* * * The word of God teaches very clearly chat the woman ought to keep silence in the assemblies. If it is only a, question of conversation, a gathering of friends, of an evening spent together, the woman, with due regard to the modesty of her sex, is as free as another. She may exercise her gifts (for there were prophetesses) freely, according to the word of God; but in all that really takes the character of the assembly, that is to say, of souls gathered corporately in the name of Jesus, the woman is to be silent: whether we are taking the Lord's supper, or not, she is to be silent in the assembly.
Our dear sister... has knowledge, and a facility for communicating it, and she may, without doubt, make use of these gifts in private; for in the epistles we see many women who labored in the work, and who helped the apostle Paul himself, so that he makes mention of them in his letters, or rather the Spirit of God has honored them in this manner. May God preserve us from not taking account of it in the present day. But the order of the house of God is always the path of blessing, and no expedient for filling up the gaps which in fact there are can be blessed in the long run, though it may at the moment seem to be useful.
The directions given by the apostle as to the deportment of a woman who prays, or prophesies, in nowise alter the instruction, "Let your women keep silence in the assemblies." In 1 Cor. 11, it is only with verse 17 that the directions for the assembly begin.
The case of the daughters of Philip shows that these gifts were exercised elsewhere than in the assembly.
1851.