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.” When all learn life is God; light is God; love is God; knowledge is God; and all of the angels bright are but a part of thee, thou Almighty Creator, and creative, are but component parts of immensity, held by the law, and nothing else; and let thy children ask of thee, thou Father, God, the inner life of all things; then an answer sure will come, “As they live, so they will receive from thy own bounteous gifts, free from hypocrisy and deceit, fresh from eternal distance.” They will receive it; then the glory will be thine, Creator, God, all thine own, light, eternal light divine.Lead and guide thy children on to a higher, holier clime, and let nothing come between thee and thy highest created, that has come forth from the inner life of all things; and may they learn they are of thee, and they will surely go back again into the bosom of immensity, from whence they came.And may they learn, through the knowledge of the law, that they have existed co-equal with the Almighty whole, and not one jot or tittle of mind or matter can be lost or created anew.All things are held by the law of attraction; and the attraction is thee, my God, that begets all things, but through blending of essences, extracted from other formations.Through thus blending, all things become new; yet nothing is taken from, nothing is added to, the great Almighty whole.Then held as all things are, sustained as all things are, let us breathe but one word; let that be God.Then let all understand that nothing can be created but by the law; then you will answer: “He is my friend and my brother.He is but a man.Then I should be free.Then, Holy God, thy kingdom will be established on earth, as it is in the brighter worlds beyond.Then anointed priests will lose their power to chain human souls, and man will not know that his blood has been held, as the bond people’s were, in the wicked chains of heathen bigots’ devices.O my God, let thy light enter every human mind, and darkness will fade away.Then thou wilt be acknowledged as the one God, and the one God only; and thine own inner life blending with all created things that has been begotten by thee, the First Great Cause, Eternal Light.Holy Creator, God, bless her that has laid down all she has earthly, that I may declare myself as I am, but a humble beggar, still begging of thee humanity to make condition to receive the bread of life, which is thy knowledge.Then they will be robed in their wedding garments, crowned all over with the dewdrops bright, fresh from thy fountain of love, which has ever flowed since creations were.Plant flowers earthly, my God, that they may bloom in a holier condition than earth ever knew.May I bow low before thee, my Creator, and ask humanity if they are willing to receive my blessing, and relieve me from earth, that I may go back to that bright land of light, and say to my angel loved ones there, that “My earth labor is finished, and I have come back home, and we will give God the glory for all his mercies, forever and forever.”Here, reader, I must bid you farewell, hoping to meet you beyond God’s ether blue.There, dear brother and dear sister, I will await your coming.There my home has been for ages on ages, and I long to go back again.O humanity! thy demands must be appeased.Oh, do not call me! I cannot come again, but to die.But if humanity demands another human sacrifice I will die for them, if it be God’s will.And now, reader, I must bid you a long farewell! I am your friend and brother, Jesus of Nazareth, and none other; the first-born of Joseph and Mary.Farewell!(OLIVE G.PETTIS, 1870; REPRINT ED., BOSTON, 1894; PP.23-29,46-47, 63-64, 97-106)The Woman’s BibleThe nineteenth-century feminist and reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) had long planned a thorough revision of the Bible that would restore the rightful place of women in both the text and in the Christian church.For many decades a critic of the second-class treatment of women in Protestant congregations, Stanton nonetheless believed that the Bible contained true principles that simply needed to be extracted from the oppressive interpretations of generations of male religious leaders.She gathered a committee of nearly two dozen women from the United States and Europe, most of them women’s rights activists interested in biblical interpretation but not trained scholars themselves, to write commentaries on biblical passages in order to prove that women should not be subservient to men.Appearing in two volumes in 1895 and 1898, The Woman’s Bible came right on the heels of one of the major biblical revision projects of the day, the Revised Version (published 1881-1894).Stanton was not satisfied with the treatment of women in that text, or with the fact that no female scholars played major roles in the revision committee.In response, The Woman’s Bible was biting and pointed in its criticism of traditional teachings about women’s place in the church and society.While the text was a bestseller, it was roundly condemned by clergy from the pulpits as “the work of Satan.” It also received mixed responses from women’s rights advocates, who questioned whether an overhaul of the Christian tradition was the best use of the activists’ time.Nonetheless, it has continued to inspire subsequent Christian feminists who see it as a milestone for the study of gender and scriptural interpretation.The passages selected here include the book of Genesis, with extensive commentary on the creation of man and woman; several of the Gospels, in which contributors discuss the women surrounding Jesus; and the Epistle to the Corinthians, in which authors comment on Paul’s discussion of marriage.All of these issues were of the utmost importance to nineteenth-century Protestant women reformers as they tried to reconcile Christian teachings with their belief in gender equality.THE WOMAN’S BIBLE.THE BOOK OF GENESIS.CHAPTER 1.Genesis i: 26, 27, 2826 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.Here is the sacred historian’s first account of the advent of woman; a simultaneous creation of both sexes, in the image of God.It is evident from the language that there was consultation in the Godhead, and that the masculine and feminine elements were equally represented [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]