r of
women dangling at his heels, but his teaching on the subject in hand is
barren, or worse. As a child, he gave his mother the slip at Jerusalem,
and caused her much anxiety. During his ministry, when his mother and his
brethren wished to speak with him, he forgot the natural ties of blood,
and coolly remarked that his family were those who believed his gospel.
On another occasion he roughly said to Mary, "Woman, what have I to do
with thee?" These examples are not very edifying. If Christ is our great
exemplar, the fashion he set of treating his nearest relatives is "more
honored in the breach than in the observance."

Jesus appears to have despised the union of the sexes, therefore
marriage, and therefore the home. He taught that in heaven, where all
are perfect, there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage; the
saints being like angels, probably of the neuter gender. In Matthew
xix. 12 he appears to recommend emasculation, praising those who make
themselves "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." This doctrine
is too high for flesh and blood, but Origen and other early Christians
practised it literally. We may be sure that those who trample on manhood
have no real respect for womanhood. Hence the Romish Church has always
praised up virginity, which is simply an abnegation of sex. Cruden
shrinks from the literal sense of Christ's words, and says that the
"eunuchs" he refers to are those who "upon some religious motive do
abstain from marriage and the use of all carnal pleasures; that they
may be less encumbered with the cares of the world, and may devote
themselves more closely to the service of God." Moonshine! Origen was a
better judge than Cruden. If Jesus did not mean what he said, why did he
take the trouble to speak? His doctrine is that of the anchorite. It led
naturally to the filthy wretches, called monks, who dreaded the sight of
a woman, and hoped to please God by stultifying nature. It also led to
the Church law forbidding women to touch the sacrament with their naked
hands, lest they should pollute it. Only women who relish that infamous
law can feel any respect for the teaching of Jesus.

PAUL ON WOMEN.

Christianity, as the centuries have revealed its practical character,
owes more to Paul than to Jesus. Its dogmas are mostly derived from the
epistles of the great apostle. Many a true believer thinks he is
obeying the carpenter's son, when all the time he is obeying the Tarsus
tent-m