Many Americans will remember the favorable impression made by Professor
Christlieb of Germany, when he attended the meeting of the Evangelical
Alliance in New York some years ago. His writings, like his presence, show
a most liberal spirit; and perhaps no man has ever presented the more
advanced evangelical theology of Germany in so attractive a light. Yet I
heard a story of him the other day, which either showed him in an aspect
quite undesirable, or else gave an unpleasant view of the social position
of women in Germany.
The story was to the effect that a young American student recently called
on Professor Christlieb with a letter of introduction. The professor
received him cordially, and soon entered into conversation about the United
States. He praised the natural features of the country, and the
enterprising spirit of our citizens, but expressed much solicitude about
the future of the nation. On being asked his reasons, he frankly expressed
his opinion that "the Spirit of Christ" was not here. Being still further
pressed to illustrate his meaning, he gave, as instances of this
deficiency, not the Crédit Mobilier or the Tweed scandal, but such alarming
facts as the following. He seriously declared that, on more than one
occasion, he had heard an American married woman say to her husband, "Dear,
will you bring me my shawl?" and the husband had brought it. He further had
seen a husband return home at evening, and enter the parlor where his wife
was sitting,--perhaps in the very best chair in the room,--and the wife
not only did not go and get his dressing-gown and slippers, but she even
remained seated, and left him to find a chair as he could. These things,
as Professor Christlieb pointed out, suggested a serious deficiency of the
spirit of Christ in the community.
With our American habits and interpretations, it is hard to see this matter
just as the professor sees it. One would suppose that, if there is any
meaning in the command, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the
law of Christ," a little of such fulfilling might sometimes be good for the
husband, as for the wife. And though it would undoubtedly be more pleasing
to see every wife so eager to receive her husband that she would naturally
spring from her chair and run to kiss him in the doorway, yet, where such
devotion was wanting, it would be but fair to inquire which of the two had
done the more fatiguing day's work, and to whom the easy-chair justly
belonged. The truth is, I suppose, that the good professor's remark
indicated simply a "survival" in his mind, or in his social circle, of a
barbarous tradition, under which the wife of a Mexican herdsman cannot eat
at the table with her "lord and master," and the wife of a German professor
must vacate the best armchair at his approach.
If so, it is not to be regretted that we in this country have outgrown a
relation so unequal. Nor am I at all afraid that the great Teacher, who,
pointing to the multitude for whom he was soon to die, said of them,
"Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother and my sister
and my mother," would have objected to any mutual and equal service between
man and woman. If we assume that two human beings have immortal souls,
there can be no want of dignity to either in serving the other. The greater
equality of woman in America seems to be, on this reasoning, a proof of the
presence not the absence, of the spirit of Christ; nor does Dr. Christlieb
seem quite worthy of the beautiful name he bears, if he feels otherwise.
But if it is really true that a German professor has to cross the Atlantic
to witness a phenomenon so very simple as that of a lover-like husband
bringing a shawl for his wife, I should say, Let the immigration from
Germany be encouraged as much as possible, in order that even the most
learned immigrants may discover something new.