ion. Taken _from_ his side, a
living one, she was placed _at_ his side to share with him his wide
dominion over that fair, unsullied scene. Strong where he was weak,
and weak where he was strong, how evidently was she meant of an
all-gracious and all-wise Creator as a true helpmeet for him: his
complement--filling up his being. But that old creation is as a vessel
reversed, so that the highest is now the lowest,--the best has become
the worst,--the closest may be the most dangerous; and foes spring even
from within households. Intensified disorder and confusion! When she
who was so clearly intended by her strength of affection to call into
rightful play the affections of man's heart, whose very weakness and
dependence should call forth his strength--alas, our writer has found
that that heart is too often a snare and a net, and those hands drag
down to ruin the one to whom they cling. It is the clearest sign of
God's judgment to be taken by those nets and bands, as of his mercy, to
escape them. Thus evil ever works, dual--as is good--in character.
Opposed to the Light and Love of God we find a liar and murderer in
Satan himself; corruption and violence in man, under Satan's power.
The weaker vessel makes up for lack of strength by deception; and
whilst the man of the earth expresses the violence, so the woman of the
earth has become, ever and always, the expression of corruption and
deceit, as here spoken of by our preacher, "her heart snares and nets;
her hands as bands."

But further in his search for wisdom, the Preacher has found but few
indeed who would or could accompany him in his path. A man here and
there, one in a thousand, would be his companion, but no single woman.
This statement strongly evidences that the gospel is outside his
sphere; the new creation is beyond his ken. He takes into no account
the sovereign grace of God, that in itself can again restore, and more
than restore, all to their normal conditions, and make the weaker
vessel fully as much a vessel unto honor as the stronger, giving her a
wide and blessed sphere of activity; in which love--the divine nature
within--may find its happy exercise and rest. Naturally, and apart
from this grace, the woman does not give herself to the same exercise
of mind as does the man.

But then, is it thus that man came from his Maker's hands? Has He, who
stamped His own perfection on all His works, permitted an awful hideous
exception in the moral nat