this, that women have been taught, by a curious paradox, first of all that
they ought not to have any sexual feeling, any hunger, any appetite at all
on that side of their natures; and secondly, that they exist solely to meet
that particular physical need in men. The idea that woman was created, not
like man, for the glory of God, but for the convenience of man, has greatly
embittered and poisoned public opinion on this subject. Women are taught,
almost from the moment they come into the world, that their chief end in
existence is to be, in some way or other, a "helpmeet" for man. I remember,
in the early days of the Suffrage struggle, hearing people, and women quite
as often as men--more often I think--urging certain rights and principles
for women, on the ground that they were meant to be the helpmeets of man.
They used to quote the earlier chapters of the Book of Genesis to show that
women were created for that purpose; and it was considered a very lofty
kind of appeal. I think it never failed to evoke the applause of those whom
you will forgive my calling a little sentimental. I do not think it ever
failed to arouse in myself a deep sense of resentment. The writer of the
_first_ chapter of the Book of Genesis speaks of humanity as being created
in the image and likeness of God, "_male and female created He them_";
there is no suggestion here that one sex was simply to be the servant of
the other. That occurs in the second chapter. The idea is persistent; it
is, of course, much older than the Old Testament. And it persists right
into the New Testament, where you hear a man of the intellectual and
spiritual calibre of St. Paul affirm that man was made for God, but woman
was made for man. Down the ages this message has come, and women have
been taught to consider themselves, and men to consider them, as primarily
instruments of sex, of marriage and motherhood, or of other forms of
serving men's needs. You do not find that feeling in Christ's attitude
towards women. When people speak as though it were one of the weaknesses
of Christianity that it appeals, or seems to appeal, more to women than
to men, I ask you to believe that sometimes consciously, often quite