FEMALE PREACHING.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2830, 20 April 1882, Page 2

FEMALE PREACHING.

[To the Editor]

SlB, —Allow me to advise your cor respondent of last night to bewaro of the pernicious custom of taking isolated texts, separated from their context and calling, that being guided by the word of God. If he takes his Bible and looks at the context of the passages he quotes, he will find they do not refer to the subject of female preaching, and so that he misquotes them. For texts bearing on the subject, let me refer him to Acts ii., 17 and 18 : “ Your sons and your daughters sha'l prophesy,” “ And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy." If God has not poured out his spirit on his handmaiden and given her the gift of prophesying,thatisjust preaching. I never knew one who had received that gift, and if God has done so, who are we that we should object ? But again let me refer him to I. Cor. xi. 5, where Paul recognizes female preaching and praying and gives a regulation concerning it—- “ But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her head.” It is not the praying -or prophesying the Apostle objects to as unsexing her, but the laying aside of the covering of the head betokening her sex, and indication of its place of subjection. It is by onesided statements of Scripture teaching that the Bible and the Church are brought into ridicule ; let your correspondent beware of it.—l am, &c., Another Believer in the Bible and its Teachings.