The peril arising from the perversion's of biblical truth is illustrated by the history of the diaconate as well as by the history of the motherhood of Jesus. The influences set in motion by the life of Christ deserve to be carefully pondered. Perverted, they have helped on error. Used and employed as Christ designed them, they are subservient of the highest interests of society. Truly has it been said, The life and the cross of Christ shed a splendor from heaven upon a new and till then unheard of order of heroism--that which may be called the feminine order--meekness, endurance, long-suffering, the passive strength of martyrdom. For Christianity does not say, "Honor to the wise," but, "Blessed are the meek." Not "Glory to the strong," but "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Not the Lord is a man of war; Jehovah is his name, but God is love. In Christ, not intellect, but love, is glorified. In Christ is magnified, not force of will, but the glory of a Divine humility. He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God hath also exalted Him. Therefore it was, that from that time forward, woman assumed a new place in the world. It is not to mere civilization, but to the spirit of life in Christ, that woman owes all she has and all she has yet to gain. In Christ, manly and womanly characteristics were united, and were in equipoise. He was not the Son of the Man, but the Son of Man. It was not manhood, but humanity, that was made divine in him. Humanity has its two sides: one side in the strength and intellect of manhood; the other in the tenderness and faith and submission of womanhood; man and woman, the two halves of one thought, make up human nature. In Christ, not one alone, but both were glorified. Strength and Grace, Wisdom and Love, Courage and Purity,--Divine Manliness, Divine Womanliness. In all noble characters, the two are blended; in Him--the noblest--blended into one entire and perfect humanity. The spirit which pervades the world because of Christ's coming, and of the influence exerted by his Gospel, opens to woman a faith which has been growing clearer and brighter for eighteen centuries. By this we do not affirm or imply that the coming of Christ restored woman to the equality she enjoyed in the morning of creation, or that his coming removed the curse then pronounced upon her. If Christ's coming removed a part of the curse, then it must have removed all, which we know is false; woman still has sorrow in child-bearing, and man earns his daily bread by the sweat of his brow. Christ's coming removed the disabilities from woman. He turned the attention of the world to feminine characteristics, and shed over them the halo of a divine light. He brought the woman up as he lowered the glory hitherto attached to characteristics distinctively manly. Where Christ is loved, the gladiator and prize-fighter are despised, and a meek and quiet spirit is honored.