John Angell James

“There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” —Galatians 3:28.

WOMAN WAS THE FINISHING GRACE OF THE CREATION.

Woman was the completeness of man’s bliss in Paradise. Woman was the cause of sin and death to our world. The world was redeemed by the Seed of the woman. Woman is the mother of the human race. She is either our companion, counselor, and comforter in the pilgrimage of life; or she is our tempter, scourge, and destroyer. Our sweetest cup of earthly happiness or our bitterest draught of sorrow is mixed and administered by her hand. She not only renders smooth or rough our path to the grave, but helps or hinders our progress to immortality. In heaven we shall bless God for her aid in assisting us to reach that blissful state; or amidst the torments of unutterable woe in another region, we shall deplore the fatality of her influence…

My subject is religion; my object is the soul; my aim is salvation. I view you, my female friends, as destined for another world; and it is my business to aid and stimulate you by patient continuance in well-doing to seek for glory, honor, and immortality and to obtain eternal life. I look beyond the painted and gaudy scene of earth’s fading vanities to the everlasting ages through which you must exist in torment or bliss; and, God helping me, it shall not be my fault if you do not live in comfort, die in peace, and inherit salvation.

Our first attention, must be directed, of course, to the condition of the sex beyond the boundaries of Christendom.

In some countries, [woman is] not even allowed the rank of a moral and responsible agent; so tenderly alive to her own degradation that she acquiesces¹ in the murder of her female offspring; immured² from infancy; without education; married without her consent; in a multitude of instances sold by her parents; refused the confidence of her husband and banished from his table; on his death, doomed to the funeral pyre or to contempt that renders life a burden….Sometimes worshipped as a goddess, next fondled as a toy, then punished as a victim, she could never attain to dignity, and even with all her brightest charms could rarely appear but as a doll or a puppet.

Let us now consider what there is in Christianity that tends to elevate and improve the condition of woman.

From Christianity woman has derived her moral and social influence, yea, almost her very existence as a social being. The mind of woman, which many of the philosophers, legislators, and sages³ of antiquity doomed to inferiority and imbecility, Christianity has developed. The Gospel of Christ in the Person of its divine Founder has descended into this neglected mine, which even wise men had regarded as not worth working, and brought up many a priceless gem, flashing with the light of intelligence and glowing with the lovely hues of Christian graces. Christianity has been the restorer of woman’s plundered rights and has furnished the brightest jewels in her present crown of honor. Her previous degradation accounts, in part at least, for the instability of early civilization. It is impossible for society to be permanently elevated where woman is debased and servile.⁴

Wherever females are regarded as inferior beings, society contains within itself the elements of dissolution and the obstruction of all solid improvement. It is impossible that institutions and usages, which oppose and stifle the instincts of our nature and violate the revealed Law of God, can be crowned with ultimate success. Society may change in its external aspect; it may exhibit the glitter of wealth, the refinements of taste, the embellishments of art, or the more valuable attainments of science and literature. But if the mind of woman remains undeveloped, her tastes uncultivated, and her person enslaved, the social foundations are insecure and the cement of society is weak. Wherever Christianity is understood and felt, woman is free.

The Gospel, like a kind angel, opens her prison doors and bids her walk abroad and enjoy the sunlight of reason and breathe the invigorating air of intellectual freedom. And in proportion as pure Christianity prevails, this will be ever found to be the case…Christianity elevates the condition of woman by its genius⁵ as a system of universal equity and benevolence. When it descended from heaven to earth, it was heralded into our world by the angel’s song, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luk 2:14). The offspring of infinite love, it partakes of the spirit and reflects the character of its divine Parent. It is essentially and unalterably the enemy of all injustice, cruelty, and oppression, and the friend of all that is just, kind, and courteous. The rough, the brutal, and the ferocious are alien to its spirit, while the tender, the gentle, and the courteous are entirely in unison with its nature. It frowns with indignant countenance upon tyranny, whether in the palace or the parlor, while it is the friend of liberty and the patron of right. The man who understands its genius and lives under its inspiration, whether he is a monarch, a master, a husband, or a father, must be a man of equity and love. Christianity inspires the purest chivalry,⁶ a chivalry shorn of vanity, purified from passion, elevated above frivolity; a chivalry of which the animating principle is love to God, and the scene of its operation the domestic circle and not the public pageant. He who is unjust or unkind to anyone, especially to the weaker sex, betrays a total ignorance of or a manifest repugnance to the practical influence of the Gospel of Christ…

The personal conduct of our Lord during His sojourn upon earth tended to exalt the female sex to a consideration before unknown.

Follow Him through the whole of His earthly career, and mark the attention that He most condescendingly paid to and as condescendingly received from the female sex. He admitted them to His presence, conversed familiarly with them, and accepted the tokens of their gratitude, affection, and devotedness. See Him accompanying His mother to the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee. See Him conversing with the woman of Samaria, instructing her ignorance, enduring her petulance,⁷ correcting her mistakes, awakening her conscience, converting her soul, and afterwards employing her as a messenger of mercy and salvation to her neighbors…[Christ’s] treatment of woman raised her from her degradation without exalting her above her level. He rescued her from oppression without exciting her vanity and invested her with dignity without giving her occasion for pride. While He allowed her not only to come into His presence, but to minister to His comfort; and while He conciliated⁸ her grateful and reverent affection, He inspired her with awe. And thus, He taught man how to behave toward woman and what return woman was to make to man.

The conduct of Jesus Christ towards the female sex was one of the most attractive excellences of His beautiful character, though perhaps it is one of the least noticed.

To Him they must ever point not only as the Savior of their souls, but as the Advocate of their rights and the Guardian of their peace….The actual abolition of polygamy by Christianity is a vast improvement in the condition of woman. Wherever polygamy prevails, the female sex must ever be in a state of degradation and misery. Experience has abundantly and painfully proved that polygamy debases and brutalizes both the body and the soul….Here, then, is the glorious excellence of Christianity: it revived and re-established the original institution of marriage and restored to woman her fortune, her person, her rank, and her happiness, all of which she had been cheated by polygamy. It thus raised the female sex to the elevation to which they were destined by their wise and beneficent Creator…the springs of national prosperity rise from beneath the family hearth, and the domestic constitution is the mold where national character is cast. And that mold must of necessity take its form from the unity, sanctity, and inviolability of marriage.

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1. acquiesces – consents or complies passively or without protest.
2. immured – shut off; excluded.
3. sages – men of profound wisdom; wise men.
4. debased and servile – lowered in value and thought of as slaves.
5. genius – distinctive character and tendency.
6. chivalry – brave, honorable, courteous character, especially towards women.
7. petulance – rudeness.
8. conciliated – gained.

From Female Piety reprinted by Soli Deo Gloria.

John Angell James (1785-1859): English Congregationalist preacher and author; preached and wrote to common people of every age group and station in life; held in high esteem, yet a humble and unpretentious man, who said, “My design is to aid the Christian in the practice of Scriptural truth.” Author of Female Piety, A Help to Domestic Happiness, An Earnest Ministry, and many others.

Courtesy of Chapel Library