St. Paul and the Women.

White Ribbon, Volume 6, Issue 65, 1 October 1900, Page 1

St. Paul and the Women.

Ey E. Craft Cobern.

The Bible has been used as a missile to defend all kinds of vagaries and theories. It was thrown at the abolitionists, just as it is hurled at the progress of women to-day, and poor St. Paul in this latter struggle must bear the brunt .of contention. St. Paul was an epitome of a world’s history. He did not antagonize his present by precipitation, nor dwarf the future by narrowness. The ages find room to roll majestically through his tirmamental height of thought. He was in no wise behind his Master in his insight into the possibilities of womanhood and the importance of childhood. Some of St. Paul’s isolated utteiances may be criticised in the light of modern pr >gress, hut a man’s specific utterances must be judged by the general trend of his thought. The epistle to the Romans sounds very modern in its tone of respectful equality used towards his help rs—the women. But in Rome \n mien had larger freedom than in any other country of the time. They made journeys, ruled the home, gave great social entertainment, earned on husin ss, and had many legal rights nowhere else permitted. Here without any detriment to her womanhood, or to the ‘ iuirch, she could teach and take active and public part in the advancement of tin* new religion, for the love of which

she was not only willing to toil and sacrifice, hut for which she as 1 nally died in martyrdom. In ('.re ce, however, a different social code met St. Paul. In that com.try women were secluded. They received no education. If a woman chose education an 1 pub’ici v it wis at the sacri-

fice of her reputation f>r chastity, and if she espoused learning and entered the school of some great teacher she must do it attired as a man. An unveiled face was the recognized sign of unchastity. W hat wonder, therefore, that St. Paul forbade these child-women to cast aside their veils, when it meant disgrace to the new religion ?

But the need of such a command is pitiful. It shows that the breath of i the new religion, fresh as a breeze of i ocean, as it stirred beneath those sultry 1 veils, brought with it a presage of fr ei doin that made those women feel m >re keenly their life of feverish repression. St. Paul, like Christ, never chose to suddenly overturn any harmless custom. Society was to he gradually reformed upon a Christian basis, but such a reformation could he enduring only as it should he stable. Therefore all these minor details of a decadent society, if not right, would of themselves slough off, as the revivifying spirit of Christianity restored it. Thus it is that lie tells these women to conform to the Grecian customs, wear their veils and behave modestly in public, that they may not bring disrepute upon their religion by unnecessary and precipitate reforms. Slaves were told to obey their masters, but that did not mean that slavery should never be abolished. That specific saying was abrogated when the reign of the Golden Rule at last abolished that world-old evil, and the Golden Rule was Christianity. Paul also advised wives to obey their husbands, a command in every way subservient to the interests of those child-women. They knew nothing, practically, beyond their own door. Because Christ had made them free unto eternal life, it did not follow that they could overcome their 'ack of training in

a day or a year and assume the power of judgment and control of aftaiis that comes only by experience and preparation. If St. Paul’s injunction had not been obeyed, anarchy would have stepped into home and social life. Did it never occur to those who are so anxious lest women overstep their proper sphere, that St. Paul has given advice which some of them have tailed to carry out ? See i Cor. vii, 7, 8. Many have married once, twice, yea thrice, and have not had one reproving twinge of conscience. Paul was a Jew, and the word Jew in his day was a synonym for the most abject bigotry ; yet be did not attempt to impose the customs of one country upon another, or of one age upon another age. He did not tell Roman women to wear veils, nor to keep silence in the churches. They were used to power and influence; it would injure neither them nor the nascent religion to face the sun or to speak in meeting. In Greece it was different, and he chose to let the leaven of Christianity work out the social evolution Denver, Col.— Union Sirnal.