The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 380

women speaking in the churches was of course very good· as point.ing out a &"eneral rule, but probably he would have allowed, on a prudent occasion for allowing 1t, that it was a rule not without exceptions. He may have reckoned it well at the time, for reasons drawn from the state of a particular church, to rn&ke the injunctions expresY and decided. Wlw wei·e ro speak for these U/O'IM'll, 1 if not duty tlumuelvu 1 When the dow:n-trodden find no sufficient advocate among spectators, it is time for them to raise their. own voices. Is it not plain that these toomen wert tM be8t judges of their 11wn pO&twn 1 So in the pressure of modem social life, is it not very inconsistent with the maintenance of liberty and truth, to hinder women from asserting their daims in 'l>hatever way they deem best? They may indeed be unfit for many fields of labour which they profess their fitness and anxiety to occupy, but at all event.e let them disco,er the unfitness for themselves. Hae it not been said beforehand of many achieved and glorious facts that they were impossible of attainment? Modern history .abounds with such disgraced predictions. Paul said, "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind," which is surely every whit as needful and every whit as ~erviceable for the woman as the man. • III. THE ACTION OF THESE WOKEN WAS JUSTIFIED BY THE RESULT. God approves their action, as they gain from him the authoritative laying down of. a general principle, applied indeed to property, but surely of equal application to all disabilities of sex which a.rise in other ways than from the impassable limits of •nature-.. God has written for the woman, in her own n&ture, certain laws she mllllt not transgress, but he never gave man the right to construe these laws, certainly not &fter the domineering fashion he so frequently adopts. It is undoubtedly true that God made the woman for the man; hun1an nature finds here its completeness, derives hence the means of its continue.nee, and that diversity of personality and character which constitute so much of the peculiar riches of humanity. But man is not therefore to settle the woman's sphere with bis strong and irresponsible hand, Is it not a thing almost certain that many disabilities of sex have arisen through man being from the first the stronger? In the days when might ma.de right-,- He took adva,nmge of his strength to be First in the field. There is a parallel between much in man's treatment of woman and his treatment of the Sabbath. Christ had to free the Sabbath, in his day, from Pharisees. It had been so fettered up by opinionated, obstinate clingers to the traditions of the fathers, as to have become useless for its original purposes, a burden and & terror more than anything else. He freed it by the great declaration that the Sabbath was made for man, and now we have those who rush to the other extreme, and quote his words for purposes utterly a.lien from his own. So there are the two extremes in judging the place of woman and the scope of her life and service. Some, blindly wedded to custom, would shut woman up in strict limitations, which though not as degrading as those of a Turkish harem, are quite as unjust and injurious in their own way. -Others there are who seem inclined to claim for women more than nature in its utmost kindliness will ever yield. Women, who know their own nature best, can be the only true judges, eve~ under the gui~ance ,of God himself, as !,O the ~apabili~iee cf their sex. Paul pleading for oneness m Chnst Jesus, says, that m relation to him, as there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, so there is neither male nor female. The woman is on the same level as the man in the sight of Christ. To Christ she is directly responsible, bound to serve hi1;0 with the ~uln!ss. of he~ powers. Hen_ce to ,take the highest ground, that of alleg11i.nce to Chnst, 1t 111 unf1uthfulneSB to him to ,put even the smallest obstacles in the way of women acting as their own hearts· tell them they may best serve their Master. IV. WE BEE A Goo 011' EQUITY SBOWmG BIS D[BREGARD ll'OB MEBE LEGAL RIGHTS. Nowhere is it shown more clearly than in the Boriptures that law is one thing and equity another. How should a world ignorant of the righteousneae of God, and full -0£ the aelfieh and domineering, make laws such as he will sanction and uphold? "We have law with ns," the uncles may have said. Possibly so ; but not the l11w of him who spoke from Sinai. Any law of men which ,contradicts the law of, love ,to God, .and love to the neighbour, is doomed in the very tn&king of it. .And is it not a <JH, XXVII. 1-11.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 367