Nothing assuredly can be more broadminded or more generous than Dr. Marvin's whole treatment of the claims of women, whether in politics, in the religious life, or in the domestic circle. In my humble opinion it would do infinite service in awakening thought and dispelling prejudice, could the sermon on "Consecrated Womanhood" be preached in every church and chapel in England. The good Quakers alone, so far as I know, have no need for its admonition.
Hengwrt, Dolgelly, North Wales, June 21, 1903.
"She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth out her hands to the needy. Strength and honor are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness."—_Proverbs._
It is the peculiarity of the Bible that it honored woman when every other book was blind to the true dignity of her character and the royal possibilities of her nature. The old Testament exalted her not only as wife and mother, but as citizen and ruler, and some of the most stirring songs and daring deeds of patriotism are recorded in the Bible to the honor of woman. Her inspired pen is immortalized in the Word of God, and if it be not meet that her voice sound from the halls of Congress, it is a fact of history that it was heard on the field of battle and in the chamber of justice more than three thousand years ago, when, by the mouth of Deborah and the hand of Jael, the Lord delivered Israel from the power of the spoiler. She may not be thought competent to have part in framing the laws of a State, but she was competent to judge the chosen people and to mould the character of the world's Redeemer.
The conservative who would obstruct the wheels of progress endeavors to accomplish his end by an appeal to the Bible. Sacred Scriptures were represented as the friend of slavery; they are now cited in defense of Papal idolatry and Mormon impurity; and how often we hear them quoted against the emancipation of woman. But the Bible is the most radical book in all the world, and its maxims of wisdom and virtue are in advance of every age. Whatever has been accomplished for the improvement of woman's lot may be traced to its hallowed influence. "It found her the slave of man's appetite in the East, the servant of his cupidity in the West, and the victim of his cruelty in the South," and it broke the chain that bound her soul in darkness and the social fetters that linked her womanhood with dishonor.