WOMAN EXPOUNDS HER OWN SUBJECT--THE FALL--HER REDEMPTION FROM THE
CURSE--RETURNING INTO THE PRESENCE OF HER FATHER--HER EXALTATION.
The high priestess thus expounds the subject of woman, from her Mormon
standpoint:
In the Garden of Eden, before the act of disobedience, through which
Adam and Eve were shut out from the presence of God, it is reasonable
to suppose that Eve's position was not inferior to, but equal with,
that of Adam, and that the same law was applicable to both. Moses says,
"God created man male and female." President Brigham Young says, "Woman
is man in the priesthood."
God not only foreknew, but he had a purpose to accomplish through, the
"fall;" for he had provided a sacrifice; Jesus being spoken of as a
"Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
It seems that woman took the lead in the great drama. The curse
followed, and she became subject to man; "and he shall rule over
thee," which presupposes a previous equality. But was that curse to
be perpetual? Were the daughters of Eve--who was a willing instrument
in effecting a grand purpose, that shall ultimate in great good to
the human family--to abide that curse forever? No. God had otherwise
ordained. Through the atoning blood of Christ, and obedience to his
gospel, a plan was devised to remove the curse and bring the sons and
daughters of Adam and Eve, not only to their primeval standing in the
presence of God, but to a far higher state of glory.
In the meridian of time, the Saviour came and introduced the gospel,
"which before was preached unto Abraham," and which, after a lapse
of nearly eighteen centuries--when men had "changed its ordinances,
and broken the everlasting covenant"--when "the man of sin had been
revealed, exalting himself above all that is called God"--after
hireling priests had mutilated its form, discarded its powers, and
rejected "the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophesy," the
Lord restored it in fullness to the earth, with all its gifts, powers,
blessings and ordinances.
For this purpose he raised up Joseph Smith, the great prophet of the
last days, to whom the angel that John, when on the Isle of Patmos, saw
"flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to
preach to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, saying, fear God
and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come," etc.,
appeared, and announced the glorious news of the Dispensation of the
Fullness of Times, and the restoration of the fullness of the gospel.
This gospel, and this only, will redeem woman from the curse primevally
entailed. It is generally admitted that "Christianity" ameliorates
the condition of woman; but the Christianity of the professing world,
mutilated as it has been, can only ameliorate, it cannot redeem.
Each religious denomination has fragments or portions of the true
form, but no vestige of the vital power that was manifested by Jesus
Christ, and restored through Joseph Smith. Nothing short of obedience
to this gospel in its fullness will exalt woman to equality with man,
and elevate mankind to a higher condition than we occupied in our
pre-existent state.
Woman, in all enlightened countries, wields, directly or indirectly,
the moving influence for good or for ill. It has been pertinently
remarked: "Show me the women of a nation, and I will describe that
nation." Let the pages of history decide if ever a nation became
a wreck, so long as woman nobly honored her being by faithfully
maintaining the principles of virtuous purity, and filled with grace
and dignity her position as wife and mother.
Would God, the kind parent, the loving father, have permitted his
children to sink into the fallen condition which characterizes humanity
in its present degraded state, without instituting means by which
great good would result? Would we, as intelligent beings in a former
existence, have consented, as we did, to resign the remembrance and
all recollection of that existence, and come down to earth and run
our chances for good or evil, did we not know that, on reasonable
conditions, and by means provided, we could work our way back to, at
least, our original positions? Emphatically, no! It is only by that
"spirit which searches all things, yea, even the deep things of God,"
that we can comprehend our own beings, and our missions on the earth,
with the bearing of our pre-existence on our present lives, of which we
only know what God reveals; and, as man, by his own wisdom cannot find
out God, so man by reasoning cannot pry into the circumstances of his
former life, nor extend his researches into the interminable eternities
that lie beyond.