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k "WHAT OF WOMAN?” A Sermon by Rev. Harris Robert H. WAS DELIVERED AT THE BAPTIST CHURCH "Th: lOJgh The Woman We Come to The Christ ina ! ermon Baing a Tribute to the Goorfne s and the Furity of Women. “I heard a Voice that spake—The Voice of The Almighty”!—Ezekiel. / The "Voice that spake” to Ezekiel has spoken to us. As fbe Almighty spoke to His prophet in vision?.of revelation, so 3m He spoken to us in the records of Nature, in the declara tions of His Word. The Voice of The Almighty has spoken to tro, an Creation, in Providence, in Redemption. That Voice still speaks—of Purpose, in Human Destiny.} and of Means for Sfce accomplishment of that Purpose, Listenfwe.as the mighty topes resound along fc|ie corridors of time. The Oninipotehi$}poke—arid the world wits a^fact. ' • “Jo the beginning, God cheated ...... and the earth! its without form, and voitf, and darkness rested upon the deep.” The inee'ptjve processes of mundane genesis were, doubt less, hidden from the angels. The earth was an orb inchoate, whirling through space in the midst of a monstrous enveloping «lowL darker in its deep gyrations than the vortex of a cyclone. ■iTSse phwtio nucleus, a cooling yet still viscous mass, ,was as- ffoniiirg, as it revolved, the shape of an oblate spheroid,. grad ually conforming, in due time, to the present figure of ritVr jsaSanet.. The quaking continents were raising their slimy sur- fcw <Diuifc of the seething paters. All unseen, in the rayless maelstrom of an atmosphere blacker than a Stygian midnight. That was the first phase. The Voice of The Almighty—The “Breath” of God- swept over the surface of the boiling oceans. The clinging va pors were rolled upward and away, parting as they rose, and between the rifted masses of steamy clouds, the,, rays of sun- Hght found access to the reeking lands and buobling seas of ®artb. “God (had) said “‘Let there be light!’—and there '*vas light.” That, was the second phase. The wondering angels, who might formerly have paused »their ethereal flight and while balanced above the swiftly whirling cloud, may have sought to sound its pitchy depths and fathom the mystery of its tenebrious core, now saw! The Voice of The Almighty spoke and a shapely planet rolled out through space, before them. But, while they gazed, the angels, doubtless, wondered, yet the more. Vegetation sprung up, greening, upon the slop- l»jr lands and along the muddy shores 1 Animated creatures swarmed in the tepid waters; teemed in sweltering'jungles; Slapped broad, leathery wings in the torrid air! Again and again, The Almighty Voice was heard: “Be thou! and thou! and yc\”! And as each new object of cieation sprung into be ing, orders and genera succeeding one another, in marked pro gression, yet “each (distinctly) after! its kind,” the unfallen •angels marveled and adored. But. what is this? the newest and the last, which now ap pears upon the scene? The Creator has reached the point at which Ho pauses to review His handiwork, and as His eye rests upon His master-piece, The Almighty Voice applauds the finishing touch of The Almighty Hand: “Behold! That is very good!’’ And amazed at the beauty and the fitness of his environments, the angels hover in the verdant grove and gaze in speechless admiration upon the lordly man—“the image and the glory of God”! A completed world and the master, lowborn He had given “dominion” over it. But, wonder of wonders! Even the last presents a later phase! Perfection is improved upon! The lily is painted! the rose perfumed! “God saw that it was not good for n an to four alone”; so He “made woman—the glory of the man”. See! how the holy angels gather ’round and crowd and jostle «nc another, in their eager struggle to gaze upon that being of transcendent beauty, the first woman! Behold the shining stream ®-f radiant forms, pouring down from the blue empyrean, as II® story of wondrous new creation spreads afar! and hark! to tfbc music of the myraid rustling wings, as the bright ones sweep tiarough space and poise themselves on snowy pinions, a cluster ing surging throng, around and far above that charming crea ture, whose like has never graced the universe, before! “In nakfd beauty, more adorned, More lovely than Pandora, whom The Gods endowed with with all their gifts!” “The glory of God” made more glorious still, bv added glory! The voice of The Almighty hath declared it! Witness the language of God’sinspired spokesman: “Man is the image and glory of God” —“The woman is the glory of the man.” Behold the splendid twain! standing there together, amid ’.he fragrant I lowers of Eden! But a diabolic shadow falls athwart the sylvan scene and a malignant ophidian eye is fixed upon that glorious pair! A shadow that brings the chill of death and an eye that glares with baleful menaces of ruin! The story is not long. A tender, susceptible, confiding heart. Trustfulness used as an avenue for the entrance of dis trust . The voice of The Tempter was heard—and'Jieedcd. The woman fell! And in her fall,,the man went downl A thrill of horror shot through heaven 1 and the holy angels tood aghast! The grand, crowning purpose and plan of Om nipotence appeared to have been thwarted and His supremacy seemed at an end! But God was equal to the emergency; and in that awful crisis, The Voice of The Almighty was heard: “Her seed shall bruise thy head 1 ” The parents of the human race, with all their prospective progeny, had been enfolded within the en slaving coils of The Serpent—Satan; but (to use another figure,) in the woman, although fallen, was a promise given which transformed the dungeon of captivity into the gateway of free dom, burst out the nether wall of death and disclosed in the grave, the open door of heaven! The human creature never could have entered paradise, save through the portal of the tomb. Enoch and Elijah, even as Paul says of those who shall be alive in the last day, were doubtless as coinplotly changed in their translation, us if they had died and dissolved in the grave and risen from the dust. After the fall, human beings were multiplied upon the earth - and some heard The Voice, and turned to God, and lived. Then, were the holy angels glad again and “there was joy in their presence, over the sinner that repented.” Again and again, through the growing years, The Almighty Voice was heard; commanding, warning inviting. Those who heeded were saved. Those who heed not were lost. And, at last, came, Sinai. The whole Law of God, at the first summarizahle in three brief words, “Thou shall not,” may be summed up in one word, “Obey.” Obedience is the first principle of government, human and Divine. Of man, in the family, in the state; of God in all tilings, temporal arid spiritual. By disobedience, humanity had fallen; only by obedience, could man be restored to the Divine favor. In the course of events, the time had now come for the code. The publication of The Law, in its details, was requis ite. A compendium of duty, on the part of man, toward God and one’s fellows. A ceremonial system, which should, “in types and shadows,” set forth the Divine plan by which per fect obedience, expiatory, should be secured, and man, by a human sacrifice, satisfy the penalty of the violated Law and thus propitiate the justly offended Deity. Then the periinsular mountain trembled to its foundations and quaked to its core. Its stony summit was wrapped in smoke; the swirling clouds were wreathed about its frowning brow; the flashing lightnings twined themselves into a scintillating crown of fire; and detonating thunders woke the echoes, fa’’ and wide, from Horeb’s answering top, from Meribah to Kolsum and Elan. For forty days, The Voice ofiThe Almighty thundered through out Petraea; and, attheerid of that period, Moses 1 came down from the heights of Sinai, bearing in his hands the sculptured Law. Thenceforth, men lived under the written code. The Judges and The Kings administered—or violated—its statutes; the inspired Psalmist embalmed its holy teachings in loftiest strains of sacred poesy; Proverbial Wisdom graved its pringent sentences upon enduring tablets; the Prophets stressed it, while they warned the people and comforted the heedful with the as surance of The Coming One, who, in His own‘person, should fulfil it, by rendering perfect obedince to all its behests, and, through faith in Him, bring the obedient believer at one with God. That is the word: At-one-merit—“Atonement.” But, in the meantime, what of woman? She had illustrated The Law. ^ # Sarah had demonstrated the possibility of the impossible, in her motherhood of Isaac,—a prototype of Christ, both in his miraculous birth and in his arranged-for immolation on Mount Moriah’s altar. Miriam was the guardian and pre server of the infant Moses—a prototype of Christ in other as pects of His character—; and she led the'song of deliverance, over the Egyptian corpses that stre\ved the beach—types of the pursuing sins that have been washed from the redoemed be- io/er’ssoul arid drowned in The Red Sea of The Redeemer’s blood!—“The Exodus” of Israel being a striking type of the transition of the saved, from the bondage of Satan into the lib-, erty of Christ. Esther was crowned with amaranthine glory, as a reward of her fidelity to her God and, also, to her people, for whom and of whom she was the mediator and the saviour. Ruth, whose arteries throbbed with Gentile blood, a strain of which flowed on down through her posterity into the veins of Mary, the espoused of Joseph, was the ancestress of Him, who, being by descent, of the royal liouse of Judah, was. of a verity, a Hebrew, yet akin to aliens-born, arid “a Saviourof one blood with all nations of men.” The Voice of The Almighty had foreordained that she, who, in the fall, had become a double slave—the slave of the man, who, himself, as well as herself, was Satan’s slave—should be the mother of her emancipator. And, moreover, His srle parent, “after the flesh.’,’ The name of the first woman signifies “life;” as further defined! in the Scriptures, “the mother of all living.” In a double sense, was she “Eve:” “The mother of all living,” in the physical sense; The mother of Hifn in whom, alone, any can live, in the spiritual sense. “The law was (tha) school-master, !o bring (men) to Christ.’ By man, it was to be fulfilled; by woman, illus trated. ’ ilie Divine Spirit moved the lips of Elizabeth arid The Al mighty Voice spoke through her, when she exclaimed to Mary, Blessed art thou, among women!” — “Blessed is (thy seed)”! The Voice of The Almighty had said to Satan, “Her Seed,” not his, (Adam’s,) shall bruise thy head.” The Messiah of God, The Saviour of the lost, was to be The Seed of the wo rn an—not of’the man! As the woman was, originally, of ham,’ in token of His human nature. But His introduction into the world, genetically speaking, was in His human na ture, exclusively of the woman, without any procreative agency except of The Holy Spirit; and, thus, was He. in the language of the centurion, atHis crucifixion, “truly The Son of f-lrwl f * 1 of God! 1 Blessed, indeed, is woman, "the glory of man!” She is, ndeed, “a help meet,,” i. e. fit, or necessary, for him. She is, n truth, the help of man, the most potential on earth; bpt The Voice of The Almighty had declared that, in the fullness of her mission in the world, Bhe should be a helpmeet for him, in his estrangement from God. And, verily, in Jesus, has that fullness beon attained. My countrymen, build a pedestal for woman, broad and high! Young man, take that fading old mother in your arms and thank God for her. Wasto no pity on her, as “as a poor, weak creature,” whose Bole mission on earth is to have introduced you into the World. She is your glory, my friend. Husband, fold that gentle wife to your heart and praise God for having glorified your life, in her. She has not been created merely to become your satellite. Pray to be worthy of her. Father, clasp that sweet daughter in your loving embrace and bless God for having honored you, in her. She is no mere toy. She is vour glory. Guard well her young life. Train her, mind and heart, as you would a nestling angel, strayed into your home, from heaven. Brother, place vour strong arm tenderly about your sister’s loved form and crucify the prideful self assumption you may feel of superiority over her. Protect her, defend her. That is your blest privilege, in view of your greater physical strength. Bui remember that she is, in most respects, \our equal, in sev eral, your superior, and that a Christian sister exerts a.peculiar influence with God, in behalf of the brother whom she loves. And oh! woman, lament not, assome have lamented, that you are not a man. Careworn and weary you may_.be. Yours may lie a life of toil and self-sacrifice, with frequent experiences of suffering and grief. But God, Himself, has placed the crown of glory upon .your brow and exalted the whilom double slave to a supernal plane. Only be true. Be true to Him who has done so much for you. To The Blessed Redeemer, who, through the passive agency of a woman w as ushered into the world and through whose influence, alone, the gentler sex have been emancipated from their galling bondage and restored to the exalted sphere which, in her creation, the woman was de signed to fill. Under the guidance of The Restorer, every woman may find her aopropriate, personal sphere. Every one may not find herself a Hasseltine Judson, nor a Florence Nightingale, nor a Clara Barton; but every properly equipped woman may become great “in her day” and widely important to the race “in her generation.” In the domestic circle, in the church, in the community, in the state, her influence is immeasurable and in a very large sense it is true that she “rules the world”. A Christian woman is, indeed, a benediction upon man kind. But what of her opposite? The influence of training may develop a Eunice; or, on tho other hand, may produce a Jezebel. A good woman is a fit companion for angels; a vilo woman is an associate meet for demons. We have now discovered, in the pursuit of our leading line of thought, that through the woman we come to The Christ . In Him the Sinaitic Law fulfilled, in Him is found “The Way” back to the forfeited favor of God. In Him, The Almighty Voice now speaks to the hearts of men.’ But, today, ’tis “The Still, Small Voice” that Elijah heard, after the tornado and the earthquake and the terrible fire had passed. Hear the gentle tones of that Almighty Voice: “Lo! I come! He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound”! Ah, the thrilling shout: “Arise! shine l for thy Light is come and The Glory of the Ixird is risen upon thee. The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising”. “The Christ of God”, “The Seed of the Woman”, is “The Light of the World”! The advent of solar light, in mundane creation, and the transformation of chaotic darkness into luminous symmetry and beauty, were typical of the spiritual phenomenon present ed in prophetic vision, to Malachi when he saw “The Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in His wings”. Then, in due time, The Herald appeared, announcing “The Day-Spring” of Glory and the coming of “That Light”. John The Baptist stood upon the boundary between two “Dispensations”,—one foot in the “Old”, the other upraised to step into the “New”. A faint flush tinged the eastern sky, but the gray mist still hung over the inland valleys and the waking birds twittered in still twilight groves, when the leathern- girdlerl Man of Destiny paused upon the shore of Mystery’s Ocean! and gazed out over the heaving main. The rosy blush kindles into a golden glow; the orient light is focussed in a point of intensest brightness on the quivering water line, when suddenly the eager eyes of the lone watcher meet the dazzling face of The Glorious King of Day, smiling across the sea. Then, While “the crimson streak, On the ocean’s cheek. Grows into the great’’ day, the vigil-weary seer lays him down upon the strand and with a sigh of ineffable peace, his pure spirit passes up to God. The awakening breeze of morning stirred the odorous meadows, sparkling with their myraid jeweled dew-drops; w.- fted out the fragrant breath of flowers; rustled the foliage upon a thousand hills; and sent the wreathing vapors, twining among the crags and streaming through the mountain gorges. The glad wind rippled the sheeny surface of the sea; the forest wn •. biers burst into raptures of sling; the distant purpling peaks were edged with burnished gold. Still higher rose The Sun, until His flooding rays deluged the mountains and swept out past the barrier ranges, far over the widening plains, beyond. There was .-day 1 every where. The Voice of The Almighty had said, “Let there be Light!” “That Light” abides. “The Sun” still shines. “The Brightness of The Father’s Glory!” The Human Christ, Divine! “This is He of whom Moses arid the prophets did write! * proclaims The Almighty Voice. Hear that Voice, 1 ‘as The Spirit decends in the form of a dove and rests upon the head of the lowly Nazarene, at His baptism. “This is My Beloved Son!” Hark as that Voice speaks from the cloud, on the Mount of Transfiguration: “This is My Beloved Son!” Ah, blessed, thrice Messed be Woman! T£e Mother of The Son of God! Down into the abysmal depths, indeed, she swept like a meteor, while man followed in her lurid train. But upward, again, cheered, by The Almighty Voice, she winged her battling flight, until [lie pierced the dome, and shone from heaven, a beaming star? In The Christ of God, “Th$ Seed of The Woman,” proclaims The “Voice that. Spake,” is found the only “Way,” to heaven and rest arid-peace and love and joy, forever more! vi - ,.v Subscribe for The Progress