What a lovely poem is that of Ruth, and who does not linger with delight over the story of Esther, so royal and so simple, so queenly and so modest?
Turn to the New Testament and see how honored is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Hear the angelic salutation:
Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee. Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever: and of his kingdom there shall be no end. (Luke i:28, 30-33, Revised Version.)
Is it surprising that the name "Mary" is the most popular in all the world, and that nearly a third of the women of France bear it in one form or another? What noble service was rendered to the early churches by the four daughters of Philip the Evangelist, Priscilla who instructed Apollos, Phœbe, Persis, Tryphosa and Tryphena.
The opinion prevails that Providence intended woman to occupy a place of humble dependence; that she is inferior in the composition of her mind and fragile in physical constitution; that she is called of God to lead a life of entire self-abnegation; that she was created as an everlasting sacrifice to man's pleasure and ambition; and that it is her peculiar mission to be wife and mother to an extent to which it is not man's mission to be husband and father. Lord Lytton's dictum is widely received—"A woman's noblest station is retreat." It prevails in the State, robbing her of civil rights, debarring her from the exercise of popular suffrage, and closing against her the door of public office. It permeates society, circumscribing her influence, dispossessing her of individuality, and preventing her from the full and free exercise of whatever taste, talent or genius God has given her. It is in the church, forbidding her to enter the pulpit, restraining her from the important offices of deacon and trustee, and, in some churches, denying her even a voice in the ordinary government of the society.
Men who advocate the subjection of women plant themselves upon the Bible and say to us, "You radicals want to turn things upside down. You have no respect for the settled order of society. You would destroy the divine harmony Heaven has established. You set aside the teaching of the great Apostle who said, 'I suffer not a woman to usurp authority.'" But the Bible is always on the side of progress. Jesus and his immediate followers were innovators, agitators and leaders of public thought and morals. The Jews quoted the Old Testament against them as Southern preachers quoted the New Testament against us when we demanded the abolition of slavery. We must remember that it is the mission of the Bible to lead men and not to follow them. The age that shall overtake the New Testament will be right in discarding it. Open the Bible—what does it teach? "The genuine perfection of humanity, instead of being the forced obedience of one-half to the other half, is the spontaneous obedience of both halves to the law of God. The incomplete statement of Paul, 'I suffer not a woman to usurp authority,' is supplemented by the far deeper words of Jesus, 'Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant.' (Matthew xx.:25-27, Revised Version.) That is the ideal of the future." Neither man nor woman shall usurp authority, but both, in mutual helpfulness, shall yield willing obedience to the perfect law of God. A consecrated womanhood is a womanhood of surrender, not to social prejudices and superstitions, nor yet to political disability, but to Heaven. It is a surrender without defeat and a victory without conquest. A woman may dance a ballet or sing in an opera, but the moment she enters the pulpit to preach a sermon, steps upon a platform to deliver a lecture, or goes to the polls to vote, society rises in indignation and disgust. If a woman may tend as a nurse, why may she not practice as a physician? If a woman has a calling to medicine, divinity, law, literature, art, mechanics, instruction or trade, what law of God prohibits? But is it wise to open our colleges and schools of science to women? Why not? Are they not capable of receiving a liberal education? The part woman has played in ancient and modern history, in the arts and sciences, as well as in political life, constitutes not only an answer to the question, but a positive demand for admission to every department of knowledge and industry. Open all the doors and remove every barrier. Subject girls to the same requirements you exact of boys in colleges, but in all justice and fairness set before them the same rewards. The best educators tell us that some of the finest mathematical students are girls. They read Virgil and Cicero, Xenophon and Homer as well in every way as do young gentlemen. In mixed schools you will find, as a general rule, more girls than boys, and they are found in examination to carry off the greatest proportion of prizes. Wherever co-education has been honestly and competently tried, girls have shown themselves the intellectual peers of their brothers. They have more than held their own. There have been women every whit as well educated as the most learned men of their day, and much better educated than the majority of men in any age. When Elizabeth was Queen of England the languages were an essential element of a lady's education. The daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, to whom was committed the instruction of the young Edward VI., were thoroughly trained in both ancient and modern languages, and in the literatures of many lands and ages. One of those gifted women wrote Latin verses of great beauty; another was, according to Roger Ascham, one of the best Greek scholars of the age, with the single exception of Lady Jane Grey; still another was an accomplished theologian who corresponded in Greek with Bishop Jewell. The distinguished Reiske affixed his wife's portrait to his excellent and famous edition of "The Greek Orators." And in the preface to that work he acknowledged his great indebtedness to her learning and industry. So well acquainted was she with the language and literature of ancient Greece, that she shared with her husband his most profound investigations, and read for him, correcting as she read, the proof-sheets of his book as they came from the press. There is nothing in the constitution of a woman's mind nor in the anatomy of her body to prevent her from following the same studies that occupy the time and attention of young men in an ordinary college course. On the contrary, the duties of the class-room are often far less fatiguing than those of household labor.[A] I believe in co-education. Boys and girls should be brought up together so far as possible. The influence they exert over each other is in itself a great civilizer. The separation of the sexes in church, state, family and school has always been productive of evil, and of evil only.
"The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink
Together, dwarfed or God-like, bond or free."
Miss Sophia Jex Blake, whose opinion in all questions connected with the education of women is of great weight, has thus expressed herself touching the subject of co-education: "That society is most happy which conforms most strictly to the order of nature as indicated in the family relation, where brother and sister mutually elevate and sustain each other.... A school for young men becomes a community in itself, with its own standard of morality and its laws of honor; but in a college for both sexes the student will find a public sentiment not so lenient as that of a community of associates needing the same indulgence."