[Contents]SECTION IV.—IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK.Few, it is presumed, will question the importance of a Book, in the sacred canon, which records an example of virtue in a humble individual, who had passed successfully through unparalleled temptations.The avowed object of Holy Writ is to teach all that is good and conducive to human happiness. Lessons of wisdom and virtue are interspersed throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Apostle Paul urges the Philippians to think of whatsoever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report: of everything, in short, that is in any way profitable or praiseworthy. These lessons are not communicated to us in abstract forms, or enforced by powerful argument merely, but they are presented in the most attractive examples drawn from the lives of illustrious men and women, who, amidst the greatest trials and temptations, have pre-eminently maintained their integrity. The Patriarch Job is set forth as an example of patience, and the Prophets as patterns of suffering affliction (James v. 10, 11). An example of virtue, very similar to the one in the Song before us, is recorded in Gen. xxxix. 7, &c., where a Hebrew slave is tempted by a woman of rank, but resists the temptations; and though left to suffer for a season, is ultimately rewarded for his virtue. Such instances, therefore, are in harmony with the design of Scripture, and its method of teaching.The individual who passes through the extraordinary temptations recorded in this Song, and remains faithful, isa woman. Who can find a virtuous woman? This was the question of the Ancients, was reiterated in the middle ages, and is still asked by many. Here is a reply to Solomon’s own enquiry. He has found one at least of spotless integrity, and her virtue is recorded in Scripture, for the defence of women against a prevalent, but unjust suspicion.The second chapter of Genesis clearly states, that the man and the woman were created with the same intellectual and[13]moral powers. The words used by God respecting the creation of the woman are, “the being of man in his solitary state is not good. I will make hima help-mate corresponding to him;” that is, one that shall be exactly like him in affections, in sympathies, in mind, in fact his counterpart; she shall be the reflection of his own person. That this is the meaning ofכְּנֶנְדּוֹis evident from the Septuagint, which renders it in verse 18,κατ’ αὐτόν, and verse 20,ὅμοιος αὐτῷ; and from the Syriac and the Vulgate; as well as from the Rabbinical usage ofכְּנֶנֶד, to express thingsexactly like one another.5The word of God affirms here, that the woman was created exactly with the same capacities as the man, and contains no intimation of subserviency to him, or of being in the slightest degree weaker or less virtuous than he. The fact that the Tempter assailed the woman, and not the man, so far from showing that the woman was weaker, would rather prove that she was stronger; that the cunning serpent knew this, and was persuaded, if he could only prevail over the woman, she, with her superior influence, would be sure to succeed with the man, as the sad result showed.The curse which God pronounced upon the guilty pair, proves that the woman was created with the same intellectual and moral capacities as the man. Had the woman been weaker in these respects than the man, she would not have been accountable in an equal degree for her sin, and would not have been punished with the same severity.No alteration has taken place in their relative position, in this respect, since the fall. The curse upon the woman in relation to the man does not refer to anyintellectualormoral, but to aphysical, inferiority. Hitherto the Protoplasts resided in Paradise, and subsisted upon its delightful fruit; and the employment of the man was mere recreation. Henceforth they were to be driven from that happy abode; the woman was to experience all the sorrow and pain of[14]pregnancy and parturition, and must look to her husband for support from his hard-earned labour. The man, consigned to rough labour in the field, exposed to the assault of brutes, was henceforth to have more physical strength and daring; while the woman, destined to manage the affairs at home, and to rear up a family, was to exercise the power of patient endurance. The man, with his superior strength and boldness, was henceforth to be the protector; the woman, suffering and mild, the protected. He was to be the tiller of the ground, and she, in addition to the sorrow peculiar to her condition, must depend on what he might provide for her; and hence her desire was to be unto him; that is, she should be looking up to him for protection and maintenance,andthus he would rule over her. That this is the whole meaning of the phraseוְאֶל אִישֵׁדְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵדְ וְהוּא יִמְשָׁל בָּדְ, Gen. iii. 16, is evident from the clause immediately preceding, which describes the woman’s constant suffering, and precludes the possibility of securing maintenance for herself; and also from the following verse, where the man is destined to labour hard for bread.The notion, therefore, that the woman is intellectually or morally weaker than man, is not the teaching of the word of God. While man, through his superior out-of-door qualities, or physical strength and courage, is the supporter, protector, and ruler of the woman; she, through her superior in-door qualities, her endurance and her charms, ameliorates his government, and sways his inmost heart. Their different characteristics, arising from their different destinations, were designed to blend together so as to produce a happy harmony, andto make both one.But how vilely and treacherously has man employed his superior strength and audacity! Instead of maintaining, protecting, and defending the woman, he has used his strength to oppress, to crush, and to degrade her. As the human race became more and more alienated from their Creator, intrinsic merit and moral character were despised, and physical[15]force became rampant; the stronger, as among animals, oppressed and preyed upon the weaker, and thus woman became the slave of man, and was absolutely sold in the capacity of daughter or wife, as cattle and other property. Thus Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, purchased Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, his master’s son, (Gen. xxiv. 53). Jacob, having nothing to give as a compensation for his wives, was obliged to serve fourteen years for them (Gen. xxix. 18–28). Shechem, wishing to obtain Dinah for a wife, and ascribing the unwillingness of Jacob to part with her to the insufficiency of the compensation he had offered, says—“Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife (Gen. xxxiv. 12).” Compare, also, Exod. xxii. 15, &c.; 1 Sam. xviii. 25; Hos. iii. 2. This custom of purchasing wives was general among the Orientals. “In Babylon,6the following course was pursued in every village once a-year. All the maidens of a marriageable age were collected together, and brought in a body to one place; around them stood a crowd of men. Then a crier, having made these maidens stand up one by one, offered them for sale, beginning with the most beautiful; and when she had been sold for a large sum, he put up another who was next in beauty. They were sold on condition that they should be married. Such men among the Babylonians as were rich and desirous of marrying used to bid against one another, and purchase the most beautiful. But such of the lower classes as were desirous of marrying, did not regard beauty, and were willing to take the plainer damsels with a sum of money given with them. For when the crier had finished selling the most beautiful of the maidens, he made the plainest stand up, or one that was a cripple, and put her up for auction, for the person who would marry her for the least sum. This money was obtained from the sale of the most beautiful; and thus the beautiful portioned out the plain and the crippled.” Wives were purchased among the Assyrians and Arabians also;7among[16]the ancient Greeks8and Germans9and are still bought among the Orientals of the present day.10Fearful consequences, arising from such a mode of obtaining wives, were inevitable, and soon became apparent. As the procuring of wives depended upon the offer which any one was able to make, those that could afford it purchased as many as they pleased. Hence the practice of polygamy, than which nothing produces more contempt for the proper character of women, or tends more to their degradation. As these contracts were formed without the parties being previously known to each other, and without any affection subsisting between them, the woman, instead of beingthe help-mate or companionof man became his slave, and was kept for the gratification of his carnal appetites, or at best was regarded as a plaything for a leisure hour. Her rights were denied, her education was neglected, her intellect was degraded, her moral character was questioned. Man, seeking to possess as many wives as he could afford, gave the woman no credit for virtue. Acting upon this suspicion and false accusation, he placed her in the most inaccessible part of the house; dogs or eunuchs guarded the doors of her chambers;11the harem was made as impenetrable as a prison; none but the nearest relatives were allowed to see her, and when permitted to pass through the streets her countenance was thickly veiled, and eunuchs watched her every step. Plutarch relates that when women travelled they were placed in a conveyance closely covered on all sides, and that it was in such a covering that Themistocles fled from Persia, his attendants being instructed to tell every inquirer that they were conveying a Grecian lady from Ionia to a nobleman at Court.12The sacred books of heathen nations[17]teem with loud execrations against the natural unfaithfulness and immorality of women. “The lust of a woman,” says the pundits, “is never satisfied, no more than fire is satisfied with fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals.” And again: “Women have six qualities: the first is an immoderate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals; the second, immoderate lust; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep resentment, no person knowing the sentiments concealed in their hearts; the fifth, another person’s good appears evil in their eyes; the sixth, they commit bad actions.”13The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affectation of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment or good sense, is held as an undisputed fact, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning, rests upon the same authority. Their general depravity is affirmed to be much greater than that of men. “I stood,” said the Prophet, “at the gate of Paradise, and lo, most of its inmates were the poor; and I stood at the gate of hell, and lo, most of its inmates were women.” In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, “Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise,” which Moore has thus paraphrased:—“Whene’er you’re in doubt, said a sage I once knew,’Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,Ask a woman’s advice, and whate’er she advise,Do the very reverse, and you’re sure to be wise.”When woman was created, “the devil,” we are told, “was delighted, and said, ‘Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot and miss not.’ ”14They were made so much to feel their[18]inferiority, that Iphigenia is made to say, “One man, forsooth, is better than ten thousand women.”15Though the Jewish women were treated more leniently, and enjoyed greater privileges than their sex in other nations, yet it is evident, from a variety of circumstances in Old Testament history, that they were not wholly emancipated from a state of unnatural inferiority. Polygamy was practised amongst the Jews, and its debasing effects were obvious. The harems, the veils, and eunuchs were not uncommon to their women. Weakness of moral character was imputed to them; unfaithfulness and incontinency were dilated upon (Num. v. 12; Prov. xxxi. 10; Eccl. vii. 28). Josephus tells us16that women, in consequence of their natural levity, were not admitted as legal witnesses in courts of justice. Maimonides teaches the same; “There are,” says this great luminary, “ten sorts of disqualifications, and every individual in whom one of them is found, is disqualified from giving evidence; and these are women, slaves, children, idiots, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their testimony; these are the ten.”17The Rabbins endeavour to justify this inhuman treatment of women from the law of Moses. “Women,” say they, “are disqualified by the law from giving testimony: for it is said, ‘At the mouth of two witnesses,’ where the word ‘witnesses’ is of themasculine, and not feminine gender.” It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Jew, among his thanksgivings, should say to the Almighty every morning, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that thou hast not created mea woman.”Now, if one sex of the human family has been so degraded by the other; if she whom God created to be ahelp-mate and counterparthas been reduced by man to the slave of his carnal lusts; if such slavish and inhuman treatment has been justified on the false plea of the natural unfaithfulness and incontinency[19]of the sex; if exclusion from society and imprisonment have been deemed necessary for the preservation of her morals, how greatly has woman been alienated from the original design of her creation! how unjustly has her character been aspersed! how inhumanly has she been treated! and how great is the importance of a book which celebrates the virtuous example of a woman, and thus strikes at the root of all her reproaches and her wrongs!The importance of this view of the book may be further seen from the fact, that, in proportion to the degradation of women, men themselves have become degraded; for, deprived of the meliorating influences which the delicacy and tenderness of women were designed to have over them, and never more needed than in their fallen state, they have abandoned themselves to their worst passions and desires, and thus their whole civil and social condition has been proportionally undignified and unblest. Look, on the other hand, at the state of society where woman is restored to her rightful position, there we shall find refinement of manners, purity of conversation, mutual confidence and affection, domestic happiness, intellectual enjoyment, freedom of thought and action, sympathetic repose, and whatever, in fact, tends to mitigate the unavoidable evils of the present life; all referable, in a greater or less degree, to the unrestricted influence of woman upon the child and upon the man. In religion, her influence is still more potent. If first in the transgression, she is first in the restoration; and were man as ready to follow her in doing good as he has been in doing evil, the world would long ago have been in a holier and happier state than it is at present. Who constitute the principal part of our worshipping assemblies? Women. Who form the chief portion of the members of our churches? Women. Who are the chief agents in the religious education of our children? Women. Who are the main support of our various benevolent and evangelical institutions? Women. Let it not be said, then, that a Book which celebrates the ascendency[20]of a virtuous woman in humble life over all the blandishments of wealth and royalty, is unworthy of a place in Holy Writ.The importance of this book is, moreover, enhanced by the circumstances more immediately connected with the time in which it was written.The conduct of Bath-sheba with David was calculated to confirm man in his opinion that woman was naturally unfaithful and incontinent, and that it was requisite to exclude her from society, in order to preserve her morals. But the narrative here recorded forms a contrast to the conduct of Bath-sheba. It shows the power of virtue in a woman, even of humble life. As the wife of an officer of rank, accustomed to luxury and wealth, the temptations of Bath-sheba were not so great, and yet she surrendered to them. Whereas the Shulamite, a humble shepherdess, to whom the promise of costly apparel and of elevation from a low and toilsome occupation to the highest rank, must have been an extraordinary allurement, triumphed over them all. If one woman yielded to small incitements, this book shows that another overcame unparalleled temptations, and thus checked the clamour against woman which might have arisen from the conduct of Bath-sheba with David.
[Contents]SECTION IV.—IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK.Few, it is presumed, will question the importance of a Book, in the sacred canon, which records an example of virtue in a humble individual, who had passed successfully through unparalleled temptations.The avowed object of Holy Writ is to teach all that is good and conducive to human happiness. Lessons of wisdom and virtue are interspersed throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Apostle Paul urges the Philippians to think of whatsoever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report: of everything, in short, that is in any way profitable or praiseworthy. These lessons are not communicated to us in abstract forms, or enforced by powerful argument merely, but they are presented in the most attractive examples drawn from the lives of illustrious men and women, who, amidst the greatest trials and temptations, have pre-eminently maintained their integrity. The Patriarch Job is set forth as an example of patience, and the Prophets as patterns of suffering affliction (James v. 10, 11). An example of virtue, very similar to the one in the Song before us, is recorded in Gen. xxxix. 7, &c., where a Hebrew slave is tempted by a woman of rank, but resists the temptations; and though left to suffer for a season, is ultimately rewarded for his virtue. Such instances, therefore, are in harmony with the design of Scripture, and its method of teaching.The individual who passes through the extraordinary temptations recorded in this Song, and remains faithful, isa woman. Who can find a virtuous woman? This was the question of the Ancients, was reiterated in the middle ages, and is still asked by many. Here is a reply to Solomon’s own enquiry. He has found one at least of spotless integrity, and her virtue is recorded in Scripture, for the defence of women against a prevalent, but unjust suspicion.The second chapter of Genesis clearly states, that the man and the woman were created with the same intellectual and[13]moral powers. The words used by God respecting the creation of the woman are, “the being of man in his solitary state is not good. I will make hima help-mate corresponding to him;” that is, one that shall be exactly like him in affections, in sympathies, in mind, in fact his counterpart; she shall be the reflection of his own person. That this is the meaning ofכְּנֶנְדּוֹis evident from the Septuagint, which renders it in verse 18,κατ’ αὐτόν, and verse 20,ὅμοιος αὐτῷ; and from the Syriac and the Vulgate; as well as from the Rabbinical usage ofכְּנֶנֶד, to express thingsexactly like one another.5The word of God affirms here, that the woman was created exactly with the same capacities as the man, and contains no intimation of subserviency to him, or of being in the slightest degree weaker or less virtuous than he. The fact that the Tempter assailed the woman, and not the man, so far from showing that the woman was weaker, would rather prove that she was stronger; that the cunning serpent knew this, and was persuaded, if he could only prevail over the woman, she, with her superior influence, would be sure to succeed with the man, as the sad result showed.The curse which God pronounced upon the guilty pair, proves that the woman was created with the same intellectual and moral capacities as the man. Had the woman been weaker in these respects than the man, she would not have been accountable in an equal degree for her sin, and would not have been punished with the same severity.No alteration has taken place in their relative position, in this respect, since the fall. The curse upon the woman in relation to the man does not refer to anyintellectualormoral, but to aphysical, inferiority. Hitherto the Protoplasts resided in Paradise, and subsisted upon its delightful fruit; and the employment of the man was mere recreation. Henceforth they were to be driven from that happy abode; the woman was to experience all the sorrow and pain of[14]pregnancy and parturition, and must look to her husband for support from his hard-earned labour. The man, consigned to rough labour in the field, exposed to the assault of brutes, was henceforth to have more physical strength and daring; while the woman, destined to manage the affairs at home, and to rear up a family, was to exercise the power of patient endurance. The man, with his superior strength and boldness, was henceforth to be the protector; the woman, suffering and mild, the protected. He was to be the tiller of the ground, and she, in addition to the sorrow peculiar to her condition, must depend on what he might provide for her; and hence her desire was to be unto him; that is, she should be looking up to him for protection and maintenance,andthus he would rule over her. That this is the whole meaning of the phraseוְאֶל אִישֵׁדְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵדְ וְהוּא יִמְשָׁל בָּדְ, Gen. iii. 16, is evident from the clause immediately preceding, which describes the woman’s constant suffering, and precludes the possibility of securing maintenance for herself; and also from the following verse, where the man is destined to labour hard for bread.The notion, therefore, that the woman is intellectually or morally weaker than man, is not the teaching of the word of God. While man, through his superior out-of-door qualities, or physical strength and courage, is the supporter, protector, and ruler of the woman; she, through her superior in-door qualities, her endurance and her charms, ameliorates his government, and sways his inmost heart. Their different characteristics, arising from their different destinations, were designed to blend together so as to produce a happy harmony, andto make both one.But how vilely and treacherously has man employed his superior strength and audacity! Instead of maintaining, protecting, and defending the woman, he has used his strength to oppress, to crush, and to degrade her. As the human race became more and more alienated from their Creator, intrinsic merit and moral character were despised, and physical[15]force became rampant; the stronger, as among animals, oppressed and preyed upon the weaker, and thus woman became the slave of man, and was absolutely sold in the capacity of daughter or wife, as cattle and other property. Thus Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, purchased Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, his master’s son, (Gen. xxiv. 53). Jacob, having nothing to give as a compensation for his wives, was obliged to serve fourteen years for them (Gen. xxix. 18–28). Shechem, wishing to obtain Dinah for a wife, and ascribing the unwillingness of Jacob to part with her to the insufficiency of the compensation he had offered, says—“Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife (Gen. xxxiv. 12).” Compare, also, Exod. xxii. 15, &c.; 1 Sam. xviii. 25; Hos. iii. 2. This custom of purchasing wives was general among the Orientals. “In Babylon,6the following course was pursued in every village once a-year. All the maidens of a marriageable age were collected together, and brought in a body to one place; around them stood a crowd of men. Then a crier, having made these maidens stand up one by one, offered them for sale, beginning with the most beautiful; and when she had been sold for a large sum, he put up another who was next in beauty. They were sold on condition that they should be married. Such men among the Babylonians as were rich and desirous of marrying used to bid against one another, and purchase the most beautiful. But such of the lower classes as were desirous of marrying, did not regard beauty, and were willing to take the plainer damsels with a sum of money given with them. For when the crier had finished selling the most beautiful of the maidens, he made the plainest stand up, or one that was a cripple, and put her up for auction, for the person who would marry her for the least sum. This money was obtained from the sale of the most beautiful; and thus the beautiful portioned out the plain and the crippled.” Wives were purchased among the Assyrians and Arabians also;7among[16]the ancient Greeks8and Germans9and are still bought among the Orientals of the present day.10Fearful consequences, arising from such a mode of obtaining wives, were inevitable, and soon became apparent. As the procuring of wives depended upon the offer which any one was able to make, those that could afford it purchased as many as they pleased. Hence the practice of polygamy, than which nothing produces more contempt for the proper character of women, or tends more to their degradation. As these contracts were formed without the parties being previously known to each other, and without any affection subsisting between them, the woman, instead of beingthe help-mate or companionof man became his slave, and was kept for the gratification of his carnal appetites, or at best was regarded as a plaything for a leisure hour. Her rights were denied, her education was neglected, her intellect was degraded, her moral character was questioned. Man, seeking to possess as many wives as he could afford, gave the woman no credit for virtue. Acting upon this suspicion and false accusation, he placed her in the most inaccessible part of the house; dogs or eunuchs guarded the doors of her chambers;11the harem was made as impenetrable as a prison; none but the nearest relatives were allowed to see her, and when permitted to pass through the streets her countenance was thickly veiled, and eunuchs watched her every step. Plutarch relates that when women travelled they were placed in a conveyance closely covered on all sides, and that it was in such a covering that Themistocles fled from Persia, his attendants being instructed to tell every inquirer that they were conveying a Grecian lady from Ionia to a nobleman at Court.12The sacred books of heathen nations[17]teem with loud execrations against the natural unfaithfulness and immorality of women. “The lust of a woman,” says the pundits, “is never satisfied, no more than fire is satisfied with fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals.” And again: “Women have six qualities: the first is an immoderate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals; the second, immoderate lust; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep resentment, no person knowing the sentiments concealed in their hearts; the fifth, another person’s good appears evil in their eyes; the sixth, they commit bad actions.”13The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affectation of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment or good sense, is held as an undisputed fact, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning, rests upon the same authority. Their general depravity is affirmed to be much greater than that of men. “I stood,” said the Prophet, “at the gate of Paradise, and lo, most of its inmates were the poor; and I stood at the gate of hell, and lo, most of its inmates were women.” In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, “Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise,” which Moore has thus paraphrased:—“Whene’er you’re in doubt, said a sage I once knew,’Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,Ask a woman’s advice, and whate’er she advise,Do the very reverse, and you’re sure to be wise.”When woman was created, “the devil,” we are told, “was delighted, and said, ‘Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot and miss not.’ ”14They were made so much to feel their[18]inferiority, that Iphigenia is made to say, “One man, forsooth, is better than ten thousand women.”15Though the Jewish women were treated more leniently, and enjoyed greater privileges than their sex in other nations, yet it is evident, from a variety of circumstances in Old Testament history, that they were not wholly emancipated from a state of unnatural inferiority. Polygamy was practised amongst the Jews, and its debasing effects were obvious. The harems, the veils, and eunuchs were not uncommon to their women. Weakness of moral character was imputed to them; unfaithfulness and incontinency were dilated upon (Num. v. 12; Prov. xxxi. 10; Eccl. vii. 28). Josephus tells us16that women, in consequence of their natural levity, were not admitted as legal witnesses in courts of justice. Maimonides teaches the same; “There are,” says this great luminary, “ten sorts of disqualifications, and every individual in whom one of them is found, is disqualified from giving evidence; and these are women, slaves, children, idiots, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their testimony; these are the ten.”17The Rabbins endeavour to justify this inhuman treatment of women from the law of Moses. “Women,” say they, “are disqualified by the law from giving testimony: for it is said, ‘At the mouth of two witnesses,’ where the word ‘witnesses’ is of themasculine, and not feminine gender.” It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Jew, among his thanksgivings, should say to the Almighty every morning, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that thou hast not created mea woman.”Now, if one sex of the human family has been so degraded by the other; if she whom God created to be ahelp-mate and counterparthas been reduced by man to the slave of his carnal lusts; if such slavish and inhuman treatment has been justified on the false plea of the natural unfaithfulness and incontinency[19]of the sex; if exclusion from society and imprisonment have been deemed necessary for the preservation of her morals, how greatly has woman been alienated from the original design of her creation! how unjustly has her character been aspersed! how inhumanly has she been treated! and how great is the importance of a book which celebrates the virtuous example of a woman, and thus strikes at the root of all her reproaches and her wrongs!The importance of this view of the book may be further seen from the fact, that, in proportion to the degradation of women, men themselves have become degraded; for, deprived of the meliorating influences which the delicacy and tenderness of women were designed to have over them, and never more needed than in their fallen state, they have abandoned themselves to their worst passions and desires, and thus their whole civil and social condition has been proportionally undignified and unblest. Look, on the other hand, at the state of society where woman is restored to her rightful position, there we shall find refinement of manners, purity of conversation, mutual confidence and affection, domestic happiness, intellectual enjoyment, freedom of thought and action, sympathetic repose, and whatever, in fact, tends to mitigate the unavoidable evils of the present life; all referable, in a greater or less degree, to the unrestricted influence of woman upon the child and upon the man. In religion, her influence is still more potent. If first in the transgression, she is first in the restoration; and were man as ready to follow her in doing good as he has been in doing evil, the world would long ago have been in a holier and happier state than it is at present. Who constitute the principal part of our worshipping assemblies? Women. Who form the chief portion of the members of our churches? Women. Who are the chief agents in the religious education of our children? Women. Who are the main support of our various benevolent and evangelical institutions? Women. Let it not be said, then, that a Book which celebrates the ascendency[20]of a virtuous woman in humble life over all the blandishments of wealth and royalty, is unworthy of a place in Holy Writ.The importance of this book is, moreover, enhanced by the circumstances more immediately connected with the time in which it was written.The conduct of Bath-sheba with David was calculated to confirm man in his opinion that woman was naturally unfaithful and incontinent, and that it was requisite to exclude her from society, in order to preserve her morals. But the narrative here recorded forms a contrast to the conduct of Bath-sheba. It shows the power of virtue in a woman, even of humble life. As the wife of an officer of rank, accustomed to luxury and wealth, the temptations of Bath-sheba were not so great, and yet she surrendered to them. Whereas the Shulamite, a humble shepherdess, to whom the promise of costly apparel and of elevation from a low and toilsome occupation to the highest rank, must have been an extraordinary allurement, triumphed over them all. If one woman yielded to small incitements, this book shows that another overcame unparalleled temptations, and thus checked the clamour against woman which might have arisen from the conduct of Bath-sheba with David.
[Contents]SECTION IV.—IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK.Few, it is presumed, will question the importance of a Book, in the sacred canon, which records an example of virtue in a humble individual, who had passed successfully through unparalleled temptations.The avowed object of Holy Writ is to teach all that is good and conducive to human happiness. Lessons of wisdom and virtue are interspersed throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Apostle Paul urges the Philippians to think of whatsoever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report: of everything, in short, that is in any way profitable or praiseworthy. These lessons are not communicated to us in abstract forms, or enforced by powerful argument merely, but they are presented in the most attractive examples drawn from the lives of illustrious men and women, who, amidst the greatest trials and temptations, have pre-eminently maintained their integrity. The Patriarch Job is set forth as an example of patience, and the Prophets as patterns of suffering affliction (James v. 10, 11). An example of virtue, very similar to the one in the Song before us, is recorded in Gen. xxxix. 7, &c., where a Hebrew slave is tempted by a woman of rank, but resists the temptations; and though left to suffer for a season, is ultimately rewarded for his virtue. Such instances, therefore, are in harmony with the design of Scripture, and its method of teaching.The individual who passes through the extraordinary temptations recorded in this Song, and remains faithful, isa woman. Who can find a virtuous woman? This was the question of the Ancients, was reiterated in the middle ages, and is still asked by many. Here is a reply to Solomon’s own enquiry. He has found one at least of spotless integrity, and her virtue is recorded in Scripture, for the defence of women against a prevalent, but unjust suspicion.The second chapter of Genesis clearly states, that the man and the woman were created with the same intellectual and[13]moral powers. The words used by God respecting the creation of the woman are, “the being of man in his solitary state is not good. I will make hima help-mate corresponding to him;” that is, one that shall be exactly like him in affections, in sympathies, in mind, in fact his counterpart; she shall be the reflection of his own person. That this is the meaning ofכְּנֶנְדּוֹis evident from the Septuagint, which renders it in verse 18,κατ’ αὐτόν, and verse 20,ὅμοιος αὐτῷ; and from the Syriac and the Vulgate; as well as from the Rabbinical usage ofכְּנֶנֶד, to express thingsexactly like one another.5The word of God affirms here, that the woman was created exactly with the same capacities as the man, and contains no intimation of subserviency to him, or of being in the slightest degree weaker or less virtuous than he. The fact that the Tempter assailed the woman, and not the man, so far from showing that the woman was weaker, would rather prove that she was stronger; that the cunning serpent knew this, and was persuaded, if he could only prevail over the woman, she, with her superior influence, would be sure to succeed with the man, as the sad result showed.The curse which God pronounced upon the guilty pair, proves that the woman was created with the same intellectual and moral capacities as the man. Had the woman been weaker in these respects than the man, she would not have been accountable in an equal degree for her sin, and would not have been punished with the same severity.No alteration has taken place in their relative position, in this respect, since the fall. The curse upon the woman in relation to the man does not refer to anyintellectualormoral, but to aphysical, inferiority. Hitherto the Protoplasts resided in Paradise, and subsisted upon its delightful fruit; and the employment of the man was mere recreation. Henceforth they were to be driven from that happy abode; the woman was to experience all the sorrow and pain of[14]pregnancy and parturition, and must look to her husband for support from his hard-earned labour. The man, consigned to rough labour in the field, exposed to the assault of brutes, was henceforth to have more physical strength and daring; while the woman, destined to manage the affairs at home, and to rear up a family, was to exercise the power of patient endurance. The man, with his superior strength and boldness, was henceforth to be the protector; the woman, suffering and mild, the protected. He was to be the tiller of the ground, and she, in addition to the sorrow peculiar to her condition, must depend on what he might provide for her; and hence her desire was to be unto him; that is, she should be looking up to him for protection and maintenance,andthus he would rule over her. That this is the whole meaning of the phraseוְאֶל אִישֵׁדְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵדְ וְהוּא יִמְשָׁל בָּדְ, Gen. iii. 16, is evident from the clause immediately preceding, which describes the woman’s constant suffering, and precludes the possibility of securing maintenance for herself; and also from the following verse, where the man is destined to labour hard for bread.The notion, therefore, that the woman is intellectually or morally weaker than man, is not the teaching of the word of God. While man, through his superior out-of-door qualities, or physical strength and courage, is the supporter, protector, and ruler of the woman; she, through her superior in-door qualities, her endurance and her charms, ameliorates his government, and sways his inmost heart. Their different characteristics, arising from their different destinations, were designed to blend together so as to produce a happy harmony, andto make both one.But how vilely and treacherously has man employed his superior strength and audacity! Instead of maintaining, protecting, and defending the woman, he has used his strength to oppress, to crush, and to degrade her. As the human race became more and more alienated from their Creator, intrinsic merit and moral character were despised, and physical[15]force became rampant; the stronger, as among animals, oppressed and preyed upon the weaker, and thus woman became the slave of man, and was absolutely sold in the capacity of daughter or wife, as cattle and other property. Thus Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, purchased Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, his master’s son, (Gen. xxiv. 53). Jacob, having nothing to give as a compensation for his wives, was obliged to serve fourteen years for them (Gen. xxix. 18–28). Shechem, wishing to obtain Dinah for a wife, and ascribing the unwillingness of Jacob to part with her to the insufficiency of the compensation he had offered, says—“Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife (Gen. xxxiv. 12).” Compare, also, Exod. xxii. 15, &c.; 1 Sam. xviii. 25; Hos. iii. 2. This custom of purchasing wives was general among the Orientals. “In Babylon,6the following course was pursued in every village once a-year. All the maidens of a marriageable age were collected together, and brought in a body to one place; around them stood a crowd of men. Then a crier, having made these maidens stand up one by one, offered them for sale, beginning with the most beautiful; and when she had been sold for a large sum, he put up another who was next in beauty. They were sold on condition that they should be married. Such men among the Babylonians as were rich and desirous of marrying used to bid against one another, and purchase the most beautiful. But such of the lower classes as were desirous of marrying, did not regard beauty, and were willing to take the plainer damsels with a sum of money given with them. For when the crier had finished selling the most beautiful of the maidens, he made the plainest stand up, or one that was a cripple, and put her up for auction, for the person who would marry her for the least sum. This money was obtained from the sale of the most beautiful; and thus the beautiful portioned out the plain and the crippled.” Wives were purchased among the Assyrians and Arabians also;7among[16]the ancient Greeks8and Germans9and are still bought among the Orientals of the present day.10Fearful consequences, arising from such a mode of obtaining wives, were inevitable, and soon became apparent. As the procuring of wives depended upon the offer which any one was able to make, those that could afford it purchased as many as they pleased. Hence the practice of polygamy, than which nothing produces more contempt for the proper character of women, or tends more to their degradation. As these contracts were formed without the parties being previously known to each other, and without any affection subsisting between them, the woman, instead of beingthe help-mate or companionof man became his slave, and was kept for the gratification of his carnal appetites, or at best was regarded as a plaything for a leisure hour. Her rights were denied, her education was neglected, her intellect was degraded, her moral character was questioned. Man, seeking to possess as many wives as he could afford, gave the woman no credit for virtue. Acting upon this suspicion and false accusation, he placed her in the most inaccessible part of the house; dogs or eunuchs guarded the doors of her chambers;11the harem was made as impenetrable as a prison; none but the nearest relatives were allowed to see her, and when permitted to pass through the streets her countenance was thickly veiled, and eunuchs watched her every step. Plutarch relates that when women travelled they were placed in a conveyance closely covered on all sides, and that it was in such a covering that Themistocles fled from Persia, his attendants being instructed to tell every inquirer that they were conveying a Grecian lady from Ionia to a nobleman at Court.12The sacred books of heathen nations[17]teem with loud execrations against the natural unfaithfulness and immorality of women. “The lust of a woman,” says the pundits, “is never satisfied, no more than fire is satisfied with fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals.” And again: “Women have six qualities: the first is an immoderate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals; the second, immoderate lust; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep resentment, no person knowing the sentiments concealed in their hearts; the fifth, another person’s good appears evil in their eyes; the sixth, they commit bad actions.”13The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affectation of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment or good sense, is held as an undisputed fact, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning, rests upon the same authority. Their general depravity is affirmed to be much greater than that of men. “I stood,” said the Prophet, “at the gate of Paradise, and lo, most of its inmates were the poor; and I stood at the gate of hell, and lo, most of its inmates were women.” In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, “Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise,” which Moore has thus paraphrased:—“Whene’er you’re in doubt, said a sage I once knew,’Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,Ask a woman’s advice, and whate’er she advise,Do the very reverse, and you’re sure to be wise.”When woman was created, “the devil,” we are told, “was delighted, and said, ‘Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot and miss not.’ ”14They were made so much to feel their[18]inferiority, that Iphigenia is made to say, “One man, forsooth, is better than ten thousand women.”15Though the Jewish women were treated more leniently, and enjoyed greater privileges than their sex in other nations, yet it is evident, from a variety of circumstances in Old Testament history, that they were not wholly emancipated from a state of unnatural inferiority. Polygamy was practised amongst the Jews, and its debasing effects were obvious. The harems, the veils, and eunuchs were not uncommon to their women. Weakness of moral character was imputed to them; unfaithfulness and incontinency were dilated upon (Num. v. 12; Prov. xxxi. 10; Eccl. vii. 28). Josephus tells us16that women, in consequence of their natural levity, were not admitted as legal witnesses in courts of justice. Maimonides teaches the same; “There are,” says this great luminary, “ten sorts of disqualifications, and every individual in whom one of them is found, is disqualified from giving evidence; and these are women, slaves, children, idiots, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their testimony; these are the ten.”17The Rabbins endeavour to justify this inhuman treatment of women from the law of Moses. “Women,” say they, “are disqualified by the law from giving testimony: for it is said, ‘At the mouth of two witnesses,’ where the word ‘witnesses’ is of themasculine, and not feminine gender.” It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Jew, among his thanksgivings, should say to the Almighty every morning, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that thou hast not created mea woman.”Now, if one sex of the human family has been so degraded by the other; if she whom God created to be ahelp-mate and counterparthas been reduced by man to the slave of his carnal lusts; if such slavish and inhuman treatment has been justified on the false plea of the natural unfaithfulness and incontinency[19]of the sex; if exclusion from society and imprisonment have been deemed necessary for the preservation of her morals, how greatly has woman been alienated from the original design of her creation! how unjustly has her character been aspersed! how inhumanly has she been treated! and how great is the importance of a book which celebrates the virtuous example of a woman, and thus strikes at the root of all her reproaches and her wrongs!The importance of this view of the book may be further seen from the fact, that, in proportion to the degradation of women, men themselves have become degraded; for, deprived of the meliorating influences which the delicacy and tenderness of women were designed to have over them, and never more needed than in their fallen state, they have abandoned themselves to their worst passions and desires, and thus their whole civil and social condition has been proportionally undignified and unblest. Look, on the other hand, at the state of society where woman is restored to her rightful position, there we shall find refinement of manners, purity of conversation, mutual confidence and affection, domestic happiness, intellectual enjoyment, freedom of thought and action, sympathetic repose, and whatever, in fact, tends to mitigate the unavoidable evils of the present life; all referable, in a greater or less degree, to the unrestricted influence of woman upon the child and upon the man. In religion, her influence is still more potent. If first in the transgression, she is first in the restoration; and were man as ready to follow her in doing good as he has been in doing evil, the world would long ago have been in a holier and happier state than it is at present. Who constitute the principal part of our worshipping assemblies? Women. Who form the chief portion of the members of our churches? Women. Who are the chief agents in the religious education of our children? Women. Who are the main support of our various benevolent and evangelical institutions? Women. Let it not be said, then, that a Book which celebrates the ascendency[20]of a virtuous woman in humble life over all the blandishments of wealth and royalty, is unworthy of a place in Holy Writ.The importance of this book is, moreover, enhanced by the circumstances more immediately connected with the time in which it was written.The conduct of Bath-sheba with David was calculated to confirm man in his opinion that woman was naturally unfaithful and incontinent, and that it was requisite to exclude her from society, in order to preserve her morals. But the narrative here recorded forms a contrast to the conduct of Bath-sheba. It shows the power of virtue in a woman, even of humble life. As the wife of an officer of rank, accustomed to luxury and wealth, the temptations of Bath-sheba were not so great, and yet she surrendered to them. Whereas the Shulamite, a humble shepherdess, to whom the promise of costly apparel and of elevation from a low and toilsome occupation to the highest rank, must have been an extraordinary allurement, triumphed over them all. If one woman yielded to small incitements, this book shows that another overcame unparalleled temptations, and thus checked the clamour against woman which might have arisen from the conduct of Bath-sheba with David.
[Contents]SECTION IV.—IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK.Few, it is presumed, will question the importance of a Book, in the sacred canon, which records an example of virtue in a humble individual, who had passed successfully through unparalleled temptations.The avowed object of Holy Writ is to teach all that is good and conducive to human happiness. Lessons of wisdom and virtue are interspersed throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Apostle Paul urges the Philippians to think of whatsoever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report: of everything, in short, that is in any way profitable or praiseworthy. These lessons are not communicated to us in abstract forms, or enforced by powerful argument merely, but they are presented in the most attractive examples drawn from the lives of illustrious men and women, who, amidst the greatest trials and temptations, have pre-eminently maintained their integrity. The Patriarch Job is set forth as an example of patience, and the Prophets as patterns of suffering affliction (James v. 10, 11). An example of virtue, very similar to the one in the Song before us, is recorded in Gen. xxxix. 7, &c., where a Hebrew slave is tempted by a woman of rank, but resists the temptations; and though left to suffer for a season, is ultimately rewarded for his virtue. Such instances, therefore, are in harmony with the design of Scripture, and its method of teaching.The individual who passes through the extraordinary temptations recorded in this Song, and remains faithful, isa woman. Who can find a virtuous woman? This was the question of the Ancients, was reiterated in the middle ages, and is still asked by many. Here is a reply to Solomon’s own enquiry. He has found one at least of spotless integrity, and her virtue is recorded in Scripture, for the defence of women against a prevalent, but unjust suspicion.The second chapter of Genesis clearly states, that the man and the woman were created with the same intellectual and[13]moral powers. The words used by God respecting the creation of the woman are, “the being of man in his solitary state is not good. I will make hima help-mate corresponding to him;” that is, one that shall be exactly like him in affections, in sympathies, in mind, in fact his counterpart; she shall be the reflection of his own person. That this is the meaning ofכְּנֶנְדּוֹis evident from the Septuagint, which renders it in verse 18,κατ’ αὐτόν, and verse 20,ὅμοιος αὐτῷ; and from the Syriac and the Vulgate; as well as from the Rabbinical usage ofכְּנֶנֶד, to express thingsexactly like one another.5The word of God affirms here, that the woman was created exactly with the same capacities as the man, and contains no intimation of subserviency to him, or of being in the slightest degree weaker or less virtuous than he. The fact that the Tempter assailed the woman, and not the man, so far from showing that the woman was weaker, would rather prove that she was stronger; that the cunning serpent knew this, and was persuaded, if he could only prevail over the woman, she, with her superior influence, would be sure to succeed with the man, as the sad result showed.The curse which God pronounced upon the guilty pair, proves that the woman was created with the same intellectual and moral capacities as the man. Had the woman been weaker in these respects than the man, she would not have been accountable in an equal degree for her sin, and would not have been punished with the same severity.No alteration has taken place in their relative position, in this respect, since the fall. The curse upon the woman in relation to the man does not refer to anyintellectualormoral, but to aphysical, inferiority. Hitherto the Protoplasts resided in Paradise, and subsisted upon its delightful fruit; and the employment of the man was mere recreation. Henceforth they were to be driven from that happy abode; the woman was to experience all the sorrow and pain of[14]pregnancy and parturition, and must look to her husband for support from his hard-earned labour. The man, consigned to rough labour in the field, exposed to the assault of brutes, was henceforth to have more physical strength and daring; while the woman, destined to manage the affairs at home, and to rear up a family, was to exercise the power of patient endurance. The man, with his superior strength and boldness, was henceforth to be the protector; the woman, suffering and mild, the protected. He was to be the tiller of the ground, and she, in addition to the sorrow peculiar to her condition, must depend on what he might provide for her; and hence her desire was to be unto him; that is, she should be looking up to him for protection and maintenance,andthus he would rule over her. That this is the whole meaning of the phraseוְאֶל אִישֵׁדְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵדְ וְהוּא יִמְשָׁל בָּדְ, Gen. iii. 16, is evident from the clause immediately preceding, which describes the woman’s constant suffering, and precludes the possibility of securing maintenance for herself; and also from the following verse, where the man is destined to labour hard for bread.The notion, therefore, that the woman is intellectually or morally weaker than man, is not the teaching of the word of God. While man, through his superior out-of-door qualities, or physical strength and courage, is the supporter, protector, and ruler of the woman; she, through her superior in-door qualities, her endurance and her charms, ameliorates his government, and sways his inmost heart. Their different characteristics, arising from their different destinations, were designed to blend together so as to produce a happy harmony, andto make both one.But how vilely and treacherously has man employed his superior strength and audacity! Instead of maintaining, protecting, and defending the woman, he has used his strength to oppress, to crush, and to degrade her. As the human race became more and more alienated from their Creator, intrinsic merit and moral character were despised, and physical[15]force became rampant; the stronger, as among animals, oppressed and preyed upon the weaker, and thus woman became the slave of man, and was absolutely sold in the capacity of daughter or wife, as cattle and other property. Thus Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, purchased Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, his master’s son, (Gen. xxiv. 53). Jacob, having nothing to give as a compensation for his wives, was obliged to serve fourteen years for them (Gen. xxix. 18–28). Shechem, wishing to obtain Dinah for a wife, and ascribing the unwillingness of Jacob to part with her to the insufficiency of the compensation he had offered, says—“Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife (Gen. xxxiv. 12).” Compare, also, Exod. xxii. 15, &c.; 1 Sam. xviii. 25; Hos. iii. 2. This custom of purchasing wives was general among the Orientals. “In Babylon,6the following course was pursued in every village once a-year. All the maidens of a marriageable age were collected together, and brought in a body to one place; around them stood a crowd of men. Then a crier, having made these maidens stand up one by one, offered them for sale, beginning with the most beautiful; and when she had been sold for a large sum, he put up another who was next in beauty. They were sold on condition that they should be married. Such men among the Babylonians as were rich and desirous of marrying used to bid against one another, and purchase the most beautiful. But such of the lower classes as were desirous of marrying, did not regard beauty, and were willing to take the plainer damsels with a sum of money given with them. For when the crier had finished selling the most beautiful of the maidens, he made the plainest stand up, or one that was a cripple, and put her up for auction, for the person who would marry her for the least sum. This money was obtained from the sale of the most beautiful; and thus the beautiful portioned out the plain and the crippled.” Wives were purchased among the Assyrians and Arabians also;7among[16]the ancient Greeks8and Germans9and are still bought among the Orientals of the present day.10Fearful consequences, arising from such a mode of obtaining wives, were inevitable, and soon became apparent. As the procuring of wives depended upon the offer which any one was able to make, those that could afford it purchased as many as they pleased. Hence the practice of polygamy, than which nothing produces more contempt for the proper character of women, or tends more to their degradation. As these contracts were formed without the parties being previously known to each other, and without any affection subsisting between them, the woman, instead of beingthe help-mate or companionof man became his slave, and was kept for the gratification of his carnal appetites, or at best was regarded as a plaything for a leisure hour. Her rights were denied, her education was neglected, her intellect was degraded, her moral character was questioned. Man, seeking to possess as many wives as he could afford, gave the woman no credit for virtue. Acting upon this suspicion and false accusation, he placed her in the most inaccessible part of the house; dogs or eunuchs guarded the doors of her chambers;11the harem was made as impenetrable as a prison; none but the nearest relatives were allowed to see her, and when permitted to pass through the streets her countenance was thickly veiled, and eunuchs watched her every step. Plutarch relates that when women travelled they were placed in a conveyance closely covered on all sides, and that it was in such a covering that Themistocles fled from Persia, his attendants being instructed to tell every inquirer that they were conveying a Grecian lady from Ionia to a nobleman at Court.12The sacred books of heathen nations[17]teem with loud execrations against the natural unfaithfulness and immorality of women. “The lust of a woman,” says the pundits, “is never satisfied, no more than fire is satisfied with fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals.” And again: “Women have six qualities: the first is an immoderate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals; the second, immoderate lust; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep resentment, no person knowing the sentiments concealed in their hearts; the fifth, another person’s good appears evil in their eyes; the sixth, they commit bad actions.”13The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affectation of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment or good sense, is held as an undisputed fact, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning, rests upon the same authority. Their general depravity is affirmed to be much greater than that of men. “I stood,” said the Prophet, “at the gate of Paradise, and lo, most of its inmates were the poor; and I stood at the gate of hell, and lo, most of its inmates were women.” In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, “Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise,” which Moore has thus paraphrased:—“Whene’er you’re in doubt, said a sage I once knew,’Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,Ask a woman’s advice, and whate’er she advise,Do the very reverse, and you’re sure to be wise.”When woman was created, “the devil,” we are told, “was delighted, and said, ‘Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot and miss not.’ ”14They were made so much to feel their[18]inferiority, that Iphigenia is made to say, “One man, forsooth, is better than ten thousand women.”15Though the Jewish women were treated more leniently, and enjoyed greater privileges than their sex in other nations, yet it is evident, from a variety of circumstances in Old Testament history, that they were not wholly emancipated from a state of unnatural inferiority. Polygamy was practised amongst the Jews, and its debasing effects were obvious. The harems, the veils, and eunuchs were not uncommon to their women. Weakness of moral character was imputed to them; unfaithfulness and incontinency were dilated upon (Num. v. 12; Prov. xxxi. 10; Eccl. vii. 28). Josephus tells us16that women, in consequence of their natural levity, were not admitted as legal witnesses in courts of justice. Maimonides teaches the same; “There are,” says this great luminary, “ten sorts of disqualifications, and every individual in whom one of them is found, is disqualified from giving evidence; and these are women, slaves, children, idiots, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their testimony; these are the ten.”17The Rabbins endeavour to justify this inhuman treatment of women from the law of Moses. “Women,” say they, “are disqualified by the law from giving testimony: for it is said, ‘At the mouth of two witnesses,’ where the word ‘witnesses’ is of themasculine, and not feminine gender.” It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Jew, among his thanksgivings, should say to the Almighty every morning, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that thou hast not created mea woman.”Now, if one sex of the human family has been so degraded by the other; if she whom God created to be ahelp-mate and counterparthas been reduced by man to the slave of his carnal lusts; if such slavish and inhuman treatment has been justified on the false plea of the natural unfaithfulness and incontinency[19]of the sex; if exclusion from society and imprisonment have been deemed necessary for the preservation of her morals, how greatly has woman been alienated from the original design of her creation! how unjustly has her character been aspersed! how inhumanly has she been treated! and how great is the importance of a book which celebrates the virtuous example of a woman, and thus strikes at the root of all her reproaches and her wrongs!The importance of this view of the book may be further seen from the fact, that, in proportion to the degradation of women, men themselves have become degraded; for, deprived of the meliorating influences which the delicacy and tenderness of women were designed to have over them, and never more needed than in their fallen state, they have abandoned themselves to their worst passions and desires, and thus their whole civil and social condition has been proportionally undignified and unblest. Look, on the other hand, at the state of society where woman is restored to her rightful position, there we shall find refinement of manners, purity of conversation, mutual confidence and affection, domestic happiness, intellectual enjoyment, freedom of thought and action, sympathetic repose, and whatever, in fact, tends to mitigate the unavoidable evils of the present life; all referable, in a greater or less degree, to the unrestricted influence of woman upon the child and upon the man. In religion, her influence is still more potent. If first in the transgression, she is first in the restoration; and were man as ready to follow her in doing good as he has been in doing evil, the world would long ago have been in a holier and happier state than it is at present. Who constitute the principal part of our worshipping assemblies? Women. Who form the chief portion of the members of our churches? Women. Who are the chief agents in the religious education of our children? Women. Who are the main support of our various benevolent and evangelical institutions? Women. Let it not be said, then, that a Book which celebrates the ascendency[20]of a virtuous woman in humble life over all the blandishments of wealth and royalty, is unworthy of a place in Holy Writ.The importance of this book is, moreover, enhanced by the circumstances more immediately connected with the time in which it was written.The conduct of Bath-sheba with David was calculated to confirm man in his opinion that woman was naturally unfaithful and incontinent, and that it was requisite to exclude her from society, in order to preserve her morals. But the narrative here recorded forms a contrast to the conduct of Bath-sheba. It shows the power of virtue in a woman, even of humble life. As the wife of an officer of rank, accustomed to luxury and wealth, the temptations of Bath-sheba were not so great, and yet she surrendered to them. Whereas the Shulamite, a humble shepherdess, to whom the promise of costly apparel and of elevation from a low and toilsome occupation to the highest rank, must have been an extraordinary allurement, triumphed over them all. If one woman yielded to small incitements, this book shows that another overcame unparalleled temptations, and thus checked the clamour against woman which might have arisen from the conduct of Bath-sheba with David.
SECTION IV.—IMPORTANCE OF THE BOOK.
Few, it is presumed, will question the importance of a Book, in the sacred canon, which records an example of virtue in a humble individual, who had passed successfully through unparalleled temptations.The avowed object of Holy Writ is to teach all that is good and conducive to human happiness. Lessons of wisdom and virtue are interspersed throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Apostle Paul urges the Philippians to think of whatsoever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report: of everything, in short, that is in any way profitable or praiseworthy. These lessons are not communicated to us in abstract forms, or enforced by powerful argument merely, but they are presented in the most attractive examples drawn from the lives of illustrious men and women, who, amidst the greatest trials and temptations, have pre-eminently maintained their integrity. The Patriarch Job is set forth as an example of patience, and the Prophets as patterns of suffering affliction (James v. 10, 11). An example of virtue, very similar to the one in the Song before us, is recorded in Gen. xxxix. 7, &c., where a Hebrew slave is tempted by a woman of rank, but resists the temptations; and though left to suffer for a season, is ultimately rewarded for his virtue. Such instances, therefore, are in harmony with the design of Scripture, and its method of teaching.The individual who passes through the extraordinary temptations recorded in this Song, and remains faithful, isa woman. Who can find a virtuous woman? This was the question of the Ancients, was reiterated in the middle ages, and is still asked by many. Here is a reply to Solomon’s own enquiry. He has found one at least of spotless integrity, and her virtue is recorded in Scripture, for the defence of women against a prevalent, but unjust suspicion.The second chapter of Genesis clearly states, that the man and the woman were created with the same intellectual and[13]moral powers. The words used by God respecting the creation of the woman are, “the being of man in his solitary state is not good. I will make hima help-mate corresponding to him;” that is, one that shall be exactly like him in affections, in sympathies, in mind, in fact his counterpart; she shall be the reflection of his own person. That this is the meaning ofכְּנֶנְדּוֹis evident from the Septuagint, which renders it in verse 18,κατ’ αὐτόν, and verse 20,ὅμοιος αὐτῷ; and from the Syriac and the Vulgate; as well as from the Rabbinical usage ofכְּנֶנֶד, to express thingsexactly like one another.5The word of God affirms here, that the woman was created exactly with the same capacities as the man, and contains no intimation of subserviency to him, or of being in the slightest degree weaker or less virtuous than he. The fact that the Tempter assailed the woman, and not the man, so far from showing that the woman was weaker, would rather prove that she was stronger; that the cunning serpent knew this, and was persuaded, if he could only prevail over the woman, she, with her superior influence, would be sure to succeed with the man, as the sad result showed.The curse which God pronounced upon the guilty pair, proves that the woman was created with the same intellectual and moral capacities as the man. Had the woman been weaker in these respects than the man, she would not have been accountable in an equal degree for her sin, and would not have been punished with the same severity.No alteration has taken place in their relative position, in this respect, since the fall. The curse upon the woman in relation to the man does not refer to anyintellectualormoral, but to aphysical, inferiority. Hitherto the Protoplasts resided in Paradise, and subsisted upon its delightful fruit; and the employment of the man was mere recreation. Henceforth they were to be driven from that happy abode; the woman was to experience all the sorrow and pain of[14]pregnancy and parturition, and must look to her husband for support from his hard-earned labour. The man, consigned to rough labour in the field, exposed to the assault of brutes, was henceforth to have more physical strength and daring; while the woman, destined to manage the affairs at home, and to rear up a family, was to exercise the power of patient endurance. The man, with his superior strength and boldness, was henceforth to be the protector; the woman, suffering and mild, the protected. He was to be the tiller of the ground, and she, in addition to the sorrow peculiar to her condition, must depend on what he might provide for her; and hence her desire was to be unto him; that is, she should be looking up to him for protection and maintenance,andthus he would rule over her. That this is the whole meaning of the phraseוְאֶל אִישֵׁדְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵדְ וְהוּא יִמְשָׁל בָּדְ, Gen. iii. 16, is evident from the clause immediately preceding, which describes the woman’s constant suffering, and precludes the possibility of securing maintenance for herself; and also from the following verse, where the man is destined to labour hard for bread.The notion, therefore, that the woman is intellectually or morally weaker than man, is not the teaching of the word of God. While man, through his superior out-of-door qualities, or physical strength and courage, is the supporter, protector, and ruler of the woman; she, through her superior in-door qualities, her endurance and her charms, ameliorates his government, and sways his inmost heart. Their different characteristics, arising from their different destinations, were designed to blend together so as to produce a happy harmony, andto make both one.But how vilely and treacherously has man employed his superior strength and audacity! Instead of maintaining, protecting, and defending the woman, he has used his strength to oppress, to crush, and to degrade her. As the human race became more and more alienated from their Creator, intrinsic merit and moral character were despised, and physical[15]force became rampant; the stronger, as among animals, oppressed and preyed upon the weaker, and thus woman became the slave of man, and was absolutely sold in the capacity of daughter or wife, as cattle and other property. Thus Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, purchased Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, his master’s son, (Gen. xxiv. 53). Jacob, having nothing to give as a compensation for his wives, was obliged to serve fourteen years for them (Gen. xxix. 18–28). Shechem, wishing to obtain Dinah for a wife, and ascribing the unwillingness of Jacob to part with her to the insufficiency of the compensation he had offered, says—“Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife (Gen. xxxiv. 12).” Compare, also, Exod. xxii. 15, &c.; 1 Sam. xviii. 25; Hos. iii. 2. This custom of purchasing wives was general among the Orientals. “In Babylon,6the following course was pursued in every village once a-year. All the maidens of a marriageable age were collected together, and brought in a body to one place; around them stood a crowd of men. Then a crier, having made these maidens stand up one by one, offered them for sale, beginning with the most beautiful; and when she had been sold for a large sum, he put up another who was next in beauty. They were sold on condition that they should be married. Such men among the Babylonians as were rich and desirous of marrying used to bid against one another, and purchase the most beautiful. But such of the lower classes as were desirous of marrying, did not regard beauty, and were willing to take the plainer damsels with a sum of money given with them. For when the crier had finished selling the most beautiful of the maidens, he made the plainest stand up, or one that was a cripple, and put her up for auction, for the person who would marry her for the least sum. This money was obtained from the sale of the most beautiful; and thus the beautiful portioned out the plain and the crippled.” Wives were purchased among the Assyrians and Arabians also;7among[16]the ancient Greeks8and Germans9and are still bought among the Orientals of the present day.10Fearful consequences, arising from such a mode of obtaining wives, were inevitable, and soon became apparent. As the procuring of wives depended upon the offer which any one was able to make, those that could afford it purchased as many as they pleased. Hence the practice of polygamy, than which nothing produces more contempt for the proper character of women, or tends more to their degradation. As these contracts were formed without the parties being previously known to each other, and without any affection subsisting between them, the woman, instead of beingthe help-mate or companionof man became his slave, and was kept for the gratification of his carnal appetites, or at best was regarded as a plaything for a leisure hour. Her rights were denied, her education was neglected, her intellect was degraded, her moral character was questioned. Man, seeking to possess as many wives as he could afford, gave the woman no credit for virtue. Acting upon this suspicion and false accusation, he placed her in the most inaccessible part of the house; dogs or eunuchs guarded the doors of her chambers;11the harem was made as impenetrable as a prison; none but the nearest relatives were allowed to see her, and when permitted to pass through the streets her countenance was thickly veiled, and eunuchs watched her every step. Plutarch relates that when women travelled they were placed in a conveyance closely covered on all sides, and that it was in such a covering that Themistocles fled from Persia, his attendants being instructed to tell every inquirer that they were conveying a Grecian lady from Ionia to a nobleman at Court.12The sacred books of heathen nations[17]teem with loud execrations against the natural unfaithfulness and immorality of women. “The lust of a woman,” says the pundits, “is never satisfied, no more than fire is satisfied with fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals.” And again: “Women have six qualities: the first is an immoderate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals; the second, immoderate lust; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep resentment, no person knowing the sentiments concealed in their hearts; the fifth, another person’s good appears evil in their eyes; the sixth, they commit bad actions.”13The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affectation of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment or good sense, is held as an undisputed fact, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning, rests upon the same authority. Their general depravity is affirmed to be much greater than that of men. “I stood,” said the Prophet, “at the gate of Paradise, and lo, most of its inmates were the poor; and I stood at the gate of hell, and lo, most of its inmates were women.” In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, “Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise,” which Moore has thus paraphrased:—“Whene’er you’re in doubt, said a sage I once knew,’Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,Ask a woman’s advice, and whate’er she advise,Do the very reverse, and you’re sure to be wise.”When woman was created, “the devil,” we are told, “was delighted, and said, ‘Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot and miss not.’ ”14They were made so much to feel their[18]inferiority, that Iphigenia is made to say, “One man, forsooth, is better than ten thousand women.”15Though the Jewish women were treated more leniently, and enjoyed greater privileges than their sex in other nations, yet it is evident, from a variety of circumstances in Old Testament history, that they were not wholly emancipated from a state of unnatural inferiority. Polygamy was practised amongst the Jews, and its debasing effects were obvious. The harems, the veils, and eunuchs were not uncommon to their women. Weakness of moral character was imputed to them; unfaithfulness and incontinency were dilated upon (Num. v. 12; Prov. xxxi. 10; Eccl. vii. 28). Josephus tells us16that women, in consequence of their natural levity, were not admitted as legal witnesses in courts of justice. Maimonides teaches the same; “There are,” says this great luminary, “ten sorts of disqualifications, and every individual in whom one of them is found, is disqualified from giving evidence; and these are women, slaves, children, idiots, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their testimony; these are the ten.”17The Rabbins endeavour to justify this inhuman treatment of women from the law of Moses. “Women,” say they, “are disqualified by the law from giving testimony: for it is said, ‘At the mouth of two witnesses,’ where the word ‘witnesses’ is of themasculine, and not feminine gender.” It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Jew, among his thanksgivings, should say to the Almighty every morning, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that thou hast not created mea woman.”Now, if one sex of the human family has been so degraded by the other; if she whom God created to be ahelp-mate and counterparthas been reduced by man to the slave of his carnal lusts; if such slavish and inhuman treatment has been justified on the false plea of the natural unfaithfulness and incontinency[19]of the sex; if exclusion from society and imprisonment have been deemed necessary for the preservation of her morals, how greatly has woman been alienated from the original design of her creation! how unjustly has her character been aspersed! how inhumanly has she been treated! and how great is the importance of a book which celebrates the virtuous example of a woman, and thus strikes at the root of all her reproaches and her wrongs!The importance of this view of the book may be further seen from the fact, that, in proportion to the degradation of women, men themselves have become degraded; for, deprived of the meliorating influences which the delicacy and tenderness of women were designed to have over them, and never more needed than in their fallen state, they have abandoned themselves to their worst passions and desires, and thus their whole civil and social condition has been proportionally undignified and unblest. Look, on the other hand, at the state of society where woman is restored to her rightful position, there we shall find refinement of manners, purity of conversation, mutual confidence and affection, domestic happiness, intellectual enjoyment, freedom of thought and action, sympathetic repose, and whatever, in fact, tends to mitigate the unavoidable evils of the present life; all referable, in a greater or less degree, to the unrestricted influence of woman upon the child and upon the man. In religion, her influence is still more potent. If first in the transgression, she is first in the restoration; and were man as ready to follow her in doing good as he has been in doing evil, the world would long ago have been in a holier and happier state than it is at present. Who constitute the principal part of our worshipping assemblies? Women. Who form the chief portion of the members of our churches? Women. Who are the chief agents in the religious education of our children? Women. Who are the main support of our various benevolent and evangelical institutions? Women. Let it not be said, then, that a Book which celebrates the ascendency[20]of a virtuous woman in humble life over all the blandishments of wealth and royalty, is unworthy of a place in Holy Writ.The importance of this book is, moreover, enhanced by the circumstances more immediately connected with the time in which it was written.The conduct of Bath-sheba with David was calculated to confirm man in his opinion that woman was naturally unfaithful and incontinent, and that it was requisite to exclude her from society, in order to preserve her morals. But the narrative here recorded forms a contrast to the conduct of Bath-sheba. It shows the power of virtue in a woman, even of humble life. As the wife of an officer of rank, accustomed to luxury and wealth, the temptations of Bath-sheba were not so great, and yet she surrendered to them. Whereas the Shulamite, a humble shepherdess, to whom the promise of costly apparel and of elevation from a low and toilsome occupation to the highest rank, must have been an extraordinary allurement, triumphed over them all. If one woman yielded to small incitements, this book shows that another overcame unparalleled temptations, and thus checked the clamour against woman which might have arisen from the conduct of Bath-sheba with David.
Few, it is presumed, will question the importance of a Book, in the sacred canon, which records an example of virtue in a humble individual, who had passed successfully through unparalleled temptations.
The avowed object of Holy Writ is to teach all that is good and conducive to human happiness. Lessons of wisdom and virtue are interspersed throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Apostle Paul urges the Philippians to think of whatsoever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report: of everything, in short, that is in any way profitable or praiseworthy. These lessons are not communicated to us in abstract forms, or enforced by powerful argument merely, but they are presented in the most attractive examples drawn from the lives of illustrious men and women, who, amidst the greatest trials and temptations, have pre-eminently maintained their integrity. The Patriarch Job is set forth as an example of patience, and the Prophets as patterns of suffering affliction (James v. 10, 11). An example of virtue, very similar to the one in the Song before us, is recorded in Gen. xxxix. 7, &c., where a Hebrew slave is tempted by a woman of rank, but resists the temptations; and though left to suffer for a season, is ultimately rewarded for his virtue. Such instances, therefore, are in harmony with the design of Scripture, and its method of teaching.
The individual who passes through the extraordinary temptations recorded in this Song, and remains faithful, isa woman. Who can find a virtuous woman? This was the question of the Ancients, was reiterated in the middle ages, and is still asked by many. Here is a reply to Solomon’s own enquiry. He has found one at least of spotless integrity, and her virtue is recorded in Scripture, for the defence of women against a prevalent, but unjust suspicion.
The second chapter of Genesis clearly states, that the man and the woman were created with the same intellectual and[13]moral powers. The words used by God respecting the creation of the woman are, “the being of man in his solitary state is not good. I will make hima help-mate corresponding to him;” that is, one that shall be exactly like him in affections, in sympathies, in mind, in fact his counterpart; she shall be the reflection of his own person. That this is the meaning ofכְּנֶנְדּוֹis evident from the Septuagint, which renders it in verse 18,κατ’ αὐτόν, and verse 20,ὅμοιος αὐτῷ; and from the Syriac and the Vulgate; as well as from the Rabbinical usage ofכְּנֶנֶד, to express thingsexactly like one another.5The word of God affirms here, that the woman was created exactly with the same capacities as the man, and contains no intimation of subserviency to him, or of being in the slightest degree weaker or less virtuous than he. The fact that the Tempter assailed the woman, and not the man, so far from showing that the woman was weaker, would rather prove that she was stronger; that the cunning serpent knew this, and was persuaded, if he could only prevail over the woman, she, with her superior influence, would be sure to succeed with the man, as the sad result showed.
The curse which God pronounced upon the guilty pair, proves that the woman was created with the same intellectual and moral capacities as the man. Had the woman been weaker in these respects than the man, she would not have been accountable in an equal degree for her sin, and would not have been punished with the same severity.
No alteration has taken place in their relative position, in this respect, since the fall. The curse upon the woman in relation to the man does not refer to anyintellectualormoral, but to aphysical, inferiority. Hitherto the Protoplasts resided in Paradise, and subsisted upon its delightful fruit; and the employment of the man was mere recreation. Henceforth they were to be driven from that happy abode; the woman was to experience all the sorrow and pain of[14]pregnancy and parturition, and must look to her husband for support from his hard-earned labour. The man, consigned to rough labour in the field, exposed to the assault of brutes, was henceforth to have more physical strength and daring; while the woman, destined to manage the affairs at home, and to rear up a family, was to exercise the power of patient endurance. The man, with his superior strength and boldness, was henceforth to be the protector; the woman, suffering and mild, the protected. He was to be the tiller of the ground, and she, in addition to the sorrow peculiar to her condition, must depend on what he might provide for her; and hence her desire was to be unto him; that is, she should be looking up to him for protection and maintenance,andthus he would rule over her. That this is the whole meaning of the phraseוְאֶל אִישֵׁדְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵדְ וְהוּא יִמְשָׁל בָּדְ, Gen. iii. 16, is evident from the clause immediately preceding, which describes the woman’s constant suffering, and precludes the possibility of securing maintenance for herself; and also from the following verse, where the man is destined to labour hard for bread.
The notion, therefore, that the woman is intellectually or morally weaker than man, is not the teaching of the word of God. While man, through his superior out-of-door qualities, or physical strength and courage, is the supporter, protector, and ruler of the woman; she, through her superior in-door qualities, her endurance and her charms, ameliorates his government, and sways his inmost heart. Their different characteristics, arising from their different destinations, were designed to blend together so as to produce a happy harmony, andto make both one.
But how vilely and treacherously has man employed his superior strength and audacity! Instead of maintaining, protecting, and defending the woman, he has used his strength to oppress, to crush, and to degrade her. As the human race became more and more alienated from their Creator, intrinsic merit and moral character were despised, and physical[15]force became rampant; the stronger, as among animals, oppressed and preyed upon the weaker, and thus woman became the slave of man, and was absolutely sold in the capacity of daughter or wife, as cattle and other property. Thus Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, purchased Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, his master’s son, (Gen. xxiv. 53). Jacob, having nothing to give as a compensation for his wives, was obliged to serve fourteen years for them (Gen. xxix. 18–28). Shechem, wishing to obtain Dinah for a wife, and ascribing the unwillingness of Jacob to part with her to the insufficiency of the compensation he had offered, says—“Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife (Gen. xxxiv. 12).” Compare, also, Exod. xxii. 15, &c.; 1 Sam. xviii. 25; Hos. iii. 2. This custom of purchasing wives was general among the Orientals. “In Babylon,6the following course was pursued in every village once a-year. All the maidens of a marriageable age were collected together, and brought in a body to one place; around them stood a crowd of men. Then a crier, having made these maidens stand up one by one, offered them for sale, beginning with the most beautiful; and when she had been sold for a large sum, he put up another who was next in beauty. They were sold on condition that they should be married. Such men among the Babylonians as were rich and desirous of marrying used to bid against one another, and purchase the most beautiful. But such of the lower classes as were desirous of marrying, did not regard beauty, and were willing to take the plainer damsels with a sum of money given with them. For when the crier had finished selling the most beautiful of the maidens, he made the plainest stand up, or one that was a cripple, and put her up for auction, for the person who would marry her for the least sum. This money was obtained from the sale of the most beautiful; and thus the beautiful portioned out the plain and the crippled.” Wives were purchased among the Assyrians and Arabians also;7among[16]the ancient Greeks8and Germans9and are still bought among the Orientals of the present day.10
Fearful consequences, arising from such a mode of obtaining wives, were inevitable, and soon became apparent. As the procuring of wives depended upon the offer which any one was able to make, those that could afford it purchased as many as they pleased. Hence the practice of polygamy, than which nothing produces more contempt for the proper character of women, or tends more to their degradation. As these contracts were formed without the parties being previously known to each other, and without any affection subsisting between them, the woman, instead of beingthe help-mate or companionof man became his slave, and was kept for the gratification of his carnal appetites, or at best was regarded as a plaything for a leisure hour. Her rights were denied, her education was neglected, her intellect was degraded, her moral character was questioned. Man, seeking to possess as many wives as he could afford, gave the woman no credit for virtue. Acting upon this suspicion and false accusation, he placed her in the most inaccessible part of the house; dogs or eunuchs guarded the doors of her chambers;11the harem was made as impenetrable as a prison; none but the nearest relatives were allowed to see her, and when permitted to pass through the streets her countenance was thickly veiled, and eunuchs watched her every step. Plutarch relates that when women travelled they were placed in a conveyance closely covered on all sides, and that it was in such a covering that Themistocles fled from Persia, his attendants being instructed to tell every inquirer that they were conveying a Grecian lady from Ionia to a nobleman at Court.12The sacred books of heathen nations[17]teem with loud execrations against the natural unfaithfulness and immorality of women. “The lust of a woman,” says the pundits, “is never satisfied, no more than fire is satisfied with fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals.” And again: “Women have six qualities: the first is an immoderate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals; the second, immoderate lust; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep resentment, no person knowing the sentiments concealed in their hearts; the fifth, another person’s good appears evil in their eyes; the sixth, they commit bad actions.”13The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affectation of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment or good sense, is held as an undisputed fact, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning, rests upon the same authority. Their general depravity is affirmed to be much greater than that of men. “I stood,” said the Prophet, “at the gate of Paradise, and lo, most of its inmates were the poor; and I stood at the gate of hell, and lo, most of its inmates were women.” In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, “Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise,” which Moore has thus paraphrased:—
“Whene’er you’re in doubt, said a sage I once knew,’Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,Ask a woman’s advice, and whate’er she advise,Do the very reverse, and you’re sure to be wise.”
“Whene’er you’re in doubt, said a sage I once knew,
’Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,
Ask a woman’s advice, and whate’er she advise,
Do the very reverse, and you’re sure to be wise.”
When woman was created, “the devil,” we are told, “was delighted, and said, ‘Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot and miss not.’ ”14They were made so much to feel their[18]inferiority, that Iphigenia is made to say, “One man, forsooth, is better than ten thousand women.”15
Though the Jewish women were treated more leniently, and enjoyed greater privileges than their sex in other nations, yet it is evident, from a variety of circumstances in Old Testament history, that they were not wholly emancipated from a state of unnatural inferiority. Polygamy was practised amongst the Jews, and its debasing effects were obvious. The harems, the veils, and eunuchs were not uncommon to their women. Weakness of moral character was imputed to them; unfaithfulness and incontinency were dilated upon (Num. v. 12; Prov. xxxi. 10; Eccl. vii. 28). Josephus tells us16that women, in consequence of their natural levity, were not admitted as legal witnesses in courts of justice. Maimonides teaches the same; “There are,” says this great luminary, “ten sorts of disqualifications, and every individual in whom one of them is found, is disqualified from giving evidence; and these are women, slaves, children, idiots, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their testimony; these are the ten.”17The Rabbins endeavour to justify this inhuman treatment of women from the law of Moses. “Women,” say they, “are disqualified by the law from giving testimony: for it is said, ‘At the mouth of two witnesses,’ where the word ‘witnesses’ is of themasculine, and not feminine gender.” It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Jew, among his thanksgivings, should say to the Almighty every morning, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that thou hast not created mea woman.”
Now, if one sex of the human family has been so degraded by the other; if she whom God created to be ahelp-mate and counterparthas been reduced by man to the slave of his carnal lusts; if such slavish and inhuman treatment has been justified on the false plea of the natural unfaithfulness and incontinency[19]of the sex; if exclusion from society and imprisonment have been deemed necessary for the preservation of her morals, how greatly has woman been alienated from the original design of her creation! how unjustly has her character been aspersed! how inhumanly has she been treated! and how great is the importance of a book which celebrates the virtuous example of a woman, and thus strikes at the root of all her reproaches and her wrongs!
The importance of this view of the book may be further seen from the fact, that, in proportion to the degradation of women, men themselves have become degraded; for, deprived of the meliorating influences which the delicacy and tenderness of women were designed to have over them, and never more needed than in their fallen state, they have abandoned themselves to their worst passions and desires, and thus their whole civil and social condition has been proportionally undignified and unblest. Look, on the other hand, at the state of society where woman is restored to her rightful position, there we shall find refinement of manners, purity of conversation, mutual confidence and affection, domestic happiness, intellectual enjoyment, freedom of thought and action, sympathetic repose, and whatever, in fact, tends to mitigate the unavoidable evils of the present life; all referable, in a greater or less degree, to the unrestricted influence of woman upon the child and upon the man. In religion, her influence is still more potent. If first in the transgression, she is first in the restoration; and were man as ready to follow her in doing good as he has been in doing evil, the world would long ago have been in a holier and happier state than it is at present. Who constitute the principal part of our worshipping assemblies? Women. Who form the chief portion of the members of our churches? Women. Who are the chief agents in the religious education of our children? Women. Who are the main support of our various benevolent and evangelical institutions? Women. Let it not be said, then, that a Book which celebrates the ascendency[20]of a virtuous woman in humble life over all the blandishments of wealth and royalty, is unworthy of a place in Holy Writ.
The importance of this book is, moreover, enhanced by the circumstances more immediately connected with the time in which it was written.
The conduct of Bath-sheba with David was calculated to confirm man in his opinion that woman was naturally unfaithful and incontinent, and that it was requisite to exclude her from society, in order to preserve her morals. But the narrative here recorded forms a contrast to the conduct of Bath-sheba. It shows the power of virtue in a woman, even of humble life. As the wife of an officer of rank, accustomed to luxury and wealth, the temptations of Bath-sheba were not so great, and yet she surrendered to them. Whereas the Shulamite, a humble shepherdess, to whom the promise of costly apparel and of elevation from a low and toilsome occupation to the highest rank, must have been an extraordinary allurement, triumphed over them all. If one woman yielded to small incitements, this book shows that another overcame unparalleled temptations, and thus checked the clamour against woman which might have arisen from the conduct of Bath-sheba with David.