Tempter" describes her in the fall; and, alas! while it is the
high privilege of woman to be a helpmeet in the midst of the ruin
wrought by sin, it is unwise to disguise the truth that as a _tempter_
she has not abandoned her vocation.

Plain speaking may prove to be disagreeable. God grant that it may
prove to be profitable. There is need of it. Disguise it as we may
talk as we choose about man in his narrowness, in his degradation, a
wicked woman _was_, and to a large extent _is_, the means employed by
Satan in leading astray the unwary. The manner of her fall has been
declared. It may be profitable to review the steps of her downward
descent from the bliss of Eden to the woe of the desert; from the
position of an equal to the position of a subject.

1. _Satan, in the form of the serpent, undermines woman's confidence
in God_. The serpent, the most subtle beast of the field, said to the
woman, "Is it even so, that God has said, Ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden?" Thus he attempted to weaken the child-like
confidence she reposed in her Creator, and endeavored to inspire in
its place a spirit of unbelief and distrust. This done, and the battle
was half won, and the work was well nigh accomplished. Truly has it
been said, "The sure basis of simple trust in God as the all-loving
and the all-wise, once shaken, there is little left to be done." This
is the rock on which character builds its hopes. There is nothing so
essential to woman as faith in God. Destroy this, or let woman attempt
to live without it, and she is in imminent peril. It was an infidel
woman who declared, "It has been said that marriage is a divine
institution, because all power comes from God. _We know very well
that all power comes from God', and therefore we wish neither God nor
power._" Shall professedly Christian women, by action, give their
assent to such an utterance?

2. _Satan rouses woman's suspicion_. "And the woman said to the
serpent. Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But of
the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has
said, Ye shall not eat of it, and ye shall not touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God
knows that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes will be opened, and ye
will be as God, knowing good and evil."

"Your eyes will be opened," expresses the power of mentally
apprehending things before unperceived and unknown; but, of course,