E. C. Wines: The Spirit of God’s Law is Against Feminism

“The spirit of the Mosaic law is opposed to the modern radicalism of woman’s rights; a radicalism, which boldly avows its purpose of “subverting the existing order of society and dissolving the existing social compact.” Moses did not favor the manhood of woman. “Unto the woman he said, “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” Paul interprets this precept, when he says of women, “It is not permitted to them to speak in the churches; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.” He speaks in the very spirit of Moses, when he says, “The man is the head of the woman;” “wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands;” “Adam was first formed, then Eve.” Man has a mission, and so has woman, to which the wisdom that never errs, has adapted the bodily and mental constitution of each.

Man’s mission is to subdue and till the earth, to cultivate the mechanic arts, to make roads and dig canals, to carry on commerce, to encounter the perils and fatigues of war, to institute and administer government, to be the shield of woman in moments of danger and sudden alarm, in a word, to perform the rough business of life,—that which requires physical strength and endurance.

Woman’s mission, while it has no less of dignity, is very different from this. It is to be the light and joy of the household, to nourish and train the immortal children within its precincts, to mold the whole mass of mind while in its most plastic state, to fill the throne of the heart, to be the priestess in the sanctuary of home, to be the comfort and support of man in seasons of sorrow and of suffering, to move in the realm of ignorance and want, to shine, to cheer, and to bless in all the varied ministrations of sympathy and love, from the cradle to the grave. What purer, nobler, holier realm can she desire? The true nobility of woman is to keep her own sphere, and to adorn it.”

— E. C. Wines, The Roots of the American Republic, pages 44-45