Árdís - 01.01.1953, Síða 41

Ársrit Bandalags lúterskra kvenna
39
could cast aside his wife by stating “Thou art not my wife,” pay
her a few pennies, and take a new wife. If, however, a woman
repudiated her husband, he could drown her.
In Judea, a spoiled dinner was ample cause for divorce.
In Greece, any flimsy excuse would suffice.
In Rome, it was somewhat better. Old women were respected
by their children but young women were very often cast aside and
divorced. Age was not counted by years but by the number of
marriages. But even in civilized Rome the status of women was
humiliating and degrading. With only rare exception were women
given any education or opportunity to develop the mind. Millions
never were allowed to speak or think except at the command of
their husbands. Their sole purpose in life was to serve man, tend
his wants, mother his children, and to work, often back-breaking
labor, from dawn to dusk. There was no hope of improvement or
salvation, nothing but drudgery and self abnigation even among
the better classes. Man was the supreme being, made in the
image of God.
Into this world of inequality and hopelessness came Jesus.
The moment the angel Gabriel came to Mary to proclaim to her
the wondrous message of God, the lot of women began to improve.
True it has taken well nigh two thousand years for women to
reach the degree of freedom and possibilities they enjoy today, but
Christianity has been warring against evil for the same length of
time and the world has not yet reached the place where “every
knee bends or every head bows at the name of Jesus.” But that time
will come!
Jesus the Saviour did not despise women nor look down upon
them. He understood them, pitied them and set forth to raise them
to a state of equality to men. Jesus Christ is Perfection. He under-
stands all humankind and loves them in spite of, yes often because
of their shortcomings. His Divine character embodies the best of
immortal man; the harmony, morality, the tenderness and gentle-
ness, as well as the manly virtues of conflict and effort. It can be
said that the Perfect Man is a combination of womanly graces as
well as manly virtues. The Complete Being understands all. The
Lord God selected a young woman, a virgin member of the despised
sex, to become the mother of His Son. To her He entrusted the