1 Timothy 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. As to the question, "Which is the most important, man or woman?" if I may be allowed to speak in editorial style, I should say, "the discussion must now stop." Let those who like it "sit apart upon a hill retired" and discuss the kindred questions, "which is the most important, convex or concave, night or morning, east or west, green land or glancing water?" For ourselves we are, I hope, content to take Florence Nightingale's advice — "Keep clear of all jargons about man's work and woman's work, and go your way straight to God's work in simplicity and singleness of heart," each one to do what each one can do best. Now, we know that, as a rule, some things that women can do right nobly at a crisis, are not best for them to do when men are to be had. As a rule, I think it is not best for women to man a lifeboat; but one black night at Teignmouth last year, when the men were all out of the way, or else were not sharp enough, the women got the lifeboat out. With shrill, quivering cheers they carried it through the battling breakers, dragged a vessel off the sand-bar, and saved precious life. When we hear that they did all this without any help from the unfair sex, who can help saying, "Well done!" I go farther and say that, as a rule, in my private opinion, it is not best for women to preach in public, but where, in exceptional cases and with extra ordinary gifts, women like Mary Fletcher and Priscilla Gurney go out of their way, and all by themselves publicly launch the lifeboat of the gospel to snatch souls from the sea of sin and from the rocks of death, again I say to the praise of grace, " Well done!" They remind me of the Roman who said, "I have broken the law, but I have saved the State!" They are under a higher law than the law they violate, and I am no more able to doubt the validity of their orders than I can doubt the sanity of the New Testament. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For Adam was first formed, then Eve. |
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