To understand the tragedies of the present, it is essential that we
re-read the tragedies of the past. Too many, in forming their opinions
of what should be, ignore in their calculations what has been, and
what must be. Those who are dissatisfied with the position assigned to
woman, must recall the fact that God's decrees are unchangeable. We
may resist them, but we cannot destroy them. They were in existence,
before our birth; they will survive our dissolution. It is for us to
recognize God as Ruler as well as Creator, and adjust our views, our
lives, and our labors in accordance with an infinitely wise system,
formed in the counsels of an eternity past, and running on to the
eternity of the future.
If we speak of Woman as God Made Her, of Woman as a Helpmeet, we find
a warrant for it in the Word of God. In Eden she was God's ally. When
she fell, she became, in sin, the ally of Satan. The truth may be
unpalatable, but it is the truth.
In considering woman as a mother, we stand on the hill-top of the
past. Before us lies a valley, stretching on from the ruin wrought in
Eden by sin, to the restoration wrought in the world by Christ. During
these ages of wickedness, of sorrow, and of crime, woman felt the
curse heavy upon her. She was made to feel that the _woe_ pronounced
upon her was a fact; and yet, during all these ages of trial, there
was a gleam of hope shining into her soul, because God said, "And I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed; he shall bruise thee on the head, and thou shalt bruise him
on the heel." Thus there came to woman, who had the first encounter
with the wily enemy of the race, the hope of a triumph over, and a
subjugation of this enemy, through her offspring. It is an instinct of
a boy to crush the head of a snake; but you cannot readily get a girl
to do so: she will run from the beast so identified with her sorrow.
The reason for this is explained in the prophecy of Eden. In a
mystical sense, Christ, the deliverer foretold in Genesis, the eminent
seed of the woman, was to bruise the head of the "old serpent, the
devil," that is, destroy him, and all his principalities and powers,
break and confound all his schemes and ruin all his works, crush his
whole empire, strip him of his sovereignty and authority, of his power
over death, and his tyranny over the bodies and souls of men. Here,
then, was a purpose worth living for and suffering for. True, Satan,
or the serpent, is to bruise his heel, or wound his human nature; but
there is no promise of his triumph.
It is not difficult to discover how this hope must have thrilled the
heart of Eve with joy. Her life was not to be a failure. Though clouds
might rest upon her, it was impossible to shut out the fact that the
star of hope was soon to rise, and to usher in the dawn of a glorious
day.
Much has been written against the fact that a daughter is not prized
in a home as much as is a son. We can understand it, when we go back
to Eden and see that the seed of the woman, called "_a he_," a male
child, was to be the instrument of working out the disinthralment
of the race. The feminine gender is sometimes used in declaring the
glories of the future. Zion is called a bride, but her glory is
all reflected from the bridegroom. Woman is a helpmeet, but the
king-bearer is the man Christ Jesus. The world turned from Christ
because he had the appearance of a man. It was a great mistake. It is
not a popular saying,--women say it is not complimentary to them to
declare it,--yet it remains true, that "God draws by the cords of a
man." All along the past men have been recognized as the gift of God.
Women rejoice when a man is born into the world; not that women are
disliked, but because there is something involved in life more than
mere existence. There are faint foreshadowings of the tasks laid on
the race. Work is to be done for God and man. Principalities and
powers are to be fought and overcome. An invisible world is in league
against the race, and an invisible God, once robed in flesh, and
living among men, is Our Advocate with God, our Redeemer and Saviour.
There is significance in the language, "I have gotten a man from the
Lord." The language of Eve, as a mother, furnishes the key-note to
that maternal song which yet floats through the world, which makes
women in China, in India, in Africa, and in South America, among the
inhabitants of Russia, and of Paraguay, anywhere and everywhere,
rejoice with the same old joy, when a man is born into the world,
because then she feels that somehow she has given birth to a hero and
a champion who shall be identified with that song of world-triumph
which is yet to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea; and the
only exception to this is found among the Hebrews, where a virgin was
revered as the possible mother of the Messiah, and so received her
dignity as a reflection from the man. To understand this problem of
human nature, we must go back to God, and study his word. Those who
reject the Word, of God are surrounded by mysteries which they cannot
solve. They behold tendencies, and instincts, and dispositions, which
are explained in Genesis, and which are parts of God's prophesies yet
to be fulfilled in this world. Ignoring the prophecy, they cannot
comprehend the facts of existence, which must exist and will exist,
whether men will hear or forbear.
Says a writer of some note, "The severe Nation which taught that the
happiness of the race was forfeited through the fault of a woman,
showed its thought of what sort of regard man viewed her, by making
him accuse her in the first question to his God,--who gave her to
the patriarch as a handmaid, and by the Mosaical law bound her to
allegiance like a serf,--even they greeted, with a solemn rapture, all
great and holy-women as heroines, prophetesses, judges in Israel; and
if they made Eve listen to the serpent, gave Mary as a bride to the
Holy Spirit. In other nations it has been the same down to our day."
In this extract, the Jewish nation and the Bible are referred to in
the same tone that we refer to Mahommedans and to the Koran. Is not
this tendency perceptible elsewhere? In looking at woman, we ignore
the Bible, and God, and history, and talk of her as though the past
had no influence with the present and future. The Bible, God, and
history have to do with the present and the future, and whoever
studies history has been compelled to recognize the truth. This same
writer was compelled to declare, "It is the destiny of man, in the
course of the ages, to ascertain and fulfil the law of his being, so
that his life shall be seen, as a whole, to be that of an angel or
messenger." This is his destiny, because it is God-given. Hence man
was the bearer of good tidings all along the past. Prophets were
generally men. Christ was a man. The apostles, Christ's chosen
standard-bearers, were men. The powers in the moral and spiritual
world are men. All that is great in history, all that thrones one
nation upon a mountain height and buries another in the fathomless
grave of infamy, comes from man. The ages were dark, because of the
lack of a man. Christ came, and the apostolic age became the noontime
of the world, not because of what the race did for themselves, but
because of what was done for the race. If a nation sinks, because the
man who has the brain, the wisdom, the power from God, is wanting, who
shall build up a people in hope, inspire them with grand resolves?
It will rise and prosper when the man comes. Christ was a necessity,
because infinite work was to be performed. Is he not a necessity now?
Is it not a man in Christ, and with Christ, who is ever the worker
on the earth? Christ speaks through the gospel, and "the key" of the
moral universe is still upon his shoulders. This hope and dream came
to Eve way back there in the confines of the wilderness, and so
incidentally as well as actually, she became identified with it, and
rejoiced when she could declare, "I have gotten a man from the Lord,"
whom she believed to be the "_promised seed_."
Notice, to Eve, as to woman now, a baby was more than a little child;
she saw in him all the possibilities of a man, who was to become a foe
worthy to meet the enemy of her soul. Her faith in this child to be
born was similar to our faith in the Child that was born in Bethlehem.
Hence her joy when she exclaimed, "I have gotten a man from the Lord."
It will seem to many as singular that there should be no mention of
the daughters born of Eve. The generations or names of men are given,
but not of the daughters. Even there and then the custom now prevalent
in the East found its origin. No account is made of the birth of a
daughter in that land. Congratulate a man upon the accession to
the family of a daughter, and the father will hide his shame with
difficulty, and exclaim, "O, that God had given me a son!"
Again, in reading this story some will be surprised to find no mention
made of the mother's grief when her youngest child was slain, and that
no mention is made of the mother's death. We know that after Seth was
born, Adam lived eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters;
but woman's curse bore fruit. Men ruled over her, and her
individuality was lost in the headship of Adam. Do not blame me for
saying it; I simply declare the fact. This state of things continued
until Christ came. When Mary gave birth to Jesus, woman resumed her
place. The curse was met by its antidote. From God came the wave of
influence which met the wave that flowed out from Eden, the conflict
began, higher and higher rose the flood, until the ark of hope by it
was placed on the mountain peak of human history, in sight of all
races, and tribes, and peoples of the whole world. Calvary is set over
against Ararat, as Mary is set over against Eve. After the birth-song
of Eden came the tragedy, in which Abel lost his life and Cain his
character. After the birth-song of Bethlehem came the tragedy of
Calvary, in which Christ gave up his life, that he might open to man,
enveloped in the ruins of the fall, a way back to the Eden in reserve
for the redeemed.
In speaking of Eve as a mother, there is little that can be said
founded on fact. Eve passes from sight, though the prophecy, "And I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed; he shall bruise thee on the head, and thou shall bruise him
on the heel," worked on, and lived on, and found its fulfilment in the
triumph won by Christ. It is certainly significant, that Eve, through
whom sin came, should pass out of the world's mind, and Mary, through
whom Christ came, should vault to a seat in the affections of a world?
Is it not also significant that Mary should become an object of
worship to many millions of people in this and in other lands, and
that Satan, through Mariolatry, should strive to do in the New
Dispensation what he wrought by Idolatry in the Old? The opposition of
Satan runs on. The purposes of God run on. The prophesies of the Word
of God abide, and are sure of fulfilment, in spite of Satan. Against
prophecy combinations of men and nations have united; but the truths
sweep on resistlessly, and reach the destination for which God
ordained them.
The curse that came to woman in the hour of her fall rested on her
until Christ came. "Unto thy husband shall be thy desire,"--an
expression of subordination and dependence. "He shall rule over thee,"
expresses the general effect of the apostasy on woman's relations in
the married state. The stronger party in this relation, instead of
being the guardian and protector of the weaker, did use his superior
power to oppress and debase her. Such has always been the case, except
so far as the influence of revelation has counteracted the evils of
the fall, such is the case to-day. Woman owes her recognition to
Christ, and she is indebted for her position in the civilized portions
of the world wholly to the gospel. Wherever Christ is not worshipped
woman is despised.
Woman as a mother, under the Old Dispensation, differs in many
important respects from woman as a mother under the New. The history
of woman is divided into three portions: 1. Woman as God made her; 2.
Woman as Sin made her; 3. Woman as Christ made her.
1. The position of woman, between her humiliation in Eden and her
restoration in Bethlehem, was in many respects sad to contemplate.
She was more of a slave than an equal. Eve passes, unrecognized and
unnamed, to her grave. Sarah, the wife of Abram, finds mention, and is
described in such a manner that you behold her sharing her husband's
love, though the picture of her in the home is not a pleasant one. We
can hardly understand how Abram could have suffered her to enter the
house of Abimelech, nor how she could have taken Hagar to her husband,
and thus again have led man astray--the man whom God called to be the
Father of the Faithful. Eve, the mother of the race, tempted Adam, and
Sarah, the mother of the patriarchs, tempted Abram; and lack of faith
in God was the cause of their ruin, and consequent humiliation. There
is something sad about the manner of her life. Her home was a simple
tent, surrounded by flocks and herds, and crowded with rubbish of
every description. Woman in the East is very much to-day what Adam
saw her on his first entrance into the wilderness. The effects of sin
followed her from generation to generation. The gloom of the night is
still over her as she spends her days in out-door labor. She weeds the
cotton, and assists in pruning the vine and gathering the grapes.
She goes forth in the morning, bearing not only her implements of
husbandry, but also her babes in the cradle; and returning in the
evening, she prepares her husband's supper and sets it before him, but
never thinks of eating of it until after he is done. One of the early
objections the Nestorians made to the Female Seminary was, that it
would disqualify their daughters for their accustomed toil. In after
years woman might be seen carrying her Spelling-book to the field
along with her Persian hoe, little dreaming that she was thus taking
the first step towards the substitution of the new implement for the
old.
Nestorian parents used to consider the birth of a daughter a great
calamity. When asked the number of their children, they would count up
their sons, and make no mention of their daughters. The birth of a son
was an occasion for great joy and giving of gifts. Neighbors hastened
to congratulate the happy father, but days might elapse before the
neighborhood knew of the birth of a daughter. It was deemed highly
improper to inquire after the health of a wife, and the nearest
approach to it was to ask after the house or household. Formerly a man
never called his wife by name, but in speaking of her would say the
mother of "so and so," giving the name of the child; or the daughter
of "so and so," giving the name of her father; or simply that woman
did this or that. Nor did the wife presume to call her husband's name,
or to address him in the presence of his parents, who, it will be
borne in mind, lived in the same apartment. They were married very
young, often at the age of fourteen, and without any consultation of
their own preference, either as to time or person.
There was hardly a man among the Nestorians who did not beat his wife
when the missionaries commenced their labors. The women expected to be
beaten, and took it as a matter of course. When the men wished to talk
together of anything important, they usually sent the women out
of doors or to the stable, as unable to understand or unfit to be
trusted. In some cases, says the author of "Woman and Her Saviour,"
this might be a necessary precaution; for the absence of true
affection, and the frequency of domestic broils, rendered the wife an
unsafe depositary of any important family affair.[A]
[Footnote A: Woman and her Saviour, pp. 18 and 19.]
In Paraguay a female child is described by Southey as lamenting, in
heart-breaking tones, that her mother did not kill her when she was
born; and Sir A. Mackenzie declares that there is a class of women
in the north who performed this pious duty towards female infants,
whenever they had an opportunity. But wherever Christ is known and
loved, the daughter is a gift of God as well as a son. Woman owes to
her Saviour all she has of joy in time, as well as all she has of
hope in eternity. Though she does not obtain the headship, though her
sorrow and her pain are not removed, though her desire continues to be
to her husband, and though the rule of the husband continues in every
well-regulated home, yet woman is elevated to become a shareholder of
the pleasures of the home, of the honors and emoluments of life,
of the riches obtained by toil, and of the enjoyments derived from
culture. Woman in the Christian home is the soul, the pride, the
ornament, and the helper. Through Christ she obtains a recognition, so
that when we speak of man we mean the race, men and women, for these
become the two halves of one thought, so that no especial stress is
laid on the welfare of either, but the development of one is
secured by the development of the other. To such an extent have the
disabilities been removed from the sex, that a leading writer has
been compelled to admit, that "in our own country, women are, in many
respects, better situated than the men. Good books are allowed, with
more time to read them. They are not so early forced into the bustle
of life, nor so weighed down by demands for outward success. They
have time to think, and no traditions chain them, and few
conventionalities, compared with what must be met in other nations.
Doors swing open to them, and they are invited to walk the fields of
literary and artistic success, and whatever tends to the development
of their higher nature is freely placed within their reach."
2. _The trials of motherhood deserve notice_. We have seen the hopes
that came to Eve, and beheld their realization in and through Christ.
The trials were born of sin. Eve's eldest child, Cain, possessed a
narrow, selfish nature. He was a tiller of the ground. Abel was a
keeper of the sheep. The first born met this curse in the soil. The
second born looked forward to the restoration. In process of time Cain
brought of the fruit of the ground. Tradition has it that he brought
what was left of his food, of light and tempting things, flax or hemp
seed.
Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock, which was a proper type
of Christ. His offering pleased God, Cain's niggardly gift displeased
God. The selfish man wreaked his vengeance in the usual way. He slew
his brother, who was better than himself. The heavens are black with
gathering gloom. Murder is in the air. The shock is felt everywhere.
God comes, and sternly asks, "_Where is thy brother?_" Cain impudently
replies, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Then comes the curse. It is a
self-invited curse, for the gift he gave to God is the harvest in
future for himself. Ah, what a lesson. How early it is taught. If you
hate God, if you regret what you give, if you make it small, if you
see to it that you give the leavings rather than the firstlings, then
beware. Cain said his punishment was greater than he could bear. He is
getting back what he gave. The command is, Give, and it shall be given
back. The converse is true--Keep, and it shall be kept back.
The hopes of Eve were centred in the victory to be achieved over the
enemy of her life, by means of the triumph to be won by her children.
Her trials really began when she saw that sin was not an accident. It
was rebellion which bore fruit. Her treachery to God came back to her
in this treachery of her first born to her second child, whom she
loved with maternal tenderness. Thus the gates of evil were thrown
open, and they filled the land with violence, and the flood became a
necessity.
What was true of Eve was more or less true of woman until Christ
came. She inherited sorrow, and was born to a life of humiliation and
wretchedness. The history of woman in the olden time and at this hour,
wherever Christ is not known, is full of sorrow. In Christ she finds
an emancipator from sorrow.
There is another strange fact. In the Old Dispensation, the first born
son is the child of promise. But wherever the influence of Christ's
gospel rules, there the rule of the first born disappears, and all,
both sons and daughters, share in the patrimony of the house and in
the honors of the household. Despite this, it is natural for a father
to love his first born son the best, and for the mother to find her
heart clinging involuntarily to the younger and weaker. From the
unfortunate the father may turn, but the mother never. She will bind
her love tightest about the birdling that, from some misfortune, is
unable to leave the maternal nest.
Turn we to the Old Testament, we find that whenever man was brought
near to God, as was Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and others, woman was
held in respect, and was permitted to exercise an elevating influence
in the home; and yet it remains true, that in nearly every instance
she failed to prove herself a helpmeet.
Sarah introduced Abraham to polygamy, Rebekah was a pattern of lying,
and Rachel of deception. The three celebrated women of history are
destitute of those characteristics which make of a wife a companion,
counsellor, and friend.
Do we study the history of Miriam, of Deborah, and Esther? we behold
women rising up in the name of God to help their people to save their
kindred. They were the introduction to a noble succession. Woman then,
as now, is loved for bringing _help_ to those on whom God devolves
responsibility.
The picture best loved and most praised in the Old Testament is that
of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, as she fits him for his post of duty
in the service of the Lord. In Hannah the world finds their beau ideal
of a mother, actuated by principle and ruled by love, recognizing her
allegiance to God, and her obligations to her child and husband, and
there is hardly a child in this Christian land who does not dwell with
delight upon this fact, that each year the mother made for her boy a
little coat. It was a motherly deed, and links her to the history of
the race by the blessed tie which finds its origin in maternal care.
Ruth comes next, because of her fidelity to her mother, and her love
of virtue. It is by her life we are introduced afresh to the golden
vein of prophecy that runs through the Old Testament, and which ever
pointed towards the coming of Christ as the hope of woman and the
hope of the world. Esther's love of her race, and her noble daring
of Eastern despotism for the good of her people, lifts her to a high
place, though as a wife and mother we know nothing more than that she
was hedged round by the iron regulations of a paganized court. The
revelations made concerning the daughter of Jacob, or of Bathsheba,
the loved wife of David, and in fact of nearly all of the women of the
Bible, prove that the women of the olden time left as well as received
an inheritance of shame. The names we have mentioned are among the
brightest and the best. We will draw a veil over the characters of
women such as the wife of Lot, or of Potiphar, the would-be seducer
of Joseph, or of Job, the betrayer of her husband in misfortune, of
Jezebel, the fury, or of Delilah, the traitress to her husband, and of
a score of others, that make the age in which they lived seem like the
night of humanity.
3. _Woman obtains her recognition in Christ._ From the moment God
pronounced sentence upon Eve to the moment when the angel appeared
to Mary, man was recognized as the head. Even Miriam wrought through
Moses, and Deborah, the judge and prophetess, lays no claim to
personal communication with God, but quotes his promises, and
stimulates Barak to action, So also when the angel came from the court
of heaven to foretell the joy that was to come to the world in the
birth of John, the forerunner of Christ, he came to Zacharias instead
of to Elisabeth. But when the message related to Christ, _then the
angel passed by man, and approached woman direct_. God never forgets.
A thousand years are but as a day to Him. Yesterday, in Eden, he
foretold the coming of Christ to Eve. To-day, in Nazareth, the angel
comes to Mary, and makes her heart glad with the fact, that she
was chosen to become the mother of our Lord. Eve lost by sin God's
companionship. Mary obtained, through Christ, favor with God and man.
The valley is spanned with this arch of hope. The night of woman's
humiliation is passing away. And the angel came in unto her, and said,
"Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed
art thou among women."
Strange words these, as we can readily perceive, from the position
held by woman previously. No wonder that when she saw him, she was
troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her, "Fear not, Mary, for thou
hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shall conceive in thy
womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall
be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God
shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end." No wonder that the air seemed full of music. Woman, made so
beautiful, woman, so beloved of God, and so prized by Adam, before sin
blighted the bud of hope and spoiled the flower of beauty, was now to
come forth from the darkness and gloom of her life of shame to the
light of an unclouded day, henceforth to be made glorious by her
ministrations of love. The glory of motherhood "is the man gotten from
the Lord," and raised to work for God in this sinful world. The glory
of woman is to share this man's home as a helpmeet, and contribute by
her love, and sympathy, and efforts to his happiness and usefulness
here, that she may wear the crown of joy in heaven.