The True Woman | Page 8

Let us build them up in love and in those generous
qualities which fit woman for her high destiny in this fallen world.
2. Think, woman, of your noble mission. You are to be a help to man.
You are to help him morally and spiritually. For this God created you.
For this he preserves you. "You are queens and bondmaids too, as royal
when you serve as when you rule." Man must respect you, for when
man loses his respect for woman he is lost. He goes down, down to
irremediable ruin. With woman as God designed her, man gets much of
Eden back, for in Christ she is reconciled to God. It is for man and
woman to get back Eden. Christ came to be our common helper. He is
woman's Saviour as well as man's, and offers to all that help which
changes life's desert into a garden, and life's gloom into the brilliancy
of an eternal day.
"Hail, woman! Hail, thou faithful wife and mother, The latest, choicest
part of heaven's great plan. None fills thy peerless place at home, no
other Helpmeet is found for laboring, suffering man. Hail, thou home
circle, where, at day's decline, Her moulding power, her radiant virtues
shine! Not in the church to rule or teach, her place; Not in the mart of
trade, or senate halls; Not the wild, festive scene is hers to grace; Not
Fashion's altar her its victim calls; Not here her field of triumph; but
alone She moves the queen of her own quiet home."
REV. MARK TRAFTON.

WOMAN A HELPMEET.
The purpose of God in the creation of woman was to provide man with
a helpmeet. The language is unmistakable. "And the Lord God said, It
is not good that the man should be alone. I will make for him a helper
suited to him." Woman was made to be man's helpmeet in Eden; that
purpose survives the fall. For right or wrong, for good or ill, her
influence is felt. She lifts man up or drags him down. Scoff at it,
oppose it, cast opprobrium upon this ancient utterance, the fact remains,
woman is made for man. Helpmeet she was, helpmeet she must be, or
leave her work undone, and suffer the blight that results from the lack
of love. God placed man in the garden to keep it, and he placed woman
there to fill the bower with love, and his home with joy.
The coming of Eve to Adam is a beautiful story. He had been taught to
realize his need of her. It was a part of his constitution. The same is true
now wherever woman is appreciated. The felt want is the recognition of
the fact. A wife chosen by one's parents, not by himself, is devoid of all
of those special characteristics which distinguish her where processes
of love begin, go on, deepen and tighten, until the bond is woven and
the union formed.
"Nothing so delights man as those graceful nets, Those thousand
delicacies that daily flow From all her words and actions, mixed with
love And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned Union of mind,
or in them both one soul."[A]
[Footnote A: Paradise Lost, Book VIII.]
The knowledge of congeniality of tastes can only be obtained by
mutual acquaintance, and by a careful study. It is said nothing is so
blind as love. Nothing is so foolish as a blind love. Man needs a
helpmeet, and woman needs a man she can help. It is possible to know
before marriage that the parties are able to fulfil this trust. If they
cannot fulfil it, marriage is a sin, which brings forth continuous sorrow
and discontent.
The purpose of God to provide a helpmeet was avowed, but Adam did
not know the fact. Under the arch of God's promise we discover the
working of God's providence. The Bible, if properly studied, is a more
thrilling narrative than any novel, because in it we can behold the
infinite God working with man and for man. "It is not good that man
should be alone." This is the general proposition. As a counterpart we

find man feeling that it was very sad to be alone. In his heart there is a
want at work, making him ready for the blessing which God is
preparing for him.
The want of the soul means a purpose on the part of God to supply it.
This is true in regard to all that vitally interests man in this world. My
want is the basis of my hope. God, who is above and around me, would
not send forward the desire unless he had purposed to grant it.
Prayer stirring in the soul, is to man spiritually what a bill of goods
preceding the payment