in a.II Churches of the Raints, let your women keep silence in the Churche~, for it is not (X'rmittrd to them to speak . . . for it is a shame for women to speak in the Churches." Prophesying as well as preaching is forbidden to women. ('I') Much unnecessary difficulty has been caused by the p:i.~s:tge respecting "a woman prayina or prophesyin" with her head uncovered " (1 Cor. xi. 5). The apostle seems for the time to allo.~ the practice, while he condemns the manner of its performance; but afterwards he forbids the practice itself. In the earlier passage he rebukes merely the indecency of an existing custom, and then in the later he forbids the custom itself. Calvin says," By condemning the one he does not commend the other." You cannot regard as of equal authority a practice and a command, both explicit and repeated, which destroys the practice. (8) " But these directions were given to Greek Churches, and cannot apply to the women of our day." We answer that they apply to all Churches; for the apostle says, "As in all Churches of the saints, let your women keep silence in the Churches." The reasons given for the prohibition prove that it bas nothi1'g to do with usages, or customs, or times, or races. IL THE REASON OB GROUND OF THE APOSTLE'S PROliIBITION. It is to be found in the original law of the relation of woman to man. 1. Man's heudsliip in creation. "For Adam wa.s first formed, then Eve." Man's priority of creation is the first reason, but it is to be taken together with the statement in 1 Cor. xi. 8, 9, " For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man; for also the man was not made for the sake of the woman, but the woman for the sake of the man." Besides, as " the Head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man " (1 Cor. x.i. 3). "The husband is the head of the wife" (Eph. v. 23). The woman, therefore, stands under law to her husband, and therefore any attempt on her part to assume the part of head or guide is to overturn the primal order of creation. 2. Woman's priority in transgression. "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being altogether deceived fell into transgression." They both sinned; but Adam was not deceived, for he fully understood the sin he was com- mitting when he yielded to the persuasiveness of his wife. (1) 'l'his reference implies the truly historical character of the narrative in Genesis. It is no myth or legend. The fall of man is a.n historic fact of the greatest importance, for it grounds the doctrine of original sin, without which human nature, says Pascal, is an icexplicable riddle. (2) The deception was practised upon Eve, not upon Adam, for she confessed that the serpent beguiled her. (3) 'l'his facility of deception on her part seems to suggest to the apostle her inferiority to man in strength of intellect, and the consequent wrongness of allowing to woman an intellectual supremacy over man. ill THE BLESSING UPON WOIIU..N STANDING WITHIN BEB TRUE SPHERE. "But she shall be saved through the child-bearing, if they abide in faith and love and holiness with sobriety." L It iii here implwl that woman is to find her right sphere in the rel,ations of motMThood. 'l'he change of number implies that Eve is here to be regarded as the representative of her sex. Her sphere is in the home life; her destiny lies in the faithful discharge of its duties. Eve was to be the mother of e.11 living; it was to be through the seed thus given her that the curse was to be lifted off the world, and the bead of the serpent bruised. There is an evident allusion in "the child-bearing" to the Incarnation, but it points likewise to the collective seed associated with Christ. 2. It implies that women are not saved, as Roman Catholics contend, by mere child- bearing, so that a woman dying in her travail is necessarily saved, for the apostle links with it certain spirit.ual qualifications a.a necessary to Ralvation. (1) Faith-implicitly resting in the Divine promise and upon the Divine Redeemer, "as the seed of the woman ; " (2) love, as the inspiration of all her wifely and motherly duties; (3) holiness, as implying purity of life, circumspcctness of walk, and devotedness to GoJ; (4) with sobriety, ai, marking the self-effacing, self-restraining, self-governing spirit which she is to carry into ail the conditions of her life as a. Christian mother.-T. C.
Ver. 2.-" A quiet life." Nothing in the gospel was revolutionary. Its aim was not to upset thrones, but to purify a.II the centres of power; not to make assault at once on polygamy and slavery, but to undermine them by the Christian spirit and sacrifice. Prayer is here made for kings and all in authority. Rulership there must be. Anarchy is miBery. Fields must be ploughed; grain must be stored; homes must be protected; or else weakness becomes the prey of strength. The purpose, then, of God, in crdination OR. II. 1-15.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 43