on women, wherever the usages or restraints so imposed were not in
themselves sinful. In the same spirit he returned Onesimus to his
master; not that he thereby gave his sanction to slavery, but in this,
as other directions regarding civil affairs, advising submission to the
existing state of things, "that the Gospel be not blamed." The effecting
of civil or political reforms, however much they might be needed, was
not the immediate object of Paul's preaching or writing. His grand,
all-absorbing business was to proclaim the Gospel in all its fullness,
trusting to its benign influence to right every wrong. There is no
doubt Paul clearly understood and did not intend to controvert the
declaration of the prophet Joel (ii, 28), which was quoted by Peter as
being one evidence of the ushering in of the Christian dispensation
(Acts ii, 17, 18): "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith
God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your
old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I
will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy." "The
last days" evidently means the Gospel dispensation; and this text alone,
twice given by inspiration, even if there were no other, would establish
the right of women to all the immunities and ordinances of the Christian
Church.

I Cor. xiv, 34, 35, is always presented by the opponents of women's
privileges as positive proof that women should not take a public part
in religious worship: "Let your women keep silence in the churches, for
it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be
under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any
thing, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for a
woman to speak in the Church."