Polskojęzyczna strona poświęcona życiu i twórczości pastora Charlesa Taze Russella
Pastor Charles Taze Russell
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Woman A Help, Meet For Man.

"And Jehovah said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him a help suitable for him.... And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help suitable for him....And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman [ishah], because she was taken out of man [ish]."--`Gen. 2:18,20,22,23`.

In pursuing our study of woman's appointed place in the divine economy of creation, we turn to the above brief account of her first introduction to the earth and to man; for the Apostle says, "the woman was created for the man." (`1 Cor. 11:9`.) As the account indicates, the object of woman's creation was that she might be a suitable help for man. That man needed just such a help is indicated, not only by the Lord's statement that it was "not good" for him to be "alone," but also by the statement that among all the animals there was none found to be "a suitable help." True, they were all in perfect subjection to him as their lord and master, and perfectly obedient in rendering all the service required. Many of them were strong to bear his burdens, some fleet to run his errands; some gratified his love of the beautiful in form and proportions, and some in plumage; some charmed his ear with strains of music; and all manifested more or less of intelligence and affection; yet in all there was a lack. The perfect man did not crave a burden-bearer, nor an errand-runner, nor a gay butterfly to please the sight, nor a charming musician: what he craved was an intelligent sympathetic companion; and this lack, the "suitable help," which God subsequently provided, exactly supplied.

When God had created her and brought her to the man, Adam named her woman. That the word was not used to specially indicate the power of motherhood, is manifest from the fact that when God said that she should become a mother, Adam changed her name to Eve, because she was to be the mother of all living. (`Gen. 3:20`.) We also read (`Gen. 5:2`) that

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"God called their name Adam in the day when they were created." Thus both God and the man recognized this new creature as of the same nature as the man, and yet differing from him both physically and intellectually. She was not another man, but another human being, the counterpart of the man, and therefore a suitable helper for him.

She was a help in that she was a companion for him. Before she came, Adam, though surrounded by a host of the lower animals, was "alone," and in need of the help of companionship which they could not supply. That the help needed was not merely in the work of propagating the species is clear, from the fact that she was recognized and accepted as the suitable and desired help from the very beginning, and before the propagating of the race was mentioned--which did not begin until after the fall. This was a merciful providence, in order that, as Paul shows, every member of the race might share the blessings of redemption through Christ.--`Rom. 5:12`; `11:32,33`.

We thus see that man found in the woman an intellectual companion, one capable of sharing and appreciating all his joys (he had no sorrows) and of participating with him in all his interests. Had she come short of such capacity she would not have been a suitable companion or help, and Adam would still have been to some extent alone. As the sons and daughters of men have multiplied, the same characteristics as in the beginning continue to distinguish the two sexes, with the exception that both have suffered from the fall; hence the two sexes still stand similarly related to each other--man the "head" of the earthly creation, and woman a "suitable help" for him. And this, as the Apostle shows (`1 Cor. 11:3`), is regardless of the marriage relation. Man, in the image and glory of God, was created the

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sovereign of the earth; and woman, "the glory of man" in all the natural relationships of life, but especially that of wifehood, is his worthy companion and joint heir, his queen. And in this sense, God gave to them both, originally, the earthly dominion--over the fish, fowl, beasts of the field, etc.--`Gen. 1:27,28`; `Psa. 8:6-8`.

It is therefore fitting that this natural relationship of the sexes should always be observed; that woman should remember that she is not the head, the chief, the leader, in the world's affairs, though there is ample scope for the use of all her powers under a proper and generous exercise of the headship of man. And it is equally necessary and proper that man should fully recognize, appreciate and accept of the help which woman is capable of rendering in all the affairs of life where such capability is manifest. If God has given to her talents, they were given her for cultivation and use, in order that she might be a more efficient help for man; and it would not be right, nor can man afford, to refuse such help and seek to dwarf such talents. Let the "help" help as much as possible, even though in the present imperfect condition, as is sometimes the case, the help may outstrip the head in ability, either natural or acquired. So long as the woman's work is done in a modest, womanly way--with no disposition to lord it over the divinely appointed head or king of earth--let her do with her might what her hands find to do.

As a general thing, however, woman's special helpfulness is in the sphere to which her special work of necessity usually confines her--as wife, mother, sister, friend--in the home, the schoolroom, and in the duties which naturally fall to her in religious and in social life, and occasionally in business life. Let woman bring into all these relationships her highest moral and intellectual attainments, the finest touches of art, and the most noble physique which nature and cultivation can give, and she will the most truly answer the ends of her existence as a worthy and suitable help to earth's intended king--man. True, man and woman have lost the dominion of the earth originally bestowed upon them as king and joint-heir; but still, though under the burden of the curse, woman can be a help, meet for man, in the struggle upward toward perfection; and no true man will despise such helpfulness when tendered in a spirit of sisterly interest.

WOMAN AS A WIFE.

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Having seen that the natural attitude of women in general to men in general is that of suitable helps, and not of heads, let us now consider the Scriptural position respecting woman as a wife. In alas too many cases, this, the dearest relationship of earth, is degraded to a domestic slavery. And the slave-holding tyrants too often pervert or misinterpret the teachings of the apostles to the support of their course--some unwittingly. It is therefore our purpose to examine such scriptures as are frequently urged in the interest of domestic tyranny and in the dwarfing and degrading of woman in her noblest sphere on the natural plane,--as a true wife.

We are free to assert in the outstart that the Scriptures, rightly interpreted, teach no such thing; and one of the best evidences that they do not, is seen in the fact that the Lord has chosen this relationship as a type of the relationship between himself and the glorified Church--a consummation so glorious, that it is held out as a prize to the faithful children of God all through the Gospel age; a prize worthy of the sacrifice of every temporal interest, even unto death. The type of such a relationship ought, indeed, in some sense, to manifest that coming glory.

We have already seen that in the relationship of head and body, to which the Apostle compares husband and wife, and which is gloriously illustrated in the relationship of Jehovah to Christ Jesus, and between our Lord Jesus and the Church, there is nothing incompatible with "the glorious liberty of the sons of God," and hence that the other headship of man over woman, rightly exercised, is likewise compatible with a similarly glorious liberty.

We have also seen that the headship of man is not designed to debar woman from the privilege and duty of making the fullest use of her talents as a wise stewardess in the service of the

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Lord; but rather to increase her usefulness by putting her powers and energies in co-operation with a still stronger power.

As an illustration of the apostolic teaching presumed to imply a servile subjection of the wife to the husband, we are sometimes referred to `Eph. 5:22-24`--"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord; for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church; he is the preserver of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own husbands in every thing."

If the office of the head inheres in men in general, and should be observed by women in general, the argument gathers force in the special relationship of husband and wife; for the reverence which woman naturally feels for the opposite sex, ought indeed to be intensified in the case of the man she has accepted as her husband. The manner in which the wife is counselled to submit herself to her husband is clearly set forth by the Apostle to be--"as the Church is subject unto Christ." It behooves us, therefore, to note just how the Church is subject unto Christ. We see that the subjection of the Church to Christ is a willing subjection, and that it is inspired by love, veneration, gratitude and implicit confidence and trust in the Lord's love and care for us, and in his superior wisdom to do better for us than we could do for ourselves. And so perfectly did the Apostle himself take this attitude toward Christ, that it was his effort, he said, to bring every thought into subjection to him. (`2 Cor. 10:5`.) That such an attitude on the part of the wife toward her earthly head is not always possible, he also admits, when he says to the husbands (`Eph. 5:33`), "Let each one of you, individually, so love his own wife as himself, in order that [hina, so rendered in `Eph. 3:10`, Diaglott] the wife may reverence her husband."

Only true love and true nobility of character can command such reverence; otherwise it would be impossible for the wife to submit herself to her husband as the Church is subject unto Christ. Nor would it be right either to reverence or to submit to that which is ignoble and unholy. But both the reverence and the submission are possible, as well as natural, notwithstanding the fallibility of the earthly head, where there is that nobility of character on the part of the man which, humbly acknowledging its fallibility, is amenable to the voice of God in the Scriptures, and to reason.

It will be noticed, further, in the apostolic counsel to husbands (`verses 25-29`), that the stated object of Christ's supervision of the Church, and of her submission to him, is not the clipping of her spiritual or intellectual opinions, nor the dwarfing or degrading of her powers, nor to attain any ignoble or selfish ends; but, on the contrary, it is for the more complete sanctification and cleansing of the Church with the washing of water by the Word, that she might be holy and without blemish, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. And this disposition on the part of Christ toward the Church is made manifest to her by the self-sacrificing spirit of him who loved the Church and gave himself for it. And, says the Apostle, "So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies," that thus they may command the reverence and loving submission of the wife, "in every thing"--not, of course, in every thing unholy, impure and selfish, but in every thing tending to holiness and purity and that true nobility of character whose principles are set forth in the Word of God. We have a very marked example of the Lord's displeasure against the improper submission of a wife to a husband, in the case of Sapphira, the wife of Ananias.--`Acts 5:7-10`.

It would indeed be a blessed and happy condition of affairs if all the husbands and all the wives were students of the example of Christ

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and the Church; but the lamentable fact remains that but few apply their hearts unto the instruction here furnished; and many husbands, forgetting to observe Paul's instructions to follow the model, imagine they have a right to arbitrary and selfish authority, against which the wives feel a righteous indignation and an opposition which is far from submission; and, failing to understand the Scriptures on the subject, they claim and think that the Bible teaches domestic tyranny and slavery; and thus the way is paved to doubt and infidelity.

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But what shall I do? says the Christian wife whose husband is not guided by Christian principles, except to the extent of claiming his presumed right to rule in selfishness. Well that would depend on circumstances: it would have been better if in your youth you had remembered the Apostle's counsel to marry only in the Lord; and you must now pay some penalty for your error. But in the first place you should remember not to violate conscience in order to please any one; for Peter says, "We ought to obey God rather than men." (`Acts 5:29`; `4:19,20`.) But where conscience does not interpose its dictum, the Apostle gives to such wives the same counsel that he gives to servants who have unreasonable masters. (`1 Pet. 2:18-23`; `3:1,2`.) To the servants he says, "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear [i.e., with caution, lest you offend]; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward;" this because it is better to suffer wrongfully than to be contentious, even for our rights. "For this is well-pleasing, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully; for what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently? But if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." Then he points to the example of Christ in carrying out the same principle, saying (`verse 21`), "For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also died for you, leaving you an example that ye should follow his steps;" and "the servant is not above his Lord." (`Matt. 10:24`.) Then he adds, "Likewise, ye wives [ye who have froward husbands], be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the Word, they may without the Word be won by the conduct of the wives, while they behold your chaste conduct coupled with fear [with carefulness to avoid giving offence]"--thus manifesting a spirit of loving forbearance, rather than of contention.

And while the wife is here specially counselled to imitate Christ's humility, the husband is urged to imitate Christ's generosity--"Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them [your wives] according to knowledge [wisely and generously], giving honor unto the wife [taking pleasure in her progress and in all her noble attainments and achievements], as unto the weaker vessel [using your strength for her support and encouragement, and not for her oppression], and as being heirs together of the grace [the favors and blessings] of life."

The same spirit of submission, rather than of contention, is likewise enjoined upon the whole Church in its relationship to the civil ordinances of men. Thus Peter says, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake"--i.e., so that his spirit or disposition may be manifest in you--"For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." (`1 Pet. 2:13-17`.) And Paul says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers," etc. (`Rom. 13:1,5`); and to `Titus (3:1`) he writes: "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work."

This duty of submission (specially enjoined upon the wife in the domestic relation) is also enjoined upon the whole Church individually, in their relationship one to another. Thus the Apostle Peter says, "The elders which are among you I exhort:...Feed the flock of God. ...Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock [ensamples of humility, brotherly love, patience and faithfulness]. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time."--`1 Pet. 5:1-6`; `Eph. 5:21`.

Doubtless if there were one perfect man in the Church the counsel to the remainder of its membership would be to submit to his leading and instruction. But, instead of an infallible man in the Church, we have the infallible written Word, by which we are each and all counselled to prove all things. And, therefore, the first duty of submission is to the written Word, and afterward to each other in that secondary sense which first proves all things by the Word; and lastly in the sense that our

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manner and language should be tempered with moderation and brotherly and sisterly kindness and candor, that this spirit of submission or humility might always be manifest in all.

In a similar, but in a stronger sense, the Apostle presents the duty of submission on the part of the wife in the domestic relation. It is a submission which savors of love, reverence, trust and humility; and which is also compatible with "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (`Rom. 8:21`), which always exists wherever the spirit of the Lord is (`2 Cor. 3:17`), and in which the Apostle Paul urges us to "stand fast."--`Gal. 5:1`.

We are referred by Peter to Sarah, Abraham's wife, as a proper example of a wife's submission. But notice that, while she did reverence Abraham, as indicated by her calling him lord (`Gen. 18:12`), and while she, no doubt cheerfully, left her native land and friends and, in obedience to the command of God to her husband, accompanied him in his sojournings to the land of promise, with him walking by faith, we see that her submission was not a blind submission which refrained from expressing a thought which differed from Abraham's; nor was there anything in Abraham's conduct toward her which indicated such expectation on his part. She was evidently a thinking woman: she believed the promise of God that they should have a son through whom the blessing of the world should come; and when nature seemed to fail she suggested a way in which the promise might be fulfilled.
And when Hagar became boastful and despised her mistress, she complained to Abraham and claimed that the fault was partly his. She wanted no division of his heart with her servant. Abraham's reply assured her that there was no such division, that her maid was still under her control. And her subsequent course with Hagar was a discipline to correct her boastfulness and improper attitude toward her mistress. And when Hagar fled from her, the angel of the Lord met her and told her to return and submit herself to her mistress, which she did, and was evidently received and restored by Sarah.--`Gen. 16`.

On another occasion, after Isaac was born and the two boys were growing up together, the rivalry of Hagar again cropped out in Ishmael, who persecuted Isaac, Sarah's son. (`Gen. 21:9`; `Gal. 4:29`.) And again Sarah was grieved and appealed to Abraham to cast out the bond woman and her son; for she feared Abraham would make him heir with her son, which would not have been in accordance with the promise of God. (`Gen. 21:10-12`; `15:4`; `17:17-19`.) This, Abraham was not inclined to do, and as Sarah urged her claim, we read that "the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son," Ishmael, until God indicated his will in the matter.

This is further shown in this case to which Peter refers us for example, saying (to those who are similarly subject. to their husbands) "whose daughters ye are, doing good, and not fearing any terror"--any evil results. (`1 Pet. 3:6`.) The submission counselled by the apostles is a reasonable submission, compatible with a moderate, modest expression of the wife's sentiments and a proper consideration of the same by the husband, as in the case of faithful Abraham, who was by no means led about by the whims of a foolish wife, but who, in a reasonable consideration of his wife's sentiments and trials, waited to know the will of the Lord before granting her wishes.

From the above considerations it is obvious that the human relationship of husband and wife, which the Lord points out as an illustration of the beautiful relationship of Himself and the Church, is by no means an occasion for the exhibition of either tyranny or servility on the part of either party. And wherever such conditions do exist, they are out of the divine order. The Lord set his seal of approval upon marriage when he instituted the relationship and blessed the union of the first pair in Eden; and when, as king and queen--head and help-mate-- he made them joint-inheritors of the earthly dominion (`Gen. 1:27,28`); and later, when he commanded children to honor and obey both parents.--`Exod. 20:12`; `Eph. 6:1,2`.

The curse of sin has rested heavily upon woman, as well as upon man; but the Christian man who would seek to bind the curse upon his wife, instead of endeavoring to lighten it and to help her bear it, sadly lacks the spirit of

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the heavenly Bridegroom. And so also the Christian wife: if she in selfishness demands of her husband an undue measure of the sweat of face entailed by the curse, instead of seeking to lighten his toil and share his cares, she sadly lacks that spirit which characterizes the true bride of Christ. It was sin that entailed the curse upon our race; but, as we strive against sin and aspire toward righteousness and God-likeness, we mitigate the evils of the curse for each other. And, thank God, the time is now fast approaching when "there shall be no more curse," and when, "the throne of God and of the Lamb" being established in the earth, the spirit of love,

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so beautifully exemplified between Christ and the exalted Church, will be gloriously reproduced on the earthly plane also; when, the curse being entirely lifted, woman will find her natural and honored position at the side of her noble husband, as his worthy helper and companion --"the glory of the man," as Paul describes her, and an "heir together with him of the grace of life," as he also appoints her, and as beautifully foreshown in the typical restitution of Job (`Job 42:15`), when he gave his daughters inheritance among their brethren.

In conclusion, then, the marriage relationship is an honorable and blessed one when viewed in the Scriptural light; yet it is one of the earthly blessings which the Apostle shows the saints are privileged to forego in many cases for the still higher privilege of serving the interests of the coming kingdom of God without distraction. (`1 Cor. 7:32-35`.) And when the sacrificing Church beholds the King in his beauty, and is recognized by him as his worthy bride and joint-heir, the blessedness of that companionship will have in it no savor of either tyranny or servility, but, instead, a blessed harmony of love and appreciation which will be ineffable bliss.
                                                                                              

W.T. R-1551 : page 207 – 1893 r.

 

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