He shall rule over thee,"
expresses the general effect of the apostasy on woman's relations in
the married state. The stronger party in this relation, instead of
being the guardian and protector of the weaker, did use his superior
power to oppress and debase her. Such has always been the case, except
so far as the influence of revelation has counteracted the evils of
the fall, such is the case to-day. Woman owes her recognition to
Christ, and she is indebted for her position in the civilized portions
of the world wholly to the gospel. Wherever Christ is not worshipped
woman is despised.

Woman as a mother, under the Old Dispensation, differs in many
important respects from woman as a mother under the New. The history
of woman is divided into three portions: 1. Woman as God made her; 2.
Woman as Sin made her; 3. Woman as Christ made her.

1. The position of woman, between her humiliation in Eden and her
restoration in Bethlehem, was in many respects sad to contemplate.
She was more of a slave than an equal. Eve passes, unrecognized and
unnamed, to her grave. Sarah, the wife of Abram, finds mention, and is
described in such a manner that you behold her sharing her husband's
love, though the picture of her in the home is not a pleasant one. We
can hardly understand how Abram could have suffered her to enter the
house of Abimelech, nor how she could have taken Hagar to her husband,
and thus again have led man astray--the man whom God called to be the
Father of the Faithful. Eve, the mother of the race, tempted Adam, and
Sarah, the mother of the patriarchs, tempted Abram; and lack of faith
in God was the cause of their ruin, and consequent humiliation. There
is something sad about the manner of her life. Her home was a simple
tent, surrounded by flocks and herds, and crowded with rubbish of
every description. Woman in the East is very much to-day what Adam
saw her on his first entrance into the wilderness. The effects of sin
followed her from generation to generation. The gloom of the night is
still over her as she spends her days in out-door labor. She weeds the
cotton, and assists in pruning the vine and gathering the grapes.
She goes forth in the morning, bearing not only her implements of
husbandry, but also her babes in the cradle; and returning in the
evening, she prepares her husband's supper and sets it before him, but
never thinks of eating of it until after he is done. One of the early
objections the Nestorians m