iv. 1. _And in that day seven women shall take hold of one
man, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own
apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our
reproach._[1]
This verse gives us a vivid picture of the desolating and
disorganising power of war. The 25th and 26th verses of the previous
chapter say "Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the
war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate
shall sit on the ground." This righteous chastisement has come. So
often have the men been called into the field, so exterminating has
been the carnage, as that now few men remain. The natural proportion
of the sexes is disturbed. This disorganisation invades woman's
nature. Her natural modesty departs. With violent importunity seven
women press marriage on one man. They will be no expense to him; they
will earn their own food and raiment, if he will only give them his
name in marriage. The writer of this outline has recently travelled
in a land [Mexico] whose revolutions during the last fifty years have
been so frequent as that he found parts of the country where the
prophet's words are true to-day. The men have been killed in battle.
In some districts there are seven women to one man.
+I. The tendency of sin is to produce war and to degrade women.+ The
apostle James has described the generals of war (iv. 1). Nations are
but the aggregate of individuals. If the lusts of selfishness, greed,
malice, &c., nestle like vipers in the hearts of individual men, they
will be manifest in the nation. 1. _Sin deteriorates man's
intellectual faculties._ In its present unpurified condition, the
human intellect is not inventive enough to discover those commercial
relationships which will eventually bind in bonds of amity the
nations of the world together. 2. _Sin intensifies human
selfishness._ One of the most desolating wars of modern times
originated in that gross selfishness which was too blind to see that
it was a sin to hold property in man. 3. _Sin intensifies human
greed._ "Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark," is a
despised threat. Again and again his war originated in greed of
territory and lust of plunder. 4. _Sin intensifies human ambition._
In the heart of all great conquerors, from Nimrod to Napoleon, has
lain the lust of unholy ambition. Their motto has ever been "Better
to reign in hell than serve in heaven." 5. Side by side with these
lusts of selfishness, greed, ambition, &c., there has _been a lack of
justice and mercy._ No mind having these latter sentiments healthily
developed could "cry havock and let slip the dogs of war." When the
leaders of nations learn "to do justly and love mercy," wars will be
less common. 6. _With war have come numerous evils to woman._ The
text describes some of them. Others come to the surface every day.
Her husband has been forced from her side, or her sons have died on
the battlefield; very bitter have been woman's sorrows,--"Yea, a
sword hath pierced through her own soul also." And always where
soldiers are multiplied in a land, and taken away from useful
employment, women have been polluted and degraded. War and womanly
degradation are inseparable evils.
+II. It is the tendency of Christianity to produce peace and elevate
women.+ 1. _To produce peace in its loftiest and widest sense Christ
came into the world._ The prophet Isaiah predicted Him as the Prince
of Peace (ix. 6). At His birth angels sang, "Peace on earth,
good-will to man" (Luke ii. 14). 2. _By His atoning work He has laid
the foundation of peace between man and God,_ and consequently
between man and man. 3. _The direct influence of Christ's religion is
to restrain and destroy those evil propensities out of which wars
originate--lust of greed, ambition, malice, &c._ What is in the
individual comes out in the community. As individuals and nations
become truly Christian and form the majority, wars will cease.
4. _Prophecy speaks of a time coming when the principles of
Christianity shall be in the ascendant,_ and then men shall beat
their swords into ploughshares, &c., &c. (chap. ii. 4). 5. _As the
gospel of peace advances in a land woman's condition is always
elevated._ The Christian man honours woman as no other man does. As
he grows into the stature of Christ, woman's lot is always happier.
Compare woman's status in pagan, Mohammedan, and barbarous lands,
with her status in Christendom.
+III. Hence while the Gospel claims as its advocate every Christian
man, it has special claims on the service of every pious
woman.+--Every good man is called upon to spread the blessings of
Christianity as widely as possible. But there are some evils whose
removal appeals specially to pious women. Every good woman should
throw her influence into the aggregate of the peace spirit, as
against that war spirit which in certain stages of civilisation seems
so natural to man. All women should join together to make up an army
of peace promoters, outnumbering the men of the sword. To relieve
their sisters from sorrow and save them from degradation, should be
the aim of all good women.--_William Parkes._