1. Let us notice woman’s position previous to the advent.  Before Christ came, woman was regarded as inferior to man.  She had lost her equality.  She was excluded from general intercourse, and her confinement to her own home and apartments, without education, without social recognition, left her without strength of character, self-reliance, or resources with herself.  “Woman’s safety in society lies in two elements:  her own virtue and intelligence, and the consequent respect for her which such a character inspires.  Where these two things are found, she may participate in general society, mingling freely with men as their equals, and regarded, it may be, even as their superiors.  Here, it may be worthy of note, that no such estimate or honor is ever put upon woman except when Christianity has given her this elevation.”

Before Christ appeared, the qualities honored as divine were peculiarly the virtues of the man—­courage, wisdom, truth, strength.  Womanly virtues were regarded as puerile and contemptible, and woman herself was little better than a slave.

2. Notice the place woman filled in the scheme of redemption.  It is admitted by those who recognize the Word of God as authority, that the Atonement required the sacrifice of one whose nature represents equally the dignity of the Law-maker and the humanity of the transgressor.  In him Deity and humanity must be united:  Deity, that he may give value to the offering; humanity, that he may obey the positive precepts and endure the penal sanction of the law human nature has violated.  It was therefore essential that the prophecy of Isaiah, uttered six hundred years before the advent, should be fulfilled, viz., “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel—­God with us.”  This work had been accomplished, and Mary was honored with the privilege of taking the words of Eve, “I have gotten a man with Jehovah,” and making it no longer a prophecy, but a fact.  So we sing,—­

  “Thou wast born of woman; them didst come,
  O, Holiest! to this world of sin and gloom,
  Not in thy dread omnipotent array;
    And not by thunder strewed
    Was thy tempestuous road,—­
  Nor indignation burned before thee on thy way;
    But thou, a soft and naked child,
    Thy mother undefiled,
    In the rude manger laid to rest,
    From off her virgin breast.”

Then, for the first time, the mother resumed her place.  When the wise men came into the house they saw the young child, with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him; and when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.  The old Eastern custom, which placed the child before the mother, was now understood.  God guarded against making Mary first, and at the same time provided for her a place.  When God appeared to Joseph in a dream, he did not say, Take the mother and child, but the “young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt.”  This brings us naturally to consider—­