Spiritualism, that scourge of modern times, which has swept like the breath of a pestilence over the land, found in woman its prophetess and minister.  Satan works in erring woman now, as in the past, to destroy and to delude.  That power was resisted by Christian woman.  Many an irreligious man was saved from this delusion by the fidelity of his wife.  Many a good man has been ruined because his wife listened to the siren voice of the tempter, and desired to explore and explain this mystery.  The forbidden fruit ever grows upon the tree beside her.  Those who would be wiser than that which is written, have plucked and eaten it, and have given to others that which is so destructive.  Witchcraft is a womanly profession.  The heathen divinities were nearly all ministered unto by woman, and mystery was the influencing cause.  We know the result in the case of Eve.  It led her away from God.  It caused her to listen to the enemy of her soul.  Does it not become woman to ask herself, “Am I losing my hold on God?  Is suspicion that some good is being withheld, or does the desire to pry into the future, exercise an undue influence upon my heart and imagination?” If so, your ruin has commenced, and a speedy return to God is your only door of escape.

4.  Deception was the result.  “And the woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make her wise; and she took of its fruit and ate, and gave also to her husband and he ate.”  Sight deceived, desire allured, and action born of a delusive faith destroyed her happiness.  The process of temptation culminated in deception.  This is the end ever kept in view by Satan.  Every individual that refuses to be ruled absolutely by God, in little or great affairs, may know of a truth that the end is deception, and the consequent ruin is sure to follow.  There is no exception to the rule.  Paul felt this when he wrote the church in Corinth, concerning his interest in them, saying, “For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ;” “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from your simplicity toward Christ.”  Many claim that error is not mischievous while truth is left free to combat.  Error poisons the mind, and so produces disease, and bars out truth, which carries health to the mind and blesses the soul.

Eve knew the law, for she quotes it word by word.  She deliberated as to obeying it.  Here she made her first mistake.  A woman cannot do this.  The moment a woman hesitates in regard to discharging the duties she owes to herself or to God she falls.  She seems to be provided with an almost self-acting nature.  It is natural for her to protect herself.  She revolts against her higher self when she hesitates.  Her intuitions, allied to a sensitive nature, unite in defending against evil.  Had Eve said, “I do not need to sin to secure the development of my higher nature; the Creator knows my wants much better than one who seeks to be my destroyer,” she would have been saved.  Faith in God would have been a sure defence against the tempter’s wiles.