WOMANHOOD THE REGENERATING INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD--FROM EVE, THE
FIRST, TO MARY, THE SECOND EVE--GOD AND WOMAN THE HOPE OF MAN--WOMAN'S
APOSTLESHIP--JOSEPH VS. PAUL--THE WOMAN NATURE A PREDICATE OF THE
WORLD'S FUTURE.
In the beginning religion and nature dwelt together. The book of
creation was gospel then. Creation was the only revelation.
Motherhood is the first grace of God, manifested through woman. The
very name of all things is in the mother: "And Adam called his wife's
name Eve; because she was the mother of all living."
See in what divine ordinance woman's mission on earth began. The theme
of the initial psalm that ascended to the heavens, which listened to
catch from earth the first notes of the everlasting harmonies: "I have
gotten a man from the Lord!"
But the nature of the mother abounded not in Cain. Woman's soul was not
manifested in her first-born. It was the strength, and the fierceness,
and the selfishness of man that was first brought forth.
And Cain was very wroth because of his brother, born with woman's
nature, with his mother's gentleness manifested in him. And he "rose up
against his brother and slew him."
Here is pre-epitomized the coming history of the race. In the savage
strength of nature the world began. In the gentleness of woman, which
at length prevailed in her sons, civilization dawned.
Woman's apostleship as the minister of the "word of God" commenced at
the death of Abel.
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Turn we now to Mary, the mother of Christ, to see what kind of man she
"hath gotten from the Lord." From the first Eve to the second Eve, to
find the grace of woman's nature spreading abroad in her Jesus, for the
salvation of the world. Motherhood now in the regeneration.
"Hail thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed
art thou among women.
"And behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son,
and shalt call his name Jesus."
As also note the episode of her meeting with her cousin Elizabeth, the
mother of John the Baptist.
These mothers were conscious of the salvation to be born of woman.
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and blessed the greater
mother; and Mary magnified the Lord in psalm, and said: "Behold from
henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."
We shall yet have to give to the gospel word "regeneration" a very
literal meaning. The world must be regenerated, in fact, before much
salvation can come unto it; regenerated through the divine nature of
woman endowing her sons; and regenerated in her apostolic ministry to
the race; which in this age is being so universally acknowledged.
The world must be born again. "Except a man be born again, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of heaven." Except mankind be regenerated, no
Christ can reign with his saints on earth. There is something more than
mere figure of speech in this gospel.
The generation of mankind began in Cain; the regeneration of mankind
began in Christ. The one born with the club; the other endowed with
all-conquering love. The scepters of the two creations typed in Cain
and Jesus.
Jesus was not only the first fruits of the resurrection, but of the
regeneration also. And motherhood was (before fatherhood) first with
God in this regeneration. Has egotistic man sufficiently cogitated over
this fact? And does he fully comprehend the equally significant fact
that woman was the first witness and testament of the resurrection?
And who began the regeneration of the race? Whose human nature was
manifested in the work? The woman's!
God's nature in Christ needed no regeneration. Nor did the woman's
nature need regeneration, when thus found pure, as in Mary. This is the
great fact embodied in the Christ example. As soon may Christianity be
wiped out as this fact!
What an astounding truth have we in this example--that God and woman
have brought forth a perfect creation and an infinite love, in Jesus
their Christ.
God was the father of Jesus. From him the Holy Ghost. From him the
wisdom of the eternities. From him the power to call a legion of angels
down to his help, had he so willed it. From him the power to lay down
his life and take it up again. From him the power to conquer death and
burst the gates of hell.
The mother of Jesus--a virgin of the house of David, and not a flaming
goddess from the skies.
From woman, the love of Jesus for humanity. From her his sympathies
for the race. 'Twas she, in her son, who forgave sin; she who bade the
sinner go and sin no more; she who wept over Jerusalem as a mother
weepeth over her young. And it was woman, in her son, who died upon the
cross for the sins of the world!
It was not God the father who in Jesus died; not he who passed the dark
hour of nature's struggle in the garden; not God who prayed, "Take away
this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt."
'Twas woman who was left alone on the cross; she, in her son, who
cried, "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?"
Love is of the woman. That is the great lesson which the human nature
of Jesus teaches; and it is that element of her nature which shall save
the world.
Would we see what will be her teaching when her apostleship comes to
prevail in the earth, let us read the sermon of her son on the Mount.
Is not that woman's own gospel? Is it not also her philosophy--"If thy
brother smite thee on the one cheek turn unto him the other also?"
And in this regeneration of the race, in nature and spirit, God and
woman are thus seen first alone. Man came not to their help, but
they came to the help of man. Here is groundwork indeed for the
reconstruction of society, and the remoulding of philosophy!
In the past the apostleship of woman has not been fairly granted to
her, even among the most civilized nations. But it shall be; and there
is the hope of the world.
Paul, in the egotism of man's apostleship, commanded, "Let the woman be
silent in the church." Yet the church is the type of woman. If she be
silent, then will there be but little of saving gospel in the world. If
woman's spiritual nature prevail not in the church, then is the church
dead. If her faith expires, then is there left but a wretched form of
godliness.
The prophet Joseph corrected Paul, and made woman a voice in the
church, and endowed her with an apostolic ministry.
And in the regeneration is the entire significance of Mormon
patriarchal marriage. First, woman in her ever blessed office of
motherhood; next, in her divine ministry. Is not this according to the
example?
The chief faith of the Mormon women concerning themselves is that they
are called with a holy calling to raise up a righteous seed unto the
Lord--a holy nation--a people zealous of good works.
The Mormon women have a great truth here. Woman must regenerate the
race by endowing it with more of her own nature. She must bring forth a
better type of man, to work out with her a better civilization.
It is blasphemy against the divine truth of the world's coming
redemption, and of woman's mission in it, to scoff at the Mormon women
for holding such a faith.
Woman shall leaven the earth with her own nature. She shall leaven it
in her great office of maternity, and in her apostolic mission.
It shall be the lofty prophesy of the coming woman, "Behold from
henceforth all nations call me blessed!"