DESIRETOINSPIRE.NET

Old wood is so beautiful. I love how it is used in a new setting.

Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis 1809

Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis

I love this painting. This is a pretty, feminine fashion from the time of Jane Austen. Notice the feminine curls around her face and the empire style waist of that era. No makeup. Like I read somewhere, you don’t need much makeup if everything else is very feminine.

John Bunyan 3

Now for thy performing of this work, thou must first shun these evils.

1. The evil of a wandering and a gossiping spirit; this is evil in the church, and is evil also in a wife, who is the figure of a church. Christ loveth to have his spouse keep at home; that is, to be with him in the faith and practice of his things, not ranging and meddling with the things of Satan; no more should wives be given to wander and gossip abroad. You know that Proverbs 7:11 saith, ‘She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house.’ Wives should be about their own husbands’ business at home; as the apostle saith, Let them ‘be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands.‘ And why? Because otherwise ‘the word of God will be blasphemed’ (Titus 2:5).

2. Take heed of an idle, talking, or brangling tongue. This also is odious, either in maids or wives, to be like parrots, not bridling their tongue; whereas the wife should know, as I said before, that her husband is her lord, and is over her, as Christ is over the church. Do you think it is seemly for the church to parrot it against her husband? Is she not to be silent before him, and to look to his laws, rather than her own fictions? Why so, saith the apostle, ought the wife to carry it towards her husband? ‘Let the woman,’ saith Paul, ‘learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence‘ (1 Tim 2:11, 12). It is an unseemly thing to see a woman so much as once in all her lifetime to offer to overtop her husband; she ought in everything to be in subjection to him, and to do all she doth, as having her warrant, licence, and authority from him. And indeed here is her glory, even to be under him, as the church is under Christ: Now ‘she openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness’ (Prov 31:26).

3. Take heed of affecting immodest apparel, or a wanton gait; this will be evil both abroad and at home; abroad, it will not only give ill example, but also tend to tempt to lust and lasciviousness; and at home it will give an offence to a godly husband, and be cankering to ungodly children, &c. Wherefore, as saith the apostle, Let women’s apparel be modest, as becometh women professing godliness, with good works, ‘not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array’ (1 Tim 2:9, 10). And as it is said again, ‘Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel: But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands’ (1 Peter 3:3-5).

But yet, do not think that by the subjection I have here mentioned, that I do intend women should be their husbands’ slaves. Women are their husbands’ yoke fellows, their flesh and their bones; and he is not a man that hateth his own flesh, or that is bitter against it (Eph 5:29). Wherefore, let every man ‘love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband’ (Eph 5:33). The wife is master next her husband, and is to rule all in his absence; [13] yea, in his presence she is to guide the house, to bring up the children, provided she so do it, as the adversary have no occasion to speak reproachfully (1 Tim 5:10, 13). ‘Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. A gracious woman retaineth honour:’ and guideth her affairs with discretion (Prov 31:10; 11:16; 12:4).

 

John Bunyan 2

First, That she look upon him as her head and lord. ‘The head of the woman is the man’ (1 Cor 11:3). And so Sarah called Abraham lord (1 Peter 3:6).

Second, She should therefore be subject to him, as is fit in the Lord. The apostle saith, ‘That the wife should submit herself to her husband, as to the Lord’ [12] (1 Peter 3:1;Col 3:18; Eph 5:22). I told you before, that if the husband doth walk towards his wife as becomes him, he will therein be such an ordinance of God to her, besides the relation of a husband, that shall preach to her the deportment of Christ to his church. And now I say also, that the wife, if she walk with her husband as becomes her, she shall preach the obedience of the church to her husband. ‘Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything’ (Eph 5:24).

John Bunyan

Christian Behavior
Being the fruits of true Christianity:

Teaching husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants, etc., how to walk so as to please G O D.

By J O H N. B U N Y A N.

1674.

THE DUTY OF WIVES.

 

Man Superior to Woman 4

From the beginning of the world till now, our sex has enjoyed an undisputed sovereignty over the other, and their joint consent in all ages sufficiently proves our possession not usurped. Hitherto, the women, conscious of their own inabilities, have cheerfully acknowledged the authority which wisdom gives to men over them, content with the soft dominion which love secures to them over the men. In a word the little glimmering of reason, which Heaven bestowed on them out of compassion to us, that they might be in some degree a sort of rational amusement to us, was sufficient to convince them of the justness of their subjection. And so far from accusing Nature of partiality in making them vassals to us, they were sensible that she had been but too bountiful in bestowing on them the privilege of reigning in the hearts of their lords: a privilege which we have hitherto been too generous to grudge them; having no danger to apprehend from leaving our hearts in the keeping of women, while the heads of the fair-keepers themselves were in due subjection to our own.

But the case must necessarily alter from the minute that sex forgets its allegiance to us. Once the women presume to call in question the great duty of vassalage to us, it must be time to withdraw our hearts from their power. They can no longer be safe in the custody of such women as refuse to submit their heads to our authority.

Man Superior to Woman 3

As I have employed a good deal of time in the study of your fair beings, I could not help discovering, in several of you, many visible tumours, in mind and heart, which, like pimples on your faces, were injurious to your real charms, and obstructive of the rational delight you were born to receive and bestow. By showing you to yourselves in a true light, it will, I hope, enable you to improve the real excellencies, and to remove out of sight all the blemishes you may discover in yourselves.