The True Woman | Page 7

who rightfully
assumes his rights and his sovereignty.
3. "God brought her unto man." Woman is God's first gift to man. She
must never occupy a second place. In the heart she holds a first place,
or she holds none at all. The moment she holds a secondary place she is
ruined. It is in her power to hold the first place. To do this, she must
prize it; make sacrifices to keep it; almost, at times, deny herself, and
bear a cross, to hold on to it. Yet it is hers, and God will see to it that
she maintains her right.
"God brought her." Every husband in this world should feel that his
wife is God's gift to him, and it is his duty to study its characteristics,
and minister to them. Every man can make the partner of his life a good
wife, and can feel that she was God-given, and must be used in such a
manner that when the day of reckoning comes, he can give a good

account of the manner in which he has used this blessing. To go to the
judgment, and meet a broken-hearted woman, over whom man has
exercised tyranny, and to whom he has been a monster, until hope died,
and the grave became a refuge, will not be a pleasant meeting.
In this bestowal of woman upon man, we recognize two facts.
1. The father's right to give away his child--a right which exerts its
influence at the present time, and which every young man who seeks
properly the hand of woman is compelled to recognize. In that act of
Eden lie the rule and example to be followed by parents and children:
the one to dispose of their children, and the other to have the consent of
their parents in reaching conclusions upon which hinges the destiny of
the individual for time, and perhaps for eternity. Happy the child that
trusts a wise parent, and refuses to walk a path over which the shadow
of parental disapproval rests! Happy the parent who finds pleasure in
the fresh young love of the child, and watches the opening flower and
the ripening fruit with pride and pleasure.
This giving away of the child requires the enjoyment of perfect
confidence between father and daughter and mother and son.
God knew Eve, for he built her. He knew her heart, her mind, her
aspiration. A parent knows something of the child; and well it is for
both parent and child when this knowledge is perfect, and when the
relation subsisting between parents and children is such that home is a
place of consultation. A home without secrets, without closed doors,
and locked drawers and sugar-boxes,--a home where thought is free,
and mind is untrammelled, is the very gate of heaven.
There are homes where the children are excluded from counsel, from
love, from plan, from association. Those children live in a world apart
from their parents, and it will not be strange if they are swept out by the
waves of evil to ruin.
There are homes where the father shuts himself away from the wife and
children. To the children he is harsh, unsympathetic, and morose. Ah!
there is sorrow in that house. The mother--God bless her!--has a hard
time. She has to keep in with the father, and she will keep in with the
children. In that bundle of life the tendrils of her nature are bound up.
She fights a prolonged battle in regard to expenditure and education.
Happiness only comes when the household is one, and the relations
between father and children are perfect, as God designed them to be.

Again, God gives his sanction not only to the truth that man's wants can
only be met by the gift of woman,--a fact which every man has felt, and
which causes every man to feel that somewhere on earth his wife is
living, who will recognize and welcome him to the bliss of love and to
the joy of companionship,--but this additional truth is taught: Man has a
right to marry. Love is no disgrace. It is the pretence of it, for base
purposes, which is disgraceful. The nuptial vow was first whispered in
the garden. God was sponsor, and all Eden witnesses. This bond of
union was God's gift to the race. The curse did not touch it. The
marriage vow and marriage rite, with the faith in woman as a helpmeet,
have survived the fall, and are our joy and rejoicing at this time.
In conclusion, think of God's care for man, in providing woman as a
blessing. There is no necessity for man's being alone. Some one waits
to bless or has blessed him. Let us make more of our wives and sisters
than ever before.