or. xiv. 34, 35; Tim. ii. 11, 12) warns women to keep silence
in church, for "it is not permitted unto them to speak." Having written
this line, Paul must have got up and strutted round the room like a
ruffled cock. "Let the woman," he says, "learn in silence with all
subjection. I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over
the man, but to be in silence." Hear, hear! from the males in the body
of the synagogue. Evidently Paul could bray on occasion as lustily
as Balaam's ass. If the women "will learn anything," which he clearly
thought problematical, "let them ask their husbands at home." Fancy some
women with no other sources of information!

The reason Paul gives for woman's inferiority is that Mrs. Eve was first
tempted by the serpent. And a capital thing too! If Mrs. Eve had not
eaten that apple the human race would still number two, or else, if none
of them died, they would be thicker than barrelled herrings.

Our Church of England marriage service follows the teaching of Paul.
While the husband promises to-love the wife, the wife promises to love,
honor and obey the husband. Many ladies say these words at the altar
with a mental reservation. When they are obliged to do this they tacitly
admit that Paul and the Church are wrong. But if so the Bible is wrong.
The fact is that the "blessed book," instead of being woman's best
friend, is her worst enemy. The Tenth Commandment makes her domestic
property, and Paul winds up by telling her that her sole duty is to play
second fiddle in a minor key.

MOTHER'S RELIGION.

Religion is the feminine element in human nature. Science is the
masculine. One accepts, the other inquires; one believes, the other
proves; one loves the old, the other the new; one submits, the other
dares; one is conservative, and the other progressive.

I say this with no disrespect to women. Evolution has made them what
they are, and evolution will remake them. Nor do I slight the noble band
of advanced women, the vanguard of their sex, who have shed a lustre on
our century. I merely take a convenient metaphor, which crystallises
a profound truth, though fully conscious of its shortcomings and
exclusions.

Woman is still the citadel of religion. Thither the priest flies from
the attacks of scepticism. There he finds an inviolable refuge. The
mother, the wife, the sister, shield him and his creed; and their white
arms and soft eyes are a better guard than all the weapons in th