ended upon religion. If she were allowed other fields of action
or thought, her energy, like that of man, would be withdrawn from and
_fatally cripple the Church_."

To me, however, it seems that any organization that finds it necessary
to cripple its adherents in order to keep them has a screw loose
somewhere.

And it also seems to me that it is time for women to try to find out
where the trouble is. They will not want for aid from the men
who think--the men who hold self vastly inferior to principle and
justice--the rare noblemen of nature, honorable, fair, just, tender,
and thoughtful men--men who love to see the weakest share with them the
benefits of freedom--men who know that they are not the less men because
they are tender, that women are not the less women because they are
strong; and no land under the sky holds so many such as ours.

WHAT IT TEACHES.

It seemed to me that the time had come when women should know for
themselves what the Bible teaches for them and what the pulpit has
upheld; so I have looked it up a little, and although I cannot soil my
lips nor your ears with much of it, there is enough, I think, that I may
use to make any self-respecting, pure woman blush that she has sustained
it by word or act.

The Bible teaches that a father may sell his daughter for a slave,* that
he may sacrifice her purity to a mob,** and that he may murder her, and
still be a good father and a holy man. It teaches that a man may have
any number of wives; that he may sell them, give them away, or change
them around, and still be a perfect gentleman, a good husband, a
righteous man, and one of God's most intimate friends; and that is a
pretty good position for a beginning. It teaches almost every infamy
under the heavens for woman, and it does not recognize her as a
self-directing, free human being. It classes her as property, just as it
does a sheep: and it forbids her to think, talk, act, or exist, except
under conditions and limits defined by some priest.

* Ex. xxi. 7.

** Judges xix. 24; Gen. xix. 8

If the Bible were strictly followed, women and negroes would still be
publicly bought and sold in America. If it were believed in as it once
was, if the Church had the power she once had, I should never see the
light of another day, and your lives would be made a hell for sitting
here to-night. The iron grasp of superstition would hold you and your
children forever over the bottomless pit of re