our community, which consists Of
those who deny all Office and position to wo-
man within the church. They wish her 20
sing, pray and worship, to attend church,
Sunday school, prayer meeting and lecture,
to CALL nurse, teach and aid, to give her
time, thought and money to support the
church and make it success, but when
this is done there is no gratitude, there is no
recognition of her work, but, on the con-
trary. the men who have done nothing write
long reports, claiming for themselves the
credit for all that has been done and go to
conventions and synods with the prestige
which does not belong to them. Mrs. Stan
ton calls attention to the fact that women
held a place in the religious world from the
earliest times and with the advent of Chris
tianity she became a factor in church life
The single case of Phoebe, who was the first
great deaconeSS Of record, and after whom
tens of thousands of deaconeSseS patterned
their lives in the first eight centuries of our
faith, is sufficient to make every woman
realize the injustice with which she is treat
ed today by many Christians.
Women in the Church.
who prohibit women acting as delegates,
seem to realize that the " ord deacon means
"a servant and that the women who do
serve a church thoroughly are deacons in
fact if they are not in name. These are
the men who never realize that the Empress
Katherine was the head of the magnificent
Greek Church, that Queen Elizabeth was
the head of the Anglican Church and that
Queen Victoria today is the head of the
Anglican Church in her own empire and of
the Episcopal Church throughout the world.
Even were this book of Mrs. Stanton's
grossly inferior, it would have done a good
thing in arousing interest in the Bible and
biblical study. There are too many nominal
Christians who do not even possess Bible,
or, possessing one. never open it's pages or
confine their reading to few passages
NJ IN 10 Of
their own. If people of these classes are in
duced by the book to undertake the critical
study of the Scriptures, 1t will be a good
thing for the individual, the church and
society at large