Society tolerates a man as it does not tolerate a woman.  God did business with Adam, but he does not mention Eve after her fall.  Society recognizes a fallen man as it cannot recognize a fallen woman.  Thus her crime is proclaimed to be the greater than man’s, even by the world.  Let us be just.  We do not heap the blame all on woman, even of her fall.  All we say is, she bears the burden of the woe.  In this fact she is warned.  Society may pity her:  it cannot palliate her guilt.  Thus is she advised against throwing herself away, and casting off her allegiance to Christ, to herself, and to humanity.  Let her fall, and almost without exception she is hopelessly ruined.  Society points the finger of scorn at her, and, what is worse, the barriers to virtue having been broken down, they seem to be destroyed.  It is as difficult to get back what a woman loses when she falls, as it would have been to have forced an entrance back into Eden after the banishment.

2.  The fact that she is a woman gives her influence.  In her terrible work beauty is an aid.  God says, “Desire not her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids.”  That is, look for something besides a pretty face or a twinkling eye.  “Pretty is that pretty does,” is a good motto, and utters a truth which is quite too frequently ignored.  Beauty is not to be despised or condemned.  God, who painted the lilies’ bloom, and covered the sky with the wondrous tints of a glowing sunset, must enjoy beauty, and surely made it to please and to bless us.  Yet when it comes to be used as an agent of evil, it is to be shunned and disregarded.  In all this world there is nothing so empty as a heartless, brainless woman, with a pretty face.  Yet beauty is a power; so the heathen declare, “Every woman would rather be handsome than good.”  That may be true in heathen, but it is not true of all in Christian climes.  If there is one woman who thinks more of dress than duty, more of shadow than substance, more of Vanity Fair than of Virtue’s bower, then beware.  You are not an ally of Christ.  At once begin a new life, if you would shun the dangers and avoid the terrible doom threatening you.  Cast away that which excites passions and gives the body unrest, and seek the food for mind and soul which gives rest and peace.  Seek Christ, and through him victory over self and over sin.  Do something to brighten your home life and to honor your Master.  Clear your soul from the taint of vanity.  Do not rejoice in conquests, either that your power to allure may be seen by other women, or for the pleasure of rousing passionate, feelings that gratify your love of excitement.  It must happen, no doubt, that frank and generous women will excite love they do not reciprocate; but, in nine cases out of ten, the woman has, half consciously, done much to excite it.  In this case she shall not be held guiltless, either as to the unhappiness or injury of the lover.  Pure love, inspired by a worthy object, must ennoble and bless, whether mutual or not; but that which is excited by coquettish attraction, of any grade of refinement, must cause bitterness and doubt as to the reality of human goodness so soon as the flush of passion is over.  And that you may avoid all taste for these false pleasures,