One of the most curious blunders regarding orthodox Christianity is,
that it has tended to the elevation of woman. As a matter of fact, the
Eastern ideas about women are embodied in Christianity, and these ideas
are essentially degraded and degrading. From the time when Paul bade
women obey their husbands, Augustine's mother was beaten, unresisting,
by Augustine's father, and Jerome fled from woman's charms, and monks
declaimed against the daughters of Eve, down to the present day, when
Peter's authority is used against woman suffrage, Christianity has
consistently regarded woman as a creature to be subject to man, because,
being deceived, she was first in transgression. The Church service for
matrimony is redolent of this barbarous idea, relic of a time when men
seized wives by force, or else purchased them, so that the wives became,
in literal fact, the property of their husbands. We learn that matrimony
was "instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto
us the mystical union that is between Christ and his Church." It would
be interesting to know how many of those joined by the Church believe
in the Paradise story of man's innocency and fall. It seems that Christ
has adorned the holy estate by his first miracle in Cana; but the
adornment is rather of a dubious character, when we reflect that the
probable effect of the miracle would be a scene somewhat too gay, from
the enormous quantity of wine made by Christ for men who already had
"well drunk." Christ's approval of marriage may well be considered
doubtful when we remember that a virgin was chosen as his mother, that
he himself remained unmarried, and that he distinctly places celibacy
higher than marriage in Matt. xix. 11, 12, where he urges: "he that is
able to receive it let him receive it." St. Paul also, though he allows
it to his converts, advises virginity in preference: "I say to the
unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I;" "he
that giveth her not in marriage doeth better" (see throughout 1 Cor.
vii.) The reasons given for marriage are surely misplaced; last of all,
it is said that marriage is "ordained for the mutual society, help,
and comfort that the one ought to have of the other;" this, instead of
"thirdly," ought to be "first." "As a remedy against sin and to avoid
fornication, that such persons as have not the gift of continency might
marry," is not a reason very honourable to the marriage estate, nor very
delicate to read out before a mixed congregation to a young bride and
bridegroom; so strongly objectionable is the heedless coarseness of
this preface felt to be that in many churches it is entirely omitted,
although it is retained--as are all remains of a coarser age--in the
Prayer-Book as published by authority. The promise exchanged between the
contracting parties is of far too sweeping a character, and is immoral,
because promising what may be beyond the powers of the promisers to
perform; "to love" "so long as ye both shall live," and "till death us
do part," is a pledge far too wide; love does not stay by promising, nor
is love a feeling which can be made to order. A promise to live always
together might be made, although that would be unwise in this changing
world, and the endless processes in the Divorce Court are a satire on
this so-called joined by God; "what God hath joined together" man does
continually "put asunder," and it would be wiser to adapt the service to
the altered circumstances of the times in which we live. The promise of
obedience and service on the woman's part should also be eliminated, and
the contract should be a simple promise of fidelity between two equal
friends. The declaration of the man as he places the ring on the woman's
finger is as archaic as the rest of this fossil service, and about as
true: "With all my worldly goods I thee endow," says the man, when, as a
matter of fact, he becomes possessed of all his wife's property and she
does not become possessed of his. One of the concluding prayers is a
delightful specimen of Prayer-Book science: "O God, who of thy mighty
power hast made all things of nothing." What was the general aspect
of affairs when there was "nothing?" how did something emerge where
"nothing" was before? if God filled all space, was he "nothing?" is the
existence of nothing a conceivable idea? "can people think of nothing
except when they don't think at all?" who also (after other things set
in order) didst appoint that out of man (created after thine own image
and similitude) woman should take her beginning:" "out of man," that
is out of one of man's ribs; has any one tried to picture the scene:
Almighty God, who has no body nor parts, taking one of Adam's ribs, and
closing up the flesh, and "out of the rib made he a woman." God, a pure
spirit, holding a man's rib, not in his hands, for he has none, and
"making" a woman out of it, fashioning the rib into skull, and arms,
and ribs, and legs. Can a more ludicrous position be imagined; and Adam?
What became of his internal economy? was he made originally with a rib
too much, to provide against the emergency, or did he go, for the rest
of his life, with a rib too little? And the Church of England endorses
this ridiculous old-world fable. Man was created "after thine own image
and similitude." What is the image of God? He is a spirit and has no
similitude. If man is made in his image, God must be a celestial man,
and cannot possibly be omnipresent. Besides, in Genesis i. 27, where it
is stated that "God created man in his own image," it distinctly goes
on to declare: "in the image of God created he him; _male and female_
created he them. Thus the woman is made in God's image as much as the
man, and God's image is "male and female." All students know that the
ancient ideas of God give him this double nature, and that no trinity
is complete without the addition of the female element; but the pious
compilers of the Prayer-Book did not probably intend thus to transplant
the simple old nature-worship into their marriage office. Once more we
hear of Adam and Eve in the next prayer, and we cannot help thinking
that, considering all the trouble Eve brought upon her husband by her
flirtation with the serpent, she is made rather too prominent a figure
in the marriage service. The ceremony winds up with a long exhortation,
made of quotations from the Epistles, on the duties of husbands and
wives. Husbands are to love their wives because Christ loved a church--a
reason that does not seem specially _a propos_, as husbands are not
required to die for their wives or to present to themselves glorious
wives, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (!); nor would most
husbands desire that their wives' conversation should be coupled with
fear." Why should women be taught thus to abase themselves? They are
promised as a reward that they shall be the daughters of Sarah; but
that is no great privilege, nor are English wives likely to call their
husbands "lord;" if they did not adorn themselves with plaited hair and
pretty apparel, their husbands would be sure to grumble, and the only
defence that can be made for this absurd exhortation is that nobody ever
listens to it.
Among the various reforms needed in the Marriage Laws one imperatively
necessary is that all marriages should be made civil contracts--that
is, that the contract which is made by citizens of the State, and which
affects the interests of the State, should be entered into before a
secular State official; if after that the parties desired a religious
ceremony, they could go through any arrangements they pleased in their
own churches and chapels, but the civil contract should be compulsory
and should be the only one recognised by the law. Of course the Church
might maintain its peculiar marriage as long as it chose, but it would
probably soon pass out of fashion if it were not acknowledged as binding
by the State.