d of Christ is God.' Christ even is
subordinate. And the character of the headship of the husband {221}
altogether excludes the idea that women are to be married in order to
serve men's selfish interests or gratify their passions.

Then we must notice that St. Paul is impressing upon us a moral ideal
of which the two parts are inseparable. St. Paul says nothing to
indicate that where the relations are not ideal--where the husband is
selfish or brutal--law should not step in to protect the interests of
the wife and secure her against the insults or cruelties or frauds of
the husband. He is expressing a moral ideal[14]; while law must be
largely content with preventing outrage and securing a background on
which ideals can become possible. And just as St. Paul tells
Christians that they are to obey magistrates as God's
ministers--leaving it to be understood that when they command what is
contrary to God's will, 'we ought to obey God rather than men'; so in
the same way he speaks of the wife's (or child's or slave's) duty of
subjection, leaving a similar reservation likewise to be tacitly
understood. Obedience is to be 'in the Lord.'

3. But no doubt St. Paul does emphasize the subordination of women to
men. He will {222} not ordinarily[15] permit the woman 'to teach (in
the public assembly) nor to have dominion over a man[16].' He clearly
does not think the difference of male and female is merely physical,
but perceives that the characteristic moral perils of the sexes[17] are
different: he assigns to man the governing and authoritative position,
and to woman the more retired and 'quieter[18]' functions. It may
indeed be argued that in certain details St. Paul's injunctions are for
his time only, and no more of perpetual obligation than his prohibition
of second marriages to the clergy is assumed to be, or his
quasi-recognition of slavery. But this argument carries us but a
little way. The most of what St. Paul says of men and women is based
on a principle which he conceives to be divine, and which all history
and experience confirms. The position of women in Christendom has
often fallen far short of what is truly Christian: but no attempted
rectification will be found otherwise than disastrous which ignores the
fundamental principle. All through the animal kingdom mental
differences accompany the physiological difference between the sexes.
Experience teaches {223} that women, as a whole, are superior to men