The attempt of Mohammed
to lay down, with circumstantial minuteness, the position of the female
sex, the veiling of her person, and her withdrawal from the gaze of man,
has resulted in seclusion and degradation; while the spirit of the
Gospel, and injunctions like that of "giving honor to the wife as to the
weaker vessel,"[n] have borne the fruit of woman's elevation, and have
raised her to the position of influence, honor, and equality which
(notwithstanding the marital superiority of the husband in the ideal of
a Christian family) she now occupies in the social scale.
[Sidenote: Relations with the State.
Christianity leaves humanity free to expand.]
In the type of Mussulman government which (though not laid down in the
Koran) is founded upon the spirit of the faith and the precedent of the
Prophet the civil is indissolubly blended with the spiritual authority,
to the detriment of religious liberty and political progress. The
_Ameer_, or commander of the faithful, should, as in the early times, so
also in all ages, be the _Imam_, or religious chief; and as such he
should preside at the weekly cathedral service. It is not a case of the
Church being subject to the State, or the State being subject to the
Church.
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