EPOCHS in history follow each other in orderly rotation, and always commensurate with the trend and growth of the popular thought. The more we familiarize ourselves with the world's spiritual history, the more do we note with satisfaction that the race has ever been advancing toward the recognition of higher ideals. From the stone age to the noteworthy attainments of the present day there is a difference almost unbelievable.
To the writer there comes a conviction that the dominance of masculinity, from Bible days through the medieval periods, has been duly apparent among the people of all lands. Since change is one of the proofs that a fixed law governs every phase of human progress, it has needed only the unfailing leaven of years and centuries to give to the waiting world a better and more justifiable civilization. Superior intellectuality has ever been the boast of men, while the mother love, tempered with ideality and intuitive reverence, has been woman's treasured gift, though it must perforce have slept largely unrecognized through the intervening ages.
In the ancient days few women were accredited prophets, for both church and state assigned to men such sacred prerogatives. In spite of this bias, however, we read in the book of Judges of Deborah, who was called to lead the children of Israel out of a long and cruel bondage to a heathen tyrant, and this when the men of her day seemed powerless to take the steps needed. It was to Huldah the prophetess that King Josiah had recourse, when Hilkiah found a book of the law, to procure an authoritative opinion on it. Nevertheless the annals of the past accord lawful authority largely to the male scribes and saints, all of which is strangely in contrast with the social conditions of today. If the daughter of history achieved distinction, it was because of some valorous deed of martyrdom or phenomenal service to king or patriarch.
