IF JOHN WESLEY were alive to-day, he would be tempted, we think,
to add an appendix to his Korah, Dathan, and Abiram sermon, that
famous discourse which his followers have been at pains to
suppress. When some of the early Methodists presumed to exercise
the sacred ministry, he rebuked them in the words of Moses, "Ye
take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi." At the meeting of the
Representative Church Council last week, Mr H. W. Hill adduced
evidence of a new "gainsaying of Core", this time from the feminine
quarter. According to his statement, there are among the supporters
of the Suffragist movement women who claim to be eligible to the
priesthood. There are, we understand, several ladies who are
officially recognized by the sect to which they belong as fully
qualified ministers; and the argument which is supposed to justify
their appointment is apparently being worked among ourselves by
female claimants to the priesthood. The priesthood, they say, is a
purely human, not a sexual, ministry, and, women being human, their
qualifications for the ministry are as good as those of men. In
these days of sentimental bishops and eccentric deans, we seem to
be without any security against the most extreme revolutionary
changes, and we could welcome the reappearance of Wesley, to
discourse upon his former text, with one verbal alteration: "Ye
take too much upon you, ye daughters of Levi."
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