Eve resents the imputation of weakness, and insists on being left forever fancy free to roam at will.  In self-confidence she goes forth and falls, and in falling introduces sin into the world.

Let us review the past, and recall a few facts which, deserve consideration, before we enter upon the contemplation of Woman’s Work and Woman’s Mission.  It will not be denied that Eve was created to be a helpmeet.  That Satan tempted her, and converted the helpmeet into a tempter.  In that light we have considered her power.  We have seen that Eve, in bringing ruin to man, turned her back upon the Creator and Preserver of mankind, and paved the way for the introduction of idolatry, the shadows of whose multiplying altars shrouded the old world in the gloom of night.  From the ruin of Eve to the restoration in Mary, the history of this world resembles a deep valley filled with death and sorrow and gloom.  In Adam all died, in Christ all shall be made alive.  Bethlehem with its manger is set over against Eden with its bower.  During that old dispensation, manly qualities were honored and womanly qualities were ignored.  The effects of sin are seen.  God doth not hold guiltless the sinner.  The consequences of sin run on.  They made woman’s life wretched.  They changed the helpmeet into a slave.  Do not rebel, woman, at the utterance, nor suffer yourself to feel that God does not care for woman, or that he willingly afflicts her.

It is at this point you do well to survey the field.  We know that God’s purposes run on.  That God was not and will not be defeated.  That the plan formed in the councils of eternity is sure to be successfully executed.

Hence God’s idea of woman is yet to bless the world.  What sin destroyed Christ came to restore, and more than to restore.  In heaven if not on earth we shall see woman as God made her, and as God glorified her.  This brings us to the consideration of what Christ did for her.  He did not permit Mary to become Intercessor, and so give a sanction to Mariolatry, which in evil is second only to idolatry.  He did not lift woman to the position of ruler, nor did he give any sanction to the wild vagaries of the Christless ones, who are striving to overturn the foundations of society, and who rebel against motherhood, wifehood, and sisterhood; but he did turn the attention of the world towards the graces of womanhood, and while he turned his back upon those manly qualities of labor, of pluck, of brute courage, he turned his face towards meekness, gentleness, and love, and made the vales of life to blossom with a new beauty.  He welcomed woman as a companion.  He sought her for sympathy’s sake, and opened his heart to her in the fullest confidence.

Let us notice this truth.  In making woman’s work a work of charity, he continued in the New Dispensation the work which was commenced in the Old.  He lifted the thread where woman broke it, and reuniting it again sent her forth into the world to bless it with love, with sympathy, with ministrations of tenderness, with an elevating companionship, which makes man worthy of his origin, and helps him to fulfil the mission of God’s anointed.