But the question is, whether the actual condition of women did or did not indicate the lordly views of their husbands, and a general state of slavish subordination? What can be said to the practices of polygamy and concubinage, which prevailed even in these golden times and in pious families? Do they evince any proper estimate of the character of women? or have they not an evident tendency to degrade them? Does not their very institution assert the subserviency of the one sex to the will and pleasure of the other? [[113]] The state of women may not only be inferred under such circumstances, but is clearly seen. Wives possessed no other advantages over concubines than the right of inheriting; and domestic unions were formed without any reference to the nobler felicities of social intercourse. Hence infertility not only excited dislike, but was held to justify repudiation. In the earliest ages, marriage was not only very unceremonious with regaird to the mode in which it was conducted, but this important union was arranged without any previous agreement between the parties, and wives were often purchased. Men had the right of annulling all the oaths and engagements of their daughters and wives, if they had, not been present when they were contracted. "We can discover," says Segur, "in these first ages, nothing worthy of the title of 'golden,' which has been applied to them. Abraham and Isaac were continually afraid of being assassinated for their wives; and the oath which they enacted from their neighbours not to attempt their lives, savoured little of a golden age."
Under the Jewish theocracy the Levitical law appointed a variety of regulations which evinced their imperfect emancipation from a state of inferiority. They were in particular subjected to the trial of the waters of jealousy, not only in cases of real departure from conjugal fidelity, but when a suspicion existed in the mind of the husband, even though it were without any foundation: and there were cases in which misconduct of a similar natute exposed them to be stoned to death. The doctrine of vows also, in the cases of daughters, wives, and widows, corroborates the general argument, by evincing the marked subordination of the woman to the man. "If a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house in her youth; and her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds, wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered aught out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her in the day that he heard it: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard it; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the Lord shall forgive her. But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her. And if she vowed in her husband's house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath; and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them; then whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband hath made them void; and the Lord shall forgive her. Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void. But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which are upon her: he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them. But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard them, then he shall bear her iniquity."
From the dark and deeply shaded back-ground of the picture of female degradation, formed by the facts which have now been adduced, and which might easily be corroborated by an immense accumulation of evidence, Christianity is brought forward with conspicuous prominence, and in all her gracefulness. The contrast is at once striking and affecting: the moral scene brightens upon the view as we contemplate this attractive figure combining majesty and mildness--fascination in her smiles and heaven in her eye.
The superiority which the religion of Jesus has secured to women above the state of barbaric degradation, Mahometan slavery, and Jewish subjection, proclaims the glory of that system, which has already meliorated society to its minutest subdivisions, and will eventually transform the moral desert of human being into a paradise of beauty and bliss. The argument, however, will be seen with more distinctness, by the following brief detail.
1. The personal conduct of the divine Author of Christianity, tended to elevate the female sex to a degree of consideration in society before unknown. During the life of our Lord, women were admitted to a holy familiarity with him, attended his public labours, ministered to his wants, and adhered to him with heroic zeal, when their attachment exposed them to insult, danger and death.
Immediately after the marriage of Cana in Galilee, where he attended with his mother, he accompanied her with his brethren and disciples to Capernaum. That excellent spirit, for which he was remarkable from his earliest years, continued to influence his mind in maturer life, and taught him justly to appreciate and perfectly to exemplify the domestic and social duties. He did not scruple to converse with a Samaritan woman, who came to draw water at Jacob's well, though his disciples, in whose minds Jewish prejudices continued to prevail, expressed their astonishment at his condescension. Never was there so fine a specimen of patience, gentleness, and humility, blended with true dignity, as upon that remarkable occasion. He instructed her ignorance, endured her petulance, corrected her mistakes, awakened her conscience, converted her heart, and eventually honoured her as a messenger of mercy and salvation to her Samaritan friends. At another time, when the disciples rebuked those who brought their little children to him, that he might put his hands on them and pray, he kindly interposed; and evincing the most sympathetic tenderness towards the solicitudes which, on such an occasion, would necessarily pervade the maternal bosom, he said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven: and he laid his hands on them." On various occasions, when he performed some of his most illustrious miracles, females were personally concerned, and shared his distinguished notice and condolence. Such particularly was the case when he met the funeral procession at Nain: it was that of a young man, represented in the simple and affecting language of the evangelist, as "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." The meeting was apparently casual; but Jesus was instantly and deeply impressed with the circumstances: he in particular felt compassion for the weeping parent--addressed her in kind and gentle terms--remanded the spirit from its eternal flight, to inhabit again for a season the body from which it had so lately departed, and delivered the reanimated youth to his mother. He blended his tears with those of Martha and Mary, at the sepulchre of their brother; and after instructing them upon the subject of the resurrection from the dead, restored him to their wishes and affections." Women "ministered unto Jesus of their substance,"--"the daughters of Jerusalem" bewailed him when he was led to crucifixion--and the "women that followed him from Galilee were deeply interested spectators of his sufferings, observed his sepulchre, and prepared spices and ointments. It was Mary Magdalene who enjoyed the honour and happiness of a first manifestation after Jesus was risen from the dead, and she was commissioned to go and inform the rest of his sorrowing disciples. "The frequent mention," says Doddridge "which is made in the evangelists of the generous and courageous zeal of some pious women in the service of Christ, and especially of the faithful and resolute constancy with which they attended him in those last scenes of his suffering, might very possibly be intended to obviate that haughty and senseless contempt, which the pride of men, often irritated by those vexations to which their own irregular passions have exposed them, has in all ages affected to throw on that sex, which probably, in the sight of God, constitute by far the better half of mankind; and to whose care and tenderness the wisest and best of men generally owe and ascribe much of the daily comfort and enjoyment of their lives."
2. As the conduct of Christ naturally induced his disciples to imitate the example of their illustrious Master, the subsequent admission of women to all the privileges of the Christian Church, tended exceedingly to confirm their elevation, and evince their importance in society. When the primitive converts to the Christian faith wished publicly to avow their dereliction of heathen idolatry, and their emancipation from the bondage of Judaism, by being baptized in water, both sexes were admitted without distinction to this solemn rite. At a very early period of the primitive church, when the city of Samaria received the word of God by the preaching of Philip, which with its accompanying miracles, diffused an universal joy, "they were baptized, both MEN and WOMEN;" and the apostle Paul, in writing to the Galatians, expresses himself in this triumphant strain: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither MALE nor FEMALE, for ye are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus."
Sentiments like these, combined with the practice of an institution so expressive and so remarkable, tended to circulate among the primitive Christians those feelings of respect and affection for women, which, by elevating them to their proper rank in society, must necessarily purify the public morals, meliorate individual character, and ennoble the intercourse of life. Admitted to an equal participation of the privileges of God's house, where every minor distinction is annihilated by the predominance of a diffusive charity, and feeling that their present joys and future destinies were blended with those of the "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling;" the female part of the community rose into importance as rational, but especially as immortal beings.
After the ascension of Christ, the historian of the Acts of the Apostles informs us, that "the WOMEN, and Mary, the mother of Jesus," assembled with the apostles to worship in the upper room at Jerusalem; being equally interested in the great events which had recently occurred, and in the devotional services in which they now engaged. Paul directs Timothy to treat "the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters, with all purity." He also desires him to "honour widows that are widows indeed," and to afford them all proper relief by charitable contributions, a practice for which the first Christians were highly distinguished. Women are represented by an apostle himself as fellow-labourers in the Gospel, assisting them, not only by their example, to which he willingly pointed the attention of the churches, but by their prayers, their visits of mercy, and other similar methods of co-operatiug in the propagation of the truth, and the promotion of individual happiness.