WOMAN (wbbm'an), (Heb. ish-shaw'), is the feminine of ish, as among the ancient Ro mans vira (found still in virago) from vir; like our own term woman, the Hebrew is used of mar ried and unmarried females.
The derivation of the word thus shows that ac cording to the conception of the ancient Israelites woman was man in a modified form—one of the same race, the same genus, as man ; a kind of fe male man. How slightly modified that form is, how little in original structure woman differs from man, physiology has made abundantly clear.
(1) Unity with Man. Different in make as man and woman are, they differ still more in character ; and yet the great features of their hearts and minds so closely resemble each other that it re quires no depth of vision to see that these twain are one. This most important fact is character istically set forth in the Bible in the account given of the formation of woman out of one of Adam's ribs (Gen. ii :21-24). Those who have been pleased to make free with this simple narrative, may well be required to show how a rude age could more effectually have been taught the es sential unity of man and woman—a unity of nature which demands, and is perfected only in, a unity of soul. The conception of the biblical writer goes beyond even this, but does not extend farther than science and experience unite to justify. There was solid reason why it was not good for Adam `to be alone.' Without a helpmeet he would have been an imperfect being. The genus horn° con sists of man and woman. Both are necessary to the idea of man. The one supplements the quali ties of the other. They are not two, but one flesh, and as one body so one soul.
The entire aim, then, of the narrative in Genesis was, by setting forth certain great physical facts. to show the essential unity of man and woman, yet the dependence of the latter on the former ; and so to encourage and foster the tenderest and most considerate love between the two, founded on the peculiar qualities of each—pre-eminence, strength, intellectual power, and wisdom on the one side; reliance, softness, grace, and beauty on the other— and at the same time to teach that the one set of excellencies lose all their worth unless existing in the possession of the other.
(2) The Jewish Religion and Woman. It will at once be seen that under the influence of a religion at the bottom of which lay those ideas concerning the relations of the sexes one to an other, slavery on the part of the woman was im possible. This fact is the more noticeable and it speaks the more loudly in favor of the divine origin of the religion of the Bible, because the East has in all times, down to the present day, kept woman everywhere, save in those places in which Judaism and Christianity have prevailed, in a state of low, even if in some cases gilded, bond age, making her the mere toy, plaything and in strument of man.
The singular beauty of the Hebrew women and the natural warmth of their affections have con spired to throw gems of domestic loveliness over the pages of the Bible. In no history can there be found an equal number of charming female por traits. From Hagar down to Mary and Martha, the Bible presents pictures of womanly beauty that are unsurpassed and rarely paralleled. But we
should very imperfectly represent in these general remarks the formative influence of the female character as seen in the Bible, did not we refer these amiable traits of character to the original conceptions of which we have spoken, and to the pure and lofty religious ideas which the Biblical books in general present. If woman there appears as the companion and friend of man, she owes her elevation in the main to the religion of Moses and to that of Jesus. The first system—as a prepara tory one—did not and could not complete the emancipation of woman.
(3) Christianity and Woman. There was, however, needed the finishing touch which the Great Teacher put to the Mosaic view of the re lations between the sexes. Recognizing the funda mental truths which were as old as the creation of man, Jesus proceeded to restrain the much-abused facility of divorce, leaving only one cause why the marriage-bond should be broken, and at the same time teaching that as the origin of wedlock was divine, so its severance ought not to be the work of man. Still further—bringing to bear on the domestic ties his own doctrine of immortality, he made the bond coexistent with the undying soul, only teaching that the connection would be re fined with the refinement of our affections and our liberation from these tenements of clay in which we now dwell (Matt. v:32; xix :3, sq.; xxii:24, sq.). \Vith views so elevated as these, and with affections of the tenderest benignity, the Savior may well have won the warm and gentle hearts of Jewish women. Accordingly, the purest and richest human light that lies on the pages of the New Testament comes from the band of high minded, faithful, and affectionate women who are found in connection with Christ from his cradle to his cross, his tomb, and his resurrection. These ennobling influences have operated on society with equal benefit and power. From the days of Paul's efficient feminine coworkers and St. John's "elect lady," woman in Christian lands has steadily ad vanced in the higher life of pure and lofty aims and of noble achievement. So truly has she be come "an help fitting for man" that she stands bravely by his side in all God's work in the world, whether it be among the poor, the sorrowing and the fallen of the home land, or spreading the blessed gospel in far distant countries. Indeed, in our day scarcely any reform or philanthropical un dertaking is planned or carried out without the in spiration and co-operation of woman. America has her Harriet Beecher Stowe, her Frances Wil lard, her Clara Barton; England, her Florence Nightingale and her Lady Henry Somerset. Even from the circles of great wealth and fashion, many noble women like Helen Gould are stepping forth to devote their time and money to phi lanthropy. Besides all these world-famed leaders of thought and action, there are thousands of lesser lights, humble, faithful workers, who, as deaconesses in the church, as nurses in the hos pitals, as teachers in the schools and—last, but highest of all—as mothers in the home, are ad vancing the kingdom of Christ and upholding truth, purity, temperance and justice. J. R. B.