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    _Five hundred copies of this
    edition have been printed
    from type in the month
    of August, 1903
    by the Gilliss
    Press_




  Consecrated Womanhood




    Consecrated Womanhood

    A Sermon

    PREACHED IN

    The First Congregational Church

    PORTLAND, OREGON

    BY

    FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN

    WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE

    BY

    FRANCES POWER COBBE


    NEW YORK

    J. O. WRIGHT & COMPANY

    MDCCCCIII




  [Illustration: THE·GILLISS·PRESS· logo]




  Introductory Notice


To those who have long lamented the prevailing tendency in Christian
churches to deny to women the honors and responsibilities of sacred
offices and duties, such a sermon as "Consecrated Womanhood," written
by an American clergyman is like a breadth of fresh air in Neapolitan
church-buildings that have never known the beauty of sunlight, and the
atmospheres of which have grown heavy through the centuries with the
oppressive weight of suffocating incense.

The preacher opens his discourse with the statement that "the Bible
honored woman when every other book was blind to the true dignity
of her character." Scholars differ, and little is certain when we
go back far enough in the ancient writings of our race. But I think
there can be no doubt that in all the earliest literatures of which
we have knowledge, the thought of the world was more favorable to
the development of womanly independence, than in later compositions,
especially such as have come from patristic and monastic sources.
Certainly we find the great Greek tragedians unfolding their noblest
ideals in the character of an Alcestis, and expressing through the
lips of an Antigone their loftiest conceptions of virtue, and their
purest and bravest ethical teachings. The Jews did not stand alone,
as this eloquent sermon clearly shows, in honoring woman; but the Old
Testament is devoid, as its most careless reader cannot but see, of all
that wretched admiration for feminine feebleness of mind and body which
seems to have sprung from masculine vanity, and has been fostered by
centuries of priestly instruction and popular superstition. As the most
illustrious Jewess now living, Lady Battersea, wrote in her admirable
book some years ago, when she was Miss Constance de Rothschild, "The
ideal woman of the ancient Israelite was always strong and fearless—a
Miriam, a Deborah, a Judith, an Esther. Not a word in that older Bible
denies to woman the right to exercise every power of speech or action
granted her by Jehovah."

Nothing assuredly can be more broadminded or more generous than Dr.
Marvin's whole treatment of the claims of women, whether in politics,
in the religious life, or in the domestic circle. In my humble opinion
it would do infinite service in awakening thought and dispelling
prejudice, could the sermon on "Consecrated Womanhood" be preached in
every church and chapel in England. The good Quakers alone, so far as I
know, have no need for its admonition.

    FRANCES POWER COBBE.

    Hengwrt,
    Dolgelly, North Wales,
    June 21, 1903.




  Consecrated Womanhood

    "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the
    distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she
    reacheth out her hands to the needy. Strength and honor are
    her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She
    openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of
    kindness."—_Proverbs._


It is the peculiarity of the Bible that it honored woman when every
other book was blind to the true dignity of her character and the
royal possibilities of her nature. The old Testament exalted her not
only as wife and mother, but as citizen and ruler, and some of the
most stirring songs and daring deeds of patriotism are recorded in
the