pproach
Her loveliness, so absolute she seems,
And in herself complete, so well to know
Her own, that what she wills to do or say
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best:
All higher knowledge in her presence falls
Degraded; wisdom in discourse with her
Loses discountenanced, and like folly shows;
Authority and reason on her wait,
As one intended first, not after made
Occasionally; and to consummate all,
Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat
Build in her, loveliest, and create an awe
About her, as a guard angelic placed."

With woman, as God made her, we are not acquainted. Glimpses of her
pristine beauty, and characteristics of her former excellence, shine
forth; but sin has marred the original picture, and defaced the model
fashioned by the Creator's hand. The ruin wrought by the fall brought
Christ to earth. He opened a way back to Eden--not on earth, but in
heaven. The curse remains. The race is under it, because sin is in the
world. The law, formed after the fall, is the expressed will of God.
Christ did not come to do away with it, but to fulfil it. Then, as
now, it was a law of love, of good will, of peace. When Christ came,
woman's condition was deplorable. She was the abject slave of man in
nearly all the world. Yet Christ made no attempt to break down their
original arrangements. He knew that without a change in woman herself,
no external changes in her condition could be of any benefit to her.
He recognized the great fact that she herself must be educated to a
better life, that she must have a character which in itself would
command respect, and make her worthy of a higher place and a larger
liberty. Truly has it been said, "Institutions, of themselves, can
never confer freedom upon a people. They must be free men, capable
of liberty, and then they will be able not only to make their own
institutions, but keep and defend them also. So the emancipation of
woman can be effected only by breaking the bonds of her ignorance,
frivolity, and vice. A character must be given her, and then the iron
door of her prison-house will open to her of its own accord, and
she will find that the angel of liberty has been leading her forth
indeed." In this direction Jesus labored. Paul, in his Epistles, gave
emphasis to the teachings of the Old Testament, and so he wrote, "Let
your women keep silence, in the churches, for it is not permitted them
to speak; but they are to be in subjection, a