{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_12790/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_12790","id":"gutenberg_12790","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12790","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Husband and wife","Women -- Religious aspects -- Christianity","Women -- Suffrage"],"text":"THE TRUE WOMAN:\n\nA SERIES OF DISCOURSES\n\nBY REV. J. D. FULTON, (TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON.)\n\nTO WHICH IS ADDED\n\nWOMAN VS. BALLOT.\n\nBOSTON, 1869\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTO\n\nTHE TRUE WOMAN,\n\nWHO, THROUGH CHRIST, BLESSES MAN, AND HELPS TO MAKE HIS HOME A JOY AND\nHIS LIFE A PRIVILEGE,\n\nTHIS BOOK\n\nIS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThis book grew. Its history is very brief. The lecture entitled \"Woman\n_versus_ Ballot,\" while well received by the majority, has met with\na strong opposition from those who do not believe in the position\nassigned to Woman in the Word of God. This turned the attention of\nthe author to the scriptural argument more and more, and resulted in\nproducing the impression that the effort to secure the ballot for\nwoman found its origin in infidelity to the Word of God and in\ninfidelity to woman.\n\nIn \"Woman as God made Her\" we saw Eve as she was brought to Adam, and\nfamiliarized ourselves with the purposes He had in her creation, which\nwere chiefly embodied in the one word \"_Helpmeet_.\" In \"Woman as\na Tempter\" we saw the _ideal_ woman despoiled of her glory, and\ninfluencing the world to turn from the worship of the Creator to that\nof the creature. For ages woman suffered the consequences of sin. In\nEve she lost her recognition; through Christ she regained it. The\nstudy of the Bible has convinced the writer that the purpose of God,\nin creating woman, still lives, and is to find its complete fulfilment\nunder the New Dispensation. We have seen that Christ--the embodiment\nof all manly properties--turned his face towards and lavished his\nblessings upon womanly characteristics, such as meekness, purity,\nlove, and humility, and that, because of His influence, woman is\ninvited to take her place in the church on an equality with man, to\nhelp on the cause of truth by an illustration of those virtues which\nreceived the glory shed upon them by the life of the Son of Man and\nthe Son of God.\n\nIn the work devolving upon mankind, woman has a distinct mission to\nfulfil. Society owes to her love, honor, and protection. Every right,\nsocial and religious, should be guarded. Associations calculated to\nsecure for her every privilege enjoyed by man, should be formed and\nsupported. Above all else, efforts should be made to lead her to\nrecognize in Christ her Saviour, for Christ in woman is her hope of\nglory, her joy and strength. Said Florence Nightingale,--\n\n\"I would say to all women, Look upon your work, whether it be an\naccustomed or unaccustomed work, as upon a trust confided to you. This\nwill keep you alike from discouragement and from presumption, from\nidleness and from overtaxing of yourselves. Where God leads the way,\nhe has bound himself to help you _to go the way_. I would say to\nall young ladies who are called to any peculiar vocation, Qualify\nyourselves for it, as man does for his work. Don't think you can\nundertake it otherwise.\n\n\"And again, if you are called to do a man's work, do not exact a\nwoman's privileges--the privileges of inaccuracy, of weakness, of the\nmuddle-head. Submit yourselves to the rules of business, as men do, by\nwhich alone you can make God's business succeed. For he has never said\nthat he will give his blessing to sketchy, unfinished work. And I\nwould especially guard young ladies from fancying themselves like\nLady Superiors, with an obsequious following of disciples, if they\nundertake any great work. I would only say, Work, work, in silence at\nfirst, in silence for years. It will not be time wasted. And it is\nvery certain that without it you will be no worker--you will not\nproduce one 'perfect work,' but only a botch, in the service of God.\"\n\nIn the above spirit, and with a kindred desire, this volume was\nwritten. For good or ill, for better or worse, the book is sent forth\nin the hope that it may recall attention to the Divine IDEAL for\nWoman, and aid in inducing man, to prize her as the first gift of God\nto him, designed \"as a helpmeet for him.\"\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nWOMAN AS GOD MADE HER\n  Man's Faith in a Helper suited to him\n  Woman Man's Complement\n  What Man desires to have loved\n  Woman is God's Gift to Man\n  What the Fact implies:--\n    1. The Father's Right to give away the Child\n    2. The Purpose for which God created her\n\nWOMAN A HELPMEET\n  Man's Longing for Companionship\n  Meaning of the Word Woman\n  Woman dislikes to give a Reason for her Faith\n  Requisites to Companionship\n  Count Zinzendorf's Tribute to his Wife\n  Irving's Description of a Wife\n  The Advantages derived from Culture\n  Mrs. Thomas Carlyle and others\n  Why the Ballot injures Woman\n\nWOMAN AS A TEMPTER\n  Satan undermines Woman's Confidence in God\n  Satan raises Suspicion\n  Ritualism the Outgrowth\n  Mother Superior and Sisters of Charity\n  Satan employs Mystery\n  Spiritualism\n  Satan's Influence deceived Woman\n  The Girl of the Period\n  Woman's Peril and her Hope\n  The Effects of Sin\n  Characteristics of Woman's Power as a Tempter\n  Influence of Married Women\n  How Rome uses Woman\n  The Remedy\n\nTHE GLORY OF MOTHERHOOD\n  Woman's Hope of Triumph\n  Man's Destiny and Mission\n  Woman ignored in Eve\n  Woman recognized in Mary\n  Woman in Nestoria and the East\n  Trials of Motherhood\n  The Glory of Motherhood\n\nMARIOLATRY NOT OF CHRIST\n  The Worship of the Virgin Mary\n  Woman's Position previous to the Advent\n  The Place she fills in the Scheme of Redemption\n  The Influences set in Motion by the Life of Christ\n  Christ's personal Relations to Mary reviewed\n  A Lesson for Woman\n  Peril arising from Perversions of Truth\n  Mary's Glory\n\nWOMAN'S WORK AND WOMAN'S MISSION\n  Woman's Work and Mission go hand in hand\n  Love lightens Labor\n  Woman's Work a Work of Charity\n  Cause of Trouble with Servants\n  Education must fit Woman for the Home\n  Woman's Mission inferred from the Wants of Man\n  A proper Conception of the Truth a Help to Woman\n  Woman's Mission social as well as domestic\n  Woman's Help needed in the Cause of Reform\n  Woman needs Help\n  A Mother's Power--her Mission religious\n  The Value of her Sympathy\n  Woman's Power a Glory and a Joy\n\nWOMAN vs. BALLOT,\n  Three Facts which stand in the Way of Woman's being\n  helped by the Ballot--God, Nature, and Common\n  Sense\n  The Scriptural Argument\n  God's Care for Woman\n  Her Condition in other Countries\n  An Illustration of Woman's Nature\n  Teachings of Nature\n  Teachings of Common Sense\n  Gail Hamilton vs. Ballot\n  Woman not a Lawmaker\n  Education essential for her\n  Woman not in Captivity\n\n\n\n\nWOMAN AS GOD MADE HER.\n\n\nThe biography of our first parents, as God made them, and described\nthem, before sin ruined them, is very brief and truly suggestive. It\nis as follows:--\n\n\"And Jehovah God created the man in his image; in the image of God\ncreated he him; a male and a female created he them. And God blessed\nthem; and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the\nearth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the\nfowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the\nearth. And God said, Behold, I have given to you every herb scattering\nseed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree, in\nwhich is the fruit of a tree scattering seed, to you it shall be\ngiven.\"--Gen. i. 27-30.\n\n\"And Jehovah God formed the man of the dust of the ground, and he\nbreathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a\nliving soul. And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, on the east,\nand there he put the man whom he formed, ... to till it and to keep\nit. And God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden\nthou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil\nthou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou\nshalt surely die. And God said, It is not good that the man should be\nalone. I will make for him a helper, suited to him. And God caused a\ndeep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his\nribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. And of this rib which he\ntook from the man, Jehovah God formed a woman, and brought her to the\nman. And the man said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my\nflesh. This shall be called Woman, because from man was she taken.\nTherefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall\ncleave to his wife; and they shall be one flesh. And they were both\nnaked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.\"--Gen, ii. 7, 8,\n15-18, 21-25.\n\nBrief as are these utterances, and familiar as is this language, it is\ninteresting to notice that God has crowded into them every essential\nfact concerning the origin of woman, the purpose of her creation, and\nthe sphere marked out for her by the Creator's hand.\n\nThe simple outline of the story is given us, yet how wonderful is the\npicture! In the first chapter the origin of man is proclaimed, and\nhis work, \"to fill earth and subdue it,\" is placed before him. In the\nsecond chapter, the relation of the sexes is given, and the nature of\nmarriage is explained. What arrests the attention most surely is the\nresemblance that exists between the experience of our first parents\nand of their descendants, or between Adam and Eve and ourselves. The\n\"It is not good for man to be alone,\" spoken by God in Eden, embodies\na truth which has lived with the ages, and sets forth an experience\nfelt by every son of Adam. The words \"I will make for him a helper\nsuited to him,\" is man's authority for the faith, that somewhere on\nthe earth God has made a helper suited to him, whom he will recognize,\nand who will return the recognition. For in all true marriages, now as\nin Eden, the man and woman do not deliberately seek, but are brought\nto one another. Happy those who afterwards can recognize that the hand\nwhich led his Eve to Adam was that of an invisible God. Man knows that\nit is not good for him to be alone. Separated from woman's influence,\nman is narrow, churlish, brutal. Woman is a helper suited to him. With\nher help he reaches a loftier stature; for love is the very heart of\nlife, the pivot upon which its whole machinery turns, without which no\nhuman existence can be complete, and with which it becomes noble and\nself-sacrificing.\n\nWoman's origin is thus declared:--\n\n\"And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he\nslept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its\nplace. And of the rib which he took from the man God formed a woman,\nand brought her to the man. And the man said, This now is bone of my\nbones, and flesh of my flesh. This shall be called Woman, because from\nman was she taken. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his\nmother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be one flesh.\"[A]\n_Woman was taken out of man_. It is man's nature to seek to get her\nback. He feels that a part of _him_ is away from him, until he obtains\nher. Long years before he sees the woman whom he feels God designed to\nbe his wife, if he be a Christian, believing that she is on the earth,\nhe prays for her weal.\n\n[Footnote A: Gen. ii. 21-24.]\n\n\"_Taken out of man!_\" How significant these words! Man, without woman,\nwants completeness--physically, mentally, and spiritually. First,\nphysically. The fact is noticeable that short men often marry tall\nwomen, and tall men marry short women. Nervous men marry women who are\nopposites to them in temperament. This is not a happen so, for that\nwhich so often to the unreflecting mind seems unnatural and absurd,\nto the thinking soul appears as an evidence of God's provident care.\nSecond, mentally. Man desires in his wife that which he lacks. A\nbookish man seldom desires a wife devoted to the same branch of\nliterature, unless she works as a helpmeet. In taste and in sentiment\nthere must be harmony without rivalry. They must bring products to\nthe common garner, gathered from varying pursuits and from different\nfields of thought. In music the same law rules. Man, from his very\nnature, finds in woman a helper in song. Their voices blend in\nharmony, and give volume, symphony, and variety to the melody\nproduced. Jenny Lind married her assistant, because in sympathy they\nwere one. He was essential to her womanly strength, and without her,\nhe was a mere cipher in the musical world. Together they were a power,\nfelt and acknowledged.\n\nA man full of thought and of genius requires for a wife, not only one\nwho can understand his moods and enjoy his creations, but one who is\ncontent to take care of the home, and, perhaps, to manage the business\naffairs; while many a woman of genius and ability links her fortunes\nwith a plain and appreciative husband, who gladly affords her every\nmeans in his power to work in her special sphere. When the wife\nrefuses to act thus wifely, because of her talent, the happiness\nof the home is imperilled, and the children suffer quite as much,\ncomparatively, as they do in those manufacturing neighborhoods where\nthe wife forsakes the home for the shop, and gives up the vocation\nof woman to do the work which belongs to man. God made them male and\nfemale. He fitted each for separate duties, not for the same duties.\nEach fills a sphere when each discharges the duties enjoined upon them\nby their Creator and by society. Wonderful women there are; few of\nthem care to duplicate their power. They prefer to obtain by marriage\nthat which they have not, and which must be supplied by material from\nwithout. Homely people oftentimes find beautiful ones to mate them.\nThe rugged seeks the weak. The nervous, the lymphatic. Counterpart\nthat which makes itself complete. This tendency to assimilate is\noften carried to extremes, because all naturally love that which they\npossess, and come to prize highly those who regard it with favor.\nHence, poor men sometimes marry rich wives, and seldom fail to give\nsomething in return. The story is familiar of the two foppish young\nmen who were said to have met at a noted hotel or on change, when one\naccosted the other by the question, \"Who did you marry?\" \"Ah,\" said\nhe, \"I married fifty thousand dollars. I forget her other name.\"\nSuch men, however, are exceptions to the rule. There are brainless\ncreatures called men, who will marry a pretty face, though the heart\nand brain be uncultured, provided there be associated with her\nsufficient of this world's goods to gratify a mercenary ambition; but\nthe majority, both of men and women, wisely prefer to marry money in\na partner rather than money with a partner. The world has a profound\ncontempt for shallow, fussy, empty people, no matter what positions\nthey may occupy.\n\nAll sympathize with the rebuke administered to a so-called lady of\nquality by a Quaker gentleman, who occupied a seat near her in a\npublic coach. She wore an elegant lace shawl, and was dressed to the\ntop of the fashion, but was suffering from the cold. Shivering and\nshaking, she inquired, \"What shall I do to get warm?\" \"_Thee had\nbetter put on another breastpin_,\" answered old Broadbrim. The rebuke\nwas timely. Woman degrades herself when she surrenders to fashion that\nwhich helps the woman, and which aids her in securing the confidence,\nthe friendship, the respect, and admiration of sensible men.\n\nThe truth embodied in the words, \"This shall be called Woman, because\n_from man was she taken_\" sheds light upon many a mysterious chapter\nin life, reconciles the union of contraries in accordance with the law\nof God, and fills wide realms of life with the radiance of hope, which\notherwise would remain mantled in perpetual gloom. If we depended upon\nthose who are like ourselves to sympathize with us, and gird us with\nstrength, we should utterly fail. Oaks cannot lend support to oaks.\nThe vine can do this for the oak, and the oak can give support to the\nvine; but an oak cannot give strength to its kindred while fulfilling\nthe functions of its life. The same law rules in the mental world.\nGenius seldom applauds genius, working in its own realm. Very likely\nit loathes it. The tributes paid to labor are given by the soft-handed\nrather than by the hard-handed sons of toil. This principle lies back\nof the appreciation, the commendation, and the support rendered by the\ndifferent classes of a community to each other.\n\nThe God-given and Christ-restored thought of equality between the\nsexes is seen in the household partnership, where the woman looks for\na \"smart, but kind\" husband, the man for a \"capable, sweet-tempered\"\nwife. The man furnishes the house, the woman regulates it. Their\nrelation is one of mutual esteem, mutual dependence. Their talk is of\nbusiness; their affection shows itself by practical kindness. They\nknow that life goes more smoothly and cheerfully to each for the\nother's aid; they are grateful and content. The wife praises her\nhusband as a \"good provider;\" the husband, in return, compliments her\nas a capital housekeeper. This relation is good as far as it goes;\nbut the heart of the man or woman is unsatisfied, if to household\npartnership intellectual companionship be not added.\n\nMen can hire their houses kept. Love cannot be purchased. Soul\ncommunion is the gift of God. It is very often enjoyed on earth. Men\nengaged in public life, literary men and artists, have often found\nin their wives companions and confidants in thought, no less than in\nfeeling. And as the intellectual development of woman has spread\nwider and risen higher, they have, not unfrequently, shared the same\nemployments.\n\nThirdly, spiritual. The highest grade of marriage union is the\nspiritual, which may be expressed as a pilgrimage towards a common\nshrine.\n\nThere is something in every man which he feels to be the essential\nthing about him. This it is which he desires to have loved. Neglect\nwhat else you choose, you must not neglect that. It is the spiritual\npart of man,--the God-given characteristic which longs for sympathy.\nMen feel that this want has been met when they say, \"Such a one\nunderstands me, knows me, sees me, is in sympathy with me.\" Such\nmoments are to all of priceless value. Whoever meets this want is a\nboon from God. No matter what the complexion, nor how the features\nseem: soul meets soul. The heart feels a new life. The union is\nformed. _Call it affinity, or what you will_, they love in one another\nthe future good which they aid one another to unfold. This includes\nhome sympathies and household wisdom. Such fellowship makes of home a\njoy, and of toil a delight. When first the joy is reached, a foretaste\nof heaven is enjoyed. \"For it is the one rift of heaven which makes\nall heaven appear possible; the ecstasy of hope and faith, out of\nwhich grows the love which is our strongest mortal instinct and\nintimation of immortality.\"\n\nWomen are as conscious of this feeling as are men. There are times\nwhen women meet their counterpart. The nature they long for and seek\nafter with unutterable longing, is before them. Finding it, they\nrecognize their lord, under whose protection they take shelter, and\nto whose rule they submit, because of love which masters and controls\nthem. The heart cries out for a person--not for things. Spirit\ndesires spirit; soul yearns for soul. It is the genius of woman to be\nelectrical in movement, intuitive in penetration, and spiritual in\ntendency. She excels not so easily in classification or recreation as\nin an instinctive seizure of causes, and a simple breathing out of\nwhat she receives, that has the singleness of life, rather than the\nselecting and energizing of art. More native is it to her to be the\nliving model of the artist, than to set apart from herself any one\nform in objective reality. More native to inspire and receive the poem\nthan to create it. In so far as soul is in her completely developed,\nall soul is the same; but in so far as it is modified in her as\nwoman, it flows, it breathes, it sings, rather than deposits soil,\nor furnishes work; and that which is especially feminine, flushes in\nblossom the face of the earth, and pervades, like air and water, all\nthis seeming solid globe, daily renewing and purifying its life. Such\nis the especial feminine element which man desires as a helper, and\nwhich is suited to him, and which compels him to exclaim, \"O, my God,\ngive it to me _for mine_!\"\n\nIt is said, \"A woman will sometimes idealize a very inferior man,\nuntil her love for him exalts him into something better than he\noriginally was, and her into little short of an angel; but a man\nalmost invariably drops to the level of the woman he is in love with.\nHe cannot raise her; but she can almost unlimitedly deteriorate him.\"\nThis was true of Adam. Eve, sinning, brought him to her level. Why\nthis should be, Heaven knows; but so it constantly is. We have but\nto look around us, with ordinary observation, in order to see that a\nman's destiny, more than even a woman's, depends far less upon the\ngood or ill fortune of his wooing than upon the sort of woman with\nwhom he falls in love.\n\nBefore a man loves, he is under obligations to himself, to his future,\nand to the world, to ask himself, Is this woman suited to me? Will she\nhelp me to fulfil my mission? Does she supply my want? Can I recognize\nher as God's gift to me? If Yes, then he is right in loving; for\n\n  \"He either fears his fate too much,\n    Or his deserts are small,\n  Who dares not put it to the touch,\n    And win or lose it all.\"\n\nA woman, writing of woman, has truly said, \"There are but two ways\nopen to any woman. If she loves a man, and he does not love her, to\ngive him up may be a horrible pang and loss; but it cannot be termed\na sacrifice: she resigns what she never had. But if he does love her,\nand she knows it, and if she loves him, she has a right, in spite of\nthe whole world, to hold to him till death do them part. She is bound\nto marry him, though twenty other women loved him, and broke their\nhearts in loving him. He is not theirs, but hers; and to have her for\nhis wife is his right and her duty.\" \"And in this world are so many\ncontradictory views of duty and exaggerated notions of light, so many\nfalse sacrifices and remunerations, weak even to wickedness, that\nit is but fair sometimes to uphold the right of love,--love sole,\nabsolute, and paramount,--firmly holding its own, and submitting to\nnothing and no one, except the laws of God and righteousness.\" Well\nand truthfully spoken. Lift up this principle, and behold how it\nshowers benedictions upon all classes and upon all men.\n\nMuch is said against amalgamation, as though it were a crime. There is\nno crime in it or about it. There is much of prejudice, but no crime.\nSoul marries soul. If a white man loves the soul of a black woman,\nthere is no law in God's code forbidding the union. God made of one\nblood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.\nComplexions may differ, owing to climate, or temperament, but the\nblood is the same. The race has a common Father in God.\n\nIn this intermingling of races, coming to this land from all climes,\nwe perceive the seedling of a glorious hope. The future American is to\nbe the product of this blending of the distinctive features of all the\nvarious nations of earth.\n\nAgainst this result there is an immense amount of prejudice, born\nof slavery; but in Europe it does not exist, nor is it in fact so\nuniversal in this land as many suppose. Many a white man has found his\nhelpmeet in a black woman, and many more will find helpmeets from the\nsame source.\n\n2. \"_Woman was taken out of man_.\" There is significance in the\nlocality from which she was taken. Not from the superior part, that\nshe might think herself superior to man, or endowed with the right to\nrule him. Her sin consisted in her failing to recognize the position\nassigned. She was created an associate and an equal, and acted\nindependently, and as an adviser. She took advantage of her position\nas wife, and became an ally of Satan.\n\nShe was not taken from an inferior portion of his body, that he might\nthink her inferior to himself, and to be trampled on by him, but out\nof his side,--from his rib,--that she might appear to be equal to him;\nand from a part near his heart, and under his arm, to show that she\nshould be affectionately loved by him, and be always under his care\nand protection.\n\nWherever man has failed to recognize this truth society has gone back\nto barbarism, and the very conception of a home has been banished from\nthe mind. In the East man rules woman as lord. She is his slave; and\nin the Arabic language there is no word meaning \"home.\" Christian\ncivilization lifts woman up, and thrones her in the heart of a _home_.\n\nShe was made from \"bone and flesh,\"--quickened dust,--and so in her\nmake and constitution she is of superior quality and of finer mould.\n\nThe Hebrew word translated \"made,\" means _built_. From the rib God\nbuilt this woman. How instructive the fact! Woman added to man is the\nfoundation of the home or family. She is built out of man. Man is\nnecessary to her development. A man can continue the work begun by\nGod. He can build up a woman; and as he builds her up he builds up\nhimself. She is also a builder. She builds up a home, or degrades it.\nIf woman is honored in a home, she makes it honorable.\n\nAt the outset she was man's equal: perhaps she may have thought\nherself to be superior to him--more refined, of better material. She\nforgot her place, and ignored her sphere, and lost all. She was not\ncreated as things were, out of nothing. She was meant to be something\nbetter than a _thing_; and she must be something better than a thing,\nor she is nothing. She was not formed as Adam was, out of the dust of\nthe earth. Had she been, perhaps she would not have disliked dust so\nterribly. She is a part of man's life. This describes her mission. The\nlife of a woman who does not care to be a man's toy or ornament, but\ndesires rather to be his helpmeet,--supplying all he needs, as he\nsupplies all she needs,--is but the continuance, the flowing out and\nflowing on of man's higher life, into the flowers of love, which\ndecorate the home, and make that chosen retreat the very portals of\nheaven.\n\nAs man feels that in woman he finds the complement to himself, and\nalmost his other self, woman finds in man the same complement to\nherself, and recognizes in him the ruler of her life, her friend,\nher lover; and happy is she if she finds in him her husband, who\nrightfully assumes his rights and his sovereignty.\n\n3. \"_God brought her unto man_.\" Woman is God's first gift to man.\nShe must never occupy a second place. In the heart she holds a first\nplace, or she holds none at all. The moment she holds a secondary\nplace she is ruined. It is in her power to hold the first place. To do\nthis, she must prize it; make sacrifices to keep it; almost, at times,\ndeny herself, and bear a cross, to hold on to it. Yet it is hers, and\nGod will see to it that she maintains her right.\n\n\"_God brought her_.\" Every husband in this world should feel that\nhis wife is God's gift to him, and it is his duty to study its\ncharacteristics, and minister to them. Every man can make the partner\nof his life a good wife, and can feel that she was God-given, and must\nbe used in such a manner that when the day of reckoning comes, he can\ngive a good account of the manner in which he has used this blessing.\nTo go to the judgment, and meet a broken-hearted woman, over whom man\nhas exercised tyranny, and to whom he has been a monster, until hope\ndied, and the grave became a refuge, will not be a pleasant meeting.\n\nIn this bestowal of woman upon man, we recognize two facts.\n\n1. The father's right to give away his child--a right which exerts its\ninfluence at the present time, and which every young man who seeks\nproperly the hand of woman is compelled to recognize. In that act of\nEden lie the rule and example to be followed by parents and children:\nthe one to dispose of their children, and the other to have the\nconsent of their parents in reaching conclusions upon which hinges the\ndestiny of the individual for time, and perhaps for eternity. Happy\nthe child that trusts a wise parent, and refuses to walk a path over\nwhich the shadow of parental disapproval rests! Happy the parent who\nfinds pleasure in the fresh young love of the child, and watches the\nopening flower and the ripening fruit with pride and pleasure.\n\nThis giving away of the child requires the enjoyment of perfect\nconfidence between father and daughter and mother and son.\n\nGod knew Eve, for he built her. He knew her heart, her mind, her\naspiration. A parent knows something of the child; and well it is for\nboth parent and child when this knowledge is perfect, and when the\nrelation subsisting between parents and children is such that home is\na place of consultation. A home without secrets, without closed doors,\nand locked drawers and sugar-boxes,--a home where thought is free, and\nmind is untrammelled, is the very gate of heaven.\n\nThere are homes where the children are excluded from counsel, from\nlove, from plan, from association. Those children live in a world\napart from their parents, and it will not be strange if they are swept\nout by the waves of evil to ruin.\n\nThere are homes where the father shuts himself away from the wife and\nchildren. To the children he is harsh, unsympathetic, and morose. Ah!\nthere is sorrow in that house. The mother--God bless her!--has a hard\ntime. She has to keep in with the father, and she will keep in with\nthe children. In that bundle of life the tendrils of her nature are\nbound up. She fights a prolonged battle in regard to expenditure and\neducation. Happiness only comes when the household is one, and the\nrelations between father and children are perfect, as God designed\nthem to be.\n\nAgain, God gives his sanction not only to the truth that man's wants\ncan only be met by the gift of woman,--a fact which every man has\nfelt, and which causes every man to feel that somewhere on earth his\nwife is living, who will recognize and welcome him to the bliss of\nlove and to the joy of companionship,--but this additional truth is\ntaught: Man has a right to marry. Love is no disgrace. It is the\npretence of it, for base purposes, which is disgraceful. The nuptial\nvow was first whispered in the garden. God was sponsor, and all Eden\nwitnesses. This bond of union was God's gift to the race. The curse\ndid not touch it. The marriage vow and marriage rite, with the faith\nin woman as a helpmeet, have survived the fall, and are our joy and\nrejoicing at this time.\n\nIn conclusion, think of God's care for man, in providing woman as a\nblessing. There is no necessity for man's being alone. Some one waits\nto bless or has blessed him. Let us make more of our wives and sisters\nthan ever before. Let us build them up in love and in those generous\nqualities which fit woman for her high destiny in this fallen world.\n\n2. Think, woman, of your noble mission. You are to be a help to man.\nYou are to help him morally and spiritually. For this God created you.\nFor this he preserves you. \"You are queens and bondmaids too, as royal\nwhen you serve as when you rule.\" Man must respect you, for when\nman loses his respect for woman he is lost. He goes down, down to\nirremediable ruin. With woman as God designed her, man gets much of\nEden back, for in Christ she is reconciled to God. It is for man and\nwoman to get back Eden. Christ came to be our common helper. He is\nwoman's Saviour as well as man's, and offers to all that help which\nchanges life's desert into a garden, and life's gloom into the\nbrilliancy of an eternal day.\n\n  \"Hail, woman! Hail, thou faithful wife and mother,\n    The latest, choicest part of heaven's great plan.\n  None fills thy peerless place at home, no other\n    Helpmeet is found for laboring, suffering man.\n  Hail, thou home circle, where, at day's decline,\n  Her moulding power, her radiant virtues shine!\n  Not in the church to rule or teach, her place;\n    Not in the mart of trade, or senate halls;\n  Not the wild, festive scene is hers to grace;\n  Not Fashion's altar her its victim calls;\n  Not here her field of triumph; but alone\n  She moves the queen of her own quiet home.\"\n\n  REV. MARK TRAFTON.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWOMAN A HELPMEET.\n\n\nThe purpose of God in the creation of woman was to provide man with a\nhelpmeet. The language is unmistakable. \"And the Lord God said, It is\nnot good that the man should be alone. I will make for him a helper\nsuited to him.\" Woman was made to be man's helpmeet in Eden; that\npurpose survives the _fall_. For right or wrong, for good or ill, her\ninfluence is felt. She lifts man up or drags him down. Scoff at it,\noppose it, cast opprobrium upon this ancient utterance, the fact\nremains, woman is made for man. Helpmeet she was, helpmeet she must\nbe, or leave her work undone, and suffer the blight that results from\nthe lack of love. God placed man in the garden to keep it, and he\nplaced woman there to fill the bower with love, and his home with joy.\n\nThe coming of Eve to Adam is a beautiful story. He had been taught to\nrealize his need of her. It was a part of his constitution. The same\nis true now wherever woman is appreciated. The felt want is the\nrecognition of the fact. A wife chosen by one's parents, not by\nhimself, is devoid of all of those special characteristics which\ndistinguish her where processes of love begin, go on, deepen and\ntighten, until the bond is woven and the union formed.\n\n  \"Nothing so delights man as those graceful nets,\n  Those thousand delicacies that daily flow\n  From all her words and actions, mixed with love\n  And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned\n  Union of mind, or in them both one soul.\"[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Paradise Lost, Book VIII.]\n\nThe knowledge of congeniality of tastes can only be obtained by mutual\nacquaintance, and by a careful study. It is said nothing is so blind\nas love. Nothing is so foolish as a blind love. Man needs a helpmeet,\nand woman needs a man she can help. It is possible to know before\nmarriage that the parties are able to fulfil this trust. If they\ncannot fulfil it, marriage is a sin, which brings forth continuous\nsorrow and discontent.\n\nThe purpose of God to provide a helpmeet was avowed, but Adam did not\nknow the fact. Under the arch of God's promise we discover the working\nof God's providence. The Bible, if properly studied, is a more\nthrilling narrative than any novel, because in it we can behold the\ninfinite God working with man and for man. \"It is not good that man\nshould be alone.\" This is the general proposition. As a counterpart we\nfind man feeling that it was very sad to be alone. In his heart there\nis a want at work, making him ready for the blessing which God is\npreparing for him.\n\nThe want of the soul means a purpose on the part of God to supply\nit. This is true in regard to all that vitally interests man in this\nworld. My want is the basis of my hope. God, who is above and around\nme, would not send forward the desire unless he had purposed to grant\nit.\n\nPrayer stirring in the soul, is to man spiritually what a bill\nof goods preceding the payment is to a merchant. Do we long for\nsalvation, for a revival, for any spiritual outpouring? have faith\nin God. There is a motive in it. Expect the blessing, and you will\nreceive it.\n\n\"The Spirit itself,\" said Paul, \"beareth witness with our spirit, that\nwe are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God,\nand joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we\nmay be also glorified together.\" This is enjoyed despite the curse.\n\"Jesus sent us the Comforter, who helpeth our infirmities, for we know\nnot what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh\nintercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he\nthat searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit,\nbecause he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of\nGod. And we know that all things work together for good to them that\nlove God, to them who are thus called according to his purpose.\" This\nfatherhood of God comes to us under all circumstances and in all\nconditions. In the home, in the heart with all its wails, in the\nbattle, in the victory, on earth and in heaven. Notice how Adam was\nmade ready for his helpmeet.\n\n\"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field,\nand every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he\nwould call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature,\nthat was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to\nthe fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam\nthere was not found a helpmeet for him.\"\n\nImagine Adam feeling this want of companionship as the beasts of earth\nin their pristine beauty pass before him. There are those who mate\nwith a horse or a dog. Who make a pet of a brute, and, ignoring their\nhigher relations, live for their lower nature. We know that animals\ncan be brought to do almost anything but talk, and some birds have the\ngift of speech. It was doubtless true of Eden. The serpent's talking\ndid not surprise Eve.\n\nPerhaps Adam may have found animals that could have kept him company.\nYet he could find none who could meet his want as a helpmeet. Milton\nhas fancifully described Adam expressing his want to the Infinite. It\ngrew upon him. Then he has pictured him asleep, and seeing, as in a\ntrance, the rib, with cordial spirits warm, formed and fashioned with\nhis hands, until\n\n  \"Under his forming hands a creature grew,\n  Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair\n  That what seemed fair in all the world seemed now\n  Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained,\n  And in her looks, which from that time infused\n  Sweetness into my heart unfelt before,\n  And into all things from her air inspired\n  The spirit of love and amorous delight.\"\n\nThen she disappeared. The dream haunted him in his waking hours. In\nthe gallery of the Louvre there is a picture of Henry IV becoming\nentranced by the picture of his future wife, and next to it is the\npicture of the proud man being married to the woman whose face in\nthe picture had once captivated his fancy. Those pictures were the\nrealization of the one described in Milton's verse. Adam saw in Eve\nthe realization of his dream, and was happy when he welcomed to his\nembrace this first gift of God, which met his want and answered his\nprayer. God created man not only a social being but an intellectual\nbeing. A beast can mate with beasts. They do so. A distinguished\nwriter says, \"the family relation is almost universal among the higher\nclasses of animals.\" Adam's immortal nature longed for a kindred\nspirit. One to commune with, one to love, one to guide, one to look at\nlife from another standpoint, one whose opinions should be diverse,\nand yet alike in difference, one to help in all the affairs of life,\nnot only for the propagation of the species, but to provide things\nuseful and comfortable for him, and like himself in temper, in\ndisposition, and destiny. One to whom God shall be a loving Father,\nand heaven a common home. One with whom soul can join with soul in\nworship and love. A kindred spirit. A spirit having a common love, a\ncommon purpose, a common aspiration, and a common interest.\n\nThis longing for companionship was the earliest recorded emotion of\nthe soul. It comes earliest to us and stays longest. In childhood,\nvery often, instinct and desire rule wisely, and matches formed in\nheaven are recognized in life's morning on earth far oftener than we\nare accustomed to think. This longing never ceases. The child wants\ncompanionship, and old age, shattered and broken, feels the need of\nthis loving support which God provides in the opposite sex quite as\nmuch as does the youthful heart. Our perfect humanity is made up of\nthe two, and is not complete without this union.\n\nThe most magnificent scenery is tame, unless you can point out its\nbeauties to the one you love. The picture gallery is worthless, unless\nsome other lip can press the goblet of your pleasure, and sip\nnectar from the flower of beauty which blossoms in your thought or\nimagination. It is not good for man to be alone, even in Eden. Eden is\nnot Eden without its Eve. Before Eve came, Eden was the pastureland of\nbeasts; after it, the place took on home-like properties, bowers of\nlove were formed, and the place became the house of God, and the gate\nof heaven.\n\nThe characteristics of woman as a helpmeet deserve our notice.\n\n1. _Consider this word \"Woman._\" Woman was the name given to our\nmother because she was taken out of man. The word itself means\n_pliant_. In this definition we discover the first characteristic of a\nwomanly nature. She is pliant. She adjusts herself to circumstances.\nShe is adapted to meet man's wants, because she finds it in her nature\nto adapt herself to meet them.\n\nIt is gentlemanly to avow an opinion. We feel that it is womanly to\nwaive one. We never think less of a woman for not forcing her opinions\nupon a company. We do not desire her to be without opinions, nor is it\nexpected that she will desist from expressing an opinion, but if one\nmust yield, it is womanly in woman to do so.\n\nIndeed, oftentimes a woman of strong mental calibre, whose opinions\nare derived from thought and study, has built her husband up by\npermitting his expression to stand even though her own judgment might\ndiffer from him. If she be a true wife or sister, she will seek, in\nretirement, to correct an opinion which could not be avowed in public\nwithout weakening a husband's or a brother's influence. A woman that\nbuilds up another is herself a power and a praise.\n\nThe word _pliant_ does not demand an absence of quality. The Damascus\nblade is pliant; it can be bent but it is not easily broken, while\nits edge is the keenest and its strength is a marvel. So woman is not\nnecessarily weak because she is pliant. She may be the very reverse,\nand yet be pliant. Oftentimes her power of control is the more potent\nbecause it is unseen and unostentatious. An opinion held, to be\nuttered in the moment of cool and calm reflection, may be more telling\nthan if spoken while the storm of debate was raging. The still, small\nvoice came after the lightning and the thunder and the earthquake, and\nGod spake in it with power and effect. It is the quiet utterance in\nthe home which is of marvellous power in the world. It is womanly to\nadorn rather than to plan.\n\nShe fits herself for companionship rather than for leadership. By her\ntact and by her very nature she is enabled to harmonize antagonistic\nelements, and promote concord, if she cannot secure union. Like the\nlily living in the water, she feeds on her native element, love. The\nlily, though it floats on the wave, opens wider its leaves to the rain\nand dew. So woman, though living on love, finds pleasure and rapture\nin fresh manifestations of love day by day. It is her nature to love.\nIt is her life to be beloved.\n\n2. Think of this other title, _feminine_. This word, in its meaning,\nfurnishes the second characteristic. It pertains to woman, and denotes\na soft, tender, and delicate nature. Effeminate means destitute of\nmanly qualities.\n\nA woman truly feminine is thus described: \"No coarseness was mingled\nwith her plainness of speech; no boisterousness with her zeal. Her\nfeelings, her sensibilities, her tastes were all characterized by a\ngentleness and delicacy seldom surpassed. While her heroic daring\nand unconquerable energy excited admiration, her love of birds and\nflowers, and indeed of all that is beautiful in nature, made her seem\nalmost childlike.\" This characteristic, so loved and admired, is\nwoman's glory, and yet it is effeminate. Woman's mind is quicker, more\nflexible, more elastic than man's, though the brain, in weight, is\nmuch lighter. Man's brain weighs, on an average, three pounds and\neight ounces. Woman's brain weighs, on an average, two pounds and four\nounces. The female intellect is impregnated with the qualities of her\nsensitive nature. It acts rather through a channel of electricity than\nof reasoning. Its perceptions of truth come, as it were, by intuition.\nIt is under the influence of the heart, that has deep and unfathomable\nwells of feeling; and truth is felt in every pulse, rather than\nreasoned out and demonstrated. You cannot offend a woman so quick, in\nany way, as to ask her why she wishes to do thus, or why she reaches\nsuch a conclusion. Her reply is, invariably, \"'_Cause!_\" And that is\nabout all she knows about it; and yet woe be to the man who ignores\nher intuitions, or treats with disdain her advice. Woman reads\ncharacter quicker and better than man. Her policy lies in her heart.\nShe feels rather than reasons. Man reasons rather than feels. Hence\nshe is a helpmeet. She fills a lack, and supplies a want.\n\nIn her the imagination and fancy have such a lively play, that the\nhomeliest principles assume forms of beauty. In intellectual pursuits\nshe is destined to excel by her fine sensibilities, her nice\nobservations, and exquisite tastes, while man is appointed to\ninvestigate the laws of abstruse sciences, and perform in literature\nand art the bolder flights of genius. She may surpass him in\nrepresenting life and manners, and in the composition of letters,\nmemoirs, and moral tales, in descriptive poetry, and in certain styles\nof music and painting, and even in sculpture. But she will never write\nan Iliad or a Paradise Lost, or tragedies like those of Aeschylus. She\nwill never rival Demosthenes in producing a political oration, nor\na massive philosophic history like Thucydides. She will not paint a\nMadonna like Raphael, nor chisel an Apollo Belvedere. The logic of\nAristotle, the polemics of Augustine, the prodigious onsets of a\nLuther, the Institutes of a Calvin, the Novum Organum of Bacon, the\nPrincipia of Newton, the Cosmos of Humboldt--the like of these she\nwill never achieve, nor is it desirable that she should.\n\nWomen seldom invent. There are all manner of inventions, often\nhundreds of applications in a single day, for patents at the Patent\nOffice, yet among them there are no female applicants. Woman cannot\ncompete with man in a long course of mental labor. The female mind is\nrather quiet and timid than fiery and driving. It admires rather than\ncovets the great exploits of the other sex. Woman never excelled\nin architecture. To her belong the gentler arts of quiet life and\nretirement, where she has power to soften and refine the heart of\nhim who is accustomed to battle with the elements and the forces of\nexternal nature.\n\nWe might speak at length of woman's gentle nature, present striking\nexamples of female submission, endurance, and heroism, and speak in\ngeneral of her charms and of her beneficent influence in domestic\nand social life. It would be equally pertinent, perhaps, to exhibit\nbrilliant specimens of female genius and culture in the more graceful\nwalks of literature, science, or art. These gay flowers of humanity\nlie scattered all over the vast field of history. But our subject\nleads us in another direction. Woman as a helpmeet finds in her own\nnature the natural introduction to the spheres of usefulness and\ninfluence ever open to her. She has a body, a mind, and soul. She must\nhelp, physically, mentally, and spiritually. The household partnership\nis opened to her physical nature. This relation is good as far at it\ngoes. But it is only the beginning. It is rather the result than the\ncommencement of the union. There is a closer tie found in intellectual\ncompanionship. Mind comes in contact with mind; the wants of the\nintellect are met, and a union is the result. Men engaged in public\nlife, literary men and artists, have often found in their wives\ncompanions and confidantes in thought no less than in feeling. And\nas the intellectual development of woman has spread wider, and never\nhigher, they have been mutual helpers, suited to each other. Roland\nand his wife in Paris, William and Mary Howitt of England, and Mr. and\nMrs. Browning, are beautiful illustrations of this principle, though\nthey are exceptional in their character. As a rule, when men find\nhelpers in women, there is no community of employment. Harmony exists\nin difference no less than in likeness, if only the same key-note\ngoverns both parts. Woman the poem, man the poet! Woman the heart, man\nthe head! Such instances lie all about us. Man rides to battle, while\nhis wife is busy in the kitchen; but difference of occupation does\nnot prevent that community of inward life, that perfect esteem which\ncauses him to say,--\n\n  \"Whom God loves, to him gives he such a wife\"\n\nAnd yet there is a still higher realm open before woman, because of\nher spiritual nature.\n\nWoman as a helpmeet needs something besides a well-stored mind. She\nrequires a heart filled with pure affections. Here we perceive how\nessential to her well being is submission to Christ.\n\nThe assumption of the New Testament is, that we possess an animal\nnature. The meaning of the word _flesh_, in all the New Testament\nwritings, is, that the human family are living in an animal condition.\nIt is taught that in that condition it is impossible for them to\nunderstand higher truths, or to feel higher influences, or to enter\ninto the experiences which belong to the full development of the\nhigher faculties. Christ came to us, suffered, and died for us, that\nan escape from this lower into the higher realm might be possible. It\nis possible. There is inherent under the divine influence the power of\nrecreating, so that the soul shall escape from the prison-house of the\nflesh, and shall henceforth lead the mind and the body into a higher\nrealm of thought and action. The very nature of woman makes her\nsusceptible to religious impressions. Her lively imagination, her\nquick sensibilities, and her ready sympathy enable her readily to\ngive Christ, the personification of every manly attribute and the\nembodiment of every virtue, a welcome to her soul.\n\nIt is possible for woman's spiritual nature to so marry Christ, that\nher physical nature can, without a great sacrifice, forego the joys of\nearthly companionship. Hence some women mated with a brute of a man,\nshine as Christians, and make excellent mothers. Woman as a Christian\nis a helpmeet indeed and in truth. Her power as such is felt in the\nchurch and in the world. She is peculiarly adapted to carry forward\nenterprises which have to do with meliorating the condition of\nsociety. Who is so adapted as she to manage an orphan's home, or to\nminister to the sick in hospitals, or to give support and sympathy to\nthe aged, or to train children up in the nurture and admonition of the\nLord? The first requisite to companionship is a heart imbued with the\nlove of Christ. _A heart must be emphasized_, for a heartless woman\nis a terror in society, but a woman with a great heart, reverent\nand obedient to God, and full of love for Christ and his work, is a\nbenefaction to a man, to a home, to a community, and to the world.\n\"Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the\nLord, she shall be praised.\" And a woman that feareth the Lord and\nserveth him, is praised and prized beyond rubies. The next requisite\nto holiness may be said to be skilfulness in the home. Woman must be\ntrained to household duties. If she lacks here, she is wanting in much\nthat makes her a real wife or mother or sister.\n\nAmerica, the land of homes, finds the housewife essential to its\nfuture. Housework in woman is ever honorable. It ought to be her glory\nand her pride. Let us make it so more and more.\n\nThe second requisite is intelligence. A woman must keep up with man\nin literature, in general news, in what interests the community, and\nespecially in growth in grace, and in the knowledge of the word of\nGod, if she would make her home attractive. Thus shall they\n\n  \"Sit side by side full sunned in all their powers\n  Dispensing harvests;\n  Self-reverent each and reverencing each\n  Distinct in individualities;\n  But like each other even as those who love,\n  Then comes the statelier Eden back to man.\n  For it is possible in wedded pair a harmony\n  More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear.\"\n\nSaid Count Zinzendorf, in regard to his wife, \"Twenty-five years'\nexperience has shown me that just the helpmeet whom I love is the\nonly one that could suit my vocation. Who else could have so carried\nthrough my family affairs? Who lived so spotlessly before the world?\nWho so wisely aided me in my rejection of a dry morality? Who so\nclearly set aside Pharisaism, which, as years passed, threatened\nto creep in among us? Who so deeply discerned as to the spirits of\ndelusion which sought to bewilder us? Who would have governed my\nwhole economy so wisely, richly, and hospitably, when circumstances\ncommanded? Who have taken indifferently the part of servant or\nmistress without, on the one side, affecting an especial spirituality;\non the other, being sullied by any worldly pride? Who, in a community\nwhere all ranks are eager to be on a level, would, from wise and real\ncauses, have known how to maintain inward and outward distinctions?\nWho, without a murmur, has seen her husband encounter such dangers by\nland and sea? Who undertaken with him and sustained such astonishing\npilgrimages? Who, amid such difficulties, would have always held _up\nher head and supported me_? Who found such vast sums of money and\nacquitted them on her own credit? And, finally, who, of all human\nbeings, could so well understand and interpret to others my inner and\nouter being, as this one, of such nobleness in her way of thinking,\nsuch great intellectual capacity, and so free from the theological\nperplexities that enveloped me?\" Let any one peruse, with all\nintentness, the lineaments of this portrait, and he will be impressed\nwith the fact, that it is possible for woman to fulfil her mission,\nand become a true helpmeet. This woman was not a copy. She was not\na cipher. She was an original; and while she loved and honored her\nhusband, she thought for herself on all subjects, with so much\nintelligence, that he could and did look on her as a sister and friend\nalso.\n\nThe third and highest grade of marriage union is the religious,\nwhich may be expressed \"as a pilgrimage round a common shrine.\" This\nincludes the other,--home sympathies and household wisdom,--for these\npilgrims know how to assist each other along the dusty way.\n\nThese facts should be remembered in her education. The beautiful forms\nwhich everywhere exist in nature should be impressed upon the female\nmind, and the treasures of elegant literature should be opened to her\nin no stinted measure.\n\nA well-disciplined and a well-stored mind she does indeed require;\nbut a heart of pure affections, a lively imagination, and quick\nsensibilities to give depth, and form, and beauty, and vivacity to the\ncharacter of her mind, are so peculiarly feminine accomplishments,\nthat without them a woman of the greatest intellect is, as it were,\nunsexed and disrobed of her loveliest charms. She may be a Queen\nElizabeth, and conquer a Spanish Armada, but she will never conquer\nthe heart, nor be recognized as a model of female character. She is to\nbe the mother of her race. This fixes the sphere of her duties in the\nhome. Think of Helen Olcott, the wife of Rums Choate; of the first\nMrs. Webster, and of her influence upon that man who won the proud\nappellation, \"The Great Expounder.\"\n\nThe story is told of Daniel Webster meeting a woman with her two boys\nloaded down with bundles, at the Jersey Ferry, in New York. The lady\nhad lost her fortune through the failure of her husband. She was poor,\nand the old set ignored her. But she lived in a little cottage in New\nJersey, and made it bright with her face of love. She was tired and\nsad. Many had passed her. Mr. Webster, seeing her perplexity, offered\nto relieve her of her bundles, and take charge of one of the boys.\nThey entered the cars. He talked to her of her God-given trust, of her\nwork, and of the results that would naturally flow from her efforts;\nof the province of a mother, of the trust reposed in her by God\nhimself. She was encouraged and strengthened, and when she came to the\ndepot, she said, \"Please, sir, give me your card, that I may mention\nyour name to my husband.\" She hurried out, and looked at it, and saw\nthe name of Daniel Webster. The woman was thrilled with the joy that\ncame to her in her sphere of service. Earth knows no fairer, holier\nrelation than that of mother; and she turned with delight from the\nbubbles and froth of fashion to the grand work before her of raising\nmen for God and humanity.\n\n  \"The treasures of the deep are not so precious\n  As are the concealed comforts of a man\n  Locked up in woman's love. I scent the air\n  Of blessings when I come but near the house.\n  What a delicious breath marriage sends forth!\n  The violet bed's not sweeter.\"\n\nThink of the realm in which woman may rule. If she be elegant and\nrefined; if she has learned how to govern, first herself, and then\nthose about her, there is a charm diffused through the home which\nreveals itself in the good order of the establishment, in the\npoliteness of the servants, in the genial disposition of the children,\nin the delightful intercourse of the different portions of the\nhousehold, and in the fact that \"her husband is known in the gates\nwhen he sitteth among the elders of the land. Strength and honor are\nher clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her\nmouth with wisdom, and her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh\nwell to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of\nidleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also,\nand he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously; but thou\nexcellest them all.\"\n\nIn such words did King Lemuel praise this excellency of woman. Blessed\nmemory! Who does not remember that one form of the old-fashioned\nmother,--the law of whose life was love; one who was the divinity\nof our infancy, and the sacred presence in the shrine of our first\nearthly idolatry; one whose heart was ever green, though the snows of\ntime had gathered in the boughs of her life-tree; one to whom we never\ngrow old, but in the plumed troop or the grave council are children\nstill; one who welcomed us coming, blessed us going, and forgets us\nnever; one who waits for the echo of our returning footstep, or who,\nperhaps, has gone on to the better land, and keeps a light in the\nwindow for those left behind.\n\nSuch women have power now as did the Hannahs and the Ruths of the\nolden time. When thinking of them, you are convinced that, young or\nold, they remain among the best of God's gifts to man. This leads us\nto remark further, that woman's right to be a woman implies her right\nto help woman. Woman must be true to her sex, or society will neglect\nits duty. That old story of Ruth and Naomi has ploughed through the\nworld, because it reveals woman's power as a helper. Ruth clung to\nNaomi, and Naomi helped her daughter to find Boaz, that noble prince\nin Israel; and so she became identified with the succession of\npromise. The life of Mrs. Sigourney illustrates the same truth. See\nher among the young, calling forth their powers, and starting them in\na career of usefulness. Impressed with the importance of an education,\nshe aided by her pen, as by her example, to induce the ladies of her\nacquaintance to obtain a thorough knowledge of the primary branches\nthat enter into daily use.\n\nWe want a woman to be intellectual without being puny. We ask that she\nremain a pliant vine, and that she be not made into the rugged oak.\n\nWoman owes it to herself that she be fitted to occupy any position\nin society. In this land, as in no other, the barriers of caste are\nremoved, and every line of separation obliterated. The rich and the\npoor meet together.\n\nThe cultured sewing-girl is quite likely to become the wife of the\nfuture millionnaire; and the lady reared in the midst of every luxury,\nand endowed with a fortune, amid the reverses of fortune may be\ncompelled to draw upon her own resources of labor, and of love, and\nculture, to stay up the hands and encourage the heart of the man more\nthan ever dependent upon her for happiness and hope.\n\nSuch a woman Irving must have painted when he wrote, \"I have often had\noccasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most\noverwhelming reverses of fortune. Those disasters which break down the\nspirit of a man, and prostrate him in the dust, seem to call forth all\nthe energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and devotion\nto their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity.\"\n\nNothing can be more touching than to behold a soft and tender female,\nwho had been all weakness, and dependence, and alive to every trivial\nroughness, while treading the prosperous paths of life, suddenly\nrising in mental force to be the comforter and supporter of her\nhusband under misfortunes, and abiding, with unshrinking firmness, the\nbitterest blasts of adversity.\n\nAs the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak,\nand been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the lordly plant is\nrifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with caressing tendrils,\nand bind up its shattered boughs, so it is beautifully ordained by\nProvidence that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man\nin his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with\nsudden calamity; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his\nnature, tenderly supporting the head and binding up the broken heart.\n\nTo fill this feature of the wife, education is essential in household\naffairs, quite as much as education in books, in music, and the ways\nof fashion is essential to the young wife whose husband has suddenly\nbecome rich, and has given up his chambers and taken an elegant house\nin some fashionable street.\n\nIt is as bad to fall from the heights of opulence, and know not how\nto sweep a room, make a bed, or cook a meal, as it is to rise to an\nexalted position, and know not how to welcome company or preside at a\nfeast.\n\nThe women in America who suddenly become elevated in rank, and buy\npictures by the yard and books by the cord, are quite as abundant as\nare those who lose fortune and rank, and are compelled to seek menial\nemployments.\n\nThe happiness secured by the proper employment of time, and by the\ncultivation of the mind, furnishes a high incentive to exertion.\n\nContrast the woman who is educated with the one uneducated. See her in\nher home, reigning a queen, while her uneducated sister, though she\nmay have wealth and beauty, will constantly feel the lack of that\nwhich gold cannot procure nor fortune provide. \"We are foolish,\nand without excuse foolish,\" said Ruskin, \"in speaking of the\n'superiority' of one sex to the other, as if they could be compared in\nsimilar things. Each has what the other has not; each completes the\nother, and is completed by the other; they are in nothing alike;\nand the happiness and perfection of both depend on each asking and\nreceiving from the other what the other only can give. Their separate\ncharacters are briefly these: The man's power is active, progressive,\ndefensive. He is eminently the doer, the creator, the discoverer, the\ndefender. His intellect is for speculation and invention; his energy\nfor adventure, for work, for conquest, whenever war is just, whenever\nconquest is necessary. But the woman's power is for love, not for\nbattles; and her intellect is not for invention or creation, but for\nsweet ordering arrangement and decision. She sees the qualities of\nthings, their claims, and their places. Her great function is Praise;\nshe enters into no contest, but infallibly judges the crown of\ncontest. By her office and her place, she is protected from all danger\nand temptation. The man, in his rough work in the open world, must\nencounter all peril and trial. To him, therefore, the failure, the\noffence, the inevitable error; often he must be wounded, or subdued,\noften misled, and always burdened. But he guards the woman from all\nthis. Within his house, as ruled by her,--unless she herself has\nsought it,--need enter no danger, no temptation, no cause of error or\noffence. This is the true nature of home,--it is the place of peace;\nthe shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and\nderision. In so far as it is not this, it is not home; so far as\nthe anxieties of the outer life penetrate into it, and the\ninconsistently-minded, unknown, unloved, or hostile society of the\nouter world is allowed, either by husband or wife, to cross the\nthreshold, it ceases to be home; it is then only a part of that outer\nworld which you have roofed over and lighted a fire in. But so far as\nit is a sacred place, a vestal temple, a temple of the hearth, watched\nover by household gods, before whose faces none may come but those\nwhom they can receive with love,--so far as it is this, and roof and\nfire are types only of a nobler shade and light,--shadows of the rock\nin a weary land, and light as of the Pharos in the stormy sea; so far\nit vindicates the name, and fulfils the praise, of home. And wherever\na true wife comes, this home is always round her. The stars only may\nbe overhead; the glow-worm in the night--cold grass may be the\nonly fire at her foot; but home is yet wherever she is; and for a\nnoble-woman it stretches far round her, better than ceiled with cedar,\nor painted with vermilion, shedding its quiet light far, for those who\nelse were homeless.\"\n\nPossess these qualifications and woman will be respected and beloved.\nHer area of usefulness will be enlarged.\n\nThe man of brains and of industry and economy, has the promise of\nwealth and position much more certainly than the indolent son of a\nwealthy father. Respect such young men, and fit yourselves, young\nwomen, to be worthy of them.\n\nRemember position is emptiness itself, unless there be talent, piety,\nand culture to adorn it.\n\nWe have asked the poor to help the rich. It is equally important that\nthe rich help the poor. It is impossible to overestimate the value of\nthose visitations of the noble few who leave their homes and seek out\nthe little room of the poor seamstress, and carry sunlight and love\nand comfort into the abodes of the impoverished and the sorrowful.\n\nNot only that, but it is possible and practicable for women of wealth\nand culture to help their sex to reach positions of respectability and\nusefulness.\n\nMary Lyon is known and honored throughout the world for her work in\nbehalf of women.\n\nImagine our first ladies opening their parlors to girls who earn by\nindustry and diligence in study, by purity of heart and blamelessness\nof life, the right to attention and respect.\n\nLet it be known that the woman who makes a good record in the shop\nshall be respected in the home, and that she who becomes skilled in\nthought and acquainted with scientific research, should find thereby\nan introduction to society, that will ennoble her, and it is\nimpossible to describe the effect that would be produced upon the\nminds of all. In this work women of culture can keep step with Jesus,\nand become the benefactresses of their sex and blessings to mankind.\nLet woman help woman, and society will be reformed. Let man be true to\nwoman, and society will be adorned.\n\nOf late there have been going round the press pen portraits of Bulwer,\nDickens, and Carlyle. The two first are separated from their wives,\nand their lives are sunless and their homes are empty. Carlyle, that\ndry and laconic talker and that fierce hater, is made beautiful when\nyou read that he conducts his company to the pretty sitting-room of\nhis wife.\n\nMrs. Carlyle is a lively, pleasant creature, and a world of thought\nbeams from her dark eyes. She has learned a great deal; her father\ngave her a most profound education, and she is possessed of a keen,\nyet mild judgment, of which her husband himself is afraid. There she\nsits sewing with her handsome fingers a new cravat for her Diogenes.\nIn these surroundings all feel at ease, and Carlyle becomes talkative\nand witty, and displays his whole famous eloquence. Happy the man who\ngrows witty in the society of his wife, and finds there the atmosphere\ncalculated to promote his highest, grandest, and fullest development.\n\nMutual confidence is essential to happiness. The woman cannot confide\nin the man unless he can sympathize in her tenderness; nor can the man\ncounsel with the woman, unless she can in some measure look upon the\nworld as he looks upon it.\n\nHence it is wisely ordained that in every great man there are to be\nseen some of the feminine elements, and in every great, true woman,\nthere are always to be found some elements of the sterner sex.\n\nIt is because the ballot has a tendency to make woman the rival rather\nthan the companion of man, that it is opposed to the purest sentiments\nof woman. She wishes no division, and cannot tolerate independence or\nseparation from the object of her love. Love cannot feed on strife.\nThe husband and wife are one, though God made them male and female. If\none acts in opposition to the other, domestic peace is slain on the\naltar of love. What God hath joined, let not potentates or anything\nelse put asunder. It is an old truth, \"Better a dinner of herbs where\nlove is, than a stalled ox with hatred therewith.\" Man asks that his\nwife be pure, that she know but little of the deceptions and trials of\ntrade, that she come not in contact with the rough exterior of life,\nthat ever before the mind of man there might stand forth the beautiful\nideal woman, whose influence irradiates the faith, with the light of\nlove, in his journeyings through the wilderness.\n\n    \"The family, and not the individual, is the true social integer.\n    This is implied in the inspired history of the creation of man.\n    God made of two 'one flesh,' or a unit of the human species.\n    Generals and legislators have not overlooked the fact that married\n    men and women can be relied on in emergencies where single persons\n    cannot be trusted. Either part of a social integer is a pledge\n    of the whole. The vitality of society lives in its integers. The\n    future grows out of its integers. They are, therefore, what ought\n    to be represented in its political structures. That it belongs\n    more properly to the man than to the woman to represent the\n    family, is manifest from revelation. 'The head of the woman is the\n    man, whom she is commanded to obey.'\"\n\n    ANONYMOUS.\n\n\n\n\nWOMAN AS A TEMPTER.\n\n\nIt will be admitted by all who will read the history of man's ruin, as\nrecorded in Genesis, the third chapter, and sixth verse, that woman\nfirst partook of the forbidden fruit, and \"gave also to her husband,\nand he did eat.\" Admit the truth of history, and woman appears as\nman's first tempter.\n\n\"Woman as a Helpmeet\" described her condition before the fall; \"Woman\nas a Tempter\" describes her in the fall; and, alas! while it is the\nhigh privilege of woman to be a helpmeet in the midst of the ruin\nwrought by sin, it is unwise to disguise the truth that as a _tempter_\nshe has not abandoned her vocation.\n\nPlain speaking may prove to be disagreeable. God grant that it may\nprove to be profitable. There is need of it. Disguise it as we may\ntalk as we choose about man in his narrowness, in his degradation, a\nwicked woman _was_, and to a large extent _is_, the means employed by\nSatan in leading astray the unwary. The manner of her fall has been\ndeclared. It may be profitable to review the steps of her downward\ndescent from the bliss of Eden to the woe of the desert; from the\nposition of an equal to the position of a subject.\n\n1. _Satan, in the form of the serpent, undermines woman's confidence\nin God_. The serpent, the most subtle beast of the field, said to the\nwoman, \"Is it even so, that God has said, Ye shall not eat of every\ntree of the garden?\" Thus he attempted to weaken the child-like\nconfidence she reposed in her Creator, and endeavored to inspire in\nits place a spirit of unbelief and distrust. This done, and the battle\nwas half won, and the work was well nigh accomplished. Truly has it\nbeen said, \"The sure basis of simple trust in God as the all-loving\nand the all-wise, once shaken, there is little left to be done.\" This\nis the rock on which character builds its hopes. There is nothing so\nessential to woman as faith in God. Destroy this, or let woman attempt\nto live without it, and she is in imminent peril. It was an infidel\nwoman who declared, \"It has been said that marriage is a divine\ninstitution, because all power comes from God. _We know very well\nthat all power comes from God', and therefore we wish neither God nor\npower._\" Shall professedly Christian women, by action, give their\nassent to such an utterance?\n\n2. _Satan rouses woman's suspicion_. \"And the woman said to the\nserpent. Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But of\nthe fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has\nsaid, Ye shall not eat of it, and ye shall not touch it, lest ye die.\nAnd the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God\nknows that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes will be opened, and ye\nwill be as God, knowing good and evil.\"\n\n\"Your eyes will be opened,\" expresses the power of mentally\napprehending things before unperceived and unknown; but, of course,\nboth in an intellectual and moral sense. The position taken appeared\nreasonable, and had a semblance of truth, and exerted its consequent\ninfluence.\n\n\"_Will be as God, knowing good and evil._\" Knowing for yourselves,\nand able to choose between the evil and the good. Here ambition again\noverleaped itself. Humility was slain, and a womanly virtue was\ndestroyed by the tempter, who aimed to infuse into the mind of the\nwoman, first, a doubt of the truth of the Word of God, and of the\ncertainty of the divine threatening; second, a suspicion that God was\nwithholding from her a good, instead of guarding her against an evil;\nand, third, he attempted to induce her to believe that adherence to\nthis divine command stood in the way of her freedom, of her growth,\nand so by the words, \"Ye will be as God, knowing good and evil,\" he\nstrove to awaken the feeling of self-exaltation,--the longing for a\nhigher development, in which she should attain to self-discretion and\nfreedom of choice and action.\n\nThis suspicion is very common, even among our good women. When a woman\ngets cold in her love for Jesus, she becomes suspicious of those\nshe loves. She permits the feeling, \"My husband gives too much for\nbenevolence, too little to me, and he is away too much in meetings,\nand is too little in his home,\" to influence her. She begins to talk\nagainst the church, and loves to stay at home. Finds excuses for\nkeeping away from the prayer meeting or from the paths of endeavor,\nand becomes a hinderance instead of a blessing to husband, to\nfamily, and to society. A man finds it difficult to push the bark of\nbenevolence and of holy endeavor up against the current of womanly\nopposition and suspicion, but when in the work of God she acts the\npart of a helpmeet, everything moves smoothly. A recent writer uses\nthis language: \"Expel woman as you will, she is in fact the parish.\nWithin, in her lowest spiritual form, as the ruling spirit she\ninspires, and sometimes writes the sermons. Without, as the bulk of\nhis congregation, she watches over his orthodoxy, verifies his texts,\nvisits his schools, and harasses his sick.\" ... \"The preacher who\nthunders so defiantly against spiritual foes, is trembling all the\ntime beneath the critical eye that is watching him with so merciless\nan accuracy in his texts. Impelled, guided, censured by woman, we can\nhardly wonder if, in nine cases out of ten, the parson turns woman\nhimself, and the usurpation of woman's rights in the services of\nreligion has been deftly avenged by the subjugation of the usurpers.\nExpelled from the temple, woman has simply put her priesthood into\ncommission, and discharges her ministerial duties by proxy.\" Woman is\nthe mainspring and the chief support of Ritualism. Things were at\na dead lock and stand still, until the so-called devotion gave an\nimpetus to the movement. The medieval church have glorified the\ndevotion of woman; but once become a devotee, it had locked her in the\ncloister. As far as action in the world without was concerned, the\nveil served simply as a species of suicide, and the impulses of woman,\nafter all the crowns and pretty speeches of her religious counsellors,\nfound themselves bottled up within stout stone walls, and as inactive\nas before. From this strait woman released herself by the organization\nof charity. The Sisters of Charity at once became a power. They\ndiscovered the value of costume. The district visitor, whom nobody had\npaid the smallest attention to in the common vestments of the world,\nbecame a sacred being as she donned the crape and hideous bonnet of\nthe \"Sister.\"\n\n\"The 'Mother Superior' took the place of the tyrant of another sex who\nhad hitherto claimed the submission of woman; but she was something\nmore to her 'children' than the husband or father whom they had left\nin the world without. In all matters, ecclesiastical as well as civil,\nshe claimed within her dominions to be supreme. The quasi-sacerdotal\ndignity, the pure religious ministration which ages have stolen from\nher, was quietly resumed. She received confessions, she imposed\npenances, she drew up offices of devotion. If the clergyman of\nthe parish ventured an advice or suggestion, he was told that the\nsisterhood must preserve its own independence of action, and was\nsnubbed home again for his pains. The Mother Superior, in fact, soon\ntowered into a greatness far beyond the reach of ordinary persons.\nShe kept her own tame chaplain, and she kept him in a very edifying\nsubjugation. From a realm completely her own, the influence of woman\nbegan to tell upon the world without. Little colonies of Sisters,\nplanted here and there, annexed parish after parish. Astonished\ncongregations saw their church blossom its purple and red, and frontal\nand hanging told of the silent energy of the group of Sisters. The\nparson found himself nowhere, in his own parish: every detail managed\nfor him, every care removed, and all independence gone. If it suited\nthe ministering angels to make a legal splash, he found himself landed\nin the law courts. If they took it into their heads to seek another\nfield, every one assumed it a matter of course that their pastor would\ngo too.\" It is because of this influence that in certain quarters the\necclesiastical hierarchy are taking, year by year, a more feminine\nposition. It is not impossible that a church who worships Mary as the\nMother of God may be brought to recognize woman as the proper head of\nthe church. True, as the writer quoted above adds, \"she must stoop\nto conquer heights like these.\" Yet the question has been seriously\nasked, \"Is not the Episcopal office admirably adapted to woman?\"\nBetween a priest and a nun there is only the difference of a bonnet\nin their dress, and we know how easily woman can be persuaded to go\nwithout a bonnet, or to exchange it for a hat such as is worn by men.\nIn England, the curate is sometimes called the first lady of the\nparish; and what he now is in theory, a century hence may find him in\nfact. \"It would be difficult, even now, to detect any difference\nof sex in the triviality of purpose, the love of gossip, the petty\ninterests, the feeble talk, the ignorance, the vanity, the love of\npersonal display, the white hand dangled over the pulpit, the becoming\nvestment, and the embroidered stole, which we are learning gradually\nto look upon as attributes of the British curate. So perfect, indeed,\nis the imitation, that the excellence of her work may, perhaps, defeat\nits own purpose, and the lacquered imitation of woman may satisfy the\nworld, and for long ages prevent any anxious inquiry after the real\nfeminine Brummagem.\"\n\nThe tendency thus truthfully described furnished the seedling out of\nwhich grew the Monasticism of the past, and in which the Ritualism of\nthe present finds its underlying cause. The Church of Rome harnesses\nwoman to her system, and compels her to contribute greatly to its\nprosperity. In Europe the people tire of those great establishments\nand endowments, which rest like an incubus on the national life.\nIn America we are so blind that we foster them by grants from our\nlegislatures, by giving up the care of hospitals to their use, where\nthe weak are subjected to the influences of superstition, and the\nthoughtless are led astray. Another avenue to power is opened by the\nballot. Grant this to that church, which, through a fatherhood of\npriests and a sisterhood of nuns, reaches every portion of the body\npolitic, and the promise of Religious Liberty and a Free Republic is\nat once exchanged for the despotism of Rome and the imperialism\nof France. Infidelity joins hands with Rome in asking this power.\nChristianity, united with patriotism, must refuse to grant the\nrequest.\n\n3. Mystery was employed as an instrument in securing woman's fall.\nRouse a womanly curiosity, and there is little difficulty in leading\nthe excited one astray. Hold out to her a key which promises to unlock\nthe hidden and concealed glories of the unexplored future, and woman\nwill be tempted again to forego God's favor and the joys of paradise\nto grasp or wield it. In every heathen religion women occupied a\nprominent place. Priestess or prophetess, she stood in all ministerial\noffices on an equality with man. Christianity rejects the ministerial\nservices of women, and selects for its standard bearers men acquainted\nwith life, filled with religious zeal, and capable of hardy endeavor,\nassuring faith and martyr patience.\n\nThe Church of Rome dealt with women as the Empire dealt with its\nCaesars: it was ready to grant her apotheosis, but only when she was\nsafely out of this world. It was only when the light of revelation\nwas extinguished in her midst that the teachings of the Bible were\nignored, and woman was welcomed back to the place she held in pagan\nclimes and at heathen shrines.\n\nSpiritualism, that scourge of modern times, which has swept like the\nbreath of a pestilence over the land, found in woman its prophetess\nand minister. Satan works in erring woman now, as in the past, to\ndestroy and to delude. That power was resisted by Christian woman.\nMany an irreligious man was saved from this delusion by the fidelity\nof his wife. Many a good man has been ruined because his wife listened\nto the siren voice of the tempter, and desired to explore and explain\nthis mystery. The forbidden fruit ever grows upon the tree beside her.\nThose who would be wiser than that which is written, have plucked\nand eaten it, and have given to others that which is so destructive.\nWitchcraft is a womanly profession. The heathen divinities were nearly\nall ministered unto by woman, and mystery was the influencing cause.\nWe know the result in the case of Eve. It led her away from God. It\ncaused her to listen to the enemy of her soul. Does it not become\nwoman to ask herself, \"Am I losing my hold on God? Is suspicion that\nsome good is being withheld, or does the desire to pry into the\nfuture, exercise an undue influence upon my heart and imagination?\" If\nso, your ruin has commenced, and a speedy return to God is your only\ndoor of escape.\n\n4. Deception was the result. \"And the woman saw the tree was good for\nfood, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to\nbe desired to make her wise; and she took of its fruit and ate, and\ngave also to her husband and he ate.\" Sight deceived, desire allured,\nand action born of a delusive faith destroyed her happiness. The\nprocess of temptation culminated in deception. This is the end ever\nkept in view by Satan. Every individual that refuses to be ruled\nabsolutely by God, in little or great affairs, may know of a truth\nthat the end is deception, and the consequent ruin is sure to follow.\nThere is no exception to the rule. Paul felt this when he wrote the\nchurch in Corinth, concerning his interest in them, saying, \"For I am\njealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one\nhusband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ;\" \"But I\nfear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, by his subtlety,\nso your minds should be corrupted from your simplicity toward Christ.\"\nMany claim that error is not mischievous while truth is left free to\ncombat. Error poisons the mind, and so produces disease, and bars out\ntruth, which carries health to the mind and blesses the soul.\n\nEve knew the law, for she quotes it word by word. She deliberated as\nto obeying it. Here she made her first mistake. A woman cannot do\nthis. The moment a woman hesitates in regard to discharging the duties\nshe owes to herself or to God she falls. She seems to be provided\nwith an almost self-acting nature. It is natural for her to protect\nherself. She revolts against her higher self when she hesitates. Her\nintuitions, allied to a sensitive nature, unite in defending against\nevil. Had Eve said, \"I do not need to sin to secure the development of\nmy higher nature; the Creator knows my wants much better than one who\nseeks to be my destroyer,\" she would have been saved. Faith in God\nwould have been a sure defence against the tempter's wiles.\n\nBut she deliberated, yielded, and fell, and the world is still full of\nthe resounding echoes of that fall. The race fell with her. That fact\nteaches its lesson. Some one falls with every ruined soul. We lift\nup or drag down those associated with us. \"For none of us liveth to\nhimself, and no man dieth to himself;\" an influence goes out from\nus, which is a felt power in the world either for or against God and\nhumanity.\n\nConsider the effects of the temptation. 1. It caused Eve to become to\nAdam an agent of Satan. Tempted herself, she became a tempter. Ruined\nin her nature by this exclusion of God, and by this welcome of Satan,\nshe seeks to ruin her companion. This principle rules now. The carnal\nheart is at enmity with God, the converted heart is in union with God.\nHere is a significant fact. A man loves to have woman pure, if he is\nimpure. Temperate, if he is intemperate. Holy and Christian, if he is\nthe opposite in every particular. Not so a woman. Intemperate herself,\nshe seeks to induce others to be like her. Here is the peril of\nsociety. If our fashionable women love wine, they become emissaries of\nthe wicked one to a fearful extent. It is almost an impossibility for\nthe tempted to withstand their wiles. In fashionable, perhaps, more\nthan in the other grades of life, woman as a leader in intemperance,\nin extravagance, and in opposition to Christ, is to be feared. Her\npower is fearful to contemplate. The Secretary of the Treasury\ndeclares that the national debt is increased, and threatens to\nincrease, unless the fashionable world shall declare against the,\nimportation of that which costs gold, but which fails to contribute to\nthe prosperity of the community. This is by no means wholly chargeable\nto women. Men share in the blame. A sadder fact is the expressed\ndissatisfaction with woman's work and with woman's sphere. The home\nof the olden time is passing out of mind, and in its place is the\nfashionable boarding-house. The skilled housewife is felt to be\nunappreciated. Men, they tell us, prefer a pretty face to a noble\nheart, a delicate to a skilled hand, a girl who can play the piano\nrather than one who can cook a dinner, a pretty doll instead of a\nglorious woman capable of keeping the house, and of guiding the man\nwith womanly strength. Ah, it is a mistake. America is the land of\nhomes. Our undeveloped territory offers to every man a farm. Men and\nwomen need not to be cooped up in garrets or shut up in cellars, if\nthey will but possess the spirit of those who sought in this Western\nworld a home, and who, as they toiled with the axe, the plough, and\nthe loom,\n\n  \"Shook the depths of the forest gloom\n  With their hymns of lofty cheer.\"\n\nThe cause of this discontent is apparent. There is something in the\ncommonplaces of fashionable life which turns woman from the real to\nthe unreal, from the substantial to the superficial, which smothers\nall originality of thought, and makes her a simple reproduction\nin appearance, if not in disposition, of the \"Anonyma,\" with her\nmeretricious beauty and dashing toilets. Is it well for woman to\nsubject herself to be criticised as follows? \"The girl of the period\nis a creature who dyes her hair and paints her face, whose sole idea\nof life is a plenty of fun and luxury, and whose dress is the object\nof such thought and intellect as she possesses. Her main endeavor\nis to outvie her neighbors. She cares little for advice or counsel.\nNothing is too extraordinary, and nothing too extravagant, for her\nvitiated taste; and things which in themselves would be useful reforms\nif let alone, become monstrosities worse than those which they have\ndisplaced, so soon as she begins to manipulate and improve. If a\nsensible fashion lifts the gown out of the mud, she raises hers midway\nto the knee. If there is a reaction against an excess of hair oil, and\nhair slimy and sticky with grease is thought less nice than if left\nclean with a healthy crisp, she dries and frizzes and sticks hers out\non end like certain savages in Africa, or lets it wander down her back\nlike Madge Wildfire's, and thinks herself all the more beautiful the\nnearer she approaches in look to a maniac or a negress! What the\n_demi-monde_ does in its frantic efforts to excite attention, she also\ndoes in imitation. If some fashionable courtesan is reported to have\ncome out with her dress below her shoulder blades, and a gold strap\nfor all the sleeve thought necessary, the girl of the period follows\nsuit next day, and then wonders that men sometimes mistake her for\nher prototype, or that mothers of girls, not so far gone as herself,\nrefuse her as a companion for their daughters.\"\n\nIf the fashionable danseuse is imported from the brothels of Paris,\nand is brought to our cities to exhibit herself to whoever is vulgar\nand lewd enough to desire to see her, thousands of the fashionables go\nwith opera glass, and tolerate a disgusting play that they may enjoy\na sight which is a guarantee to every young man that the woman knows\nlittle of and cares less about the virtue which distinguished the girl\nof the olden time, before whom men bowed in admiration, and concerning\nwhom an impure thought seemed like an unpardonable sin. Women may say\nthat \"men desire them to go, and they must gratify them.\" It is not\ntrue. Every man loves to have his wife and daughters virtuous, and\nunless he be besotted by intemperance, or given over to courses of\nshame, will quietly and joyfully yield to the remonstrance of a\nvirtuous wife or daughter against patronizing scenes which degrade,\nand against permitting the mind and heart to give welcome to thoughts\nwhich pollute. True men desire to love, and to be influenced by pure,\ntender, loving, retiring, and domestic women.\n\nWoman, it is your fault if you do not retain the affections of a true\nand noble man. Alas, how frequently young men mourn your fickleness,\nyour frivolity, your fondness for show and dress, and your total lack\nof desire for the more solid attainments which enrich character, and\nbeautify life. \"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far\nabove rubies.\" Whoever conforms to the requirements of fashion, at the\nexpense of culture, is false to her high nature, and degrades herself\nin the estimation of every true man. A woman is constructed for\ncompanionship, and in her normal condition her yearnings are more\nmental than physical. It is natural for man to desire to enjoy this\nGod-given boon. A talented woman, that will talk sense, is the idol of\nsensible men. Nothing displeases a true woman more than to waste an\nevening on a brainless fop. Nothing is more needless. Let her develop\nherself, and she will be sought after by men whose opinions are\nvaluable, and whose love is a recompense. Better far would it be for\nwomen who are poor, to spend their evenings in reading, writing, and\nstudy, in familiarizing themselves with those themes of ennobling\nthought, which will fit them to win love by conversation, by culture,\nby the graces of refinement, rather than by the outward adorning, by\nplaiting the hair, and wearing of gold and of costly apparel; \"for it\nis the hidden man of the heart, even the ornament of a meek and quiet\nspirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.\"\n\nYoung women need to be reminded of this. They are in peril. Exposure\nlines the paths of those who pass from the factory, or from the\nworkshop, to their little rooms and cheap boarding-houses. You see it\nin the leering look of depraved men, and in the atmosphere of crime\nthat contaminates their shops. They show it by their themes of\nconversation. Woman must be resolute, if she would change all this.\nLet her be true to herself and to Christ, and there will be no danger.\nThe condition of women in many of our factory villages is frightful to\ncontemplate, and few seem to have any knowledge of it. They pass from\ntheir factory to their boarding-houses. Their rooms are cold and\ncheerless in winter. There is no common reading-room or sewing-room.\nUnless they will suffer from cold, they must retire to their beds, or\nseek warmth and companionship in the world without. As a result they\nare watched by men who care not for their comfort or happiness,\nbut for the gratification of passion and the pleasures of social\nexcitements. Hence, thousands of good country girls are annually\nruined in many of our large factory villages and cities, for the\nlack of comfortable houses or associations, where talents can be\ncultivated, piety promoted, and virtue protected.\n\n1. \"_She gave to her husband, and he did eat._\" It was altogether\nnatural. She was the provider in the home, as he was the keeper of the\ngarden. She gave him and he ate. Man fell because of woman's fall. A\nwoman can repel a man. It is difficult for a man to resist the wiles\nof a woman. God has placed in woman a fearful power, and devolves\nunmeasured responsibilities upon her in the home, in society, and in\nthe world.\n\n2. The second result is seen in the effect produced. \"Lust conceived\nand brought forth sin, and sin brought forth shame.\" And the eyes of\nboth of them were opened, not so as to have an advanced knowledge of\nthings pleasant, profitable, and useful, as was promised and expected,\nbut of things very disagreeable and distressing. Their eyes were\nopened to see that they had broken God's law, lost his favor,\ndestroyed their home, and left themselves exposed to the terrors of\nthe judgment. They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the\ngarden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves\nfrom the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.\n\nThey knew that they were naked. In place of conscious innocence and\npurity came the sense of guilt and shame. \"We are not to understand,\"\nsays Dr. Conant, \"that there is allusion here to any physical effect\nof the eating of the forbidden fruit. So gross a conception is foreign\nto the spirit and purpose of the narrative. As the language in ch. ii.\nv. 5, is an expression of purity and peace of mind, so the language\nused here is the expression of conscious guilt, of self-condemnation\nand shame.\" Look at that criminal arrested. See him shiver as if cold.\nHis nature is exposed because it is weakened. Righteousness is a\ndefence. A man in sweet communion with God is girded with strength and\nendurance, with recuperative energies, of which a man is ignorant when\nhe is alienated from God, and exposed to wrath. \"For the word of God\nis living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing\neven to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow,\nand is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there\nis no creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are\nnaked and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.\" The Lord\nGod was abroad. They hid themselves. They were afraid. Ah, there is a\nnakedness which the culprit feels, which cannot be covered up. God's\neye pierces through every form of concealment, and lays bare the cause\nof ruin and the deed of shame. It is impossible to hide from God. If\nthis world is deceived by our disguises, and pasteboard faces, and\nlong robes, the Being with whom we have to do shall laugh at our\ncalamities and mock when our fear cometh, as we shall stand out in our\ntrue characters, and shall be judged for the deeds done in the body,\nwhether they be good or evil.\n\n3. Sin not only changed their relations to each other, awakening their\nanimal nature and killing their spiritual hope of sweet communion with\nGod, but it changed their relations towards God. They became aliens to\nhim. They lost their love, and were tortured by fear. They feared him\nwhom they once loved. \"And Jehovah God called to the man, and said to\nhim, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and\nwas afraid because I was naked, and hid myself. And he said, Who has\nshowed thee that thou art naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree which\nI commanded thee not to eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou\ngavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.\"\n\nAdam, in his beginnings of sin, furnishes an example to sinners, which\nhas been abundantly copied. He says, \"The woman whom thou gavest to be\nwith me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.\" He finds fault with\nGod the giver, and fails to condemn woman the sinner. The passage is\nsometimes falsely interpreted, as an unworthy attempt of the man to\ncast the blame of his offence on the woman. But the emphasis lies on\nthe words _whom thou gavest to be with me_, by which utterance he\nseeks to transfer the responsibility from himself to God, who gave him\nthe companion by whose example he was betrayed into sin, instead of\nplacing it upon the woman, who was the guilty cause. Thus he refuses\nor neglects to denounce the sin; but takes for granted that woman was\nas God made her, and acted in accordance with her mechanism. Hence,\nAdam argued, if any one was responsible, it was her Maker. She acted\nin accordance with the nature which had been given her. We hear this\ndoctrine advanced daily. \"I am what God made me.\" A cotton mill weaves\ncotton because it was made to weave cotton. It is not responsible. It\nweaves well or ill in accordance with the skill of the mechanism, and\nnot in accordance with the desire of the proprietor. If it weaves\nill, you blame the maker. If well, you praise the maker. Adam, in his\nreply, ignored woman's moral nature, and talked of her as though she\nhad been a machine. \"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she\ngave me of the tree, and I ate.\" He forgot his own higher nature,\nforgot his position, and fell. How he differed from the second Adam we\nshall see before we are done.\n\nIt is noticeable, not only that Adam ignored woman's moral nature, and\nthe ruin wrought by sin, but he asserts a truth. Woman was given to\nman to provide him with food, to spread the feast, and to keep the\nhouse; and in her vocation, and while performing the duties assigned\nher, she led him astray. It is noteworthy that God does not reply to\nAdam, but turns to woman with the question, \"_What is this that thou\nhast done?_\" recognizing the fact that she turned from God, and turned\ntowards God's enemy, and in listening, sinned; and in sinning, fell;\nand in falling, carried with her man; and in carrying man, whelmed the\nrace in the ruin of the fall.\n\nIn speaking of woman as a tempter, we are not to forget that she is\nwoman. The serpent beguiled her, and she ate. Satan found in her an\nally; an so pleased was he with the results of the partnership he has\nnever dissolved the firm. While woman, as a helpmeet, becomes an ally\nof Christ, as a tempter she is the ally of Satan. Not as a woman, but\nas a tempter, she is the ally of the evil one. Satan works in her,\nas a tempter, both to will and to do according to his good pleasure,\nwhenever she submits to his sway. The reason for this is recorded in\nthe Word of God. Some sneer at the reference to this time-honored\nrecord; but we reassert the truth. The Bible is the revealed will of\nGod, and it declares the God-given sphere of woman. The Bible is,\nthen, our authority for saying woman must content herself with this\nsphere, and try to meet its responsibilities, or she will lose\nself-respect and cast away the regard of the community. Without the\nBible, her life is everywhere proven to be gloomy. With it, and\nbeneath its protection, she becomes an heir of hope.\n\nNotice the characteristics of her power as a tempter.\n\n1. She is regarded as God's best gift to man. She fills a place in\nman's heart which is empty without her. It is difficult to think of\nher as an ally of Satan. We prefer to think of her as God's first\nand best gift to man. Even a fallen woman is regarded as a poor\nunfortunate, and is tolerated because the many claim she has been more\nsinned against than sinning. Excuses are woven for her, out of the\nstatements ever afloat, that she was in a starving condition, and was\ndriven to desperation; that she was turned out upon the world, was\ndeceived, led astray, and shipwrecked, and then did not care, and so\nwent from bad to worse, until she became the wreck of her former self,\nand was given up to lust and the pollutions of shame. God forbid that\nwe should cast stones at her. In the words of Christ, let us rather\nsay to every fallen woman, \"Go, _and sin no more_.\" But when a woman\npersists in sinning, we should speak of her in the language of\nScripture, and boldly warn against her wiles.\n\nA fallen woman is not God's gift to man. Before her fall she was God's\ngift. In beauty Eve still remains the model. The artist delights to\npaint her, and the poet sings her praises. But in conduct she is a\nwarning. Scripture pictures her going to Adam, hiding from him the\nruin wrought, and pressing to his lips the fruit which carried death.\n(Then she was the devil's gift to a sin-cursed world.) A fallen\nwoman--a woman who refuses to love Christ and to serve him, who sweeps\nout into the paths of dissipation and of lust, and becomes a seductive\nwile--is the devil's ally; \"for she forsaketh the guide of her youth,\nand forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto\ndeath. None that go unto her returneth again, neither take they hold\nof the paths of life.\"\n\nAgainst such a woman God warns us in the thunder tones of wrath,\nand the picture of her doom is lurid with the glow of the devouring\nflames, \"for her feet go down to death and her steps take hold on\nhell.\"\n\nThis is but a single characteristic of her power as a tempter, and\nwe love to think that it is the least employed. A mind retaining the\nperception of woman's worth, shrinks from the idea of linking her name\nwith impurity. We cherish the hope that she is virtuously inclined,\nand cannot bear to think that she willingly forsakes the right and\ncasts herself down the steeps of ruin. Ah, woman, when this is not the\ncase society has a right to cast you off. It is because of this\nfaith that the good despise the woman who persists in folly, and who\nsecretly tries to seduce the unwary. God's judgments seem not too\nsevere, and the language is none too strong, though the denunciation\nis terrible and the destruction certain. God makes no apologies for\nsin. A fallen woman is an abomination. Her crimes are terrible. She is\nthe foe of the home, and the enemy of all that is pure. Hence she\nis thrown out upon the rocks, and left there to die, unpitied and\nunbefriended, without God and without hope in the world. By every\nvirtuous person she is despised. Hence, between a virtuous woman and\nruin there is a bridged chasm; whoever crosses that bridge leaves\nhope, and honor, and happiness behind. Think of the thousands about us\ngoing, unprayed for, down to perdition!\n\nSociety tolerates a man as it does not tolerate a woman. God did\nbusiness with Adam, but he does not mention Eve after her fall.\nSociety recognizes a fallen man as it cannot recognize a fallen woman.\nThus her crime is proclaimed to be the greater than man's, even by the\nworld. Let us be just. We do not heap the blame all on woman, even of\nher fall. All we say is, she bears the burden of the woe. In this fact\nshe is warned. Society may pity her: it cannot palliate her guilt.\nThus is she advised against throwing herself away, and casting off her\nallegiance to Christ, to herself, and to humanity. Let her fall, and\nalmost without exception she is hopelessly ruined. Society points the\nfinger of scorn at her, and, what is worse, the barriers to virtue\nhaving been broken down, they seem to be destroyed. It is as difficult\nto get back what a woman loses when she falls, as it would have been\nto have forced an entrance back into Eden after the banishment.\n\n2. The fact that she is a woman gives her influence. In her terrible\nwork beauty is an aid. God says, \"Desire not her beauty in thy heart,\nneither let her take thee with her eyelids.\" That is, look for\nsomething besides a pretty face or a twinkling eye. \"Pretty is that\npretty does,\" is a good motto, and utters a truth which is quite too\nfrequently ignored. Beauty is not to be despised or condemned. God,\nwho painted the lilies' bloom, and covered the sky with the wondrous\ntints of a glowing sunset, must enjoy beauty, and surely made it to\nplease and to bless us. Yet when it comes to be used as an agent of\nevil, it is to be shunned and disregarded. In all this world there is\nnothing so empty as a heartless, brainless woman, with a pretty face.\nYet beauty is a power; so the heathen declare, \"Every woman would\nrather be handsome than good.\" That may be true in heathen, but it is\nnot true of all in Christian climes. If there is one woman who thinks\nmore of dress than duty, more of shadow than substance, more of Vanity\nFair than of Virtue's bower, then beware. You are not an ally of\nChrist. At once begin a new life, if you would shun the dangers and\navoid the terrible doom threatening you. Cast away that which excites\npassions and gives the body unrest, and seek the food for mind and\nsoul which gives rest and peace. Seek Christ, and through him victory\nover self and over sin. Do something to brighten your home life and to\nhonor your Master. Clear your soul from the taint of vanity. Do not\nrejoice in conquests, either that your power to allure may be seen by\nother women, or for the pleasure of rousing passionate, feelings that\ngratify your love of excitement. It must happen, no doubt, that frank\nand generous women will excite love they do not reciprocate; but, in\nnine cases out of ten, the woman has, half consciously, done much to\nexcite it. In this case she shall not be held guiltless, either as\nto the unhappiness or injury of the lover. Pure love, inspired by a\nworthy object, must ennoble and bless, whether mutual or not; but that\nwhich is excited by coquettish attraction, of any grade of refinement,\nmust cause bitterness and doubt as to the reality of human goodness so\nsoon as the flush of passion is over. And that you may avoid all taste\nfor these false pleasures,\n\n       \"steep the soul\n  In one pure love, and it will last thee long.\"\n\nThe love of truth, the love of excellence, whether or not you clothe\nthem in the person of a special object, will have power to save you\nmuch of evil, and lead you into the green glades where the feet of the\nvirtuous have trod. Preserve the modesty of your sex by filling the\nmind with noble desires, that shall ward off the corruptions of vanity\nand idleness. \"A profligate woman, who left her accustomed haunts and\ntook service in a New York boarding-house, said, 'She had never\nheard talk so vile at the Five Points as from the ladies at the\nboarding-house.' And why? Because they were idle; because, having\nnothing worthy to engage them, they dwelt, with unnatural curiosity,\non the ill they dared not go to see.\" This seems like an exaggeration.\nYet Margaret Fuller is responsible for the utterance.[A] Avoid\nidleness. The mind, like a mill, must have some thought in the hopper\nof reflection, or the machinery will prove to be self-destructive.\nShun flattery. The woman who permits in her life the alloy of vanity;\nwho lives upon flattery, coarse or fine, is lost, and loses the\ntribute paid the woman by the iron-handed warrior, whom he rejoiced to\nrecognize as his helpmeet, saying, \"Whom God loves, to him he gives\nsuch a wife.\"\n\n[Footnote A: Woman of the Nineteenth Century, p. 168.]\n\nThe influence of married women over their younger sisters may be\nbeneficent and good. It often is pernicious and bad. Young women judge\nof men very much by what married women say concerning men. If they\nspeak of men as virtuous and pure, as noble and generous; if they can\ntalk of their husbands as of men who have honored them with their\nlove, and whose kindness blesses their daily life, then will the\nmaiden of a pure heart believe that her dream is real, and that the\nman of her choice is pure; whose heart is free and open as her own;\nall of whose thoughts may be avowed; who is incapable of wronging the\ninnocent, or still further degrading the fallen,--a man, in short,\nwhose brute nature is entirely subject to the impulses of his\nbetter self. Such men there are in countless numbers, who have kept\nthemselves free from stain, and who can look the purest maiden in the\neye and not shun the glance. Through God's grace they have been saved\nfrom the path full of peril, and desire nothing more than to share\nthe confidence and friendship of the pure. If, on the other hand, the\nunmarried are assured by the married that, \"if they knew men as they\ndo,\"--that is, by being married to them,--\"they would not expect\ncontinence or self-government from them;\" if mothers permit their\ndaughters to mingle freely with the dissipated and vile because of\nrank or wealth, and when warned that such are not fit companions for\na chaste being, reply, \"All men are bad sometimes in their life; but\ngive them a pure wife and a home and they will not want to go wrong,\"\nthen be not surprised if homes are converted into abodes of perpetual\nsorrow, if not of shame, and the fair young bride is left to weep over\nthe sacrifice of virtue, of honor, and of love, on the altar of an\nunholy passion. The influence of a pure woman over young women is\ninvaluable.\n\n\"Do not forget the unfortunates who dare not cross your guarded way.\nIf it do not suit you to act with those who have organized measures of\nreform, then hold not yourself excused from acting in private. Seek\nout these degraded women, give them then tender sympathy, counsel,\nemployment. Take the place of mothers, such as might have saved them\noriginally. If you can do little for those already under the ban of\nthe world,--and the best considered efforts have often failed, from a\nwant of strength in those unhappy ones to bear up against the sting of\nshame and the frigidness of the world, which makes them seek oblivion\nagain in their old excitements,--you will at least leave a germ of\nlove and justice in their hearts, that will prevent their becoming\nutterly embittered and corrupt.\" And you may learn the preventives\nfor those yet uninjured. These will be found in a diffusion of mental\nculture, simple tastes, best brought by your example, a genuine\nself-respect, and, above all, the love and fear of a divine in\npreference to a human tribunal. Let woman live for God and the\ndevelopment of her higher nature,--live so that she can be\nself-helped, as well as helping,--then if she finds what she needs in\nman embodied, she will know how to love, and be worthy of being loved.\nMuch is said about the underpay of woman as a cause of temptation. It\nis for the interests of society that there should be an equality of\ncompensation wherever there is an equality of distribution. It is well\nfor woman to ask herself if she is ready to assume the burdens that\ncome from an equality of compensation, such as giving up the prospect\nof marriage, or of sharing with man the toil of the field, of the\nfactory, as well as of the house. Would woman be willing to take upon\nherself the responsibility of planning to economize, of building\nchurches, railroads, of entering into a competition with man?--Woman\nis dependent, not independent.--For this reason man toils to keep his\nwife, and is ashamed to have his wife keep him. His pride lies in\nhaving his home a joy and his wife a helpmeet, rather than to have his\nwife a rival and his home empty of happiness.\n\nIt is not alone by an excess of passion or of beauty that woman\nbecomes a tempter. The absence of love, and of beauty, sins of\nomission as well as sins of commission, are sources of temptation. Man\ndesires an educated woman. Intellectually and spiritually she must be\nable to meet his wants, and render help, or she is a failure. He tires\nof a useless toy or plaything, and cries out for a helpmeet. Another\nhas said, \"The bad housekeeping, and the neglect of domestic duties,\non the part of many wives, is, no doubt, attributable to the slovenly\ntenements, and inadequate providings, and careless neglect of the\nhusbands. But more husbands, we fear, are driven to shiftlessness\nand discouragement--driven to the saloon and gambling-room--by the\nextravagance or inefficiency, the disorderly arrangements or badly\nprepared food, the irritating complaints or exacting demands of those\nwho preside in the home. None but a man of low instinct, of base\npassion, of weak character, will turn away from and neglect a home\nwhere order reigns, where a cheerful smile, well-prepared food, neatly\narranged table await him; where a word of cheer greets him, and where\npatient forbearance is exercised, even with his irregularities and\nfaults. It is the part of woman to win; and her winning arts should\nnot be laid aside when she grasps what she has considered a prize. She\nshould seek in every way to win, beyond the possibility of loss, the\nabiding love, the unwavering confidence, the undoubting respect of\nher husband. If woman would be man's equal, she must challenge the\nequality by proving herself mistress of those arts that minister the\nhighest comfort to his physical nature, as well as to his affections,\nthat further his interests as well as his happiness.\"\n\nAlas! how many fail here because they know not how to make a home\npleasant. Such are the slaves of servants and the creatures of\ncircumstances. In some cases the fault is man's, in others it is\nwoman's. Perhaps in all cases both are somewhat at fault; yet the\nresponsibility rests on woman to make home a delight. When she fails\nshe must take the consequences. Failure with her is often a mistake.\nShe knows no better. Ignorance, in some, is wilful, but in more it\nis educational. Their mothers, through ill-judged kindness, mistaken\nnotions of life, or careless neglect, suffered them to grow up without\nthe necessary practical training; or else they failed before them; and\ninefficiency and slatternliness, bad cooking, and worse manners, are\nthe patrimony bequeathed in perpetuity to the daughters. Happy is the\nman who has a wife capable of getting a better meal than the hired\nhelp, and whose smile is the light of his dwelling! Sometimes a girl\nknows how to win, but cares not to keep. She gives place in her heart,\nand a welcome in her home, to others more readily than to the one she\nhas given her plighted troth. This is criminal. A woman who does it is\na suicide. She is bent on ruin, and will find the pit ere long.\n\n_Consider her wiles of speech_. Mystery here brings ruin to man as it\nbrought ruin to woman. Young ladies of culture and of refinement are\nnot ashamed to employ the language of the Parisian to lead astray the\ncompanion of her life. God curse the language and the forms of speech\nwhose words drop with the very gall of death, which revel in elegant\ndress as near the edge of indecency as is possible without treading\nover the boundary! Her wiles of speech are bad, but her wiles of love\nare the most perilous of all. Man needs love. He is fond of it. It is\nhis joy, come from whence it may. Love is the mind's light and heat. A\nmind of the greatest stature, without love, is like a huge pyramid of\nEgypt--chill and cheerless in all its dark halls and passages. A mind\nwith love, is as a king's palace lighted for a royal festival. Shame\nthat the sweetest of all the mind's attributes should be suborned to\nsin. Think of it! each wile, rightly used, is a power given to woman\nto make her man's helpmeet, and wrongly used will make her man's\ndestroyer.\n\nSome one asked a minister for his conception of the personal\nappearance of the devil. His reply was, \"A false-hearted and\nwell-dressed gentleman, or a vain and fashionable woman.\" Woman was\nSatan's first ally, though he worked in ambush, and approached man\nin concealment. In the wisdom of his choice we discover the peril of\nwoman. It may be well briefly to review the public manner in which\nSatan employs her talent for the ruin of man and in opposing the rule\nof Christ.\n\n1. Passing over her social power, and without referring to her wiles\nof speech, of dress, of flattery, and of love, think of her in the\narena of politics, joining her forces to infidelity, and with the\ndisbelievers of the Bible, to obtain for woman a place for which she\nis not fitted, and which will destroy her peace, injure and undermine\nher influence in the home, and cause her to neglect wifehood and\nmotherhood, to turn from the interior world of a quiet home, to the\noutside world of conflict and strife. It is the boast of a writer in\nfavor of \"Woman's Rights,\" that \"among the disbelievers of revealed\nreligion, I have not found, during a life of half a century, a single\nopponent to the doctrine of equal rights for males and females.\" The\ncorrectness of this statement is to a wonderful extent true. The\nbelievers of the Bible claim that the teachings and commands of the\nWord of God are in opposition to the doctrine. When woman joins the\nranks of the infidel, she turns from God, and loses her power in her\nformer sphere.\n\n2. If there is one foe more than another, that threatens us as a\nnation, nearly all agree in pronouncing that foe to be Romanism. Take\nthis fact in connection with the obvious truth, that it is fashionable\nto pander to Rome. Because of this tendency ripening into results, the\nState of New York, politically, is lost to Protestantism, and is as\nmuch Roman Catholic as is Italy or Rome. Whence comes this influence,\nor producing cause? Can we trace it to woman? It will be admitted that\nthe influence of Roman Catholic servants in our homes has never been\nmeasured. The nurse teaches the child the use of the beads, and\nfamiliarizes the child, committed to her keeping, to the cross, as\nan emblem of worship. Imagine the alarm of a Christian mother, when,\nbecause of the absence of the nurse it became a necessity to see the\nchild to bed, when, to her surprise, the little girl of five years\npulled out from beneath the pillow her beads and cross, and began\ngoing through the Papal forms of worship! The mother wisely forbore a\nrebuke, changed her nurse, and led her child back to Christ, and so\nrescued her. How many children are finding in their nurses, rather\nthan in their mothers, their religious teachers? The influence of\nRomish servants in our homes is felt in still another way. Because\nof them there is a barrier to discussion, or even to conversation,\nconcerning this monstrous error, which, like the frogs of Egypt,\ninvades our very bread-troughs. No man dare express his mind\nconcerning Romanism at his table if the servant is a Romanist, lest\nhe lose the services so much in demand, or lest he be reported to\nthe priest, and so be placed under the ban or the displeasure of the\nChurch of Rome, which is used as an engine of political and social\npower against the truth as it is in Jesus.\n\n3. The influence of education deserves consideration. Fashionable\nwomen send their daughters to Roman Catholic institutions of learning,\nwhere the Sister or Mother Superior carries her to the chapel, bows\nreverently before the altar, and kissing the cross, exclaims, \"How can\nProtestants be so blind as to reject the cross on the ground that it\nsavors of Popery, when they know that all their own hopes of salvation\nmust hang upon it?\" or where the morning service concludes with a\nprayer to the \"Mother of God,\" in these words: \"Most holy Virgin, I\nbelieve and confess thy most holy and immaculate care of man, pure and\nwithout stain. O most pure Virgin, through thy virginal purity, thy\nimmaculate conception, thy glorious quality of Mother of God, obtain\nfor me of thy dear Son, humility, charity, great purity of heart, of\nbody and of mind, holy perseverance in my cherished relations, the\ngift of prayer, a holy life and a happy death.\"[A] Thus is the dogma\nof the Immaculate Conception thrust upon the memory, and the gate is\nopened to a denial and rejection of Christ as the Saviour, and to an\nacceptance of Mary as the Intercessor. The result manifests itself in\ntwo ways. The fashionable boarding-school girl comes to think kindly\nof Rome, and rebukes all opposition to the church as bigotry or\nignorance on the part of those with whom she associates. The influence\nis noticeable. It is fashionable to attend the Papal Church,\nfashionable to contribute to its prosperity, fashionable for men to\nsmother their opinions, fashionable for the politician to seek the\nfavor of that power that furnishes, in its subtlety and in its power\nto work in darkness, a perfect mechanism for Satan.\n\n[Footnote A: Miss Bunkley's Book, pp. 22 and 68.]\n\n4. Our wealthy women, by their patronage of Roman Catholic fairs, and\nby their gifts to the so-called charitable fund, enable the enemies\nof the cross of Christ to build these magnificent cathedrals and\nreligious establishments, while the churches of Christ languish for\nsupport.\n\nGive to woman the ballot, let these girls in our kitchens become\nvoters, and it will not be difficult to understand how \"a man's foes\nshall be those of his own household.\"\n\n_The Remedy_. Induce Protestant girls to work, by treating them as\nsisters rather than as servants. Talk free in the house and at the\ntable against Romanism, let the consequences be what they may. Educate\nchildren so that they shall know the characteristics of this lifelong\nfoe of the church of Christ; and, lastly, resist this movement to\nchange the order of God's government in the home and in the state.\n\nIgnore it as we may, the beguiling serpent is busy with our Eve in\nAmerica, this Eden of liberty, and God only knows the result. It is\na question which cannot be trifled with. That the drift to-day is\nagainst the teachings of the Bible, none can doubt. Victory for Satan\nis a terrible calamity for humanity. Let us then, as an antidote,\npreach Christ, and strive to make woman the helpmeet of man and the\nally of our Divine Master, and then she becomes the deadliest foe of\nSatan, and the most aggressive champion of the truth.\n\n      \"Her rash hand, in evil hour,\n  Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate!\n  Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat,\n  Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe\n  That all was lost.\"\n\n  MILTON.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GLORY OF MOTHERHOOD.\n\n\nTo understand the tragedies of the present, it is essential that we\nre-read the tragedies of the past. Too many, in forming their opinions\nof what should be, ignore in their calculations what has been, and\nwhat must be. Those who are dissatisfied with the position assigned to\nwoman, must recall the fact that God's decrees are unchangeable. We\nmay resist them, but we cannot destroy them. They were in existence,\nbefore our birth; they will survive our dissolution. It is for us to\nrecognize God as Ruler as well as Creator, and adjust our views, our\nlives, and our labors in accordance with an infinitely wise system,\nformed in the counsels of an eternity past, and running on to the\neternity of the future.\n\nIf we speak of Woman as God Made Her, of Woman as a Helpmeet, we find\na warrant for it in the Word of God. In Eden she was God's ally. When\nshe fell, she became, in sin, the ally of Satan. The truth may be\nunpalatable, but it is the truth.\n\nIn considering woman as a mother, we stand on the hill-top of the\npast. Before us lies a valley, stretching on from the ruin wrought in\nEden by sin, to the restoration wrought in the world by Christ. During\nthese ages of wickedness, of sorrow, and of crime, woman felt the\ncurse heavy upon her. She was made to feel that the _woe_ pronounced\nupon her was a fact; and yet, during all these ages of trial, there\nwas a gleam of hope shining into her soul, because God said, \"And I\nwill put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and\nher seed; he shall bruise thee on the head, and thou shalt bruise him\non the heel.\" Thus there came to woman, who had the first encounter\nwith the wily enemy of the race, the hope of a triumph over, and a\nsubjugation of this enemy, through her offspring. It is an instinct of\na boy to crush the head of a snake; but you cannot readily get a girl\nto do so: she will run from the beast so identified with her sorrow.\nThe reason for this is explained in the prophecy of Eden. In a\nmystical sense, Christ, the deliverer foretold in Genesis, the eminent\nseed of the woman, was to bruise the head of the \"old serpent, the\ndevil,\" that is, destroy him, and all his principalities and powers,\nbreak and confound all his schemes and ruin all his works, crush his\nwhole empire, strip him of his sovereignty and authority, of his power\nover death, and his tyranny over the bodies and souls of men. Here,\nthen, was a purpose worth living for and suffering for. True, Satan,\nor the serpent, is to bruise his heel, or wound his human nature; but\nthere is no promise of his triumph.\n\nIt is not difficult to discover how this hope must have thrilled the\nheart of Eve with joy. Her life was not to be a failure. Though clouds\nmight rest upon her, it was impossible to shut out the fact that the\nstar of hope was soon to rise, and to usher in the dawn of a glorious\nday.\n\nMuch has been written against the fact that a daughter is not prized\nin a home as much as is a son. We can understand it, when we go back\nto Eden and see that the seed of the woman, called \"_a he_,\" a male\nchild, was to be the instrument of working out the disinthralment\nof the race. The feminine gender is sometimes used in declaring the\nglories of the future. Zion is called a bride, but her glory is\nall reflected from the bridegroom. Woman is a helpmeet, but the\nking-bearer is the man Christ Jesus. The world turned from Christ\nbecause he had the appearance of a man. It was a great mistake. It is\nnot a popular saying,--women say it is not complimentary to them to\ndeclare it,--yet it remains true, that \"God draws by the cords of a\nman.\" All along the past men have been recognized as the gift of God.\nWomen rejoice when a man is born into the world; not that women are\ndisliked, but because there is something involved in life more than\nmere existence. There are faint foreshadowings of the tasks laid on\nthe race. Work is to be done for God and man. Principalities and\npowers are to be fought and overcome. An invisible world is in league\nagainst the race, and an invisible God, once robed in flesh, and\nliving among men, is Our Advocate with God, our Redeemer and Saviour.\nThere is significance in the language, \"I have gotten a man from the\nLord.\" The language of Eve, as a mother, furnishes the key-note to\nthat maternal song which yet floats through the world, which makes\nwomen in China, in India, in Africa, and in South America, among the\ninhabitants of Russia, and of Paraguay, anywhere and everywhere,\nrejoice with the same old joy, when a man is born into the world,\nbecause then she feels that somehow she has given birth to a hero and\na champion who shall be identified with that song of world-triumph\nwhich is yet to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; and the\nonly exception to this is found among the Hebrews, where a virgin was\nrevered as the possible mother of the Messiah, and so received her\ndignity as a reflection from the man. To understand this problem of\nhuman nature, we must go back to God, and study his word. Those who\nreject the Word, of God are surrounded by mysteries which they cannot\nsolve. They behold tendencies, and instincts, and dispositions, which\nare explained in Genesis, and which are parts of God's prophesies yet\nto be fulfilled in this world. Ignoring the prophecy, they cannot\ncomprehend the facts of existence, which must exist and will exist,\nwhether men will hear or forbear.\n\nSays a writer of some note, \"The severe Nation which taught that the\nhappiness of the race was forfeited through the fault of a woman,\nshowed its thought of what sort of regard man viewed her, by making\nhim accuse her in the first question to his God,--who gave her to\nthe patriarch as a handmaid, and by the Mosaical law bound her to\nallegiance like a serf,--even they greeted, with a solemn rapture, all\ngreat and holy-women as heroines, prophetesses, judges in Israel; and\nif they made Eve listen to the serpent, gave Mary as a bride to the\nHoly Spirit. In other nations it has been the same down to our day.\"\nIn this extract, the Jewish nation and the Bible are referred to in\nthe same tone that we refer to Mahommedans and to the Koran. Is not\nthis tendency perceptible elsewhere? In looking at woman, we ignore\nthe Bible, and God, and history, and talk of her as though the past\nhad no influence with the present and future. The Bible, God, and\nhistory have to do with the present and the future, and whoever\nstudies history has been compelled to recognize the truth. This same\nwriter was compelled to declare, \"It is the destiny of man, in the\ncourse of the ages, to ascertain and fulfil the law of his being, so\nthat his life shall be seen, as a whole, to be that of an angel or\nmessenger.\" This is his destiny, because it is God-given. Hence man\nwas the bearer of good tidings all along the past. Prophets were\ngenerally men. Christ was a man. The apostles, Christ's chosen\nstandard-bearers, were men. The powers in the moral and spiritual\nworld are men. All that is great in history, all that thrones one\nnation upon a mountain height and buries another in the fathomless\ngrave of infamy, comes from man. The ages were dark, because of the\nlack of a man. Christ came, and the apostolic age became the noontime\nof the world, not because of what the race did for themselves, but\nbecause of what was done for the race. If a nation sinks, because the\nman who has the brain, the wisdom, the power from God, is wanting, who\nshall build up a people in hope, inspire them with grand resolves?\nIt will rise and prosper when the man comes. Christ was a necessity,\nbecause infinite work was to be performed. Is he not a necessity now?\nIs it not a man in Christ, and with Christ, who is ever the worker\non the earth? Christ speaks through the gospel, and \"the key\" of the\nmoral universe is still upon his shoulders. This hope and dream came\nto Eve way back there in the confines of the wilderness, and so\nincidentally as well as actually, she became identified with it, and\nrejoiced when she could declare, \"I have gotten a man from the Lord,\"\nwhom she believed to be the \"_promised seed_.\"\n\nNotice, to Eve, as to woman now, a baby was more than a little child;\nshe saw in him all the possibilities of a man, who was to become a foe\nworthy to meet the enemy of her soul. Her faith in this child to be\nborn was similar to our faith in the Child that was born in Bethlehem.\nHence her joy when she exclaimed, \"I have gotten a man from the Lord.\"\n\nIt will seem to many as singular that there should be no mention of\nthe daughters born of Eve. The generations or names of men are given,\nbut not of the daughters. Even there and then the custom now prevalent\nin the East found its origin. No account is made of the birth of a\ndaughter in that land. Congratulate a man upon the accession to\nthe family of a daughter, and the father will hide his shame with\ndifficulty, and exclaim, \"O, that God had given me a son!\"\n\nAgain, in reading this story some will be surprised to find no mention\nmade of the mother's grief when her youngest child was slain, and that\nno mention is made of the mother's death. We know that after Seth was\nborn, Adam lived eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters;\nbut woman's curse bore fruit. Men ruled over her, and her\nindividuality was lost in the headship of Adam. Do not blame me for\nsaying it; I simply declare the fact. This state of things continued\nuntil Christ came. When Mary gave birth to Jesus, woman resumed her\nplace. The curse was met by its antidote. From God came the wave of\ninfluence which met the wave that flowed out from Eden, the conflict\nbegan, higher and higher rose the flood, until the ark of hope by it\nwas placed on the mountain peak of human history, in sight of all\nraces, and tribes, and peoples of the whole world. Calvary is set over\nagainst Ararat, as Mary is set over against Eve. After the birth-song\nof Eden came the tragedy, in which Abel lost his life and Cain his\ncharacter. After the birth-song of Bethlehem came the tragedy of\nCalvary, in which Christ gave up his life, that he might open to man,\nenveloped in the ruins of the fall, a way back to the Eden in reserve\nfor the redeemed.\n\nIn speaking of Eve as a mother, there is little that can be said\nfounded on fact. Eve passes from sight, though the prophecy, \"And I\nwill put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and\nher seed; he shall bruise thee on the head, and thou shall bruise him\non the heel,\" worked on, and lived on, and found its fulfilment in the\ntriumph won by Christ. It is certainly significant, that Eve, through\nwhom sin came, should pass out of the world's mind, and Mary, through\nwhom Christ came, should vault to a seat in the affections of a world?\nIs it not also significant that Mary should become an object of\nworship to many millions of people in this and in other lands, and\nthat Satan, through Mariolatry, should strive to do in the New\nDispensation what he wrought by Idolatry in the Old? The opposition of\nSatan runs on. The purposes of God run on. The prophesies of the Word\nof God abide, and are sure of fulfilment, in spite of Satan. Against\nprophecy combinations of men and nations have united; but the truths\nsweep on resistlessly, and reach the destination for which God\nordained them.\n\nThe curse that came to woman in the hour of her fall rested on her\nuntil Christ came. \"Unto thy husband shall be thy desire,\"--an\nexpression of subordination and dependence. \"He shall rule over thee,\"\nexpresses the general effect of the apostasy on woman's relations in\nthe married state. The stronger party in this relation, instead of\nbeing the guardian and protector of the weaker, did use his superior\npower to oppress and debase her. Such has always been the case, except\nso far as the influence of revelation has counteracted the evils of\nthe fall, such is the case to-day. Woman owes her recognition to\nChrist, and she is indebted for her position in the civilized portions\nof the world wholly to the gospel. Wherever Christ is not worshipped\nwoman is despised.\n\nWoman as a mother, under the Old Dispensation, differs in many\nimportant respects from woman as a mother under the New. The history\nof woman is divided into three portions: 1. Woman as God made her; 2.\nWoman as Sin made her; 3. Woman as Christ made her.\n\n1. The position of woman, between her humiliation in Eden and her\nrestoration in Bethlehem, was in many respects sad to contemplate.\nShe was more of a slave than an equal. Eve passes, unrecognized and\nunnamed, to her grave. Sarah, the wife of Abram, finds mention, and is\ndescribed in such a manner that you behold her sharing her husband's\nlove, though the picture of her in the home is not a pleasant one. We\ncan hardly understand how Abram could have suffered her to enter the\nhouse of Abimelech, nor how she could have taken Hagar to her husband,\nand thus again have led man astray--the man whom God called to be the\nFather of the Faithful. Eve, the mother of the race, tempted Adam, and\nSarah, the mother of the patriarchs, tempted Abram; and lack of faith\nin God was the cause of their ruin, and consequent humiliation. There\nis something sad about the manner of her life. Her home was a simple\ntent, surrounded by flocks and herds, and crowded with rubbish of\nevery description. Woman in the East is very much to-day what Adam\nsaw her on his first entrance into the wilderness. The effects of sin\nfollowed her from generation to generation. The gloom of the night is\nstill over her as she spends her days in out-door labor. She weeds the\ncotton, and assists in pruning the vine and gathering the grapes.\nShe goes forth in the morning, bearing not only her implements of\nhusbandry, but also her babes in the cradle; and returning in the\nevening, she prepares her husband's supper and sets it before him, but\nnever thinks of eating of it until after he is done. One of the early\nobjections the Nestorians made to the Female Seminary was, that it\nwould disqualify their daughters for their accustomed toil. In after\nyears woman might be seen carrying her Spelling-book to the field\nalong with her Persian hoe, little dreaming that she was thus taking\nthe first step towards the substitution of the new implement for the\nold.\n\nNestorian parents used to consider the birth of a daughter a great\ncalamity. When asked the number of their children, they would count up\ntheir sons, and make no mention of their daughters. The birth of a son\nwas an occasion for great joy and giving of gifts. Neighbors hastened\nto congratulate the happy father, but days might elapse before the\nneighborhood knew of the birth of a daughter. It was deemed highly\nimproper to inquire after the health of a wife, and the nearest\napproach to it was to ask after the house or household. Formerly a man\nnever called his wife by name, but in speaking of her would say the\nmother of \"so and so,\" giving the name of the child; or the daughter\nof \"so and so,\" giving the name of her father; or simply that woman\ndid this or that. Nor did the wife presume to call her husband's name,\nor to address him in the presence of his parents, who, it will be\nborne in mind, lived in the same apartment. They were married very\nyoung, often at the age of fourteen, and without any consultation of\ntheir own preference, either as to time or person.\n\nThere was hardly a man among the Nestorians who did not beat his wife\nwhen the missionaries commenced their labors. The women expected to be\nbeaten, and took it as a matter of course. When the men wished to talk\ntogether of anything important, they usually sent the women out\nof doors or to the stable, as unable to understand or unfit to be\ntrusted. In some cases, says the author of \"Woman and Her Saviour,\"\nthis might be a necessary precaution; for the absence of true\naffection, and the frequency of domestic broils, rendered the wife an\nunsafe depositary of any important family affair.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Woman and her Saviour, pp. 18 and 19.]\n\nIn Paraguay a female child is described by Southey as lamenting, in\nheart-breaking tones, that her mother did not kill her when she was\nborn; and Sir A. Mackenzie declares that there is a class of women\nin the north who performed this pious duty towards female infants,\nwhenever they had an opportunity. But wherever Christ is known and\nloved, the daughter is a gift of God as well as a son. Woman owes to\nher Saviour all she has of joy in time, as well as all she has of\nhope in eternity. Though she does not obtain the headship, though her\nsorrow and her pain are not removed, though her desire continues to be\nto her husband, and though the rule of the husband continues in every\nwell-regulated home, yet woman is elevated to become a shareholder of\nthe pleasures of the home, of the honors and emoluments of life,\nof the riches obtained by toil, and of the enjoyments derived from\nculture. Woman in the Christian home is the soul, the pride, the\nornament, and the helper. Through Christ she obtains a recognition, so\nthat when we speak of man we mean the race, men and women, for these\nbecome the two halves of one thought, so that no especial stress is\nlaid on the welfare of either, but the development of one is\nsecured by the development of the other. To such an extent have the\ndisabilities been removed from the sex, that a leading writer has\nbeen compelled to admit, that \"in our own country, women are, in many\nrespects, better situated than the men. Good books are allowed, with\nmore time to read them. They are not so early forced into the bustle\nof life, nor so weighed down by demands for outward success. They\nhave time to think, and no traditions chain them, and few\nconventionalities, compared with what must be met in other nations.\nDoors swing open to them, and they are invited to walk the fields of\nliterary and artistic success, and whatever tends to the development\nof their higher nature is freely placed within their reach.\"\n\n2. _The trials of motherhood deserve notice_. We have seen the hopes\nthat came to Eve, and beheld their realization in and through Christ.\nThe trials were born of sin. Eve's eldest child, Cain, possessed a\nnarrow, selfish nature. He was a tiller of the ground. Abel was a\nkeeper of the sheep. The first born met this curse in the soil. The\nsecond born looked forward to the restoration. In process of time Cain\nbrought of the fruit of the ground. Tradition has it that he brought\nwhat was left of his food, of light and tempting things, flax or hemp\nseed.\n\nAbel brought of the firstlings of his flock, which was a proper type\nof Christ. His offering pleased God, Cain's niggardly gift displeased\nGod. The selfish man wreaked his vengeance in the usual way. He slew\nhis brother, who was better than himself. The heavens are black with\ngathering gloom. Murder is in the air. The shock is felt everywhere.\nGod comes, and sternly asks, \"_Where is thy brother?_\" Cain impudently\nreplies, \"Am I my brother's keeper?\" Then comes the curse. It is a\nself-invited curse, for the gift he gave to God is the harvest in\nfuture for himself. Ah, what a lesson. How early it is taught. If you\nhate God, if you regret what you give, if you make it small, if you\nsee to it that you give the leavings rather than the firstlings, then\nbeware. Cain said his punishment was greater than he could bear. He is\ngetting back what he gave. The command is, Give, and it shall be given\nback. The converse is true--Keep, and it shall be kept back.\n\nThe hopes of Eve were centred in the victory to be achieved over the\nenemy of her life, by means of the triumph to be won by her children.\nHer trials really began when she saw that sin was not an accident. It\nwas rebellion which bore fruit. Her treachery to God came back to her\nin this treachery of her first born to her second child, whom she\nloved with maternal tenderness. Thus the gates of evil were thrown\nopen, and they filled the land with violence, and the flood became a\nnecessity.\n\nWhat was true of Eve was more or less true of woman until Christ\ncame. She inherited sorrow, and was born to a life of humiliation and\nwretchedness. The history of woman in the olden time and at this hour,\nwherever Christ is not known, is full of sorrow. In Christ she finds\nan emancipator from sorrow.\n\nThere is another strange fact. In the Old Dispensation, the first born\nson is the child of promise. But wherever the influence of Christ's\ngospel rules, there the rule of the first born disappears, and all,\nboth sons and daughters, share in the patrimony of the house and in\nthe honors of the household. Despite this, it is natural for a father\nto love his first born son the best, and for the mother to find her\nheart clinging involuntarily to the younger and weaker. From the\nunfortunate the father may turn, but the mother never. She will bind\nher love tightest about the birdling that, from some misfortune, is\nunable to leave the maternal nest.\n\nTurn we to the Old Testament, we find that whenever man was brought\nnear to God, as was Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and others, woman was\nheld in respect, and was permitted to exercise an elevating influence\nin the home; and yet it remains true, that in nearly every instance\nshe failed to prove herself a helpmeet.\n\nSarah introduced Abraham to polygamy, Rebekah was a pattern of lying,\nand Rachel of deception. The three celebrated women of history are\ndestitute of those characteristics which make of a wife a companion,\ncounsellor, and friend.\n\nDo we study the history of Miriam, of Deborah, and Esther? we behold\nwomen rising up in the name of God to help their people to save their\nkindred. They were the introduction to a noble succession. Woman then,\nas now, is loved for bringing _help_ to those on whom God devolves\nresponsibility.\n\nThe picture best loved and most praised in the Old Testament is that\nof Hannah, the mother of Samuel, as she fits him for his post of duty\nin the service of the Lord. In Hannah the world finds their beau ideal\nof a mother, actuated by principle and ruled by love, recognizing her\nallegiance to God, and her obligations to her child and husband, and\nthere is hardly a child in this Christian land who does not dwell with\ndelight upon this fact, that each year the mother made for her boy a\nlittle coat. It was a motherly deed, and links her to the history of\nthe race by the blessed tie which finds its origin in maternal care.\n\nRuth comes next, because of her fidelity to her mother, and her love\nof virtue. It is by her life we are introduced afresh to the golden\nvein of prophecy that runs through the Old Testament, and which ever\npointed towards the coming of Christ as the hope of woman and the\nhope of the world. Esther's love of her race, and her noble daring\nof Eastern despotism for the good of her people, lifts her to a high\nplace, though as a wife and mother we know nothing more than that she\nwas hedged round by the iron regulations of a paganized court. The\nrevelations made concerning the daughter of Jacob, or of Bathsheba,\nthe loved wife of David, and in fact of nearly all of the women of the\nBible, prove that the women of the olden time left as well as received\nan inheritance of shame. The names we have mentioned are among the\nbrightest and the best. We will draw a veil over the characters of\nwomen such as the wife of Lot, or of Potiphar, the would-be seducer\nof Joseph, or of Job, the betrayer of her husband in misfortune, of\nJezebel, the fury, or of Delilah, the traitress to her husband, and of\na score of others, that make the age in which they lived seem like the\nnight of humanity.\n\n3. _Woman obtains her recognition in Christ._ From the moment God\npronounced sentence upon Eve to the moment when the angel appeared\nto Mary, man was recognized as the head. Even Miriam wrought through\nMoses, and Deborah, the judge and prophetess, lays no claim to\npersonal communication with God, but quotes his promises, and\nstimulates Barak to action, So also when the angel came from the court\nof heaven to foretell the joy that was to come to the world in the\nbirth of John, the forerunner of Christ, he came to Zacharias instead\nof to Elisabeth. But when the message related to Christ, _then the\nangel passed by man, and approached woman direct_. God never forgets.\nA thousand years are but as a day to Him. Yesterday, in Eden, he\nforetold the coming of Christ to Eve. To-day, in Nazareth, the angel\ncomes to Mary, and makes her heart glad with the fact, that she\nwas chosen to become the mother of our Lord. Eve lost by sin God's\ncompanionship. Mary obtained, through Christ, favor with God and man.\nThe valley is spanned with this arch of hope. The night of woman's\nhumiliation is passing away. And the angel came in unto her, and said,\n\"Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed\nart thou among women.\"\n\nStrange words these, as we can readily perceive, from the position\nheld by woman previously. No wonder that when she saw him, she was\ntroubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation\nthis should be. And the angel said unto her, \"Fear not, Mary, for thou\nhast found favor with God. And behold, thou shall conceive in thy\nwomb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall\nbe great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God\nshall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign\nover the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be\nno end.\" No wonder that the air seemed full of music. Woman, made so\nbeautiful, woman, so beloved of God, and so prized by Adam, before sin\nblighted the bud of hope and spoiled the flower of beauty, was now to\ncome forth from the darkness and gloom of her life of shame to the\nlight of an unclouded day, henceforth to be made glorious by her\nministrations of love. The glory of motherhood \"is the man gotten from\nthe Lord,\" and raised to work for God in this sinful world. The glory\nof woman is to share this man's home as a helpmeet, and contribute by\nher love, and sympathy, and efforts to his happiness and usefulness\nhere, that she may wear the crown of joy in heaven.\n\n\n\n\nMARIOLATRY NOT OF CHRIST.\n\n\nIf ever woman had reason to sing, \"My spirit hath rejoiced in God my\nSaviour,\" it was Mary, the Virgin Mother of Christ. God recognized her\nas a helper in restoring man from the ruins of sin. To her the angel\nspake, saying, \"Hail, thou that art highly favored. The Lord is with\nthee. Blessed art thou among women.\" And in pondering in her heart the\nstrange coincidences, she exclaimed, \"God hath regarded the low estate\nof his handmaiden; for behold from henceforth all generations shall\ncall me blessed.\"\n\nFrom these words it is evident that Mary appreciated the honor\nconferred upon her by her Creator and rightful Ruler. It is a singular\nfact, that Eve, betrayed by Satan, betrayed the race. Mary held\nsteadfast to God and to truth; and yet Satan has the second time taken\nwoman and used her as an ally, and so has brought an influence to bear\nupon the minds of men which has led millions astray, and covers vast\nportions of the world with the gloom of a moral night. Mary, the\n\"Mother of Jesus,\" is made to take the place of \"Christ, the Son of\nGod,\" and is declared to be the Mother of God. In this land we can\nform no conception of the extent to which this worship of Mary is\ncarried in Roman Catholic countries. To the Italians Mary is God, and\nworship is simply the adoration of the Virgin. Viewing Romanism in the\nlight of the Bible, this is its crowning sin; viewing it as a system\ncombined to seduce and enslave, this is its masterpiece. To understand\nhow it is so, let us think how deep in man's nature is placed the\nfeeling of the need of a being like unto himself, to mediate between\nhim and God. The Bible completely meets this want in the God-man. But\nPopery blots out the God-man as mediator, and in his stead presents us\nwith Mary, who is to the devotee the \"one living and true God;\" for,\nthough the Father and Son are known, they are accessible only through\nMary, and they stand so far behind and beyond her, that to the\nRomanist they are vague, shadowy, and unknown. Mary is the first name\nto be lisped in childhood, the last to be uttered by the quivering\nlips before they are closed in death. Around the neck of the infant is\nsuspended a small image of the Virgin; when the babe seeks the breast\nit must kiss the image, and thus literally does it draw in the\nadoration of Mary with its mother's milk. \"Were the New Testament to\nbe written at this hour, Rome would blot out the name of Christ and\nsubstitute that of Mary. Take a proof: The church close by the Vatican\nhas upon its marble pediment, graven in large letters, 'Let us come to\nthe throne of the Virgin Mary, that we may find grace to help us in\nour time of need.' The Roman sees Heb. iv. 16 quoted, but cannot\nverify it if he would, seeing the Bible is forbidden to him.\" Pius\nIX., at the foot of the column of the Immaculate Conception, erected\nto perpetuate the fact that he was permitted to decree the dogma, has\nMoses, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah casting crowns before the Virgin,\nsaying, \"Thou art worthy; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to\nGod by thy blood.\" When it was announced that the French occupation of\nRome should cease, the Pope published a decree calling on all Rome\nto go with him to the feet of Mary, if haply by cries and tears they\nmight prevail with her to avert from the throne of God's vicar the\ndangers that threaten it; and in that act the Pope led the way.[A]\n\n[Footnote A: Minister _versus_ Priest, page 7.]\n\nFor this worship of the Virgin Mary there is a reason. Satan could\nnot successfully lead astray so many millions of people, despite a\npreached gospel and a printed Bible, unless there was some truth lying\nat the root of this ineradicable Virgin worship. This root we shall\ndiscover when we recall woman's position prior to the advent of\nChrist, the place she was called upon to fill in the scheme of\nredemption, and the influences set in motion by the life of Christ\nupon the earth.\n\n1. _Let us notice woman's position previous to the advent_. Before\nChrist came, woman was regarded as inferior to man. She had lost\nher equality. She was excluded from general intercourse, and her\nconfinement to her own home and apartments, without education,\nwithout social recognition, left her without strength of character,\nself-reliance, or resources with herself. \"Woman's safety in society\nlies in two elements: her own virtue and intelligence, and the\nconsequent respect for her which such a character inspires. Where\nthese two things are found, she may participate in general society,\nmingling freely with men as their equals, and regarded, it may be,\neven as their superiors. Here, it may be worthy of note, that no such\nestimate or honor is ever put upon woman except when Christianity has\ngiven her this elevation.\"\n\nBefore Christ appeared, the qualities honored as divine were\npeculiarly the virtues of the man--courage, wisdom, truth, strength.\nWomanly virtues were regarded as puerile and contemptible, and woman\nherself was little better than a slave.\n\n2. _Notice the place woman filled in the scheme of redemption_. It is\nadmitted by those who recognize the Word of God as authority, that\nthe Atonement required the sacrifice of one whose nature represents\nequally the dignity of the Law-maker and the humanity of the\ntransgressor. In him Deity and humanity must be united: Deity, that\nhe may give value to the offering; humanity, that he may obey the\npositive precepts and endure the penal sanction of the law human\nnature has violated. It was therefore essential that the prophecy\nof Isaiah, uttered six hundred years before the advent, should be\nfulfilled, viz., \"Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a\nson, and they shall call his name Immanuel--God with us.\" This work\nhad been accomplished, and Mary was honored with the privilege of\ntaking the words of Eve, \"I have gotten a man with Jehovah,\" and\nmaking it no longer a prophecy, but a fact. So we sing,--\n\n  \"Thou wast born of woman; them didst come,\n  O, Holiest! to this world of sin and gloom,\n  Not in thy dread omnipotent array;\n    And not by thunder strewed\n    Was thy tempestuous road,--\n  Nor indignation burned before thee on thy way;\n    But thou, a soft and naked child,\n    Thy mother undefiled,\n    In the rude manger laid to rest,\n    From off her virgin breast.\"\n\nThen, for the first time, the mother resumed her place. When the\nwise men came into the house they saw the young child, with Mary his\nmother, and fell down and worshipped him; and when they had opened\ntheir treasures they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincense,\nand myrrh. The old Eastern custom, which placed the child before the\nmother, was now understood. God guarded against making Mary first, and\nat the same time provided for her a place. When God appeared to Joseph\nin a dream, he did not say, Take the mother and child, but the \"young\nchild and his mother, and flee into Egypt.\" This brings us naturally\nto consider--\n\n3. _The influences set in motion by the life of Christ upon the\nearth_. First, let us review the history of Christ's personal\nrelations to Mary. Up to twelve years of age, his home was in\nNazareth; and Luke declares (second chapter, fortieth verse), \"The\nchild grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the\ngrace of God was upon him. And when he was twelve years old, his\nparents went up to Jerusalem, after the custom of the feast. And when\nthey had fulfilled the days, as they returned the child Jesus tarried\nbehind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. For\nthree days he was away from them. When they found him he was in the\ntemple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and\nasking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his\nunderstanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed:\nand his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?\nBehold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.\"\n\nIt is noticeable that Luke mentions Joseph before he mentions the\nmother; and when Mary speaks, she ignores the miraculous conception,\nand calls him the son of Joseph. But Jesus _does not forget_ his\norigin, nor does he recognize Joseph as father, but says, How is\nit that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's\nbusiness? And they understood not the saying he spake unto them. And\nhe went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto\nthem; but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. \"And Jesus\nincreased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.\"--Luke\nii. 42.\n\nAgain, at Cana of Galilee, there was a marriage, and the mother of\nJesus was there. Eighteen years have passed since we last saw him in\nthe temple, when Mary ignored his miraculous conception, and when\nJesus rebuked her, by asserting his Sonship and by claiming God as\nFather. At Cana both Jesus and his disciples are invited to the\nwedding. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto\nhim, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, \"Woman, what have I to\ndo with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.\" Plainly, and in the most\nemphatic manner, Christ refuses to recognize Mary as intercessor or\ndirector. A third instance is still more marked. Jesus is talking\nto an immense multitude, and is making a hand-to-hand fight with\nPharisees and Scribes. \"While he yet talked to the people, behold, his\nmother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.\"\nEvidently Mary had no idea of the character or the mission of the Man\nChrist Jesus, but feeling that he was popular, she was glad to exhibit\nher relationship in a public manner, and so through the throng sent in\nword, saying, \"Tell Jesus his mother and his brethren stand without,\ndesiring to speak with him.\" But he answered, and said unto him that\ntold him, \"Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?\" It is not\ndifficult to picture the God-man shaking off the trammels of the\nflesh and rising to the height of his great work. What a contrast\nis presented between the second and the first Adam! The first Adam\nyielded without remonstrance to Eve, who had worshipped the creature\nrather than the Creator, and thus paved the way for the introduction\nof idolatry; while the second Adam--the Lord of Glory--withstood the\ninfluences of Mary, rebuked her intermeddling and dictation, and stood\nforth to his work in the declaration as he Stretched out his hand\ntowards his disciples, and said, \"Behold my mother and my brethren.\nFor whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the\nsame is MY BROTHER, AND SISTER, AND MOTHER.\"\n\nAgain, while Christ was conversing with his disciples, a certain woman\nof the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, \"Blessed is\nthe womb that bore thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.\" Thus\nsuddenly flamed up this passion for Mariolatry. It was instantly\nrebuked by the words, \"Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the\nWord of God and keep it.\" Thus he tore the crown from the brow of Mary\nwoven by the irreligious, and intimated that, as Mary was greater than\nEve, because of her identification with Himself, so whosoever should\nbelieve in Christ, and serve him, should be the equal of Mary. The\npurpose of God in forming Eve, should be realized in the womanly\ncharacter resulting from a reception of the truth as it is in Jesus,\nand by doing the will of God on the earth.\n\nThus he severed the tie binding him to family, and proclaimed himself\nthe Son of Man, and the Son of God, the Brother of the Faithful. From\nthis declaration came the brotherhood and sisterhood of the church\nof Christ, so that no matter what be the rank or position of the\nworldling redeemed by the blood of Christ, he becomes an equal\nshareholder in love, and is recognized as a partaker in the fellowship\nof the church.\n\nAt the cross we find Mary standing with others. When Jesus therefore\nsaw his mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith\nunto his mother, \"Woman, behold thy son.\" Then saith he to the\ndisciple, \"Behold thy mother.\" And from that hour the disciple took\nher unto his own house. Once more she appeal's as worshipper, and not\nas the worshipped. Her name is mentioned, with others, in Acts i. 14,\nas being with the disciples in the Pentecostal chamber waiting for the\ndescent of the Holy Spirit.\n\nFrom this scriptural testimony, it is apparent that the Saviour, by\nhis conduct towards his mother, shielded the church from the curse of\nMariolatry. Had he yielded in one instance, reasons for supporting the\nclaims of Romanism had been furnished. Mary was only a woman. She was\nhonored of God just as far as she served God, and when she turned\naside she was no more than any other person. Her perceptions of\nChrist's work were not as distinct or comprehensive as were those of\nMary the sister of Lazarus, or of Mary Magdalene. In this Mary was not\npeculiar. Very frequently women associated with great workers fail to\nappreciate the character of the work committed to them to do. To the\nworld a worker may seem to be a wonder. To the one most intimately\nassociated with him he is a very ordinary individual. It is said a man\nis never a hero to his servant. Is it not almost as true of his wife?\nA living great man is ordinary in so many things in his daily life,\nthat the wife forgets his greatness. The wife of John Milton saw but a\nblind man in the bard, dwelling upon his immortal thought and evolving\nhis world-renowned poem. As the eagle stirs up her nest, compelling\nher broodlings to exert themselves, so God sometimes suffers a good\nman to link his fortunes with a woman who is ill-mated with him in\nevery way. In the light of the fact that Jesus found little or\nno appreciation in the society of Mary, and sought the home-joys\nelsewhere, woman ought to learn a lesson. Is it not possible that you\nmistake your mission, and strike the rock of stumbling in your home,\nrather than avoid it by ignoring that which is grand and admirable in\nthe life of him with whom you are associated? Doubtless in a busy man,\nnow full of joy, and now morose; now engrossed by a thought or scheme\nto such an extent that he forgets himself and his family, and now idle\nand listless as a boy,--it may be hard, yet it is none the less a duty\nfor woman to love him for what he is, and to see to it that he be\nministered unto in his efforts. O, how dear to the heart of a working\nman--no matter whether he toil with brain or hand--who feels that his\nwife understands him, defends and protects him, and keeps the home\nbright with love, though tempests may sweep across the path that leads\nhim into the world! There is a lesson here which belongs to men.\nMary's lack of appreciation did not turn Jesus from his work. It\npermitted his true character to appear to better advantage. It tore\ndown the scaffolding of Mariolatry, and permitted the God-man to\nstand forth in his grand proportions. \"Wist ye not I must be about\nmy Father's business?\" said Jesus. Many men make trouble at home an\nexcuse for going to the bad. It is not an excuse. The design of home\ntrouble may be to send a man to Jesus; to make the tendrils of love\ntwine about the heavenly rather than the earthly. It surely is not to\ninduce a man to twine his affections about the devilish and earthly.\nIt is not manly thus to do.\n\n_Man moves in three circles_. The first is that of Self; the second\nthat of Family; the third that of Country. A man who properly performs\nduties that pertain to himself, we shall not call noble. By neglecting\nfamily he becomes less than a man. By performing them never so well\nhe comes not to merit applause. Distinctive nobleness begins with the\nthird class. It is when he rises above self and family, when he looks\nabroad on the family of mankind, that he takes the altitude which in\na man is distinctively great; when he feels no longer the little\nnecessities which compel, or the little pleasures which allure, and\nyet is able to contemplate men as a great brotherhood of immortals,\nwith a gaze analogous to Him in whose image he is made; when he can\nlook on the world through the light of eternity, and is willing to\nsuffer all things, and to endure all things, that by him and through\nhim blessings may reach others,--then it is he does that which it is\nthe high privilege of man on this earth to do, and becomes a power to\nwhich under God humanity owes all it has achieved in time. \"I serve\"\nis the law of the living forces of mankind. Each man and woman has\na place. If they fill it, they furnish a channel along which God's\nbeneficent purposes find their way to a lost world. If they do not\nfill it, they are set aside, and the verdict of the world is, Served\nthem right.\n\nIt if surprising that, after Mary had been rebuked at Cana of Galilee,\nthat she should have presumed to have interrupted Jesus in the\npresence of the multitude. It is instructive that Christ taught us\nthat the tie binding us to God and to humanity, is the most sacred\nof all; for while it made the God-man a brother to us, it makes us\nco-workers with God in carrying forward the enterprises with which men\nare identified on the earth. When a man is true to self, to humanity,\nand to God, and so girds himself with the strength arising from\nconfidence, he deserves the support, if not the admiration, of those\nwith whom he is associated. It was unworthy of Mary to ignore the\nDivine origin of Jesus, and call Joseph his father before the elders.\nShe thought to raise herself by lowering him. He would not be lowered.\nBy his mother and by the world he knew that he had a right to be\nrecognized as the Son of God. This tendency to belittle greatness\nlives yet. Men are seldom known until they die. We praise the dead and\nignore the living, as a rule. There is too little respect shown to men\noccupying positions of public trust. There is too little respect shown\nin the household. The father and mother are not honored in the home as\nthey deserve to be, and in the state the same principle rules. \"Thou\nshall not speak evil of the ruler of thy people,\" is an apostolic\nprecept, and the command, \"Honor thy father and thy mother,\" was\nrepeatedly reiterated by Christ.\n\nIt is a significant fact, that Eve was led astray by Satan in the\nsame direction that was Mary. Mariolatry is only the outgrowth of the\nseedling that lay dormant in Mary's heart, and is indigenous. It is\nnot natural for us to be contented with being used as an instrument\nfor glorifying God. We desire to be honored, as something more than an\ninstrument. In fact, it is true, that all are, no matter what their\npowers or capacities, instrumentalities employed of God for distinct\npurposes. Against this power we revolt and are thrust aside. The\n_really_ great delight to recognize this truth, and their prayer is,\n\"Use me for thy glory\" and for the world's advantage.\n\nAnother truth incidentally appears, and furnishes the root of\nMariolatry. We come to appear to the world what we really are. Mary\nwas tempted to place herself above Christ, and so we are not surprised\nthat those who have turned against Christ should join the tempter in\nplacing Mary above her Son. The refutation is the life of Christ,\nwho died for man, and the life of Mary, who never forgot herself in\nthinking of others. The triumph of Mary was won by submission. Had she\nrevolted against Christ, she had lost all. In the First Epistle of\nPaul to the Corinthians, the apostle speaks of the glory of the women\nas of a thing distinct from the glory of the men. They are the two\nopposite poles of the sphere of humanity. \"Their provinces are not\nthe same, but different. The qualities which are beautiful when\npredominant in one are not beautiful when predominant in the other.\nThat which is the glory of the one is not the glory of the other.\" The\nglory of true womanhood is a combination of various qualities, many\nof which were illustrated by the life of Mary. She was considerate of\nothers. She was submissive. As has been said, \"In the very outset of\nthe Bible, submission is revealed as her peculiar lot and destiny.\nIf you were merely to look at the words as they stand declaring the\nresults of the fall, you would be inclined to call that vocation of\nobedience a curse but in the spirit of Christ it is transformed, like\nlabor, into a blessing.\" The origin or root of Mariolatry has been\naccounted for in the following manner: \"In all Christian ages the\nespecial glory ascribed to the Virgin Mother is purity of heart\nand life. Gradually in the history of the Christian church, the\nrecognition of this became idolatry. The works of early Christian\nart commonly exhibit the progress of this perversion. They show how\nMariolatry grew up. The first pictures of the early Christians simply\nrepresent the woman. By and by we find outlines of the mother and the\nchild. In an after age, the Son is seen sitting on a throne, with the\nmother crowned, but sitting, as yet, below him. In an age still later,\nthe crowned mother is on a level with the Son. Later still, the mother\nis on a throne above the Son. And, lastly, a Romish artist represents\nthe Eternal Son, in wrath, about to destroy the earth, and the Virgin\nIntercessor interposing, pleading by significant attitudes her\nmaternal rights, and redeeming the world from his vengeance. Such was,\nin fact, the progress of virgin worship.\"\n\nFirst, the woman reverenced for the Son's sake, then the woman\nreverenced above the Son and adored. This is the history. To account\nfor it, various theories have been advocated. One, assuming it as\na principle that no error has ever spread widely that was not the\nexaggeration or perversion of a truth, finds in the influence exerted\nby Christ the germ out of which Mariolatry springs. But surely nothing\ncould be farther from what Christ taught. By word, by look, and by\naction, Christ opposed the debasing and degrading thought. Mariolatry,\nlike idolatry, is the outgrowth of the religion of nature. The carnal\nheart is at enmity with God. It prefers to worship something besides\nGod, and so in the old dispensation it found its idol in the hero.\nAs the heathen counted for divine the legislative wisdom of the\nman,--manly strength, manly truth, manly justice, manly courage,\nHercules with his club, Jupiter with his thunderbolt, so Baal,\nrepresenting the primeval power of nature, became the object of\nidolatrous worship. After Christ, partly because of the new spirit\nwhich pervaded the world, and largely because the carnal heart, ruled\nby Satan, is glad of any pretext to neglect Christ, Mary, the mother,\nbecame preferable to Christ the Son. Salvation depends upon faith in\nChrist. Whosoever believeth in the Son hath everlasting life. For God\nso loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever\nbelieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This\nbeing true, a belief in Mary as an intercessor is as sinful in God's\nsight, and is as directly opposed to a faith in Christ, as was a\nbelief in Baal or Jupiter. By whatever means Satan induces men to\nreject Christ, he ruins them, and destroys their hope of salvation.\nSatan induced Eve to reject God, to believe in him, and to serve him.\nThere is no evidence that Mary would have consented to occupy the\nplace to which an idolatrous world has raised her, but Satan cares not\nfor that, so that \"he may work with all power, and signs, and lying\nwonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that\nperish.\"\n\nThe peril arising from the perversion's of biblical truth is\nillustrated by the history of the diaconate as well as by the history\nof the motherhood of Jesus. The influences set in motion by the life\nof Christ deserve to be carefully pondered. Perverted, they have\nhelped on error. Used and employed as Christ designed them, they are\nsubservient of the highest interests of society. Truly has it been\nsaid, The life and the cross of Christ shed a splendor from heaven\nupon a new and till then unheard of order of heroism--that which may\nbe called the feminine order--meekness, endurance, long-suffering, the\npassive strength of martyrdom. For Christianity does not say, \"Honor\nto the wise,\" but, \"Blessed are the meek.\" Not \"Glory to the strong,\"\nbut \"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.\" Not the\nLord is a man of war; Jehovah is his name, but God is love. In Christ,\nnot intellect, but love, is glorified. In Christ is magnified, not\nforce of will, but the glory of a Divine humility. He was obedient\nunto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God hath also\nexalted Him. Therefore it was, that from that time forward, woman\nassumed a new place in the world. It is not to mere civilization, but\nto the spirit of life in Christ, that woman owes all she has and all\nshe has yet to gain. In Christ, manly and womanly characteristics were\nunited, and were in equipoise. He was not the Son of the Man, but the\nSon of Man. It was not manhood, but humanity, that was made divine\nin him. Humanity has its two sides: one side in the strength and\nintellect of manhood; the other in the tenderness and faith and\nsubmission of womanhood; man and woman, the two halves of one thought,\nmake up human nature. In Christ, not one alone, but both were\nglorified. Strength and Grace, Wisdom and Love, Courage and\nPurity,--Divine Manliness, Divine Womanliness. In all noble\ncharacters, the two are blended; in Him--the noblest--blended into\none entire and perfect humanity. The spirit which pervades the world\nbecause of Christ's coming, and of the influence exerted by his\nGospel, opens to woman a faith which has been growing clearer and\nbrighter for eighteen centuries. By this we do not affirm or imply\nthat the coming of Christ restored woman to the equality she enjoyed\nin the morning of creation, or that his coming removed the curse then\npronounced upon her. If Christ's coming removed a part of the curse,\nthen it must have removed all, which we know is false; woman still has\nsorrow in child-bearing, and man earns his daily bread by the sweat\nof his brow. Christ's coming removed the disabilities from woman. He\nturned the attention of the world to feminine characteristics, and\nshed over them the halo of a divine light. He brought the woman up\nas he lowered the glory hitherto attached to characteristics\ndistinctively manly. Where Christ is loved, the gladiator and\nprize-fighter are despised, and a meek and quiet spirit is honored.\nThe heart is the seat of power more than the intellect. Blessed are\nthe pure in heart, rather than the great in intellect. Pureness rather\nthan strength is the ideal of the human heart, since Christ was slain.\nWhile, then, it is true that the worship of Mary is idolatry, and that\nthe worship given to her is so much taken from Christ, we must not\nforget that the only glory of the Virgin was the glory of true\nwomanhood. \"The glory of true womanhood consists in being herself; not\nin striving to be something else. It is the false paradox and heresy\nof this present age to claim for her as a glory, the right to leave\nher sphere. Her glory lies in her sphere, and God has given her a\nsphere distinct; as in the Epistle to the Church of Corinth, when, in\nthat wise chapter, St. Paul rendered unto womanhood the things which\nwere woman's, and unto manhood the things which were man's.\"\n\nMary's glory was not immaculate origin, nor immaculate life, nor\nexaltation to Divine honors. She has none of these things. Hers was\nthe glory of simple womanhood. The glory of being true to the nature\nassigned her by her Maker, the glory of Motherhood; the glory of a\nmeek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price.\nFor all women there is something nobler than to be recognized as the\nqueen of heaven. Let woman be content to be what God made her, to fill\nthe sphere God appointed for her, in unselfishness, and humbleness,\nand purity, rejoicing in God her Saviour, content that He had regarded\nthe lowliness of His handmaiden, and rejoicing that God has honored\nthe characteristics regarded as feminine, which she possesses, and\nwhich she may use for the glory of God and the good of the race.\nNow, as in the olden time, it is her privilege to minister unto the\nnecessities of Jesus, by cheerfully contributing of her substance\nto the support of His cause, and by lavishing her love, upon those\nqualities of the head and heart, which in Christ appeared in perfected\nbeauty, and are to-day the charm of life, the power of religion, and\nthe glory of Christianity.\n\n\n\n\nWOMAN'S WORK AND WOMAN'S MISSION.\n\n\nWoman's work is a work of charity. The fact points back to woman's\norigin. God brought her as a gift to man, with characteristics and\nendowments which fitted her to be his helpmeet, his counsellor, and\ncompanion. Recall Adam's position. He was alone in the garden. He\nfound no helper in the beasts. He longed for a kindred spirit. Endowed\nwith a nature too communicative to be content with itself, he requires\nsociety, a resting point, a complement, for he only half lives while\nhe lives alone. Made to speak, to think, to love, his thought seeks\nanother thought to reveal and quicken itself; his speech is lost\nsorrowfully in the air, or only awakens an echo which reverberates it,\nbut cannot reply; his love knows not where to fix itself, and falling\nback on itself, threatens to become a barren egotism; in short, fill\nhis being aspires to another self, but his other self does not exist.\nAt this time, when the desire for communion was stifling him, he\nslept, and from his side God took a rib and made woman, and brought\nher to him. Behold Adam. He sees her, and is in rapture.\n\n  \"Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,\n  In every gesture dignity and love.\"\n\nMilton describes Adam as saying--\n\n  \"I now see\n  Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, myself\n  Before me; Woman is her name, of man\n  Extracted: for this cause he shall forego\n  Father and mother, and to his wife adhere;\n  And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.\"\n\nThe imagination paints this scene. In fancy we behold Adam winning\nEve, \"for she would be wooed, and not unsought be won.\" Won she was,\nand Adam was brought to the sum of earthly bliss. They dwell together\nin sweet accord, Adam fears for her safety when apart from him. Evil\nthreatens them. Together they would be strong, he thinks, apart they\nwould be weak, and so in fear he speaks of the enemy lurking in the\ngarden, and seeking to find them asunder.\n\n  \"Hopeless to circumvent us joined, where each\n  To other speedy aid might lend at need;\n  Whether his first design be to withdraw\n  Our fealty from God, or to disturb\n  Conjugal love, than which, perhaps, no bliss\n  Enjoyed by us excites his envy more;\n  Or this or worse, leave not the faithful side\n  That gave thee being, still shades thee and protects.\n  The wife, where danger or dishonor lurks,\n  Safest and seemliest by her husband stays,\n  Who guards her, or with her the worst endures.\"\n\nEve resents the imputation of weakness, and insists on being left\nforever fancy free to roam at will. In self-confidence she goes forth\nand falls, and in falling introduces sin into the world.\n\nLet us review the past, and recall a few facts which, deserve\nconsideration, before we enter upon the contemplation of Woman's Work\nand Woman's Mission. It will not be denied that Eve was created to be\na helpmeet. That Satan tempted her, and converted the helpmeet into a\ntempter. In that light we have considered her power. We have seen that\nEve, in bringing ruin to man, turned her back upon the Creator and\nPreserver of mankind, and paved the way for the introduction of\nidolatry, the shadows of whose multiplying altars shrouded the old\nworld in the gloom of night. From the ruin of Eve to the restoration\nin Mary, the history of this world resembles a deep valley filled with\ndeath and sorrow and gloom. In Adam all died, in Christ all shall be\nmade alive. Bethlehem with its manger is set over against Eden with\nits bower. During that old dispensation, manly qualities were honored\nand womanly qualities were ignored. The effects of sin are seen. God\ndoth not hold guiltless the sinner. The consequences of sin run on.\nThey made woman's life wretched. They changed the helpmeet into a\nslave. Do not rebel, woman, at the utterance, nor suffer yourself to\nfeel that God does not care for woman, or that he willingly afflicts\nher.\n\nIt is at this point you do well to survey the field. We know that\nGod's purposes run on. That God was not and will not be defeated. That\nthe plan formed in the councils of eternity is sure to be successfully\nexecuted.\n\nHence God's idea of woman is yet to bless the world. What sin\ndestroyed Christ came to restore, and more than to restore. In heaven\nif not on earth we shall see woman as God made her, and as God\nglorified her. This brings us to the consideration of what Christ did\nfor her. He did not permit Mary to become Intercessor, and so give a\nsanction to Mariolatry, which in evil is second only to idolatry.\nHe did not lift woman to the position of ruler, nor did he give any\nsanction to the wild vagaries of the Christless ones, who are striving\nto overturn the foundations of society, and who rebel against\nmotherhood, wifehood, and sisterhood; but he did turn the attention\nof the world towards the graces of womanhood, and while he turned his\nback upon those manly qualities of labor, of pluck, of brute courage,\nhe turned his face towards meekness, gentleness, and love, and made\nthe vales of life to blossom with a new beauty. He welcomed woman as a\ncompanion. He sought her for sympathy's sake, and opened his heart to\nher in the fullest confidence.\n\nLet us notice this truth. In making woman's work a work of charity, he\ncontinued in the New Dispensation the work which was commenced in the\nOld. He lifted the thread where woman broke it, and reuniting it again\nsent her forth into the world to bless it with love, with sympathy,\nwith ministrations of tenderness, with an elevating companionship,\nwhich makes man worthy of his origin, and helps him to fulfil the\nmission of God's anointed.\n\nAnd though Satan has taken this new thought and perverted it, as he\nhas perverted all the rest, and though he has employed the Church of\nRome, by organizing women into orders and sisterhoods of charity, so\nthat woman may again be enslaved and destroyed; though the story of\nher confinement in nunneries and establishments little better in form\nthan prisons, and far more cruel in character, has been written, let\nus not be discouraged, but believing that Christ's plan is best, let\nus learn what his will is, and then let us do it in the fear of God\nand in the love of truth, assured that his ways are higher and better\nand grander than ours, and that it is safe to trust God even where\nwe cannot trace him, remembering that \"he doeth great things, past\nfinding out; yea, and wonders without number.\"\n\nIn considering Woman's Work and Woman's Mission, we discover that they\ngo hand in hand, and faith is the bond which unites them. Separate\nwoman's work from her mission, and you divorce it from that which\nmakes it honorable and praiseworthy. It is the spirit of faith, and\nlove, and hope, and charity, which pervades the life of the true\nwoman, that is her glory and her praise. The difference between woman\nas a drudge and woman as a helpmeet, describes the relation existing\nbetween her work and her mission. Work separated from this path of\nfaith, love, and charity, becomes unholy to the world and unbearable\nto her. The holiest of all work for a mother is to care for her child.\nThat child, so helpless now, is to reward her by acts of love and\ndeeds of valor. Take away from woman her faith, let her feel that her\nwork is a degradation, and there is nothing more beautiful in her\nattentions to a child than there would be in her attentions to a pig.\n\nWhen in the country the children and their parents were floating in a\nlittle boat on a river's surface, they admired the lilies with their\nwhite leaves spread out on the wave. After they had looked upon the\nflower, I asked them to observe the roots, and see in what they\nwere embedded. They replied, \"The roots are in the mud.\" That lily\nillustrates truthfully the spiritual character of woman's work. Though\nher life may be passed in drudgery, yet the flower of her life is\nseen in the neatness, beauty, and comfort of the home, and her joy\nis derived from the commendation received by her diligence and toil.\nTruly has the poet told, in this homely way, how\n\nLOVE LIGHTENS LABOR.\n\n  A good wife rose from her bed one morn,\n    And thought, with a nervous dread,\n  Of the piles of clothes to be washed, and more\n    Than a dozen mouths to be fed.\n  There were meals to be got for the men in the field,\n    And the children to fix away\n  To school, and the milk to be skimmed and churned;\n    And all to be done that day.\n\n  It had rained in the night, and all the wood\n    Was wet as it could be,\n  And there were pudding and pies to bake,\n    And a loaf of cake for tea.\n  The day was hot, and her aching head\n    Throbbed wearily as she said--\n  \"If maidens but knew what good wives know,\n    They would, be in no hurry to wed.\"\n\n  \"Jennie, what do you think I told Ben Brown?\"\n    Called the farmer from the well;\n  And a flush crept up to his bronzed brow,\n    And his eye half bashfully fell;\n  \"It was this,\" he said, and coming near,\n    He smiled, and stooping down,\n  Kissed her cheek--\"'twas this, that _you were the best\n    And dearest wife in town_!\"\n\n  The farmer went back to the field, and the wife,\n      In a smiling and absent way,\n  Sang snatches of tender little songs\n      She'd not sung for many a day.\n  And the pain in her head was gone, and the clothes\n      Were white as foam of the sea;\n  Her bread was light, and her butter was sweet,\n      And golden as it could be.\n\n  \"Just think,\" the children all called in a breath,\n      \"Tom Wood has run off to sea!\n  He wouldn't, I know, if he only had\n      As happy a home as we.\"\n  The night came down, and the good wife smiled\n  To herself, as she softly said,\n  \"'Tis sweet to labor for those we love--\n      'Tis not strange that maids will wed!\"\n\nThere is a glory in motherhood which robes woman in beauty, and fills\nthe home with the light of heaven. The mother, busy with her cares,\nand attending to the wants of her children, is honored wherever Christ\nis loved.\n\nNow, because the world links woman's work and mission together,\nthe world is full of pictures of the mother and the child. To a\ntrue-hearted man, it is almost impossible to find any picture to which\nhis nature turns with fonder delight than to that of a mother with\na child sleeping on the breast, full of sweet trust and enjoying a\ndreamless repose, or being ministered to in his nude state in the\nmorning bath. The spiritual covers the common with a halo of glory,\nand robes woman in the light of love.\n\nThe same is true of the housewife. In the daily routine of duty, which\nis essential to the comfort and bliss of home life, there is nothing\nvery attractive in the ordinary occupations of the home. Let a woman\nattempt the task with no outlook, with no hope. Let her do it for so\nmuch money, and nothing more, and she becomes morose, discontented,\nsad and cheerless. Let her do this for love. Let her feel that she is\ncontributing to some one's joy, or that she is to use the money earned\nfor some worthy purpose, and at once the loftiness of her purpose\nsanctifies her deed, and renders that which would have been\nunbecoming, if done without a motive, right and noble when performed\nunder the pressure of a great and noble aspiration, for \"'tis sweet to\nlabor for those we love.\"\n\nWoman's work is defined by her Creator to be a work of charity. She is\na helpmeet. A gift she came to man. Her life is a constant giving up\nof rights and privileges for the happiness of others. She waits on man\nnot for pay, but for love. She ministers to him in sickness and in\nhealth. It is not the deed, but the spirit which sanctifies the deed,\nthat makes it lovely. Compel her by force, by fear, or by rewards, to\ndo what she performs because of love, and you destroy all the beauty\nof the action, and convert the ministering angel into a menial, the\nGod-appointed woman into a brutalized slave. God made her a gift, and\nthe law of her life is in giving. She fulfils the functions of her\nlife by living in harmony with the law of love. The woman, described\nwith such inexpressible tenderness by Luke (vii. 37-50), attracts\nattention by this feature. She came to Christ while he was reclining\nat table. She had sinned. Still she loved. Here were Christ's feet\nhanging over the table's edge, while Christ reclined. As he was\ntalking, behold this woman bending over them, her hot tears raining\non them, and she busy wiping off the tear-drops with her hair, and\nkissing them, anointed them with costly ointment. She loved, and\ntherefore evidenced it by deeds. Her love, blossoming into action,\nwon Christ. He saw that she loved. Perhaps love had led her astray at\nfirst. No matter. Love she possessed, and love she desired to lavish\non some object worthy of her regard. That object she discovered in\nJesus. She took her alabaster-box of precious ointment, and went after\nhim. She enters the Pharisee's house; it may have been the house where\nshe had fallen. The Pharisee seemed to know her character, and so he\nsaid, \"This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what\nmanner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner.\"\nChrist did not at once recognize the suspicion, but supposing the case\nof the two debtors, and having obtained from Simon the declaration,\nthat the one would love most who was forgiven most, turned upon him\nthe force of the logic, by saying, \"Seest thou this woman? I entered\ninto thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she both\nwashed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.\nThou gavest me no kiss; but this woman, since the time I came, hath\nnot ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint;\nbut this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. And he said to the\nwoman, _Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace_.\"\n\nLet woman's work be regarded as a work of charity by man, and the\nlarger portion of women will be satisfied. The servant finds pleasure\nin service, when the obligation is recognized as a debt not to be paid\nfor in money.\n\nNo wife would do what she is compelled to perform, or suffer what she\nis compelled to endure, for her board and clothes. It is when man\nrefuses to give her more than these, she revolts. Man never won woman\nto leave her single life and her home comforts to enter his house as a\nhelpmeet by a consideration of the work to be done. It was not in the\ncontract. He talked then of love, of companionship, of help. The other\nwas in the bond by mutual consent, but it was regarded as beneath\ntheir notice to talk about it. Her nature yearned for love, and lives\non love.\n\nNow, when a man forgets that love, companionship, and the thousand\nattentions which sweeten and brighten life, are due to his wife, and\nwhen he lifts up the drudgery and the slavery of life into prominence,\nand tells her that she is only fitted to hold a menial place, he\ninsults, if he does not destroy the woman, and degrades himself. On\nthe other hand, let a woman refuse to be influenced by this law of\ncharity, and she becomes a curse instead of a blessing, a hinderance\ninstead of a helpmeet.\n\nIt is a very common complaint that a good servant is difficult to\nfind. Some are slovenly, some are dishonest, while those who are both\nable and truthful, are pronounced intolerable, frequently because of\ntheir impertinence. All can understand the reason. The servant has no\ninterest in her employer who refuses to _give_ anything. The servant\nworks for so much money. \"As to rights, privileges, and perquisites,\nit is not unfrequently either a battle or a sort of armed treaty\nbetween kitchen and parlor.\" Many will admit this, and will forget or\nignore the cause. Listen to the servants' story, and you will find\nthem complaining of the stinginess, or tyranny, or selfishness of the\nemployer.\n\nLet the law of charity rule both employer and employed, and behold the\nchange. The mistress recognizes her weight of obligation to a good\nand faithful domestic. She feels that her services are beyond price,\ninvaluable to her. The effect is seen at once. The sluggish step is\nquickened. Love takes the place of indifference if not of dislike, and\nthe relations of friendship are at once recognized. No mistress has a\nright to expect that her servants will be bound to her by the ties of\nfriendship, if she manifest no friendly feeling for them; or that they\nwill become devoted to her interests, if she take no interest in their\nwelfare. The law of mutual dependence must be recognized and obeyed.\nGod is love. God loves. Therefore, it is a pleasure to love and serve\nGod. It is a pleasure to serve whoever is appreciative and lovable. It\nis a task to serve those who are unappreciative and unlovable. At the\nsame time a Christian servant has no right to slight her work, or be\nunfaithful, because of the harshness or unkindness of her employer.\nLive for God, and serve Christ in serving well those by whom you are\nemployed, and you will not lose your reward on earth nor in heaven.\nTrusty and true, your services will become of immense importance, and\ndoors to usefulness will open before you because of the superintending\ncare of Him who is too wise to err and too good to be unkind. Let not\nwoman dislike the term _service_ or _servant_. Christ honored it by\nbecoming the servant of all, and made it honorable by commanding that\nhe who would be chief must serve, and by his service rise.\n\nWoman sometimes revolts because her work is classed under the head\nof _domestic_, and yet this is the chief characteristic that must\ndistinguish it. That is, her work must have a look homeward, whether\nshe toils in the store or factory or printing-office or kitchen.\nSomehow the stream of love must sing as it goes babbling by, \"Home,\nhome, there is no place like home,\" else woman fails in her life-work.\n\nHer education must fit her for a home and for home work. Let a man\nlearn that he married a toy, a plaything, a lay figure, useful only\nfor the purposes of exhibiting his taste in jewelry and dress, who\ndesires to be petted and fondled, to be caressed and flattered, but\nwho is incapable of doing anything to contribute to his happiness at\nhome or to his influence abroad, and he comes to feel that she is\nan encumbrance. If he clings to the old love, and cherishes the old\nconviction, he learns to treat his wife as a plaything, and to forget\nher as a helpmeet. He thinks of her as of a toy, which may be used or\ncast aside at pleasure. She knows and feels the lack of his love. If\nshe becomes dissatisfied, and refuses to make the effort to become a\nhelpful wife and a loving companion, or to be influenced by the law\nof charity; if she determines to seek happiness in obtaining the\nadmiration of others, which once unwittingly came from her husband;\nthen is she probably ruined, and becomes a \"body of death\" fastened to\none who looks forward to the grave as a refuge and a release, or who\nfinds in the society of other women that pleasure which is denied him\nat home. Perhaps nothing is more disgusting than to see an empty brain\nhidden behind a pretty face, or an empty heart concealed beneath\ncostly drapery. A woman who is handsome and is illiterate, who is\nincapable of speaking entertainingly, is far more homely than a plain\nface in front of a well cultivated intellect; and a plain dressed\nwoman, with a heart full of love, is to be preferred to a splendidly\ndressed form which is destitute of soul. Jewels, laces, and silks are\nnot a fit dress for a corpse, and yet a heartless woman is to a man\nwho knows her as soulless as an inanimate body coffined for the tomb.\nHaving thus briefly considered the necessity of linking woman's work\nand mission together, let us define her work, and consider what is her\nmission.\n\nWoman has work to do. Though idleness does not destroy her as it does\na man, yet it does not become her. Merely to display her charms for\nthe admiration of others cannot be the destiny of one created with a\nwoman's hand and head, and endowed with woman's soul. From the nature\nof the case, her work should be womanly in its character; that which\nis within doors rather than without; which belongs to the ornamental\nrather than to the mechanical. There is no sense in woman's working in\nthe field while man measures tapes or counts thimbles, or in his doing\nother in-door work for which woman's light touch renders her better\nqualified. When we look at women who have become coarse in the\nexpression of their features, and ungainly in form and movement,\nthrough the weight of their daily toil, we see the folly of those who\nwould make the woman the equal, or the rival, instead of the helpmeet\nof man; and feel indignation that, since many of our women must earn\ntheir own livelihood, we have not a more natural division of labor,\nwhich would assign to man the heavier, and to woman the lighter\nkinds of work. As woman's faith blesses as well as saves her; it is\nessential that her work be linked in some way to the exercise of\nfaith, and to the unfolding of love. For the character of the work\nexerts an influence upon woman's body as well as upon her soul. If\nyou will contrast the looks of a happy housewife or domestic with the\nlooks of a majority of the faces that are seen in factories, the truth\nof the position taken will be abundantly sustained. It matters not so\nmuch where the roots of woman's life-work grow, if up through it all,\nand above it all, the vine may twine its tendril, and send forth its\nflower, and yield its fruit. For this cause the love of Christ and\nthe hopes of a Christian life seem so essential to her growth and\ndevelopment, that it is almost impossible to write of a happy,\ncontented woman, without describing a woman whose faith in Jesus has\nregenerated and disinthralled her. Love is the prime requisite to\nsuccessful endeavor on a woman's part to be her husband's true\nhelpmeet; and so, in discharging the duties incident to a life of\ntoil, woman must be soothed and sustained in her tasks by the joys of\na Christian life. Hence the ruin wrought in shops and factories, in\nstores, and homes where Christ is cast out, and where the bliss of\nhigh and holy living is denied.\n\nWoman's mission is to be inferred from a consideration of the wants of\nman. Created to be a helpmeet for man, it is essential, if we would\ndetermine her mission, that we ascertain for what purpose man needs\nher influence.\n\nGod declared, \"It is not good for man to be alone,\" and woman was\nbrought to him as a companion, to charm his life, to prolong it by\nsharing it with him. Her vocation, by birth, is a vocation of love. To\nbe his helpmeet, not his rival; not to increase, but to lighten, or to\nsupport him, under his cares; to recognize him as the immediate object\nof her existence, instead of fancying that he was formed to wait on\nher; this is the end for which God has called her into being. As has\nbeen said, \"This representation may not satisfy the ambition of some,\nwho do but degrade themselves by aspiring to occupy a position for\nwhich they are neither intended by God nor qualified by nature,--even\nas men and angels fell when they sought to become as gods,--but in\nreality it tends to woman's elevation; and, as the whole history of\nChristianity doth show, where its truth is most recognized and relied\nupon, there woman is happiest and greatest.\"\n\nThe word \"mission,\" as applied to woman, refers to the purpose for\nwhich she was created and brought to man. In considering her mission,\nwe are safe in avowing that woman found her mission, 1. At home.\nHer mission is in the home. Her training must fit her for the home,\nwhether she serves as a wife or as a domestic. Her life is a success\nwhen she makes home a pleasure and a joy to those to whom the home\nproperly belongs. It is for this reason that there is deep concern on\nthe part of many thoughtful minds because the drift of the times is\nagainst educating women for the home. Of the women who are compelled\nto earn their own subsistence many prefer the factory and the store to\nthe work in the family, and, as a result, there are large numbers of\nyoung women who cannot make a loaf of bread or cook a meal, who would\nnot hesitate to become wives of working-men, who expect to find in\nthem a helpmeet in building a home like that which blessed their\nchildhood. The result is dissatisfaction and recrimination, leaving\nthe wife for the club, and turning from the joys of the home to the\nrevel of jovial companions.\n\nThe same is true of the class of young ladies who know something of\nmusic, vocal and instrumental. They can dance. They have studied\ndrawing sufficiently to be able to sketch a few flowers and figures.\nPerhaps they can speak French and translate German. They know in what\nposition to sit, and how to move gracefully. All very well these\nthings in their places, and fitted to increase the charm of manner\nwhen the eyes are lighted up by the informing soul; not undeserving\nnotice either in their influence upon man, when they are accompanied\nby something better, for, amid all the weighty cares of life, he\nis sometimes in the mood when such things do please; but sadly\nover-estimated when they are made the sole substance and end of a\nwoman's education. They might nearly all be done by a being without\na soul. They do nothing to draw out the noble qualities of her deep\nwomanly nature. They leave her altogether unfitted for her peculiar\nmission of a wife and mother.\n\nNow, there are times when a woman, despite her imperfect education,\nacquires after marriage the knowledge which fits her for the duties\nappertaining to wifehood. But where nature yields to such training,\nthe woman fails both in filling her sphere and in fulfilling her\nmission, and falls beneath her true position as the helpmeet of man.\nHow bitter his disappointment, who, having been smitten by these\ngewgaw attractions, and having put faith in the mother of the child\nthat with this outward attraction she had corresponding qualifications\nto fill the home with helpful counsel and sustaining sympathy, when he\ncomes to find that, instead of a _wife_, he has married a plaything,\nand that his children are being committed to the care of a helpless,\nunformed companion, rather than to the guidance of a true and noble\nwife.\n\nA proper conception of woman's mission as the helpmeet of man would\ntend greatly to her elevation. A man who knows for what woman has been\nmade, and what advantage he should look for from the woman whom he\ncalls wife, will not select a mere toy as the partner of his life; and\nwhen woman properly recognizes her place, mothers will not be content\nto give their daughters, nor will daughters be ambitious, or even\ncontent to receive only such a training as fits them for amusing or\npleasing man in his playful hours, but leaves them altogether unfit\nto be his companion under the weightier cares and graver concerns of\nlife.\n\nLet it be understood that woman's life and labor, mission and work,\npoint ever homeward, and whether she serve in the store or shop,\nin the factory or in the home, she will be ready, whenever God's\nprovidence opens the way, to make home bright for another, because it\nhas been made bright for herself. In her reading, in her planning, in\nher waking dreams and in her night visions, let her live to make\nher own home joyous, and she will not live in vain. To do this\nsuccessfully in the future, she must make home bright and beautiful in\nthe present. It is the girl, whose hand is skilful in the home, who\nis prized as a companion, because of the substantial linked with\nthe ornamental. The same is true of a man. Talent, genius even, is\nvalueless unless it can earn bread. There must be something to make\nhome pleasant with, which it is the duty of man to provide, else woman\nfinds it hard to do her work or fulfil her mission. This does not\ndisparage woman. Her intellect should not be regarded as inferior to\nman's because it differs from his. Her mind is formed for a distinct\nwork and sphere, just as truly as is her body. In that sphere she\nis endowed with faculties superior to that of man. Here she has her\nrequital: here she proves herself mistress of the field, and employs\nthose secret resources which might be termed admirable, if they did\nnot inspire a more tender sentiment, both towards her, and towards\nGod, who has so richly endowed her. \"Her practical survey, equally\nsure and rapid; her quick and accurate perception; her wonderful power\nof penetrating the heart in a way unknown and impracticable to man;\nher never-failing presence of mind, and personal attention on all\noccasions; her numerous and fertile resources in the management of her\ndomestic affairs; her ever ready access and willing audience to all\nwho need her; her freedom of thought and action in the midst of\nthe most agonizing sufferings and accumulated embarrassments; her\nelasticity,--may I say her perseverance,--in spite of feebleness; her\ntact to practise it, were it not instinctive; her extreme perfection\nin little things; ... her incomparable skill in re-awakening a\nsleeping conscience, in re-opening a heart that has long been closed;\nin fine, innumerable are the things which she accomplishes, and which\nman can neither discern nor offset without the aid of her eye and\nhand. Thus, mentally as well as physically, is she predestined for a\nwork and sphere different from those of her stronger companions. And,\nas everything is beautiful in its place and season, so is woman most\nbeautiful and useful when, like a modest flower, she blooms in\nthe privacy for which her nature fits her, and perfumes, with the\nfragrance of her character, the hallowed precincts of home.\"[A] \"No\nman,\" says Mr. Jay, \"was ever proof against the kindness of a sensible\nwoman; but where, in all history, can an instance be produced in which\nan ascendency over him has been obtained by forwardness, scolding, and\nstrife for preeminence? No wife has such influence with, or even such\ncontrol over, her husband, as\n\n  \"'She who never answers till her husband cools,\n  Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;\n  Charms by accepting, by submission sways,\n  Yet has her humor most when she obeys.'\"\n\n[Footnote A: Woman's Sphere and Work, by Rev. Wm. Landels, D.D.,\nLondon.]\n\n2. Woman's mission is social as well as domestic. The domestic part\nof her life is the garden, in which the seed is planted, which brings\nforth the flower of social joy. A woman who is the soul of a beautiful\nhome is a power in society. No matter what her talents may be, let it\nbe known that she is a slattern at home, and she is without influence.\nThe pen may serve as a feather to adorn her social life, but it looks\nmean when the use of it causes the neglect of the needle.\n\nWoman may be a secret power in the home. She may make home attractive\nto the refined and cultured, and thus prove to be the magnet\nattracting to herself and to her fireside those gifted sons and\ndaughters, the scintillations of whose genius and the dissemination of\nwhose beautiful thoughts make the home luminous with a light which is\ninextinguishable. The influence of such a woman over her children and\nover the young cannot be overestimated.\n\n\"Such a sphere, so far from being insufficient to satisfy a true\nwoman's ambition, is well fitted, by its tremendous responsibilities,\nto excite her fears. There is not one, perhaps, which a human being\ncan occupy, on which hang more stupendous issues. Though less public,\nit is still more potential than man's.\"\n\nThe influence of a true woman cannot be confined to the home. Home\nis the fountain, and the world gladly furnishes channels for the\ndiffusion of her influence. In promoting the cause of reform, in\nalleviating the woes of the unfortunate, in carrying forward the cause\nof temperance, in ministering to the sick, either as a nurse or a\nphysician, in using her pen to delight and guide the thoughts of the\nyoung and old along the garden paths of her own loving life, thick\nwith the blossoms of hope, and made glorious by deeds of charity,--in\nthese, and in numberless other ways, woman, finding her throne in the\nhouse, is welcomed as a ruler in the world.\n\nFor woman there is a felt a necessity which should send her forth as a\nmissionary to those like herself in everything but blessings. Think of\nour large factory towns, where women are congregated by hundreds and\nthousands. Let it be remembered that there is something unnatural in\nall this. Woman was made for man, for home, for love. Separate her\nfrom them all, herd her with her kind, subtract from her the incentive\nto endeavor, leave her mind to brood in fancy, to welcome unholy\naspirations and degrading thoughts to her soul, and you leave her to\nprey upon herself. Let woman see to it that reading-rooms for women be\nestablished in our factory towns, that their boarding-houses be warmed\nand rendered inviting, that the talented be encouraged to exertion,\nand that tidiness and neatness be made an incentive for all, and woman\nwill do a work of immeasurable importance,--a work on which God's\nblessing will rest,--and those who toil to accomplish it will obtain\nan abundant reward from Him who declares, \"Inasmuch as ye did it to\none of the least of these, ye did it unto me.\"\n\nIn the cause of Reform woman's help is needed. From the earliest\ncommencement of the temperance movement, appeals, arguments, and\nexpostulations have been addressed by earnest reformers to woman,\nbecause it was felt that on any great social question the power of\nwoman to help, or to hinder, was all-important. When it is remembered\nthat woman is the greatest sufferer from the vice of intemperance,\nthat she regulates the customs of society, it is apparent that she\nshould seek to abolish bad, and promote good customs. More than others\nshe trains the young and builds up character, and therefore she\nshould, by example and precept, implant such habits as may be not\nonly a safeguard in childhood and youth, but become fixed as moral\nprinciples in those she has reared, when the responsibility arrives;\nbecause of these, we find reasons in abundance why woman must help, or\naid cannot reach the imperilled and undone.\n\nAgain: Woman needs help. Addison well said, \"Women are either the\nbest or the worst of human beings.\" The very feelings which, rightly\ndirected, prompt her to soar even to the apex of the pyramid of human\nvirtue, warped from their right exercise, precipitate her to the\nlowest and most grovelling depths of human vice. Is woman intemperate,\nshe differs from man in the gratification of her appetite. He seeks\nthe social club. Woman seeks retirement, and drinks alone and apart.\nHer appetite, from this very cause, becomes unmanageable. Men will\nstop drinking, oftentimes, when the open bar is closed. Woman, with\nan appetite formed, drinks the more, because she drinks in secret.\nBecause of this fact, woman is in peril if she form an appetite for\nstrong drink.\n\nWoman as a Mother has work to do as a teacher. \"We hear a great deal\nabout education in the present day; but,\" said Mrs. Ellis, \"my strong\nimpression is that there will have to come a teaching out of the\nmother's heart and life,--herself being taught of God,--such as alone\ncan save us as a nation and a people from falling from our high\nmaterial prosperity into a condition of moral degradation, which it is\nterrible to contemplate.\" Such being the case, every woman should ask,\nWhat have I done in those opportunities which God gave me with the\nyoung? What did I pour into that open heart and mind? Was my influence\nfor Christ or against him? Which way did I point out to those\nuncertain feet? Who can estimate a mother's influence! There is a\npower in a mother's love greater than any other human power,--a power\nto suffer, to serve, and to save; a power which many waters cannot\nquench, and which is stronger than death. As she leads, the broodlings\nwill follow. Does she sanction card-playing, theatre-going, dancing,\nand what are called innocent recreations, or does she set herself\nagainst them, and turn the thoughts of her children to books that\ntreat of science, of philosophy, and of religion? Upon the answer to\nthis question the future of children and the young depends. Many a boy\nhas been checked in a career of shame by a mother's sad look; many\nhave been encouraged by a mother's smile. God help women to know\nhow to use their power for home, for woman-kind, for man-kind, for\ncountry, and for God!\n\n\"No one has such power over a river as he who stands near its source.\nNo one has such power over the tree as he who plants and tends it\nwhile yet it is a pliant sapling. And no earthly power is to be\ncompared with that which, humanly speaking, determines the course\nand destiny of an immortal soul. Under God the mother is the first\nguardian of the child's eternal interest. It is from the mother, who\nmoves constantly among her little ones, much more than the father,\nwhose vocation necessitates his absence from home, and prevents his\nbeing much in their presence, that children receive their bias. Her\ngentle hand gives to our ductile natures the impress which we wear\nthrough life; her loving voice awakens in the soul those sweet echoes\nwhich never cease to sound; and her look and manner fill the mind with\nimages which haunt our memory until our dying day.\"\n\n  \"O, Mother! sweetest name on earth;\n    We lisp it on the knee,\n  And idolize its sacred worth\n    In manhood's ministry.\"\n\nA mother's hand gave us our first welcome, and hers was the last we\ngrasped in our farewell. She is the nurse of both of our childhoods;\nthe queen of the home, and the friend of the heart.\n\n  \"And if I e'er in heaven appear,\n    A mother's holy prayer,--\n  A mother's hand and gentle tear,--\n  That pointed to a Saviour here,\n    Shall lead the wanderer there.\"\n\nWoman's mission is religious. Christ recognized her as a helpmeet, as\na comforter, and a companion. Woman ministered to him with delight,\nand gladly made a resting-place for him in the quiet retreat of the\nhome in Bethany. He recognized her faith as an element of strength,\nwhich saves her when properly exercised. The spiritual life of woman\nis her glory. We think of the woman who had sinned looking in love and\nfaith on Jesus, bathing his feet with her tears, and wiping them with\nher hair, kissing and anointing them, with a feeling akin to devotion.\nThe Magdalene, delivered of her seven demons, because of her devotion\nto Christ, and the triumph won by her faith, achieved a position\nwhich, in the regards of the church, is equal to that held by the\nMother of our Saviour.\n\nWoman's daily life is to her spiritual life what the debris of the\nstream is to the water-lily that floats upon the surface. What cares\nthe servant girl of Rome for the place where she toils? The cathedral,\nand the wonderful pictures that hang upon its walls, are her glory\nand pride. Look at her toil from that stand-point, and she becomes a\nhelper in the estimation of the world that cannot be ignored. We have\nsaid woman's work is a work of charity. Satan has warped the truth and\nwielded it against Christ; but as it is wrong to give up a good tune\nbecause bad men sing it, so we must not give up a truth because Satan\ntakes advantage of it. This work of charity,--of giving up for others,\nof denying self for another's advantage, of abandoning comfort to\nassuage another's grief,--so wonderfully illustrated by a Florence\nNightingale, and by women quite as worthy in our own land, whose\npresence in the hospitals was like a benediction from God, and whose\npresence in our homes, in our churches, beside the sad and sorrowing\neverywhere, is proof that woman has a mission which she alone can\nfill, and a work which she alone can perform. \"And now abideth faith,\nhope, and charity, and the greatest of these is charity.\" Man has\nfaith, he has hope; but he lacks, to a large extent, in the charities\nwhich come to woman as gifts of God, because of which Christ employed\nher as an agency to win men back to faith in God. In the sick chamber\nshe moves with step noiseless as falling snow-flakes, and speaks in\na voice soft as an angel's whisper. Her touch is so gentle that it\nsoothes the sufferer, and her sympathy is more precious than rubies.\nOn this account she is man's first and last solace. Suffering never\nappeals to woman in vain. \"I never addressed myself,\" says Ledyard,\n\"in the language of decency and friendship to woman, whether civilized\nor savage, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man\nit has often been otherwise. In wandering over the barren plains of\ninhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden, frozen Lapland, rude and\nchurlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide-spread regions of\nthe wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, woman has\never been friendly to me, and uniformly so; and, to add to this\nvirtue,--so worthy of the appellation of benevolence,--these actions\nhave been performed in so free and kind a manner, that if I was dry, I\ndrank the sweet draught, and if hungry, ate the coarse morsel, with\na double relish.\" Park, and many other travellers, bear similar\ntestimony.\n\n                  \"Woman all exceeds\n  In ardent sanctitude, in pious deeds;\n  And chief in woman charities prevail,\n  That soothe when sorrow or desire assail;\n  Ask the poor pilgrim on this convex cast,--\n  His grizzled locks, distorted in the blast,--\n  Ask him what accents soothe, what hand bestows\n  The cordial beverage, raiment, and repose.\n  Ah! he will dart a spark of ardent flame,\n  And clasp his tremulous hands, and Woman name.\n  Peruse the sacred volume. Him who died\n  Her kiss betrayed not, nor her tongue denied;\n  While even the apostles left Him to His doom,\n  She lingered round His cross and watched His tomb.\"\n\nHow precious is such sympathy in her who is to be the solace, because\nthe helpmeet, of man! How it qualifies her for being the priestess of\nthe temple of home; the gentle nurse of helpless infancy, manhood's\ncounsellor and comforter!\n\n  \"O Woman! Woman! thou wast made,\n    Like heaven's own pure and lovely light,\n  To cheer life's dark and desert shade,\n    And guide man's erring footsteps right.\"\n\nThis is a power which monarchs well might envy,--a power to bless\nmankind and honor God; a power which, working in obscure and limited\nsphere, is yet felt in the high places of the earth, and identified\nwith the deeds of men whose names are renowned in the history of the\nworld, and shine as stars in the diadem of God.\n\n\n\n\nWOMAN _versus_ BALLOT.\n\n\nThree facts stand in the way of Woman's being helped by the\nBallot,--God, Nature, and Common Sense. The purpose for which God made\nor \"formed\" woman is clearly avowed in the history of her origin and\nin the assignment of her duties.\n\nIn discussing this question, whether the ballot, and all the\nimmunities growing out of the right to vote, shall be granted to\nwoman, it is essential that we inquire reverently and earnestly, on\nwhich side is God. That the question in its philosophical treatment\ncan only be fathomed by the profoundest intellect, and that it can\nbe embraced, in all its details, only by the most comprehensive\nknowledge, is but a partial statement of this truth. The question can\nonly be understood, measured, and gauged by that Being who sees the\nend from the beginning, and can follow into its infinite ramifications\nthe influence which must result from our actions. God does understand\nit. Being infinitely wise, there can be no new issues, no new facts,\nor combinations of facts, to influence the decisions of the Omniscient\nMind. It becomes us then to inquire what sphere God assigned to woman.\nHaving found it, we shall see that Nature and Common Sense unite in\nmaking manifest the wisdom in adhering to the Divine Plan.\n\nThe necessity of recalling attention to the portraiture of woman as\nGod made her, is the more apparent, when we remember that those who\nask the ballot for woman practically ignore the teachings of the Bible\nand the right of God to rule, and claim by word, as well as by deed,\nthat they have outgrown the wisdom of the past, and have entered upon\na stage of progress in advance of old time precedents. We believe in\nthe rule of God, and in the wisdom of God, and claim that Omniscience\nis not dependent either upon a morning newspaper, or upon the crude\nconjectures of a godless Infidelity, for wisdom or light in adjusting\nmeans to an end, or in assigning to woman her proper sphere.\n\nAgain. We are impelled to seek wisdom from God, because we seek for\nit in vain elsewhere. As to how the ballot is to help woman, even its\nadvocates give us no light. Whether it is proposed to lighten by its\naid the penalties, and do away with the ruin of the fall, we are left\nin doubt.\n\nIf we give to woman the ballot, shall the equality which woman lost,\nwhen she ate of the forbidden fruit, be restored, and shall she be\nmade again the equal of man? Shall the sorrow in child-bearing be\nremoved? Can housework, or the duties of motherhood, and wifehood, and\nsisterhood, be met and discharged by the use of the ballot?\n\nThese are questions which deserve to be answered. It is patent to\nevery one that this attempt to secure the ballot for woman is a revolt\nagainst the position and sphere assigned to woman by God himself. It\nis a revolt against the holiest duties enjoined upon woman. It is\nan attempt to reorganize society upon a new basis; to change the\nrelations of men and women; to secure the millennium by a vote, and by\nmajorities to do away with the rule of God. The Bible declares that\nthe headship of the house devolves on man. Man is lawgiver. Woman is\nnot slave: she is helpmeet; the sharer of man's joys and sorrows; the\nlight of his home, if there be any light in his home; the solace of\nhis life, if his life have solace; the mother of his children, if\nchildren there be. Now, as then, woman, in her natural state, before\nshe makes the attempt to unsex herself, and render herself a monster,\nfinds it in her nature to look to man as lawmaker, and expects to\nsubmit to his rule in the home. We do not say that all women submit\ncheerfully to this rule, for there are some who do not. But when this\nis the case, from the nature of things, happiness takes its flight,\nthe marriage-bed is defiled, woman becomes an outlaw in her heart, and\nthe two bound together by a chain rather than by the silken cord of\nlove, are candidates for a peaceable divorce or a continuous battle.\n\nThe advocates of the ballot for woman hope through its aid to secure\nan overthrow of this rule, or escape from this so-called bondage. They\ndemand a change in public sentiment regarding the sphere woman is to\nfill, securing to her an equality before the law, in representation,\nin privileges, and in wages.\n\nIn other words, there are women who hope and expect to do away with\nthe disabilities incident to the female portion of the community, and\nby education and culture, obtain for woman this same strength, this\nsame ability to study, to think, to work, and to plan, that is enjoyed\nby man. In short, some believe that a woman can be so changed that\nshe can, for all practical purposes, get on without man's help or\nprotection.\n\nAgainst this revolutionary scheme we protest, because, by a reference\nto the Word of God,[A] we find reasons for believing that it is in the\nconstitution and nature of woman, with some slight modifications, to\noccupy the place assigned her in this land, where Christian influence\nunites with the better instincts of humanity in lightening her\nburdens, smoothing her pathway, and filling her lap with the tributes\nof manly regard.\n\n[Footnote A: I am aware that this sneer is often made: \"The same class\noppose us who defended the divine right of slavery.\" This is untrue\nso far as I am concerned. I was second to no man in condemnation of\nslavery, because the Bible condemned it. That one utterance, \"God hath\nmade of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face\nof the earth,\" was the seedling out of which liberty, equality, and\nfraternity grew. Liberty was won because of the faith, and prayers,\nand efforts of a God-believing and a Christ-loving church. Their\nprayers and their faith girded the nation with strength, and their\nprowess, aided by those who followed their lead, secured victory.]\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\n_The Scriptural Argument_.\n\n\nTo state our faith more definitely, we believe that in Eden woman\nenjoyed an equality with man; that she took advantage of her\nprivilege, and, transgressing the law of God without consulting her\nhusband, proved treacherous to her high trust, opened the gate of\nperdition to the enemy of souls, and brought upon man and the race\nthe curse consequent upon sin, and the ruin wrought by the fall. In\nconsequence of this, God pronounced a curse upon her; gave her sorrow\nin child-bearing, as he gave to man fatigue in toil; changed the\nrelations hitherto subsisting between man and woman, and compelled\nher to live henceforth in another; to sink her own individuality, and\nmerge it in that of her husband. This is the language. Unto the woman\nhe said, \"I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in\nsorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to\nthy husband, and he shall rule over thee.\" This is her portion of the\ncurse. This portion endures. Man from that moment became ruler. The\nwife's desire was to the husband, so that whatever she desires is\nnaturally referred to him. He became adviser, lawmaker and head. The\nright or wrong of God's action it does not become us to discuss. It is\nright because God did it. Dispute the right who will, but the curse\nlives. The serpent crawls on his belly and eats dust. The wife has\nsorrow in conception; her desire is to her husband, and he rules her;\nand man, by the sweat of his brow, eats his bread.\n\nBut, says some one, did not the coming of Christ change the status of\nwoman, and place her again on the same equality which she enjoyed\nwhen Adam led the beautiful Eve to her nuptial bower, and found it\nimpossible to exist without what the poet describes as\n\n  \"Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,\n  Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire?\"\n\nIf we have not mistaken the relations subsisting even in Eden between\nthe original pair, woman was not the ruler even there. Milton has\ntruthfully said,--\n\n  \"For well I understand in the prime end\n  Of Nature her the inferior, in the mind\n  And inward faculties which most excel,\n  In outward, also, her resembling less\n  His image who made both, and less expressing\n  The character of that dominion given\n  O'er other creatures; yet when I approach\n  Her loveliness, so absolute she seems,\n  And in herself complete, so well to know\n  Her own, that what she wills to do or say\n  Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best:\n  All higher knowledge in her presence falls\n  Degraded; wisdom in discourse with her\n  Loses discountenanced, and like folly shows;\n  Authority and reason on her wait,\n  As one intended first, not after made\n  Occasionally; and to consummate all,\n  Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat\n  Build in her, loveliest, and create an awe\n  About her, as a guard angelic placed.\"\n\nWith woman, as God made her, we are not acquainted. Glimpses of her\npristine beauty, and characteristics of her former excellence, shine\nforth; but sin has marred the original picture, and defaced the model\nfashioned by the Creator's hand. The ruin wrought by the fall brought\nChrist to earth. He opened a way back to Eden--not on earth, but in\nheaven. The curse remains. The race is under it, because sin is in the\nworld. The law, formed after the fall, is the expressed will of God.\nChrist did not come to do away with it, but to fulfil it. Then, as\nnow, it was a law of love, of good will, of peace. When Christ came,\nwoman's condition was deplorable. She was the abject slave of man in\nnearly all the world. Yet Christ made no attempt to break down their\noriginal arrangements. He knew that without a change in woman herself,\nno external changes in her condition could be of any benefit to her.\nHe recognized the great fact that she herself must be educated to a\nbetter life, that she must have a character which in itself would\ncommand respect, and make her worthy of a higher place and a larger\nliberty. Truly has it been said, \"Institutions, of themselves, can\nnever confer freedom upon a people. They must be free men, capable\nof liberty, and then they will be able not only to make their own\ninstitutions, but keep and defend them also. So the emancipation of\nwoman can be effected only by breaking the bonds of her ignorance,\nfrivolity, and vice. A character must be given her, and then the iron\ndoor of her prison-house will open to her of its own accord, and\nshe will find that the angel of liberty has been leading her forth\nindeed.\" In this direction Jesus labored. Paul, in his Epistles, gave\nemphasis to the teachings of the Old Testament, and so he wrote, \"Let\nyour women keep silence, in the churches, for it is not permitted them\nto speak; but they are to be in subjection, as the law also says; and\nif they will to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home;\nfor it is a shame for women to speak in the church,\"--I Cor. xiv. 34,\n35.\n\nAgainst this command many arguments have been brought to bear, and\ndespite this apostolic command, some women insist upon their right to\npreach. It is a significant truth, that whoever does this, enters upon\na conflict with public sentiment born of God, and subjects herself to\nterrible mortification. The refusal of lending Universalist divines to\nshare the exercises of an ordination with a woman, illustrates this\nprinciple. The recognition given to man as the head of the household,\ninvolves the loss of woman's individuality, and of her right to a\nsupport. It opens a window to life, and shows why our higher nature\nrevolts against woman being compelled to labor in the field. That is\nman's place, and the labor elevates him. It degrades a woman. The\npraises of agricultural toil for man find a place in song and story;\nbut labor in the field is destructive of womanhood, of motherhood, and\nof wifehood.\n\nWe have seen that the Scriptures declare, 1. That it is not well for\nman to be alone. He is not complete until woman is joined to him in\nmarriage. 2. Woman was made for man. Manliness is an attribute that\nbelongs to man; it disgraces a woman. To be womanly, is the noblest\ntribute that can be paid to woman; but it disgraces a man, because\nGod, the Creator, placed this characteristic within the heart and soul\nand nature, just as he gave a difference of nature, mould, and form,\nto the outward appearance of man and woman. He made them for a\nparticular purpose, and not for the same purpose. They were not made\nin the same manner, nor of the same material. If woman be the weaker\nvessel, she is of the finer mould. God made man in his own image, and\nwoman was created to be his helpmeet.\n\n3. We have noticed the change in the relations which was the product\nof the curse. Woman in Eden was the source of influence. After it, man\nbecame the head, and her desire was unto him.\n\n4. Since the fall, labor has been multiplied to man, sorrow to woman;\nbut such is the kindness of God, that these two facts are sources of\nperpetual joy in the home. The wife is proud of her toiling husband,\nthe man is tender of his suffering wife; and in the bliss of childhood\nhappiness both find their reward.\n\nThese statements shrine all the facts of the separate histories of man\nand woman. It were easier to change earth to water, and sea to land,\nthan it is to make a womanly woman consent to appear manly. Her God\nmade her a woman. It is not a fault. It is a glory. The bird that\nskims the wave would not exchange places with the bird that goes to\nmeet the sun; but this is not to bring a charge against the eagle or\nthe swan.\n\nOne more truth, and then we will pass to the consideration of\nthe lessons discoverable in woman's nature. All the Scripture\nrequirements, such as refer to the plaiting of the hair, to being\nuncovered in public, are said to refer to the customs of the East, and\nnot to bind woman in this age of progress. The principle covered by\nthose requirements then, rules now. Paul said, Let not a Christian\nwoman break through any of the restraints of womanhood, and so appear\nas do the harlots, with uncovered faces and with plaited hair, who\nmingle freely with men, and are shorn of that modesty and weakness so\nbecoming woman. Woman's right to be a woman implies the right to be\nloved, to be respected as a woman, to be married, to bring forth to\nthe world the product of that love; and woman's highest interests are\npromoted by defending and maintaining this right.\n\nThere are those who object to the word _service_, and claim that those\nwho take the Bible as authority wish to reduce woman to slavery. No\ncharge could be more absurd; and God's care for woman is manifest,\nboth in the teachings of the Bible and in the constitution of the\nrace. Woman owes to Christianity all she enjoys. Leave her to be\nsubject to the conditions imposed on her by unregenerated manhood or\nwomanhood, and you leave her to become either a thing in society, or\nelse reduce her to a level with the beasts of burden. In old savage\nand pagan tribes the severest burdens of physical toil were laid upon\nher. She was valued for the same reason that men prize their most\nuseful animals, or as a means of gratifying sensual and selfish\ndesires. Even in the learned and dignified forms of modern paganism,\nthe wife is the slave rather than the companion of her husband. She\nis kept apart from him. The education of her mental faculties is\nneglected. She is not allowed to walk with him; she must walk behind\nhim. She must not eat with him, but eat after he has done, and eat\nwhat _he leaves_. She must not sleep until he is asleep, nor remain\nasleep after he is awake. If she is sitting down, and he comes into\nthe room, she must rise up. She must bow to no other god on the earth\nbesides her husband. She must worship him while he lives, and when he\ndies she must be burned with him. In case she is not burned, she is\nnot allowed to marry, and is considered an outcast. There is little\nsocial intercourse between the sexes, little or no acquaintance of the\nparties before marriage, and, consequently, little mutual attachment.\nWomen are not allowed to learn to read, because there can be no solid\nfoundation laid for future influence.\n\nUnder the Crescent the condition of woman is worse rather than better,\nfor in pagan India she is permitted to share in the hope of religion;\nbut in Mohammedan countries it is a popular tradition that women are\nforbidden paradise; and it requires some effort for the imagination to\nconceive how debased and wretched must be the condition of the\nfemale sex to originate and sustain such a horrible and blasphemous\ntradition.\n\nEven in the refined and shining ages of Greece and Rome, where the\ncultivation of letters and the graces of polished style, the charms\nof poetry and eloquence, the elegances of architecture, sculpture,\npainting, and embroidery, the glory of conquest and the pride of\nnational distinction, were unsurpassed,--even then and there, woman\nwas but the abject slave of man, the object of his ambition, avarice,\nlust, and power.\n\nTruly has it been said that nothing more surely distinguishes the\nsavage state from the civilized, the East from the West, Paganism from\nChristianity, antiquity from the middle ages, the middle ages from\nmodern times, than the condition of woman.\n\nIn China, she is used as a beast of burden. The Chinese peasant woman\ngoes to the field with her male infant on her back, and ploughs, sows,\nand reaps, exposed to all the changes of the weather. In Calcutta,\nwomen are the masons, and maybe seen daily conveying their hods of\ncement, and spreading it on the tops of their houses.\n\nIn a country where no European man can labor, where the native rests\nuntil compelled by his conqueror to work, seven thousand of these\nwomen might have been seen, in 1859, climbing to the edge of ravines,\nwith baskets of stone on their heads, to fill, with these tedious\ncontributions, thousands of perpendicular feet, in order that a\nrailroad might wind among the mountains.\n\nIn Australia, she carries the burden which man's indolence refuses;\nand in Great Britain, the condition of women among the lower classes,\nrevealed by the statistics of her mines and of her manufacturing\ndistricts, is such as to make a moralist blush. Behold her, with a\nstrap around her waist, dragging the coal-cart in the mine, and so\nignorant, that when asked if she knew Jesus, replied, \"He never worked\nin our shaft.\"\n\nDo we turn to America, we find that in the providence of God her\nfortune has been advanced and improved by the extension of the era of\nfree government, and by the diffusion of the principles of the gospel\nof Christ.\n\nTrue, in the past, throughout the South, a negro woman worked in the\nfield as a beast of burden; but emancipation and the diffusion of the\nprinciples of Christianity changes all this in the South, as it has\nchanged it in Turkey and in the East. The colored man builds for his\nwife a house, and toils for her in the field or shop, while she keeps\nthe house, and beautifies the sanctuary of the heart.\n\nNow, in all this land, woman's right to be a woman is recognized, and\n\"woman's right to be a man\" is opposed, though eloquent orators of\neither sex may declaim in its behalf. God's law, natural and revealed,\nis against it. Woman's nature will be woman's nature no longer when\nshe shall desire it.\n\nAn illustration of this fact was recently furnished. A female orator\nhad just left the platform for the horse-car. She was tired, and,\ndoubtless, needed a seat. She had been speaking in favor of woman's\nrights, and had berated the opposite sex for their unwillingness to\ngrant them. Worn out with fatigue, and excited, her lace red, her eyes\nflashing, she looked around for a seat. The car was full, and among\nthe number sitting down was a workingman.\n\nShe spoke so that all could hear her, saying, \"You are not gentlemen,\nor you would not let a woman stand.\" The workingman looked up, and\nreplied, \"Did I not just hear you speak in behalf of woman's\nrights?\" The woman, supposing she had found a friend, replied in\nthe affirmative. \"Well,\" said he, \"I will stand up any time, with\npleasure, for a housewife or a kitchen girl; but you contend for an\nequality of rights with men; take it, and stand up among them.\" The\nshout of approbation proved that the argument was not on the side of\nwoman. She did not herself believe in the theory advanced. Down in her\nheart she felt that, because she was a woman, she was entitled to be\ntreated with love and respect, with honor and consideration.\n\nThe right which exempts her from certain things which men must endure,\n_grows out of her right to be a woman_. We feel that it is her\nprivilege and her right to be relieved from the necessity of working\nin the field, from doing many things which it is manly in man to do.\n\nWe do not object to woman's sharing in the toil of the store, the\nshop, or the factory. Better this than idleness and want; yet there is\na reason for pondering the question whether woman is wise in trying to\ndisplace man for her own advantage. If any one must be idle, let it be\nwoman, and not man. It has been well said, \"There are in Massachusetts\nover seventy thousand more females than males, and probably twice\nthat number in the State of New York. It is an unnatural condition of\nthings. At the West the number of men greatly preponderates.\"\n\n\"Our young men go off early in life, leaving fathers, mothers, and\nsisters behind them. The prospect for their sisters to marry, then, is\nlessened by every emigration.\" Now, what shall be done in behalf of\nthese thousands of virtuous, educated, and noble girls? The cry is,\nmake them into clerks, and bookkeepers, and bankers, and give them all\nthe employments of men. Think it over. Suppose now we make these\ngirls into clerks in stores and counting-rooms, say ten thousand in\nMassachusetts, and twenty thousand in New York--don't we displace\nso many young men; drive them off to the West; prevent so many new\nfamilies from being established here; take away thirty thousand\nchances of marriage from these females, and enhance the evil we are\ntrying to remedy?\n\nIs it a blessing to woman to lessen her opportunities of marriage?\n\nAgain, a woman can be idle, and not be lost. Whereas man, if left\nunemployed, runs to mischief, if not to crime.\n\nThe history of those manufacturing districts in England, so eloquently\ndescribed by Charlotte Elizabeth, where woman is preferred because of\nthe cheapness and skill of her labor, proves this position correct.\nThe husband lives in idleness, and has the care of the house. The\nresult is, that comfort and neatness are at an end. The children are\nreared in crime, in indolence; the men pass their time in drinking and\nin gambling, prostitution abounds, and the health of the community,\nsocially, physically, mentally, and morally, is destroyed.\n\nOn the other hand, enter one of those manufacturing towns where the\nskilled labor of man is rewarded, and where women keep the house with\nthrift and care, and you behold order, virtue, and prosperity. This is\nnot poetry. It is fact. It proves that God's laws must be heeded and\nobeyed. \"Marriage,\" said Gail Hamilton, \"is a friendship of the sexes\nso profound, so comprehensive, that it includes the whole being. The\ninflow of the divine life,\n\n  \"'Bright effluence of bright essence increate,'\n\n\"blends the man nature and the woman nature into an absolute oneness,\nwhich shapes itself ever thereafter into the only perfect symmetry.\nThus alone comes humanity in the unity of the faith, and of the\nknowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of\nthe stature of the fulness of Christ. Thus marriage forever tends to\nits own annihilation,--not the annihilation of a stream swallowed up\nin desert sands, but of a river broadening to the boundless sea. The\nmore perfect its substance, the more yielding its form. As it gathers\npower it diminishes pomp, till, by a pathway which the vulture's eye\nhath not seen and never can see, marriage itself leads to the land\nwhere they neither marry nor are given in marriage.\n\n\"Wherever man pays reverence to woman,--wherever any man feels the\ninfluence of any woman, purifying, chastening, abashing, strengthening\nhim against temptation, shielding him from evil, ministering to his\nself-respect, medicining his weariness, peopling his solitude, winning\nhim from sordid prizes, enlivening his monotonous days with mirth, or\nfancy, or wit, flashing heaven upon his earth, and mellowing it for\nall spiritual fertility,--there is the element of marriage. Wherever\nwoman pays reverence to man,--wherever any woman rejoices in the\nstrength of any man, feels it to be God's agent, upholding her\nweakness, confirming her purpose, and crowning her power,--wherever\nhe reveals himself to her, just, upright, inflexible, yet tolerant,\nmerciful, benignant, not unruffled, perhaps, but not overcome by the\nworld's turbulence, and responding to all her gentleness, his feet\non the earth, his head among the stars, helping her to hold her\nsoul steadfast in right, to stand firm against the encroachments of\nfrivolity, vanity, impatience, fatigue, and discouragement, helping to\npreserve her good nature, to develop her energy, to consolidate\nher thought, to utilize her benevolence, to exalt and illumine her\nlife,--there is the essence of marriage. Its love is founded on\nrespect, and increases self-respect at the very moment of merging\nitself in another. Its love is mutual, equally giving and receiving\nat every instant of its action. There is neither dependence nor\nindependence, but inter-dependence. Years cannot weaken its bonds,\ndistance cannot sunder them. It is a love which vanquishes the grave,\nand transfigures death itself into life.\"\n\nThese laws are varied by God's word, and written indelibly upon the\nnature of man. Surely nothing can be more manifest than that they must\nbe obeyed.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\n_Nature teaches us the Wisdom of adhering to the Divine Plan_.\n\n\nAnatomists tell us that in the embryo skeleton there is a marked\ndifference of general conformation in the two sexes; that in the male\nthere is a larger chest and breathing apparatus, which, affects the\nwhole organization, forming a more powerful muscular system, and\nproducing a physical constitution which predestines him to bold\nenterprises and daring exploits. The woman, being differently\nconstructed, finds it natural to content herself in the house, removed\nfrom the gaze of the world, and from rude contact with its jostling\ncares.\n\nThere is an outside and an inside world. The work of the street, or\nthe shop, or the field, is no more essential to the well-being of the\nfamily than is the work performed in the house. God assigned to man\nthe field, or out-door work, and to woman the home and housework. In\nproportion as men and women fill well their separate spheres, there is\nharmony and happiness. Man toils, and provides for the wants of his\nhousehold. Woman toils, and sees to it that the children are well\nreared, and that the house is well kept. Woman is respected and\nsupported, not in idleness, but in caring for the wants of those\ncommitted to her care. The attempt is being made to disregard these\nnatural laws, by those who claim to have outgrown divine legislation,\nand who have the hardihood to trample upon the laws of nature. But in\nvain. When God made our first parents, he made them male and female,\nand it will not be difficult to believe in the impossibility of the\nfinite being able to undo the work of the Infinite. Each has his and\nher place, and nothing goes continuously right if husband and wife\nchange places. Keep the positions assigned them by the laws of God and\nnature, and all will go well.\n\nGive to woman the serious consideration due from every man born of\nwoman's agony, and you build her up in love, endow her with respect,\nencourage her to cultivate her mind, and to develop the graces of her\nnature. The mightiest influence which exists upon earth is concealed\nin the heart of woman. It follows that her elevation and her\nhappiness, her education and usefulness, are objects of deep concern.\nWe have seen that the legislation of Heaven provides for the\ngratification of the early longing of the soul for companionship in\nmaking marriage honorable and love the holiest of instincts.\n\nIt is fashionable to talk against an early love. It is wrong thus to\ndo. \"Youth longeth for a kindred spirit, and yearneth for a heart that\ncan commune with his own. He meditateth night and day, doting on the\nimage of his fancy.\" It is the tendency of an early love to inspire\nyouth with grand aspirations and lofty aims. \"They that love early,\nshall become like-minded, and the tempter shall touch them not. They\nshall grow up, leaning on each other, as the olive and the vine.\"\n\nIt is only when love is scorned, when passion takes its place, when\nman forgets that the idol of his heart is a probationer of earth like\nhimself, that it is his duty to be chary of her soul, feeling that it\nis his jewel. It is only when a man ceases to be a man, and becomes a\nbeast, that he can consent, even in thought, to despoil woman of her\nvirtue; to trample upon the sacred instincts of her nobler nature.\nA real woman will delight to make herself worthy of love. In the\nadvancement of her mind, quite as much as in the adornment of her\nperson, she strives to make herself beautiful as well as lovable. If\nshe forgets her duty, and consents to seem to be what she is not, so\nthat her admirer finds that the appearance which charmed him was not\nreal, then the future of that woman is dark indeed. Her husband will\ndiscover, when too late, that \"the harp and the voice may thrill him,\nsound may enchant his ear, but, by and by, the hand will wither, and\nthe sweet notes turn to discord; the eye, so brilliant at even, may be\nred with sorrow in the morning; and the sylph-like form of elegance\nmust writhe in the crampings of pain.\"\n\nNaturally the man and woman will recognize the rule of God in the\nchoice of their vocation. He will go abroad, and she will stay at\nhome. He will earn the bread, and she will make it. He will build the\nhouse, and she will keep it. The difference between their spheres of\nlabor seems naturally to be this: one is external, the other internal;\none active, the other passive. He has to go and seek out his path;\nhers usually lies close under her feet. Yet, if life is meant to be a\nworthy one, each must resolutely be trod.\n\n  \"When the man wants weight, the woman takes it up,\n  And topples down the scales; but this is fixt\n  As are the roots of earth and base of all:\n  Man for the field, and woman for the hearth;\n  Man for the sword, and for the needle she;\n  Man with the head, and woman with the heart;\n  Man to command, and woman to obey;\n  All else confusion.\"\n\nWoman is not content to remain separate and apart. She will give her\nlove to some object, and desires to repose her faith in some person\nworthy of her regard. She lives for man. She dresses and studies for\nhim. She acquires knowledge and accomplishments, which are known to\nplease and to allure.\n\nWoman, being by nature dependent, finds it easier to lay hold of the\noffer of salvation than does man. His independent spirit keeps him\nback. Woman has only to recognize her dependence upon One higher than\nman, and in doing this is obliged to do but little violence to\nher habits of thought and feeling, and no violence at all to such\nsentiments of independence as stand most in the way of man. Hence men\nshrink with horror from coming in contact with a godless woman. In\ntheir eyes she is monstrous, unreasonable and offensive. Even an\nutterly godless man, unless he be debauched and debased to the\nposition of an animal, deems such a woman without an excuse. He looks\non her with suspicion. He would not intrust his children to her care.\nOh happy lot, and hallowed even as the joy of angels, where the golden\nchain of godliness is entwined with the roses of love, as one of our\nown poets wrote:--\n\n  \"O, what is woman--what her smile,\n  Her lip of love, her eye of light;\n  What is she if her lip revile\n  The lowly Jesus? Love may write\n  His name upon her noble brow,\n  Or linger in her curls of jet;\n  The bright spring flowers may scarcely bow\n  Beneath her step, and yet, and yet\n  Without that meeker grace, she'll be\n  A lighter thing than vanity.\"\n\nThus wrote N.P. Willis. He felt that a woman, with Christ in her\nheart, was the _beau ideal_ of man. The home is her kingdom, and\nthe heart of husband or brother is her throne. In that sphere her\ninfluence is the most potent instrumentality on earth.\n\nDemosthenes declared that by this influence she can in an hour upset\nthe legislation of a year of statesmanship. Her power is, however,\nthrough man, not apart from him.\n\nThis is the scriptural view. Nowhere do we read of woman as though\nshe had a mission apart from man. We talk of men and forget women. It\nseems almost impossible to legislate for woman and forget man.\n\nMankind includes womankind, but womankind does not include mankind.\n\nIt may not be complimentary, yet it remains true, that the Scriptures\nfail to furnish us with a model woman.\n\nJesus was the model man; but Eve, and Mary, and Rebekah, and Rachel,\nwere model women to none besides those to whom they were given as\nwives. This, perhaps, is well, for it would be injudicious to try and\nprove to any man that his wife should differ radically from herself.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n_Having considered the teachings of the Scripture and of Nature, let\nus listen to the Voice of Common Sense_.\n\n\nUnder this head we hesitate not to declare that the hope of woman lies\nin the recognition of the laws of God, and the laws of her own higher\nnature.\n\nLook at the facts. Who demand the ballot for woman? They are not the\nlovers of God, nor are they the believers in Christ, as a class. There\nmay be exceptions, but the majority prefer an infidel's cheer to the\nfavor of God and the love of the Christian community. It is because of\nthis tendency that the majority of those who contend for the ballot\nfor woman cut loose from the legislation of Heaven, from the\nenjoyments of home, and drift to infidelity and ruin.\n\nOur wives and mothers do not ask the ballot. Our young ladies do not\ncare even to hear the question discussed. They believe that whatever\nhinders woman from being the helpmeet of man does her injury. It is\nclaimed that woman needs the ballot to secure equal laws. This claim\nis urged, because, it is said, women are required to obey laws which\nthey had no share in making. It is a mistaken notion. Woman has had\na share in the legislation of the country. Her influence pervades\nsociety. Let her be true to temperance, and intemperance is\nrestrained. Let her be true to freedom, and the pulsations of her\nheart find their way through the entire framework of society. Let her\nbe true to her own glorious nature, and this attempt to unsex and\ndiscrown her will meet with the swift and terrible condemnation it\ndeserves.\n\nAnother has said, \"The Amazons have often been met with the statement,\nthat a large majority of the women do not wish to vote, and would\nnot if they could. The truth of this statement is not denied. The\nadvocates of the ballot confess that many noble women affect a womanly\nhorror of being thought strong-minded,\" and to offset this tendency\nthey declare it to be the \"imperative duty of women to claim the\nsuffrage.\" \"Does this mean that women are to be coerced in this\nmatter? that our mothers, wives, and sisters are to be punished for\nstaying away from the polls? We have never supposed it the imperative\nduty of every man to vote. And we know that many of the most\nintelligent and upright do not vote. Such is the inexpressible\nnastiness of our elections, especially in the larger cities, that men\nof the cleanest morals think it right to keep away from them. The\nfoulest portions of the men go first, stay longest, and stand thickest\nat the places of voting. How then will it be when the foulest portion\nof the women get packed into the same crowd, and drive modesty away by\nthe foulness of their speech and presence? When the aggregate filth of\nboth sexes shall have met together at the polling stations, as it will\nbe sure to do, we hardly think any chaste or modest home-loving woman\nwill go near this stench unless compelled to do so.\"\n\nIt is because this scheme lifts the gate to the increasing wave\nof corruption and pollution, that we are surprised that so-called\nstatesmen give their countenance to it. Give to woman the ballot, and\nthis country is hopelessly given up to Romanism. The priest loses the\nman, but he keeps the woman. Give to the priests the control of the\nvotes of the thousands of servants in the great cities, and there is\nan end to legislation in behalf of the Sabbath, the Bible, and the\nschool system, temperance, or morality.\n\nThe right to vote implies the right to rule, to legislate, to go to\nCongress, and to take the Presidential chair. On this point hear Miss\nMuloch. \"Who that ever listened for two hours to the verbose confused\ninanities of a ladies' committee, would immediately go and give his\nvote for a Female House of Congress, or of Commons? or who, on\nthe receipt of a lady's letter of business,--I speak of the\naverage,--would henceforth desire to have our courts of justice\nstocked with matronly lawyers, or thronged by\n\n  \"'Sweet girl graduates, with their golden hair?'\"\n\nWell has Gail Hamilton said, \"How will the possession of the ballot\naffect in any way the vexed question of work and wages? One orator\nsays, 'Shall Senators tell me in their places that I have no need of\nthe ballot, when forty thousand women in the city of New York alone\nare earning their daily bread at starving prices with the needle?' But\nwhat will the ballot do for those forty thousand women when they get\nit? It will not give them husbands, nor make their thriftless husbands\nprovident, nor their invalid husbands healthy. They cannot vote\nthemselves out of their dark, unwholesome sewing-rooms into\ncounting-rooms and insurance offices, nor have they generally the\nqualifications which these places require. _The ballot will not enable\nthem to do anything for which their constitution or their education\nhas not fitted them, and I do not know of any law now which prevents\nthem from doing anything for which they are fitted, except the holding\nof government offices._ ... What can the ballot do towards equalizing\nwages, where work is already equalized without affecting wages, as is\nnot unfrequently the case? There are shops of the same sort, on the\nsame street, with male clerks in one and female clerks in another,\nwhere the former work fewer hours and receive higher wages than the\nlatter.... Moreover, the question of female clerkship is not\nyet settled. There are conscientious, intelligent, and obliging\nshopkeepers, who say that female clerks are not satisfactory. Their\nstrength is not equal to the draughts made upon it. They are not able\nto stand so long as clerks are required to stand. They have not the\npatience, the civility, the tact that male clerks have.... All the\nvoting in the world can never add a cubit to a woman's stature.\"\n\nWoman is not naturally a law-maker. Even in our homes she desires\nthe head of the house to lay down the law. Never shall I forget the\ninfluence exerted by the utterance in a convention of Sabbath school\nteachers. A paper was read, complaining that in a certain Sabbath\nschool there was a lady superintendent, because no man could be found\nto take the place. In conclusion, the writer said, \"We need a man in\nour town. We have things that wear pantaloons, but we need a man, to\ngive direction to the school, and to attract the nobler and better\nportion of community.\" It was an honest declaration, and voiced a\ntruth. Every town, every Sabbath school, every home, needs a man.\nWomen of talent have tried to figure in politics and in the pulpit,\nbut a sorry figure they have made of it.\n\nThink of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton in the train of George Francis\nTrain, perambulating the country in favor of the ballot in Kansas.\nThese are the leaders; but let it not be forgotten that they\nsided against the ballot for the negro in hopes of getting it for\nthemselves, and proved their utter worthlessness and untrustworthiness\nby trailing the banner committed to their keeping in the slime of a\nconvention which went for the repudiation of the national debt, the\ndefeat of the party of progress, and for the overthrow of republican\nliberty. Had woman possessed the ballot, and had the course pursued by\nthe leaders of this movement exercised an influence over the majority,\nthis wonderful victory over the rebellious spirits of the land had\nnot been achieved; but, in its stead, the stars and bars would have\nresumed their sway, and the stars and stripes, which now kiss the\nbreeze, and greet the rising hopes of uncounted millions, would have\nbeen furled in gloom and night.\n\nIt is claimed that the ballot will secure for woman social respect.\nThe claim is not well founded. Those who seek it lose social respect,\nbecause they step out of the path marked out for them by Providence\nand by Nature. Woman, in her sphere, is man's good angel and helpmeet;\nout of it, she is man's bitterest foe and heaviest curse.\n\nThere is an instinctive respect for woman in her proper sphere, which\nis of itself a power superior to any merely conventional position that\na woman can build up for herself by her own hands, even through the\naid of the ballot.\n\nHow natural to see woman waited on by man! Sir Walter Raleigh was\npraised because he cast his cloak into the mud to save the foot of his\nQueen from being soiled. As noble acts have been performed by many\nmen, times without number. The uprising of gentlemen in the cars when\na tired woman enters with a child; the disposition to lighten her\ncares and sweeten her joys, is everywhere considered manly.\n\nEducation is essential for her. She is the educator of the home, for\nshe is its soul. If one must be ignorant, let it be the man, and not\nthe woman. Many of our most intelligent men have had cultured mothers.\nVery few sons ever grew to be learned whose mothers cared not for\nbooks. This fact is appreciated, and leads us naturally to conclude\nthat if woman lacks social respect it is her own fault. If a woman\nprefers superficiality to thoroughness; music, drawing, and dress, to\na knowledge of housework, an acquaintance with literature, and the\nendowments of common sense, simply because brainless men are disposed\nto seek out the effeminate and the frail in preference to the rugged\nand the well-endowed, then she must suffer the consequences. If a\nyoung lady, compelled to toil for support, will prefer the factory or\nthe store, with its hot air and depressing associations, to work in\nthe home, because she hopes in the store or factory to secure the\nhand and heart of a husband sooner than elsewhere, she must suffer\naccordingly. But if woman will unite in securing a reform in this\ndirection,--if the pure and the virtuous will say, Such a life as is\noffered me in the family is in harmony with my future well-being, and\nI will scorn the allurements elsewhere held out, and fit myself, by\nstudy, for companionship with the noble of the land, she will succeed.\nIf woman will respect herself, she will be respected.\n\nIt is not by clamoring for rights that have been conferred upon\nothers; it is not by restless discontent, by partisan appeals, by\nstepping out of her God-given sphere, and by attempting to destroy the\nnetwork of holy influences by which he ever has surrounded her; it is\nnot by ridiculing marriage and casting scorn on motherhood, that she\nis to obtain the blessings she courts, but by tranquilly laboring\nunder this heaven-imposed law of obedience. Woman's weakness is\ntransmuted into strength when she opens her nature to the influences\nof love, and when she consecrates herself to the happiness of others.\nThen it is she obtains a moral and spiritual power to which man\nis glad to do homage. Ambition, pride, wilfulness, or any earthly\npassion, will distort her being. She struggles all in vain against\na divine appointment. It is from the soul of meekness that the true\nstrength of womanhood is derived; and it is because it has its root in\nsuch a soil that it has a growth so majestic, showering its blessing\nand fruits upon the world.\n\nIt was the sun and the wind that in the fable strove for the mastery;\nand the strife was for the traveller's cloak. The quiet moon had\nnought to do with such fierce rivalry of the burning or the blast;\nbut as in her tranquil orbit she journeys round the world, she gently\nsways the tides of the ocean. Woman's influence resembles that exerted\nby the queen of night. In the conflicts of life she has little to do;\nbut her influence is felt from the cradle to the grave, and the sphere\nof it is the whole region of humanity. Woman's worst enemy is he who\nwould cruelly lift her out of her sphere, and would try to reverse the\nlaws of God and of nature in her behalf. They deceive woman who cause\nher to believe that she will find independence when she abandons the\nposition assigned her by her Creator, and reaches one against which\nher nature, the interests of society, and the laws of God contend.\nWoman has her sphere and her work, and she is only happy when she\nfinds pleasure in lovingly, patiently, and faithfully performing the\nduties and enacting the relations that belong to her as woman. She is\nnot the natural head of society. Man, rough, stern, cold, and almost\nnerveless, is made to be the head of human society; and woman, quick,\nsensitive, pliant (as her name indicates), gentle, loving, is the\nheart of the world. As the heart, she has power. She rules through\nlove, and finds the work set for her to do in the doors opening before\nher loving nature. She rules through love, and becomes a blessing\ngreater than we can ever acknowledge, because it is greater than we\ncan measure. Let woman take heart. She is not in captivity. The law of\nservice is on her, as it is on man. Much of her service consists in\nsuffering; much of man's consists in toil. Before both there are\nfields of endeavor, white with beckoning harvests. In literature, in\nreforms, in ministering to the wants and woes of humanity, in making\nhome more and more like heaven, woman has an open door set before her,\nwhich no man will desire to close. Let her enter it and work. There\nis a law of companionship far deeper than that of uniformity and\nequality, or similarity--the law which reconciles similitude and\ndissimilitude, the harmony of contrast, in which what is wanting on\nthe one side finds its complement on the other; for,--\n\n  \"Heart with heart and mind with mind,\n  When the main fibres are entwined,\n    Through Nature's skill,\n  May even by contraries be joined\n  More closely still.\"\n\nSuch was the exquisite companionship of the sexes as they were\nrepresented by our first parents, and such, however they may be\nmomentarily disturbed, they will remain, as the ideal for all the\ngenerations of men and women. Let woman repose her trust in man, and\nthen, lifting up her heart, she may sing,--\n\n  \"Though God's high things are not all ours,\n    'Tis ours to look above;\n  All is not ours to have and hold,\n    But all is ours to love.\"","title":"The True Woman: A Series of Discourses, to Which Is Added Woman vs. Ballot","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":48051}