ere came to woman, who had the first encounter
with the wily enemy of the race, the hope of a triumph over, and a
subjugation of this enemy, through her offspring. It is an instinct of
a boy to crush the head of a snake; but you cannot readily get a girl
to do so: she will run from the beast so identified with her sorrow.
The reason for this is explained in the prophecy of Eden. In a
mystical sense, Christ, the deliverer foretold in Genesis, the eminent
seed of the woman, was to bruise the head of the "old serpent, the
devil," that is, destroy him, and all his principalities and powers,
break and confound all his schemes and ruin all his works, crush his
whole empire, strip him of his sovereignty and authority, of his power
over death, and his tyranny over the bodies and souls of men. Here,
then, was a purpose worth living for and suffering for. True, Satan,
or the serpent, is to bruise his heel, or wound his human nature; but
there is no promise of his triumph.

It is not difficult to discover how this hope must have thrilled the
heart of Eve with joy. Her life was not to be a failure. Though clouds
might rest upon her, it was impossible to shut out the fact that the
star of hope was soon to rise, and to usher in the dawn of a glorious
day.

Much has been written against the fact that a daughter is not prized
in a home as much as is a son. We can understand it, when we go back
to Eden and see that the seed of the woman, called "_a he_," a male
child, was to be the instrument of working out the disinthralment
of the race. The feminine gender is sometimes used in declaring the
glories of the future. Zion is called a bride, but her glory is
all reflected from the bridegroom. Woman is a helpmeet, but the
king-bearer is the man Christ Jesus. The world turned from Christ
because he had the appearance of a man. It was a great mistake. It is
not a popular saying,--women say it is not complimentary to them to
declare it,--yet it remains true, that "God draws by the cords of a
man." All along the past men have been recognized as the gift of God.
Women rejoice when a man is born into the world; not that women are
disliked, but because there is something involved in life more than
mere existence. There are faint foreshadowings of the tasks laid on
the race. Work is to be done for God and man. Principalities and
powers are to be fought and overcome. An invisible world is in league
against the race, and an invisible God, once robe