USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. II > Part 10
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Then the gospel should place woman where she was before the fall, on a plane of equality with man. A candid observer will perceive that the further we get away from heathenism, and the nearer to the ideal Bible idea of woman, the higher will be her position. They will also see that the church itself as yet but dimly perceives this fact of oneness or equality in the church, for is it not true women may do the church work, men will do the church governing?
Old Testament
During the Patriarchal age we find Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and the daughters of Zeltro conversing as freely with men as do women of our day. We find women prophesying, as cir- cumstances seemed to require. We read of Moses, the law giver, and Miriam, the prophetess. Some say Miriam was not admitted to the priesthood-neither was Moses allowed to offer sacrifices. She sinned and was punished, just as a
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prophet would have been. But we see the estimate in which she was held, in that the cloud was not lifted, nor did the people march until she was healed.
Deborah was a judge as well as a prophet in Israel, and the Bible does not speak of it as anything strange or won- derful. The queen of Sheba is mentioned, and no comment made that such a thing was out of place. Ruth, the Moabitess, Esther, the queen, and Huldah, the prophetess, are spoken of with no word of censure for women being in these positions. Well may one learned man say, "I find no place in the old testament where women were condemned, because as women they ursurped the place of men." Annie Wittenmeyer says: "Taking the Holy Scriptures for our guide we (women) have found ourselves barred back by its teachings and stern de- crees !"
New Testament
Briefly, let us remember the difference between the Hebrews, Roman and Heathen women. Hebrew women went about the streets and conversed with Christ and the Apostles. The prophetess Anna served in the temple. Women followed Christ. They did prophesy and take part in public meetings. But among the Greeks there were two classes of women. The wives were kept in strict seclusion, and watched, not going about publicly. They were to be wives and mothers, nothing more. But strange as it may seem to us the harlots were edu- cated, as history informs us, and were not allowed to marry; but they were the educated women in Athens, they were the Hetruria, or companions of men. We need to keep this in mind while reading Paul's letters to the Corinthians. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the first honored woman in the New Testament. Next came Elizabeth and Anna, unto whom the
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Lord gave the spirit and gift of prophecy (Luke 1-2). Then the woman of Samaria, the women who followed Christ and "did not forsake him when the Apostles fled." They came first to the sepulcher, and the first commission to proclaim a risen Savior was given to a woman when Jesus said "Go tell, etc." Then we find, on the day of Pentecost, men and women were gathered together, no distinction in regard to sex, and the Holy Ghost fell on both alike and both spake with tongues, and Peter considered this as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, "And on my servants and on my hand- maidens I will pour out, in those days, of my spirit, and they shall prophesy." Of course one would continue as long as the other.
What does prophesy mean? It is to teach (as we call it, preach). Even Dr. Buckley has to acknowledge Paul recog- nized women as Evangelists, and let us remember that this is the same Paul who said, "Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church," and in Tim. 2:11-22, "Let the women learn in silence, with all subjection, for I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over a man." Ah, Paul, if we are to take these words literally, without seeking to account for the seem- ing discrepancy, what are we to do with Phoeba, Mary and Priscilla, Triphena, and Triphosia, who "labored in the Lord?" What of Perrsis, who "labored much in the Lord?" and what did you mean when in Phil. 4:3, you said, "Help those women who labored with me in the gospel?" What was it to be a fel- low laborer in the gospel? And what about the labors of Phillip's daughters as prophetesses? What are we to do with the instructions you give in Cor. that women must not pray or prophesy with their heads uncovered. No censure there against prophesying, but against the uncovered head, which proves to
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us that in these utterances the Apostle was taking into account then, while addressing the Corinthians, the difference between Hebrew women and the Greek educated women, who had been courtesans, (the Hetruria) and was instructing these women to keep quiet, or as Dr. Hayes says, "They were forbidden, where such speaking was by public sentiment looked upon as savoring of impurity," as it then was, in Greece. No such instructions are given in his epistle to the Romans. No such, doubtless, would be given to any church in America, and if any church in America thinks this applies to them, no women in that church should sing in the choir, teach in the Sunday School, or pray and speak in meeting, but should stay at home, and ask their husbands when they returned what was done there, and the poor women who have no husbands, and those who have husbands who do not attend church, will be left out, and might as well, as far as church privileges are con- cerned, live in India or South Africa.
We believe the scriptures are misinterpreted, that women took part in spreading of the Gospel, and that they held offi- cial positions, for was not Phoebe a deaconess of the church at Corinth? There are thirty or forty passages in favor of women's public work, and only two against it, in the Bible. Christ, not Paul, was the source of all spiritual authority. Where did Christ ever forbid women to follow or work for him? But again and again we see him instructing and send- ing them on missions, and of one repentant woman who did him a service, he said, "As long as the world stood, this should be spoken as a memorial of her," and the true interpretation of His Gospel will yet lift woman out of her inferior and sub- ject condition, and make her again the "helpmeet" of man, as first created.
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ISABELLA OF CASTILE BY JENNIE TERREL RUPRECHT.
In this limited article it is impossible to give in detail a history of the difficulties that prefaced the reign of Isabella.
The entanglement of diplomatic affairs, the utter disre- gard of moral obligation, the unhidden disavowal of virtuous principles, were obstacles calculated to severely test the cour- age of a righteous monarch.
When Isabella was removed to the royal palace by her brother, the weak and dissolute Henry the Fourth, she did not forget the religious lessons of her childhood, early begun by a watchful mother. There she shone, a star of chastity, despite her sensual surroundings.
Readers of history will remember that Ferdinand pre- ferred being recognized as the "head of the house." He even hinted a return to Arragon, because, as he took it, the es- sential rights of sovereignty were not vested in himself.
By dint of cleverness, a golden thread that extended all through Isabella's reign, she let him feel his importance with- out compromising the prerogatives of her crown. The fact that their daughter, and only child at that time, might be dis- qualified as their successor, did she listen to him, added such weight to other arguments, as to soothe his injured pride.
Isabella proved herself wonderfully competent in the use of her prerogatives.
Grasping the situation with remarkable acuteness, she pushed into service every facility that might be employed to secure the end sought for.
After a struggle of several years for a rightful supremacy, the "War of Succession" was ended and her rights settled beyond dispute.
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A glance at the administration of Castile must suffice.
In obedience to her mandates was reorganized, recon- structed and reestablished the Santahermanadad or Holy Brotherhood. This, instead of being limited to certain local- ities as formerly, was now extended throughout the kingdom -a system most salutary for leveling crime and vice.
There was something grand in the power Isabella pos- sessed and harnessed into control over others. Look at her as she descends into the court yard of the castle of Legovia and commands the strong portals of the court yard to be thrown open.
Something in the commanding figure, in the clear, search- ing, blue eye, in the calm, earnest face, in the stately poise of the head, something in the whole person speaks, and the word of command is instantly obeyed.
Her glory was not only reflected on occasions like this, but also in her home life. The fact of her being the Queen of Castile, did not cause her to forget that she was still a wife and mother.
One of her first acts after her ascension was to purify her court as far as possible, and thus exalt virtue.
She even watched over the high born maidens brought into the royal palace, supervising their education, still further remembering them with liberal endowments at their mar- riage.
The golden rule was the principle, it would seem, on which her own character was founded.
Still there has never been a life without its mistakes, save that of the Christ.
It is lamentable that the illustrious Isabella should mar her character by yielding to the bigotry of the age and the continued persuasion of the crafty Torquemada insomuch as
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to introduce what was then known as the modern inquisition.
There are other such pages recorded in history wrought out by the misguided zeal of the fair Isabella.
With wonderful foresight she formed plans for a conquest against the Moors as soon as they furnished any pretext for war. The hot-headed Muley Abul Nacen soon gave the op- portunity.
The sequel shows that Christian valor triumphed.
In this long and terrible war, Isabella exhibited the cour- age and strategy of the great warrior general. Her military career was without doubt one of the most brilliant on record.
Had she made an effort to win to the cross those she con- sidered heathen by some one of the many processes of love, there would be less of sorrow to record.
It is said that practically the same pen that drew up the capitulation of Grenada and the treaty of Columbus inscribed the edict against the Jews.
The excuse for this inhuman act is that the blood- thirsty priests overawed Isabella with their fanatical doc- trines, else she never would have consented to measures so impolitic to the interests of her kingdom.
Leaving this dark page, we turn to the intellectual awak- ening in the fifteenth century, known as the renaissance.
With the founding of schools by Isabella, all ages caught the inspiration to achieve as never before. In the brilliant exhibition of talent women vied with men and handled the pen with vigor.
During Isabella's reign, Spain was the only Christian country where ladies were allowed to lecture in universities. This was brought about by the royal suggestions of the queen; but that this idea of giving women any prominence in literary
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or educational work, was borrowed from the Moors is quite evident.
The newly aroused spirit of inquiry also extended along the line of nautical science, in which both Ferdinand and Isabella took a deep interest.
At this favorable hour, Christopher Columbus, of Genoa, Italy, appeared in their midst, a man of sufficient imagination to inspire them to heroic undertaking. The existence of terra- firma beyond the Atlantic had become a settled conviction in his mind. Undaunted by rebuffs received in Portugal, he sub- mitted his proposals to the sovereigns of Spain.
After meeting with disappointments and discouragements here, Isabella, true to her noble nature, finally contemplated the project in its correct light and decided to assume the un- dertaking, although she might find it necessary to pawn her jewels on account of the depleted condition of the treasury.
In less than three months the little armament was ready for the sea, and Columbus set sail for those far off regions he had seen in his day dreams for years.
We can best realize how gloriously realized were the prophetical conceptions of this man.
Columbus made some mistakes, in the new colony, which reached Isabella's ear-grossly embellished, but she still re- mained his faithful friend. Not so, could be said of Ferdin- and after Isabella's death, which occurred soon after Col- umbus' return from his fourth and last voyage.
The untimely death of her son, a grand specimen of man- hood and heir of the United Spanish Monarchies, was a blow from which she never fully recovered. This, followed by other family afflictions, undermined her constitution al- ready impaired by the fatigue and exposure in her efforts to secure what she considered the rights of Spain. Gradually she sank into melancholy from which nothing could arouse her and gently expired Wednesday, November twenty-sixth, fifteen hundred and four, in the fifty-fourth year of her age and thirtieth of her reign.
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A PLEA FOR EXPRESSION MRS. W. LEE CALDWELL.
Everything in nature expresses something. As Goethe says, "Nature is the garment thou seest God by-just as the body is the garment through which we see the soul."
There is perfect harmony between nature and God-this harmony so perfectly shown in the lily and the rose-should be as perfect between God and his children, for are they not created in his image and likeness? We are the children of men as well as of God, and through this human line, we in- herit tendencies toward weakness, disease and deformity.
Through the divine line we have inherited power, beauty, health and strength to overcome human weakness, thereby assisting in the evolution of mankind. For any change in the body one must look to the soul, these being so closely allied that whatever influences one will directly reflect upon the other.
When Emerson speaks of the soul leaving its strong track in the body, he refers to the effect upon the body of the perfect soul.
Our bodies have been elaborated from the soul, and there- fore correspond to it in all its parts, functions and uses. Man, therefore, has a physical medium through which he may ex- press every thought, feeling or emotion within. For instance, if graciousness is felt, we have nerves which select and con- tract a certain set of muscles, giving us the attitude or ex- pression corresponding to graciousness. But, alas! ninety per cent. of humanity are so out of harmony with their bodies that they are constantly being misrepresented and made to appear awkward, ignorant and unfeeling, when really the re- verse is the condition within.
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This lack of harmony is the rock upon which many a life has been wrecked. This law of correspondence, then, is the foundation of the Delsarte philosophy, which was recognized by Plato as philosophy, by Swedenborg as religion, by Emer- son as ethics.
Many think that Delsarteism is a system of grace gymn- nastics, that it is a superficial culture that can be put on like veneer and rubs off easily with rough handling.
On the contrary, it has for its object equal development of the physical, mental and moral natures by a system of physi- cal exercise which aims directly at the nerve centers. It teaches us to save our energy, or economize our forces, in order to make the most of our lives.
It does not aim to make athletes, but to develop muscle normally for the expression of health, beauty, feeling and thought. Delsartians are opposed to such abnormal devel- opment as is shown in the prize fighter, holding that such development is detrimental to the moral and mental life, just as too great a development of the mental is an overbalancing of the physical and emotional. George Elliot and Louisa Al- cott are examples of this development of the mental at the expense of the physical.
We often see characters so developed morally and emo- tionally that through these very characteristics they repel us. They grow like plants in the window, so to one side that if one would enjoy their beauties, one must stand on the outside. Someone has said that we cannot develop any attribute too highly, but in such a case other attributes must be brought up to sustain or there is a loss of balance. As helps to the under- standing of the philosophy of Delsarte, read Plato's Phaedo, showing the relation between body and soul. Darwin's ex-
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pression of the emotions in man and animals, showing the fitness of the body for expression; Emerson's conduct of life; and for an ideal, the character of Jesus. Now, if the student wishing to make practical application of this philosophy with this ideal of the eternal type fixed in the mind, poise the body in harmony with this principle: head or intelligence lead- ing; sense, moral or emotional, impelling; limbs or vital sup- porting and sustaining. The student will discover that his body is not the servant of his soul, as it should be; his muscles do not respond to the call of his will. He will now realize that instead of being a natural being, he is a creature of habit and imitation-one who has absorbed the elements, good, bad and indifferent, from his environments. Passing inflections become bearings and bearings if persisted in are impressed upon nerve centers and thus develop into habits. He will be apt to excuse his laziness or ill-temper on the ground that it is natural to him. It is not natural. He con- founds habitual with natural. It is natural to be healthy, beautiful and good.
It is the accumulation of bad habits coming down the ages, from our human ancestors that give to us the evils, laziness, egotism, selfishness, melancholy, discontent, vanity, pride, grumbling, quarreling, ill-temper, lying, stealing, glut- tony, lust. These habits if practiced for any length of time. will destroy physical as well as soul beauty.
Ill temper, discontent, grief and melancholy drag the muscles of the entire body downward. The face muscles droop at the corners of the mouth and eyes, the shoulders in- cline forward, chest sinks down, and the whole body appears as if the individual were in a constant state of apology for being on the face of the earth, while vanity, selfishness, am-
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bition, falseness impart to the body a flippant, foolish, cunning, irresponsible appearance. We know how gluttony, drunken- ness and lust destroy beauty, and how readily we notice their imprint on the body. Let the student take positions before the mirror, examine face and body carefully, note if your attitude or expression indicate any of these faults. If so, then ask yourself if you really have the fault. If not, why let the body so misrepresent your true self. He should pro- ceed at once to make it speak truth.
The body is a beautiful instrument of expression, the spine the keyboard, the vertebra the keys, the arms and muscles the strings, the soul the player, the motion of the body the music. To put this instrument in tune, Delsarte imparting rest and repose, making the muscles responsive devised a set of decomposing or relaxing exercises, the practice of which will eliminate bad habits, relax the nervous tension, to the slightest call of the will. Now try to feel hope, joy, content, aspiration, exaltation. Assume the attitudes which correspond to these states. Note how the body is lifted and poised along the center of gravity. It is man at his best! Note how the face expresses spirituality and intelligence, seem- ing to gravitate toward God. The chest is up as if some ethical subject was uppermost in the mind. Courage and love warm the blood, and lift the vital organs into position. Prac- tice these health giving exercises until they become habits, instead of the debasing ones. This system of development was practiced by the Greeks, as the beatuiful attitudes of their bas-reliefs bear witness to. May it again become a part of our education and be carried on in the evolution of man until he is attuned to that beautiful law of correspondence, and is put in perfect touch with his Creator.
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SYNOPSIS OF PAPER READ BEFORE CLEVELAND SOROSIS
BY HELEN C. PURDY, DEPARTMENT BUSINESS WOMEN.
It seems to be a rather glaring statement that well-mean- ing christian women are thoroughly responsible for at least two-thirds of the cases where educated, refined young girls fall from innocent virtue to the irrevocable pit. Yet, when the young girl possessing all the natural desires for social eleva- tion, and struggling to the fullest extent of her physical strength to make a comfortable living, is obliged to fight every inch of the way, especially if she is pretty and attractive, to maintain her moral character and reputation; when that sensitive girl because of her pure, honest method of earning her living, finds a screen is fastened up between her and congenial social life, and sees from her very side women in gaudy attire on the social side, whose ways of maintenance are exceedingly questionable, are given a hearty welcome by christian women while she is crowded back because she earns an honest living. The tempter, always ready to grasp an opportunity, whispers into her hungry heart, "If you, with your personal attractions, will adopt that woman's course, the very women who ignore you and your hon- est labor now, will accept you in your rich attire without a question. If that hungry young heart listens to that siren voice and falls, before God my sisters, who is responsible? Doubtless, my sisters, you have honestly felt that you were making a great christian sacrifice, in reaching a social hand out into the dark pool and helping an erring one to a safe foot- ing and so, since "to err is human, but forgive divine," it certainly is a christian act, but sister do not forget that while
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you are helping the faltering steps of one of these erring ones out of the dark stream, by your cruel contempt of the honest worker, you have set the treacherous sand rolling from under the unwary feet of thousands of innocent, struggling ones, and sent them helplesslv down the dark torrent.
Do not waste one fear lest there should not be room for your foothold upon the great traveling stairway; that extensive staircase is so ample and perfect in its proportions that it will never be needful that we cast one of life's strugglers off and down through the "broad gate that opens to perdition," or that we crowd them down so as to have them to stand upon in order to make us seem higher. The true tendency in life is ever upward. Reaching toward the heavenly gate.
"From hand to hand life's cup is past, Up beings in gradation, Till men to angels yield at last The rich collation."
Great and wonderful issues are at hand. The watchman on the tower is crying danger! The time is here that calls for all of the mental and moral strength in womanhood, made stronger by exercise of the physical.
The balance no longer tips in favor of "sweet confiding innocence," but strength and character in womanhood, and these sturdy elements must come to the front. Come with the courage and valor that would face the cannon's flash. Come with the power of the mighty One of Israel, vested in loving wife, mother and sisterhood. Come with a courage and patriotism that for the sake of "God and home and humanity" can lift high the unpopular banner of justice and mercy, in the face of pop- ular ruin. The history of this age of womanhood struggling and conquering the mightiest foe that this world has ever known will live throughout all other ages.
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The manhood of the present day is dwelling among the tombs, and the unclean spirits are crying out "let us alone ; what have we to do with thee." "We know thee, who thou art." But in that more distant day, when the evil spirits to- gether with the swine shall have been frightened down the precipitous steep and choked with pure water; that blessed day when at eventide the husbands and fathers, "clothed in their right mind," shall be joyfully and confidingly welcomed at the door of their peaceful home; then shall the children of that brighter day, with joy and pride exclaim "it was my ancestral mother who helped to kill the dragon of her day; the serpent who devastated their homes and filled their boys with unclean spirits. It was their great struggle that lifted this nation out of its fearful abandon, and drove the demons back into their fathomless pit and secured to us these peaceful homes safe from tyranny. All hail to the grandmothers who work for social purity !"
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