SQLite format 3 @ 5 q!!/tablejournalFTSjournalFTSCREATE VIRTUAL TABLE journalFTS USING FTS3(title, content, tags, tokenize=porter)[/{indexidx_journal_titlejournalCREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_journal_title on journal(title)R)oindexidx_journal_idjournalCREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_journal_id on journal(id)P++Ytablesqlite_sequencesqlite_sequenceCREATE TABLE sqlite_sequence(name,seq)f#tablejournaljournalCREATE TABLE journal(rowid INTEGER primary key autoincrement, id TEXT collate nocase, title TEXT collate nocase, date DATETIME, tags TEXT, content TEXT, relativeorder INT default 0, hidden INT default 0)\tabledetailsdetailsCREATE TABLE details(name TEXT, title TEXT, abbreviation TEXT, author TEXT, description TEXT, comments TEXT, version TEXT, versiondate DATETIME, publishdate TEXT, readonly BOOL, customcss B B ;5;5=MM3 Booth-FemaleMinistrybooth-c-female-ministryBooth-FemaleMinistryBooth, Catharine MumfordA Tract on Women in the MinistryA Tract on Women in the Ministry12011-05-22 00:00:001859 U )) gTitle ContentsTitle Contents
•FEMALE MINISTRY;
OR, Woman journal ) Title Contents ) Title Contents \ ) Title Contents• FEMALE MINISTRY; OR, Woman’s Right to Preach the Gospel. By MRS. BOOTH. “And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.”— Joel. London: MORGAN & CHASE, 38, LUDGATE HILL. PRICE ONE PENNY. Quantities can be had at considerable reduction from MR. BOOTH, Gore Road, Victoria Park Road, London, N.E. PREFACE. The principal arguments contained in the following pages were published in a pamphlet entitled Female Teaching, which, I have reason to know, has been rendered very useful. In this edition all the controversial portions have been expunged, some new matter added, and the whole produced in a cheaper form, and thus, I trust, rendered better adapted for general circulation. Our only object in this issue is the elicitation of the truth. We hold that error can in the end be profitable to no cause, M 0n , \tabledetailsdetailsCREATE TABLE details(name TEXT, title TEXT, abbreviation TEXT, author TEXT, description TEXT, comments TEXT, version\tabledetailsdetailsCREATE TABLE details(name TEXT, title TEXT, abbreviation TEXT, author TEXT, description TEXT, comments TEXT, version TEXT, versiondate DATETIME, publishdate TEXT, readonly BOOL, customcss TEXT)f#tablejournaljournalCREATE TABLE journal(rowid INTEGER primary key autoincrement, id TEXT collate nocase, title TEXT collate nocase, date DATETIME, tags TEXT, content TEXT, relativeorder INT default 0, hidden INT default 0)P++Ytablesqlite_sequencesqlite_sequenceCREATE TABLE sqlite_sequence(name,seq)R)oindexidx_journal_idjournalCREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_journal_id on journal(id)[/{indexidx_journal_titlejournalCREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_journal_title on journal(title)q!!/tablejournalFTSjournalFTSCREATE VIRTUAL TABLE journalFTS USING FTS3(title, content, tags, tokenize=porter) _ B 1 < " ! z p z 4Ktabledatadata CREATE TABLE datb 5indexidx_data_descriptiondataCREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_data_description on data(description)11ItablejournalFTS_contentjournalFTS_contentCREATE TABLE 'journalFTS_content'(docid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, 'c0title', 'c1content', 'c2tags')~33#tablejournalFTS_segmentsjournalFTS_segments CREATE TABLE 'journalFTS_segments'(blockid INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, block BLOB)K //EtablejournalFTS_segdirjournalFTS_segdirCREATE TABLE 'journalFTS_segdir'(level INTEGER,idx INTEGER,start_block INTEGER,leaves_end_block INTEGER,end_block INTEGER,root BLOB,PRIMARY KEY(level, idx))A U/ indexsqlite_autoindex_journalFTS_segdir_1journalFTS_segdir4Ktabledatadata CREATE TABLE data(rowid INTEGER primary key autoincrement, id TEXT collate nocase, description TEXT collate nocase, date DATETIME, filename TEXT, content BLOB)F#cindexidx_data_iddataCREATE UNIQUE INDEX idx_data_id on data(id) 7 7 F %%accondrgum becau camolliuntry did earvil finn giv havon info judg log met new ofrp piorof redem saihepi tenhemso unfe voci whom xx “let s Right to Preach the Gospel.
By MRS. BOOTH.
“And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.”— Joel.
London: MORGAN & CHASE, 38, LUDGATE HILL.
PRICE ONE PENNY. Quantities can be had at considerable reduction from MR. BOOTH, Gore Road, Victoria Park Road, London, N.E.
PREFACE.
The principal arguments contained in the following pages were published in a pamphlet entitled Female Teaching, which, I have reason to know, has been rendered very useful.
In this edition all the controversial portions have been expunged, some new matter added, and the whole produced in a cheaper form, and thus, I trust, rendered better adapted for general circulation.
Our only object in this issue is the elicitation of the truth. We hold that error can in the end be profitable to no cause, and least of all to the cause of Christ. If therefore we were not fully satisfied as to the correctness of the views herein set forth, we should fear to subject them t o the light ; and if we did not deem them of vast importance to the interests of Christ’s kingdom, we should prefer to hold them in silence. Believing however that they will bear the strictest investigation, and that their importance cannot easily be over‐estimated, we feel bound to propagate them to the utmost of our ability.
In this paper we shall endeavour to meet the most common objections to female ministry, and to present, as far as our space will permit, a thorough examination of the texts generally produced in support of these objections. May the great Head of the Church grant the light of His Holy Spirit to both writer and reader.
FEMALE MINISTRY;
OR WOMAN’S RIGHT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL.
THE first and most common objection urged against the public exercises of women, is that they are unnatural and unfeminine. Many labour under a very great but common mistake, viz. that of confounding nature with custom. Use, or custom, makes things appear to us natural, wh ich, in reality, are very unnatural; while, on the other hand, novelty and rarity make very natural things appear strange and contrary to nature. So universally has this power of custom been felt and admitted, that it has given birth to the proverb, “Use is second nature.” Making allowance for the novelty of the thing, we cannot discover anything either unnatural or immodest in a Christian woman, becomingly attired, appearing on a platform or in a pulpit. By nature she seems fitted to grace either. God has given to woman a graceful form and attitude, winning manners, persuasive speech, and, above all, a finely‐toned emotional nature, all of which appear to us eminent natural qualifications for public speaking. We admit that want of mental culture, the trammels of custom, the force of prejudice, and one‐sided interpretations of Scripture, have hitherto almost excluded her from this sphere; but, before such a sphere is pronounced to be unnatural, it must be proved either that woman has not the abili ty to teach or to preach, or that the possession and exercise of this ability unnaturalizes her in other respects; that so soon as she presumes to step on the platform or into the pulpit, she loses the delicacy and grace of the female character. Whereas, we have numerous instances of her retaining all that is most esteemed in her sex, and faithfully discharging the duties peculiar to her own sphere, and at the same time taking her place with many of our most useful speakers and writers. Why should woman be confined exclusively to the kitchen and the distaff, any more than man to the field and workshop? Did not God, and has not nature, assigned to man his sphere of labour, “to till the ground, and to dress it”? And, if exemption is claimed from this kind of toil for a portion of the male sex, on the ground of their possessing ability for intellectual
page: 4
and moral pursuits, we must be allowed to claim the same privilege for woman ; nor can we see the exception more unnatural in the one case than the other, or why God in this solitary instance has endowed a being with powers which He never intended her to employ.
There seems to be a great deal of unnecessary fear of women occupying any position which involves publicity, lest she should be rendered unfeminine by the indulgence of ambition or vanity ; but why should woman any more than man be charged with ambition when impelled to use her talents for the good of her race. Moreover, as a labourer in the GOSPEL her position is much higher than in any other public capacity; she is at once shielded from all coarse and unrefined influences and associations; her very vocation tending to exalt and refine all the tenderest and most womanly instincts of her nature. As a matter of fact it is well known to those who have had opportunities of observing the private character and deportment of women engaged in preaching the gospel, that they have been amongst the most amiable, self‐sacrificing, and unobtrusive of their sex.
“We well know,” say s the late Mr. Gurney, a minister of the Society of Friends, “that there are no women among us more generally distinguished for modesty, gentleness, order, and right submission to their brethren, than those who have been called by their Divine Master into the exercise of the Christian ministry.”
Who would dare to charge the sainted Madame Guyon, Lady Maxwell, the talented mother of the Wesleys, Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Whiteman, or Miss Marsh with being unwomanly or ambitious. Some of these ladies we know have adorned by their private virtues the highest ranks of society, and won alike from friends and enemies the highest eulogiums as to the devotedness, purity, and sweetness of their lives. Yet these were all more or less public women, every one of them expounding and exhorting from the Scriptures to mixed companies of men and women. Ambitious doubtless they were; but theirs was an ambition akin to His, who, for the “joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, des pising the shame:” and to his, who counted all things but dung and dross, and was willing to be regarded as the off‐scouring of all things that he might win souls to Jesus and bring glory to God. Would that all the Lord’s people had more of this ambition.
Well, but, say our objecting friends, how is it that these whose names you mention, and many others, should venture to preach when female ministry is forbidden in the word of God? This is by far the most serious objection which we have to consider—and if capable of substantiation, should receive our immediate and cheerful acquiescence; but we
page: 5
think that we shall be able to show, by a fair and consistent interpretation, that the very opposite view is the truth. That not only is the public ministry of woman unforbidden, but absolutely enjoined by both precept and example in the word of God.
And, first, we will select the most prominent and explicit passages of the New Testament referring to the subject, beginning with