tently preached from the fireside as though they were oracles
from heaven, rather than the natural expressions of a mind imbued with
Grecian thought and ideals concerning womanhood. There is nothing
surprising in Paul's observations on the sphere of woman; they were
the reflex of the conservative and prevailing thought among the
civilizations _with which he was familiar_. But the world has outgrown
this ancient conception, and it is worse than folly to attempt to
fasten the corpse of the past to the living body of the present. The
evolution of society, a growing sense of justice in man, and the
exigencies of life are rapidly diminishing the old-time reverence for
the Pauline theory of woman's sphere. This is nowhere more
significantly illustrated than in the expressed declaration of tens of
thousands of pious, Christian women, and the active participation of a
smaller number in public affairs, who would indignantly resent any
intimation that they did not accept the plenary inspiration of the
Bible.[16] The declarations of Paul, while in harmony with accepted
ideas in his day, are absurd, and inapplicable to our age and
generation, and as such are being discarded by enlightened public
sentiment, as was the old theory of a flat earth finally given up
after science fully exposed its falsity. Another duty of woman is to
unitedly contend for the _right of suffrage for those who wish to
exercise it_. There may have been a time when there was no pressing
duty involved in this question, but that day has passed. Recent
statistics show that there are in the United States to-day millions of
women who earn a livelihood by their own individual exertions;[17]
tens of thousands of these women are working for starvation wages,
with the awful alternative ever before them "starve or sin." This
condition will remain until women have a voice in the government equal
to man's, and their numbers are so organized as to challenge the
consideration of law-makers. The infamous "_age of consent laws_"
which place the age of consent to her own ruin from seven to twelve
years for girls _could only be enacted in man-governed States_. A
noteworthy illustration of this is found in the fact that Wyoming, the
only State where woman enjoys full franchise, has placed the age of
consent at the legal age of majority, eighteen years, while Kansas,
the State which more than any other approaches Wyoming in bestowing on
women the rights of franchise, and where sh