" It is
manifest that the design of God was, that there should be an equal
fidelity on the part of both man and wife.
But, as ages rolled on, the depraved appetites of sinful mankind desired
a different ordering of the affairs of life. In the Jewish Commonwealth,
the rabbis became less and less favorable to the just rights of women,
especially after their people began to intermix more freely with their
idolatrous neighbors; their precepts were assimilated more fully to
those of the heathen; and for doctrines, the commandments of men were
taught instead of the pure law of God.
History proves that woman sometimes took a very prominent part in the
public affairs of the Jewish nation. But, while not attempting to
disprove the statements which are therein recorded, there are many who
make light of any mention of the public labors of these women.
Sometimes, indeed, the talents and usefulness of these women, and of the
earnest women of our own day, are admitted after a fashion; but it is
done in such a way as, in reality, to belittle the sex as much as
possible. They are considered as occupying the same relation to men that
the moon does to the sun, and all that is desired of them is to reflect
a borrowed light. If she be unable to reflect a light when there is none
to borrow, what then? Even in religious matters, she is judged to be
incapable of taking any public part, though she may be ever so well
informed and pious, and those of the opposite sex in her vicinity ever
so deplorably ignorant and wicked.
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