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Commentator: Frances Power Cobbe

Consecrated Womanhood

Consecrated Womanhood

A Sermon

PREACHED IN

The First Congregational Church

PORTLAND, OREGON

FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE

FRANCES POWER COBBE

NEW YORK

J. O. WRIGHT & COMPANY

Introductory Notice

To those who have long lamented the prevailing tendency in Christian churches to deny to women the honors and responsibilities of sacred offices and duties, such a sermon as "Consecrated Womanhood," written by an American clergyman is like a breadth of fresh air in Neapolitan church-buildings that have never known the beauty of sunlight, and the atmospheres of which have grown heavy through the centuries with the oppressive weight of suffocating incense.

The preacher opens his discourse with the statement that "the Bible honored woman when every other book was blind to the true dignity of her character." Scholars differ, and little is certain when we go back far enough in the ancient writings of our race. But I think there can be no doubt that in all the earliest literatures of which we have knowledge, the thought of the world was more favorable to the development of womanly independence, than in later compositions, especially such as have come from patristic and monastic sources. Certainly we find the great Greek tragedians unfolding their noblest ideals in the character of an Alcestis, and expressing through the lips of an Antigone their loftiest conceptions of virtue, and their purest and bravest ethical teachings. The Jews did not stand alone, as this eloquent sermon clearly shows, in honoring woman; but the Old Testament is devoid, as its most careless reader cannot but see, of all that wretched admiration for feminine feebleness of mind and body which seems to have sprung from masculine vanity, and has been fostered by centuries of priestly instruction and popular superstition. As the most illustrious Jewess now living, Lady Battersea, wrote in her admirable book some years ago, when she was Miss Constance de Rothschild, "The ideal woman of the ancient Israelite was always strong and fearless--a Miriam, a Deborah, a Judith, an Esther. Not a word in that older Bible denies to woman the right to exercise every power of speech or action granted her by Jehovah."

Nothing assuredly can be more broadminded or more generous than Dr. Marvin's whole treatment of the claims of women, whether in politics, in the religious life, or in the domestic circle. In my humble opinion it would do infinite service in awakening thought and dispelling prejudice, could the sermon on "Consecrated Womanhood" be preached in every church and chapel in England. The good Quakers alone, so far as I know, have no need for its admonition.

FRANCES POWER COBBE.

Hengwrt, Dolgelly, North Wales, June 21, 1903.

Consecrated Womanhood

It is the peculiarity of the Bible that it honored woman when every other book was blind to the true dignity of her character and the royal possibilities of her nature. The old Testament exalted her not only as wife and mother, but as citizen and ruler, and some of the most stirring songs and daring deeds of patriotism are recorded in the Bible to the honor of woman. Her inspired pen is immortalized in the Word of God, and if it be not meet that her voice sound from the halls of Congress, it is a fact of history that it was heard on the field of battle and in the chamber of justice more than three thousand years ago, when, by the mouth of Deborah and the hand of Jael, the Lord delivered Israel from the power of the spoiler. She may not be thought competent to have part in framing the laws of a State, but she was competent to judge the chosen people and to mould the character of the world's Redeemer.

The conservative who would obstruct the wheels of progress endeavors to accomplish his end by an appeal to the Bible. Sacred Scriptures were represented as the friend of slavery; they are now cited in defense of Papal idolatry and Mormon impurity; and how often we hear them quoted against the emancipation of woman. But the Bible is the most radical book in all the world, and its maxims of wisdom and virtue are in advance of every age. Whatever has been accomplished for the improvement of woman's lot may be traced to its hallowed influence. "It found her the slave of man's appetite in the East, the servant of his cupidity in the West, and the victim of his cruelty in the South," and it broke the chain that bound her soul in darkness and the social fetters that linked her womanhood with dishonor.

We have in the Bible pictures of womanly tenderness and nobleness, and also of womanly debasement unequaled in secular literature. I know how exalted are the women of Homer--"The Heroes' Battle-Prize," "The Heavenly-Minded," "The Sought-For," "The Sister of Heroes," "The Widely-Praised," "Ruling by Beauty," "The Far-Thoughted," "The Hospitable," "The Ship-Guider," and "The Web-Raveler"--names that indicate the queenly beauty of the women who bore them; but I search Iliad and Odyssey in vain for one trace of that glorified character, sublime self-sacrifice and unwavering faith which "crowned the daughters of Israel and made them daughters of Jehovah." On the other hand, Shakspeare's "Lady Macbeth" is weakness itself when compared with Jezebel, who from the harem of Ahab mounted with blood-stained feet the throne of God's chosen people, and there defied the majesty of heaven. How cold, cruel, implacable and lost to all that is human was that accursed daughter of murder, whose crimes were far greater in number and turpitude than those of her infamous father Ethbaal. We hear from her lips no cry,

"Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here; And fill me, from crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood, Stop up the access and passage to remorse That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose!"

Her entire nature was not only unsexed, but dehumanized. In her "woman's breasts" the milk was turned to gall.

And there is the other Deborah, a prophetess and judge in Israel--the woman divinely illuminated. I turn to the fifth chapter of Judges, and read a song she wrote long before the gods of Greece held sacred counsel upon snowy Olympus--centuries before the lyric muse took up her abode beneath the shadow of the Parthenon. To what glorious victory she led the hosts of the Lord when the enemies of Israel perished among the "oaks of the wanderers."

"After the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, After the Helper's days, The highways were deserted, The traveler went in winding ways. Deserted were Israel's hamlets, deserted, Till I Deborah rose up--rose up a mother in Israel."

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.

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, Phoebe, 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.

"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."

Miss Blake elsewhere answers, it seems to me with reason and justice, the oft-repeated objection to co-education, founded upon the imaginary danger of a too early romance and a hasty attachment, followed by an unwise and to-be-repented-of marriage:

"There is something in the association of every-day life which appeals to the judgment rather than to the fancy, and weeks and months of steady labor over the same problems, or at the same sciences, will not be more likely to create romances than casual meetings at f?tes and balls."

But I turn from the secular and civil aspect of the subject to inquire what service woman may render the church, and here I am confronted by another question it would be difficult to answer: What service has she not rendered? Our churches, most of them, will not ordain her to the ministry, and yet do they not derive their spiritual life from her influence? Could they exist without her effort and faithful service? Who preached the first Christian sermon, and proclaimed to an unbelieving world, "He is risen from the dead!" if not the women who ran with great joy from the empty sepulcher, bearing with them a license to preach from the Christ himself, given through the Angel of the Resurrection, who said, "Go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him?" That was a very short sermon and had no text, but no pulpit rhetoric and no Sunday oratory will ever eclipse its sublime eloquence. If priests received their commission to preach from the Apostles, the Apostles received theirs from the women who mourned at the sepulcher and found it empty. Women can better afford to remain out of the pulpit than the pulpit can afford to exclude them. When the Christ shall return and His kingdom be established forever, the nations shall hear once more the old Easter sermon first preached by a woman, "He is risen from the dead!" The most tender and faithful friendship our Saviour ever found in his weary and painful pilgrimage upon earth burned in the heart and shone in the life of a noble and consecrated woman.

"Not she with trait'rous kiss her Master stung, Not she denied him with unfaithful tongue; She, when Apostles fled, could danger brave-- Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave."

And if the church was cradled in the arms of Mary, have not the daughters of Mary been singing to the child Jesus all along the ages? It was Charlotte Elliott who wrote, "Just as I am without one plea," and Mrs. Adams who gave the church that immortal hymn, "Nearer, my God, to Thee." "Fade, fade, each earthly joy," "I need Thee every hour," "Lord, I hear of showers of blessing," "I think when I read that sweet story of old," "I love to tell the story," and "How blest the righteous when he dies"--all these were written by women. What sweet singers chant cradle hymns to the child Jesus--Felicia D. Hemans, Joanna Baillie, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Eliza Cook, Mrs. Baxter, Mrs. Codver, Mrs. Bonar, Mrs. Barbauld and the Cary sisters. If wise men came from the East with gold, frankincense and myrrh for the infant Redeemer, wise women are coming every day from all parts of the earth with gifts of heavenly song.

The success of every church depends in large measure upon the consecration of its women. I never knew a church in which there were not more women than men; they constitute the majority in every religious meeting; and it would seem as if fifty women go to heaven for every man who makes even a moderate effort to get there. It was the service of faithful and active women that saved Israel in the hour of national peril. "When the men of Israel," to employ the language of another, "bowed in helplessness before Pharaoh, two women spurned his edicts and refused his behests. A father made no effort to save the infant Moses, but a mother's care hid him while concealment was possible, and a sister watched over his preservation when exposed on the river's brink. To woman was intrusted the charge of providing for the perils and wants of the wilderness; and in the hour of triumph woman's voice was loudest in the acclaim of joy that ascended to heaven from an emancipated nation." The same womanly courage, patience, love, tact and wisdom must be the hope and strength of modern Israel.

The men who have accomplished most owe much to woman's influence. From her counsel the hero derived his courage, and in her approving smile received his reward. The great poems of the world are, many of them, from her inspiration. Blanche of Lancaster lives in the antique English of Chaucer, Laura in the sonnets of Petrarch, and Beatrice in the Divina Commedia of Dante; and who can look upon the marbles of Michel Angelo and not behold the influence of Vittoria Colonna? In all literature there is not a nobler sonnet addressed by man to woman than this which Michel Angelo laid with bowed heart and reverent hand at the feet of Vittoria Colonna:

"The might of one fair face sublimes my love, For it hath weaned my heart from low desires; Nor death I heed, nor purgatorial fires. Thy beauty, antepast of joys above, Instructs me in the bliss that saints approve; For, oh! how good, how beautiful, must be The God that made so good a thing as thee, So fair an image of the heavenly dove. Forgive me if I cannot turn away From those sweet eyes that are my earthly heaven; For they are guiding stars, benignly given To tempt my footsteps to the upward way; And if I dwell too fondly in thy sight, I live and love in God's peculiar light."

"The eternal womanly Draws us upward and onward."

Great is the power of consecrated womanhood in domestic life. It has been shown by able writers that boys who have sisters, and grow up in their society, are more likely to develop into strong and noble men than boys who are deprived of woman's influence. Whatever separates man from woman separates both from God. The great objection urged against social clubs is that they destroy domestic life by isolating the sexes; they furnish an amusement for the husband in which the wife cannot participate. Open the social club to both sexes, and its evil tendency is removed.

Then there is the marriage relation. How many wedded lives come to failure through ignorance. Men and women assume the most sacred responsibilities without preparation, and with no knowledge of themselves nor of each other. We say in the marriage service, "What God hath joined together let not man put asunder;" but when God does not join, is there anything to sunder? Passion dies, novelty disappears, youth fades, and unless love be founded upon an intelligent and mutual esteem, shall it not also crumble? It has been said, "one cannot be at once lover and friend," but you may be sure one will not long remain the former who is not as well the latter. We need to cultivate friendship. Passion will come and go like the shadows of clouds over the smooth surface of a lake, and no love is abiding without friendship. He was right who exclaimed, "They who are joined by love without friendship, walk on gunpowder with lighted torches in their hands!" They who build love upon the foundation of mutual esteem--

"Make life, death, and that vast forever One grand, sweet song."

How shall we strengthen love that it may endure when the fires of youth and passion are cold? Only by the cultivation of those noble virtues which like bands of steel weld together in one life and faith honest and pure hearts. How shall two hearts grow old together? Only by the persistent cultivation of those qualities which are ever young and which age not with declining years. The young man will not be guilty of an act tainted with meanness or baseness lest the maiden he loves blot his image from the pure heaven of her heart; let the young husband and wife cherish the same fear and honor, and they shall grow nearer and dearer as the years silver their brows. The happiness of marriage depends upon the very highest and most delicate of reserves, the most noble and careful speech, the best and most honorable perception; upon a kindness greater than that of a mother to her child.

The supreme glory of consecrated womanhood lies in the consecration itself. The love of God makes every other love immortal. What love through Him we give to others is forever. Only as we consecrate our lives to the Divine Love can we hope to become heavenly-minded; and they only consecrate themselves to the Divine Love who, in imitation of our Saviour, give heart and hand to the service of mankind. There is a fable that four young ladies, disputing as to the beauty of their hands, called upon an aged woman who had solicited alms, for a settlement of the dispute. The three whose hands were white and faultless had refused her appeal, while she whose fingers were brown and rough had given in charity. Then the aged beggar said: "Beautiful are these six uplifted hands, soft as velvet and snowy as the lily: but more beautiful are the two darker hands that have given charity to the poor." Learn the lesson of consecrated womanhood. In olden times, when the children of Israel prepared the Tabernacle in the wilderness, "all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair." The wise-hearted women of to-day are the daughters of modern Israel who from the love of God serve faithfully the great family of mankind.

Footnote:

It may be a matter of interest to some who read this sermon to know who was the first woman to graduate from an American college. In an article on "The First Female College" , in the "Century" for May, 1890, Mr. H. S. Edwards states that he has been unable to obtain the name of any woman who graduated at Oberlin in 1838. An Oberlin College catalogue, however, gives the name of Miss Zeruiah Porter as the graduate of 1838, and therefore the first graduate of an American college. Miss Porter graduated in the so-called literary course, which did not include Greek. In 1841, Miss Mary Hosford, Miss Elizabeth S. Prall, and Miss Mary C. Rudd took the degree of A. B. at Oberlin.

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