The True Woman: A Series of Discourses, to Which Is Added Woman vs. BallotFulton, Justin D. (Justin Dewey)
Religion
The True Woman: A Series of Discourses, to Which Is Added Woman vs. Ballot
Fulton, Justin D. (Justin Dewey)
Husband and wife; Women -- Religious aspects -- Christianity; Women -- Suffrage
Adam, in his beginnings of sin, furnishes an example to sinners, which
has been abundantly copied. He says, "The woman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." He finds fault with
God the giver, and fails to condemn woman the sinner. The passage is
sometimes falsely interpreted, as an unworthy attempt of the man to
cast the blame of his offence on the woman. But the emphasis lies on
the words _whom thou gavest to be with me_, by which utterance he
seeks to transfer the responsibility from himself to God, who gave him
the companion by whose example he was betrayed into sin, instead of
placing it upon the woman, who was the guilty cause. Thus he refuses
or neglects to denounce the sin; but takes for granted that woman was
as God made her, and acted in accordance with her mechanism. Hence,
Adam argued, if any one was responsible, it was her Maker. She acted
in accordance with the nature which had been given her. We hear this
doctrine advanced daily. "I am what God made me." A cotton mill weaves
cotton because it was made to weave cotton. It is not responsible. It
weaves well or ill in accordance with the skill of the mechanism, and
not in accordance with the desire of the proprietor. If it weaves
ill, you blame the maker. If well, you praise the maker. Adam, in his
reply, ignored woman's moral nature, and talked of her as though she
had been a machine. "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she
gave me of the tree, and I ate." He forgot his own higher nature,
forgot his position, and fell. How he differed from the second Adam we
shall see before we are done.
It is noticeable, not only that Adam ignored woman's moral nature, and
the ruin wrought by sin, but he asserts a truth. Woman was given to
man to provide him with food, to spread the feast, and to keep the
house; and in her vocation, and while performing the duties assigned
her, she led him astray. It is noteworthy that God does not reply to
Adam, but turns to woman with the question, "_What is this that thou
hast done?_" recognizing the fact that she turned from God, and turned
towards God's enemy, and in listening, sinned; and in sinning, fell;
and in falling, carried with her man; and in carrying man, whelmed the
race in the ruin of the fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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