Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/480

468 we have any record, he gave the first clear proclamation of his Messiahship. His first miracle was wrought because of the faith and at the solicitation of his mother. A woman, who because of her grateful faith poured over him the costly ointment, is the only person to whom he promised an immortality of remembrance. Women ministered to his needs and supplied him the means of support. Among the last words Jesus spoke upon the cross were those with which he commended Mary to the care of his beloved disciple. A woman was the first at the tomb, the first to see the risen Christ, the first to believe on him, and the first to bear testimony to the resurrection. And is it altogether without suggestiveness that he should have carried his teaching into the heart of housewifely cares and have lifted women's life above cooking as he lifted men's above money-getting?

The by no means improbable story of his encounter with one unfortunate woman, which so long held a position in our canonical collection is a natural outgrowth of the thought of a generation upon which his infinite tact and delicacy had made a profound impression. And it was but an application of his noble conception of the dignity of womanhood and wifehood when the apostles and early Christians refused to break irregular though real marriages that were found to exist among converts from heathenism at the time of their entrance into the church.

And throughout the gospel story the same equality is observed. He made them members of his society with no distinctively low position, and within the early church their worth was recognized and their needs supplied as in the case of men. As he says who more than all the New Testament writers