f the change
which had been wrought in the relations of the sexes, they no longer
acknowledged as important in the office of reproduction.

It is quite true they would worship only one god--the "Lord,"--but
that lord was, as we have seen, a deity of physical strength and virile
might, a "Lord of Hosts," a god which was to be worshipped under the
symbol of an upright stone--an object which by every nation of the
globe down to a comparatively recent time has typified male pro-creative
energy. That the masses of the people, even as late as the time of
Jeremiah, had no higher conception of a God than that indicated by an
upright stone, is shown by that prophet when he accuses the entire house
of Israel, "their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their
prophets," of "saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone,
Thou hast brought me forth."

That the people could not, or would not, be prevailed upon to renounce
the Queen of Heaven, the Celestial Mother, is seen in Jer. vii., 17, 18:

"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets
of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire,
and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven
and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods."

Also in Jeremiah xliv:

"Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto
other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even
all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered
Jeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the
name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee.

"But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own
mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven and to pour out drink
offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings, and
our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem:
for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

"But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to
pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have
been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

"And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink
offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her and pour out
drink offerings unto her without our men?"

That the above represents a quarrel in which the women of Judah openly
rebelled against the worshi