437).
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, if she rises above the condition of being a bearer of children to that noble position which is held by the mother of a family, she owes her elevation in the main to the religion of Moses and to that of Jesus. The first system—as a preparatory one—did not and could not complete the emancipation of woman.
The Oriental influence modified the religious so materially, as to keep women generally in some considerable subjection. Yet the placing of the fondest desires and the glowing hopes of the nation on some child that was to be born, some son that was to be given, as it made every matron's heart beat high with expectation, raised the tone of self respect among the women of Israel, and caused them to be regarded by the other sex with lively interest, deep regard, and a sentiment which was akin to reverence. There was, however, needed the finishing touch which the Great Teacher put to the Mosaic view of the relations between the sexes. Recognising the fundamental truths which were as old as the creation of man, Jesus proceeded to re strain 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 doc trine of immortality, he made the bond co-existent with the undying soul, only teaching that the con nection would be refined with the refinement of our affections and our liberation from these tene ments of clay in which we now dwell (Matt. v. 32 ;
xix. 3, seq.; xxii. 23, seq.) With views so elevated as these, and with affections of the tenderest benignity, the Saviour 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 N. T. 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. Woman, in the better portions of society, is now a new being. And yet her an gelic career is only just begun. She sees what she may, and what under the gospel she ought to be ; and ere very long, we trust, a way vvill be found to employ in purposes of good, energies of the finest nature which now waste away from want of scope, in the ease and refinements of affluence, if not in the degradations of luxury—a most precious offer ing made to the Moloch of fashion, but which ought to be consecrated to the service of that God who gave these endowments, and of that Saviour who has brought to light the rich capabilities, and exhibited the high and holy vocation, of the female sex.—J. R. B.
ADDENDUM.—Women appear to have enjoyed considerably more freedom among the Jews than is now allowed them in western Asia, although in other respects their condition and employments seem to have been not dissimilar. At present, women of all ranks are much confined to their own houses, and never see the men who visit their hus bands or fathers ; and in towns they never go abroad without their persons and faces being com pletely shrouded : they also take their meals apart from the males, even of their own family. But in the rural districts they enjoy more freedom, and often go about unveiled. Among the Jews, wo men were somewhat less restrained in their inter course with men, and did not generally conceal their faces when they went abroad. Only one in stance occurs in Scripture of women eating with men (Ruth ii. 14) ; but that was at a simple re fection, and only illustrates the greater freedom of rural manners.