ページの画像
PDF
ePub

and the wealthy buy them in multitudes, and shut them up in perpetual imprison.nent. In other countries they are used as slaves while their husbands live, and when their husbands die, they are induced to place themselves upon his funeral pile, to be burned to death. The treatment woman receives from first to last is cruel and inhuman, and her path through life is filled with bitterness and grief.

The gospel of Christ asserts your rights, and teaches men to treat you with respect and tenderness. It teach es parents to receive the female infant as well as the male, as the gift of God; and to rear it and train it with the same care. It gives no countenance to the notion, that woman is inferior to man in powers of mind, or that she is less qualified for works of usefulness. Nothing is claimed for the son, which is not claimed for the daughter: both are commended alike to the best affections and cares of their parents. The regulations respecting marriage, and the precepts respecting marriage duties, all look to the comfort of woman. No man is allowed to have more wives than one; and no man is allowed to put away his wife, except in cases of adultery. All those habits which tend to unfit a man for being a kind and faithful husband are forbidden. Fornication and all uncleanness, intemperate habits and foolish conversation, are all prohibited. The husband is to love his wife, and not to be bitter against her. He is to provide her with food and raiment, and to support her children. He is to love her as himself, and to cherish her as his own flesh. They are to exhort and counsel one another, and to unite as equals in prayer and conversation. The wife is to submit to the husband and give him reverence; but the husband is to give honour to the wife as to the weaker vessel. They are put on the same ground in reference to God and heaven. In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female; all are one in him. They are alike the objects of his love, and they are heirs together of the same promises. It requires the son to love his mother as devo tedly as his father, to revere her authority, to obey her

commands, and to support her in want and sickness and old age. Thus does the gospel throw down and trample in the dust, all the doctrines and laws which filled the world, to the disadvantage of woman. It provides for her preservation when a helpless babe, and for her proper education as she advances in life. It seeks to secure her comfort as a daughter, a wife, a mother and a widow.

Hence wherever the gospel has prevailed, the cir cumstances of women have been improved; and their rights, so long and cruelly withheld from them, have been restored. Men are still to be found who abuse their wives, but they are men who have refused to let the gospel reform and change their hearts. There are still women who are deceived and betrayed, degraded and undone; but it is because the gospel has not been allowed full scope in regulating the affections and behaviour of men, and diffusing its influence through the arrangements of society. Where the gospel is obeyed by men and women, women are beloved and happy; and as the gospel spreads its influence, the wrongs and sorrows of women will every where die away. Fornication and uncleanness, gambling and drunkenness, dancing and theatres, lewd songs and filthy conversation, wicked fashions and customs, gallantry and adultery will all pass away, and be ranked among the plagues of the earth that shall be seen no more. Marriage will be universally respected; its provisions will be embraced, its duties will be discharged, and its blessings will be enjoyed.

It is but right, as the gospel has done so much for you, and promises to do so much more, that you should do what you can for the gospel. You ought to aid its spread in every way you can. You should teach in our sabbath schools, you should carry round our tracts, you should collect for our missions, you should contribute to their support. You ought to honour the gospel by your lives, and to use your influence to promote its triumphs throughout the world. There ought not to be an inactive female in the church of Christ, Every one

should speak and live for the cause of Christ. You ought not to rest till every woman in the world is blessed with christian relatives. The wretchedness of women in China, and Africa, and Hindostan, should burden your souls with godly anxieties, and draw them forth in prayers and labours for their salvation. Your deserted and injured and tormented sisters at home should excite your pity, and call forth your efforts for their good. There is no remedy for woman's sorrows, there is no redress for woman's wrongs, but in the gospel. Gallantry will leave you to despair; forbidden love will consume you as with fire; and infidelity and Socialism will rend your delicate and tender hearts in pieces: but the gospel will bless you and comfort you. It will give you each a friend, and place you in the centre of his heart. It will give you each a home, and fill it with delight and love. It will change your hearts, and preserve them from the pangs of jealousy and fear. It will renew the world, and surround you with another paradise. It will secure you the favour of God while you live, and the blessings of his kingdom when you die. Happy women! blessed wives! joyful mothers! when this heavenly gospel shall pervade the world.

Mr. J. Barker,

I was glad to see in your Reformer articles under the head "Scripture explained;" if the following should answer your purpose 1 shall now and then forward you a few.

DALETH.

Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves,— Matthew 10, 16.

In this passage the Saviour is speaking to his disciples of the dangers to which they would be exposed, in preaching the gospel, from violent and wicked men; and he exhorts them to use all the wisdom they had to disarm their enemies, only to be always careful never to do or say any thing evil to avoid persecution. "Behold I send you forth as sheep among wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves, The following story may illustrate these words :

The late R. Hill, A.M., was once engaged to preach in a town where he expected to be violently opposed, and where it was known that a celebrated pugilist was engaged to molest him; nevertheless, he determined to preach, and had recourse to the following plan, by which he tamed the fero

city of his antagonist. Having ascended the pulpit, and satisfied himself from the appearance of the man that he was not inaccessible to commendation, he beckoned on him to the pulpit stairs, and told him that he was come to preach to those people, in the hope of doing them good-that some opposition had been threatened; that he had been told of his strength and skill in self-defence, and had full confidence in his powers: therefore he should place himself in his hands, rely on his protection, and begged the favour of his company to ride with him in his carriage after the service to dinner! The man felt the compliment; all his animosity was removed; he declared his readiness to defend the preacher, in case of any insult being offered; and was as good as his word. He accompanied Mr. Hill to dinner, and ever after boasted of the honour conferred upon him.

SCRIPTURE EXPLAINED.

Being crafty, I caught you with guile.-2 Cor., 12, 16. Some have supposed that these words were the words of the Apostle, and that he spake them in reference to the way in which he brought over the Corinthians from the service of sin to the service of Christ as if the Apostle should say; You were very reluctant to become christians, but by my skill I caught you unawares in the gospel net. But if any one will examine the whole passage, he may see, that the words were not spoken by the Apostle at all, and that they had no reference to the means he used to bring the Corinthians to Christ. The Apostle is defending himself against the misrepresentations of his enemies, who among other things, had charged him with making money of his office, "I myself was not burdensome to you," says he ;" and when I come again I shall not be burdensome: for I seek not yours, but you. Very true, my enemies will answer, I myself was not burdensome, but being crafty, I caught you with guile." That is, you did indeed take nothing for your labours yourself, when you were here. You were crafty enough to begin on that plan, but when you had once formed a church, you sent other persons who received money, and no doubt they sent you your share. Then the Apostle answers; " Did I then make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus to come, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? Did we not both walk in the same spirit? Did we not both tread in the same steps?" The Apostle therefore does not say he used guile, it is his enemy that charges him with that; the Apostle refutes it. The word guile is always used in scripture in a bad sense, and the Apostles always deny using it on any occasion, They also disclaim all craftiness, though they both used and recommended prudence.

Conversation. The common meaning of conversation is talking, but in scripture it always means behaviour. "Let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ," Phil. 1, 27, that is let your behaviour, the whole of your conduct be in accordance with the precepts of the gospel. "Let your conversation be without covetousness;" that is, let covetousness have no place in your behaviour or character. "Be holy in all manner of conversation ;" in all your behaviour. deemed from our vain conversation, i. e., way of life. In Psal. 37, 14; 50, 23; 2. Cor. 1, 12; Gal. 1, 13; Eph. 2, 3; and 4, 22; Phil. 3, 20; 1. Tim. 4, 12; Heb. 13, 7; James 3, 13; 1. Pet. 2, 12; 3, 1; 2, 16; 2. Pet. 2, 7; and 3, 11; the only remaining places where the word occurs, it has the same extensive meaning.

THE ELEVENTH HOUR.

"Re

People are continually referring to the man who was hired to work in the vineyard at the eleventh hour, as a proof that people may obtain mercy on a death-bed; yet there is nothing in the whole parable to support any such doctrine.

In the first place, the parable has no reference to people repenting and obtaining pardon; it refers to the calling o the Gentiles only. The Jews thought it was not right, that the Gentiles should have the same privileges as themselves, when they had followed the true religion so long, while the Gentiles had not. Christ teaches them that God has a right to bestow privileges on whom he pleases, provided he does no other any injury and that in making the Gentiles rich, he does not impoverish or wrong the Jews. This is the meaning of the parable. It has no reference to God's bestowing either pardon on earth, or rewards in heaven.

:

If it had reference to people obtaining merey at the close of life, the parable would teach this doctrine; That all men will be alike happy in heaven. But Christ could never teach this doctrine, for it is contrary to the whole Bible, which teaches every where, that all men will be rewarded according to their works.

But supposing the parable did refer to people's repentance, it would give no encouragement to those who put off repentance to a sick-bed. The time of sickness and death is not the eleventh hour, nor the twelfth; it is the thirteenth. "Are there not twelve hours, says Christ, in the day?" that is twelve working hours: and again he says, "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work."

In both these passages the day means the working hours, when a man is in health and at liberty; the night means the times of sickness and death, when people are unable to work. Those who were hired at the eleventh hour, had two hours

« 前へ次へ »